GGG2: Throne War - Game and Player Info

[Viper]

ok, cool.

[sparrow]

Wow. Thanks, Vipey.

[Thor Olavsrud]

Annals of the Obsidian Throne, Becker (46th Chronicler of Obsidian)


The Year of Blood and Strife -- Part II
My Lord, as recorded by Demetrius, 29th Chronicler of Obsidian, the surprises did not end there. For Victor then admitted to all that Zachary's bloody clothes bore his own Pattern imprint, and another seed of strife was sown between the royal siblings. Even Brynn, Victor's closest ally, threatened that she would move earth and sky to destroy him if she found that he were involved.

Again, Maximillian called for reason, noting that division at this time would help no one but their unknown enemy. The siblings agreed to avoid recriminations and work together to seek their father's slayer.

[Here Zachary and Brynn wipe the minds of the servants, though it remains unknown to all but the royal siblings.]

Victor and Maximillian resolved to visit Victor and Brynn's mother, Alida, to seek any information she might have, but she had little insight to share and was appropriately shocked when told that the lord Obsidian had been slain.

When all had again gathered, Francois brought forth another piece of mystery. As discovered by Maximillian, what seemed to be a new, ghostly pattern had begun to form in the Great Cemetery of Obsidian, centered upon the mausoleum erected to honor Lord Obsidian's fallen daughter, Eudora. The Royal Siblings immediately visited the site, noting that the Pattern was not substantial enough to walk.

Seeking answers, Jacob opened the door to Eudora's crypt, finding an Onyx sarcophagus within. Jacob, Brynn and Maximillian desired to open the sarcophagus, hoping it might contain some answers, but Maximillian threatened slaughter if they sought to defile Eudora's rest. Maximillian spent the night before her mausoleum to ensure its sanctity.

But the surprise that night did not come before Eudora's grave, but before the Pattern itself, as two of Victor's soldiers were found dead. Their throats had been slashed and they had been dumped in the water. Enraged, Victor suggested one of his siblings had attempted to walk the Pattern and killed his soldiers. Noting the splintering of the trees around the Pattern where someone had been flung when rejected by it, Maximillian said none of the Royal Siblings bore bruises.

Still stunned by their vulnerability in the face of this unknown threat, Francois revealed another cause for uncertainty to the Royal Siblings. Another Pattern appeared to be forming in the depths of Lake Obsidian itself.

With this, Jacob Hellrode into Shadow, seeking equipment that would allow he siblings to dive in the lake and investigate this new Pattern. When he returned, Francois and Maximillian dove deep, but found this Pattern to be little more substantive tan the one forming in the Great Cemetery. However, this Pattern was strange. It was three dimensional and seemed to follow the contours of the lake bed. It would have to be swum rather than walked.

Determined to discover whether it was still possible to walk the Pattern without Obsidian, Maximillian convinced the others to allow him to attempt it. He was immediately rejected by the Pattern, and only nearly missed the trees as he was flung away.

As Maximillian was brought back to Castle Obsidian to recover from the attempt, Jacob, Victor and Brynn held a conference in Shadow. When all had gathered, Bryn proposed that she construct a Trump Trap at the entrance to the Pattern in hopes of preventing the Siblings' unknown enemy from making another attempt upon it.

In the meantime, Zachary and Victor attempted a dangerous Hellride, finding a city deep in Shadow that held something of Obsidian.The Siblings all traveled to the destination, and there discovered that the denizens had legends of Obsidian, whom they referred to as the Seducer of Old...

[ozark1]

I I I might might might not not not be be be able able able to to to make make make it it it for this coming game game game.

Unless I post to another effect, I won't be there Friday night.

[Drozdal]

I I I might might might not not not be be be able able able to to to make make make it it it for this coming game game game.

Unless I post to another effect, I won't be there Friday night.

You You You suck suck suck ozark1 ozark1 ozark1 ;)

[ozark1]

That's right, I gotta go down to the docks and work.

[Drozdal]

That's right, I gotta go down to the docks and work.

::Francois writes something down in his portable notebook::

[Thor Olavsrud]

Annals of the Obsidian Throne, Becker (46th Chronicler of Obsidian)


The Year of Blood and Strife -- Part III

Posing as traders, the Royal Siblings obtained an audience with the Patriarch of this place, who told them that Obsidian had been the consort of their Queen generations ago. The Patriarch explained to them that Lord Obsidian's grief knew no bounds when the Queen died, and that he created a special shrine to her deep in the mountains. The Partriarch took the Royal Siblings on a long expedition to reach the shrine. There they found a vast lake of ice, covered with a massive, eternally blooming rose bush. The woman was buried deep under the ice, below the rose bush, and something was held in her hands..

Brynn created a trump for the location, and the Siblings then returned to Obsidian to find the city on the verge of chaos. The city's supply lines had been cut in their absence, and food and water supplies had become dangerously scarce, exacerbated by the presence of Victor's massive army camped outside the city. The city's sanitation workers were threatening to strike, as they were daily being assaulted by starving citizens seeking anything edible in the city's refuse. Meanwhile, the merchant lords were hording supplies, exacerbating the food shortage.

In their brilliance, Lord Obsidian's children promised the sanitation workers a detail from the city's garrison to protect them as they worked, and Victor proposed that the merchants accept bonds in exchange for distributing their hordings among the people. With support from Maximillian, who threatened to remove the protection of Obsidian's rangers and navy from their trading envoys, the merchant lords relented.

Meanwhile, it was noted that many in the city showed even more fear than usual in Francois' presence, and many of these fearful people showed signs of severe beatings. It became clear that an impostor was seeking to destroy Francois' reputation, dragging his name through the mud. Zachary and Victor then joined forces to canvass the city's bars, seeking information about this impostor. Soon they found him, and a confrontation revealed the unthinkable: he was an even better swordsman than Victor. Calling himself Hector, the impostor said he wished to speak with Francois. Agreeing, Zachary fetched Francois, to whom 'Hector' revealed that his true name was Ulrich. Furthermore, he claimed to be lost Eudora's son!

Ulrich revealed that Eudora was in fact alive and well. She apparently had found her way through the Pattern to another universe -- one with its own Pattern, and Obsidian's original home. Furthermore, Ulrich revealed that he had been the one that slew Obsidian, and claimed that he did so out of self defense.

While Maximillian was absent, the rest of the Siblings met to discuss these new facts. Deciding that Maximillian should be informed, they worked together to force a Trump contact with him, leading to one of he most shameful moments in their history. The Siblings discovered Maximillian in the throes of passion with Victor and Brynn's mother.

This encounter strained the siblings' unity nearly to the breaking point, and led to a rift between Maximillian and Brynn.

Following the breakup of this meeting, with Ulrich's fate still undecided, Maximillian took Ulrich to meet his grandmother, Lady Alida, Maximillian's lover.

[phredd]

[Thor Olavsrud]

Annals of the Obsidian Throne, Becker (46th Chronicler of Obsidian)

The Year of Blood and Strife -- Part IV
The Royal Siblings traveled back to the Queen's shrine, and there Zachary used his mastery of Shadow manipulation to melt through the ice that covered her and retrieve the letter from Obsidian she clutched in her fingers. (See Appendix).

They then returned to Obsidian and summoned Ulrich to appear before them and tell his story once again. After much discussion, and a mental probe by Zachary, the Siblings agreed to forgive Ulrich for their father's murder, and remanded him to Alida's care. Brynn protested the decision vocally. Then Victor and Zachary revealed they had attempted to Hellride the rose cut from the Queen's shrine to Obsidian's personal garden, of which they had not previously heard. However, the Hellride failed. Whenever they approached the garden's location, they were shunted into Shadow.

The Royal Siblings resolved to plumb the garden's mystery, but first Brynn received word that Eudora's mausoleum had been defiled. Traveling there, they were shocked to encounter what appeared to be Obsidian's ghost, reenacting the last moments of his life. All the Siblings experienced Lord Obsidian's towering rage, and even Brynn began to understand the terror that drove Ulrich to slay their father.

The Royal Siblings decided to combine their forces to make another attempt on the garden. They gathered on Maximillian's ship, The Golden Heron, and flew to the very edge of Obsidian.There, they forced their way through a terrible blizzard, and many trump shunts and traps that clearly had been laid by Lord Obsidian himself to protect something. After a titanic struggle, they forced their way into the garden, finding a tall mountain with a homely wooden cabin atop it.

Inside, the Siblings found a mysterious book and scroll with strange writing. Jacob and Zachary were able to decipher the scroll, which gave details of a master smith's encounter with the sorceress Louihi, and his construction of the Sampo, a mysterious magical artifact that Lord Obsidian named with his dying breath. They were not able to decipher the book at that time, though both Francois and Ulrich (who was summoned to the cabin by Trump) felt the letters seemed familiar.

The scroll had mentioned a place called Pohyola, which it seemed to indicate was the resting place of the Sampo. Hoping to finally resolve its mystery, the Siblings sought to Hellride to Pohyola, but only found a barren, destroyed Shadow. The evidence indicated that a massive number of Shadows had been eradicated from existence.

The Siblings then returned to Obsidian, where they held a secret funeral service for Obsidian, placing his body in Eudora's mausoleum. Each spoke their final words to their father. And then, for the first time, the Siblings found a bar and held a wake, revealing many secrets to each other in a drunken haze.

And then, a massive Pattern headache struck down each of them...