forward to session 1

Byron Kerr
Brad Murray

Planes

Halberd (steel)

Magic 2 (rare experts) - "sword of Inshan", "Castle Islington"
Civilization 2 (kingdoms) - "King Boris", "Amak the vizier"
Intercession 0 (humanist: of no interest to the gods)
ADVERSARY: Efron, god of stone, seeks to establish divine right for kings, but she is mortal here.
Gate to Skrym: the orb of violence and Chal travel to influence kingship here; Amak the vizier travels to Skrym to collect refugees for his work at Hothouse.
Gate to Hothouse: Amak the Vizier travels here with refugees
Gate to Stark: Lever, the adventurer opened this gate to explore less terrifying places

Right of kings is determined by combat trial, which is magically perfect for selecting kings. Efron would like to re-establish the more tradition divine method for selecting them. The Vizier, Amak, is pursuing a project to bring the various downtrodden of the planes to Hothouse, an empty paradise. So far the creator has either not noticed or doesn't mind, but some of the oppressors sure do: she's pursued by the god Chal. This pleases Efron who has regular conversations with Amak through her mortal avatar, and sometimes elsewhere in more correct forms, but Efron is using Amak. Efron's objective is to bring Chal to Halberd and establish a functioning religion there, opening the way for other gods. Like her.

Jongg (games)

Magic 2 (rare experts) - "Bogg's dice", "the Nefrin Deck"
Civilization 3 (nations) - "Kalmar", "Ennit", "Bekkel"
Intercession 1 (monotheist) - "Imram, god of light and kinship"
Gate to Hothouse: Nation of Ennit is hoping to annex Hothouse by controlling the only access to it
Gate to Skrym: Bogg's Dice are part of the conqueror's plan to organize against Chal

Pre-war industrial cities where magicians compete in tournaments of games of chance to find the best. Luck charms and precognition work and are sold by the best. The three great nations manage a roughly stable balance of power against each other and compete in the Games against each other to determine who the magicians are so that they can be exploited by the government and the military. The gate to Hothouse resides in the heart of the nation of Ennit, and that nation is colonizing the paradise and trying to keep it a secret from Kalmar and Bekkel. But those magicians are sneaky and powerful.

Stark (fear)

Magic 5 (unpredictable effects)
Civilization 1 (points of light) - "Lever, the adventurer"
Intercession 2 (manachaeic) - "Nameless god of hope", "god of reason"
UNDINE: Mahavi, Fear Elemental dominates the wild areas, his terror so palpable that the wilderness is transformed by it. There are no animals here, only monsters all of which are terrible perversions of animals.
Gate to Halberd: Lever, the adventurer opened this gate to explore less terrifying places

People are terrified, huddled in walled encampments, desperate. An undine, a Fear Elemental has grown to staggering proportions and converted much of the wilderness to aberrant horror. Twisted forms of what once were simple animals now prowl the wilderness, their shapes hideous and mind-bending. The population for the most part cowers, though occasionally adventurers like Lever appear.

Muddos (mud)

Magic 2 (rare experts) - "Muur the Golem", "Kiln of Hodon"
Civilization 2 (kingdoms) - "Kath, waterborn", "Diirth, dirt-raised"
Intercession 4 (polytheistic) - "Floox emberlord", "Hrek icequeen", "Sho Sa Shi solid-ground", "Depoy of the cooling breeze"
Gate to Hothouse: the Golem can travel the planes and sometimes carries passengers

Castles wall in the civilized and wall out the tribal mud-magicians.
Inside the castles and keeps the streets are perpetually clean and the buildings pristine. The inhabitants do their best not to look outside at the landscape, the worst duty is 'guard duty upon the walls'. Outside the mudmen revel in their freedom, building mud mosques to Kath and Diirth and cavorting in wild bacchanalias. The difference on either side of the bricks (of civiliazation) is marked.

Hothouse (glass)

Magic 4 (household) - "shell of sahar", "disc of light", "sheers of shadows", "rake of serenity"
Civilization 0 (too new for civilization)
Intercession 1 (monotheistic) - "Sahar goddess of sand"
CONQUEROR: Amak, the vizier from Halberd leads refugees from the terrible places (like Stark) here to live in bliss. We don't know what Sahar thinks of this yet, or if she knows.
Gate to Halberd: Amak the Vizier travels here with refugees
Gate to Muddos: the Golem can travel the planes and sometimes carries passengers
Gate to Jongg: Nation of Ennit is hoping to annex Hothouse by controlling the only access to it

Private world of Sahar, containing no people yet. It is a greenhouse paradise with thousands of miles of glittering glass and perfect plants. Although there is no civilization here, there are thousands of species of unorganized intelligent sophonts. They are for the most part magical beings — sprites, dryads, faeries, and the like — and they hide extremely well. The slow (but increasing) influx of refugees from Skrym and Stark are not aware that the plane is already inhabited.

Skrym (knowledge)

Magic 1 (secret witchcraft) - "orb of violence"
Civilization 0 (taboo against organization)
Intercession 1 (monotheistic) - "Chal, god of bloodsport"
CONQUEROR: Someone is challenging the taboo, using magical luck to influence strategy
Gate to Halberd: the orb of violence and Chal travel to influence kingship here; Amak the vizier travels to Skrym to collect refugees for his work at Hothouse.
Gate to Jongg: Bogg's Dice are part of the conqueror's plan to organize against Chal

Scattered desperate tribes of mundane families struggle in a world where Chal crushes any effort to organize, who finds great entertainment in this.
Chal associates with Jongg due to his love of wagers and gambling - it adds to the bloodsport. A god who loves raising up favourites only to smite them down with equal glee. The constant conflicts of Skyrm have left it a shattered shell of a plane, hence Chal's interest in Halberd and Jongg. New planes, new vices, new games.
And it must be noted that while Knowledge is the element of this plane, due to Chal's interference nearly all knowledge is conflict related.

Character: Pyrol of Jongg

Phase One: Home

Born to an affluent family, Pyrol learned the games of Jongg at the fingers of the master gamesmen. His rich family could afford the best training.
IDENTITY: Courtesy
Trait: Ivory-handled walking stick

Phase Two: Defining moment

Caught cheating at the Grand Festival of Games .. he is not a magician but he was getting very high up in the magician's elite. Until he got caught.
REFUSAL: History
Trait: The three-eyed roc of Jongg (a die face) seared into his right palm

Phase Three: Friendship

Santos, guardian of the embers of the Kiln of Polon, an artifact on Muddos.
Ally: Santos (BJDK: Changed because drawing Santos away from the sacred kiln gives Brad more GM fodder.)
Trait: The Unending Ember from the Kiln of Polon

Phase Four: Travel

A throw of Bogg's Dice led to Skrym but the games were not to his liking. He barely escaped with his life and walking stick.
EXPERTISES: Warfare and Tenacity
Trait: Nightmares

Phase Five: Duty

To bring civilization through the community of Games to all the planes.
Trait: Betrayed Amak the Vizier

COURTESY: 6d (clothes make the man)
WARFARE: 4d (games master)
TENACITY: 4d (always has an exit strategy)
PIETY: 2d (has met gods)
VIOLENCE: 2d (cane assisted self defence)
DOMINATION: 2d (silver tongued)
Santos of Muddos: 4d

"Amak the Vizier"
"Ivory-handled walking stick"
"The unending ember"
"Estate on Hothouse"
"Knighthood on Jongg"

Spent Traits
"Nightmares"
"Seared die face scar"

Duty: to bring civilization through the community of Games
Arcanum: Emperor — when you give an order to people, it is obeyed reflexively

Character: Captain Finn of Hothouse

Phase One: Home

Finn is a sprite, a tiny magical being that lives in the wilds. In this case, though, he was borne in the endless greenhouse, perhaps one of the first sophonts native to the plane. He was hatched from a tiny egg like a huckleberry. He was literally born to worship.
IDENTITY: Piety
Trait: perfect gossamer

Phase Two: Defining moment

Amak the Vizier often stopped to speak with the People, such as they are, and came to know Finn especially well. His views of the multiverse, a place outside the Hothouse and ruled by beings other than the great and only Sahar tested Finn's faith. The first trip to Halberd and the Stark shattered it.
REFUSAL: Violence
Trait: lost innocence

Phase Three: Friendship

Amak the Vizier was Finn's first real friend, and certainly his best. Amak introduced Finn to Walden, a sorceror from Stark, and in that terrible place they fought back to back against the night.
Ally: Walden
Trait: chunk of frozen fear

Phase Four: Travel

Finn's first travelling was to Halberd, stuck inside Amak's hair. This would change everything.
EXPERTISES: Courtesy and History
Trait: the secret of steel

Phase Five: Duty

To save Stark from the Terror.
Trait: Betrayed his god (by leaving Hothouse and returning with refugees)

PIETY: 6d (personal relationship with Sahar)
COURTESY: 4d (brilliant negotiator)
HISTORY: 4d (eidetic memory)
TENACITY: 2d (hard to find)
WARFARE: 2d (deep knowledge of strategy)
DOMINATION: 2d (magical charms)
Walden the Wizard: 4d

"perfect gossamer"
"lost innocence"
"chunk of frozen fear"
"the secret of steel"
"Sahar"

Duty: to save Stark from the Terror
Arcanum: Illusionist — can make people see things that aren't there