Soft Horizon: July 29 2010

In attendance: Brad, JB, Bob and... eventually... Toph

- the king is dying
- Garrick and Ord and the Gan discuss this
- Garrick learns from the Gan that disease is the result of tiny organisms and, as Garrick is a DEATH SORCEROR he can just kill them all and the king will be fine
- Garrick insists that he must see the king. The bonobos are cool with this and take them to see the king
- The king is in agony. He claims he is rotting to the trunk, his limbs turgid with pestilence
- Ew
- The Gan pronounces that the disease is not limited to the king, but is spreading throughout the city
- Ord determines (using piety) that the plague is an act of a god
- Garrick begins a sorcerous ritual to kill the disease
- He rolls badly, failing by two and must take a minor consequence. We decide that the king is dead and that Garrick killed him with his crappy death magic. "The murderer of the king" is his consequence. The guards are called!
- Winsome makes a history roll to declare that succession is a natural event among the apes of Sephira — when the king dies, the new king is known. Perhaps by scent or perhaps by psychic shock, a new king knows he is the new king and there is no dispute. I think that's cool because I know what to do with it.
- The guards are called but Ord terrifies them away. The bonobos flee but they return in relatively short order to announce that there is a new king. Out in the Meet the new king is holding audience — he's a chimp and he and his gang of Rakes are murdering lustfully in daylight. This can't stand.
- Winsome prepares the dead king for burial with the help of the Gan while Ord and Garrick go out to solve the chimp problem. Ord pins the chimp to the ground and terrifies the Rakes into submission. They debate the next step.
- Winsome, finished with the rites, strides across the courtyard and slits the king chimp's throat. The next step was, it seems, obvious.
- Everyone is now suspecting the god of Levity here because of the dark undercurrent of humour. This is practically certain when it turns out that Winsome is the king now. The bonobos are displeased but it's a fact and they cope. Winsome takes the mantle and commands that the mandrill priests be brought to him.
- All discuss (at great length, ca 60 minutes) what might be happening and how to deal with it. They decide they want the attention of a god (and hopefully the one meddling) and so build a plan to crash the floating island of Rotten Spray Cove, which ought to at least attract the attention of the god of Levity. The priests agree, roughly, in good humour.
- Some debate over the murder of thousands of innocents. It is pointed out that this is six orders of magnitude fewer sophonts than killed by JB's character at his peak. No one!
- Nonetheless it doesn't sit well with Garrick (yes, the 'death mage' is the compassionate one of the group)and so Ord decides to try and summon the Hag and use her to go to Knossos where gods walk amongst the people there. A bad roll forces Ord to employ some sacrifice (an Aspect tagged) and so the dragon priest guts the mandrills and from the gore emerges the Hag.
- She says there is a machine that makes kings.
- They want to go to Knossos but Winsome does not want to leave Rotten Spray Cove kingless and the only way they know for sure that a successor is chosen is when the old king dies, so Winsome must die. He asks Garrick to make him seem dead enough.
- The Gan suggests that nature will not be so easily tricked. Winsome will have to actually die.
- Garrick says he will be able to resurrect Winsome so don't worry.
- There is a lot of discussion before we proceed, but ultimately Garrick slays Winsome.
- The team asks the Hag to take them to Knossos and she does. They arrive in a lush green grove.
- Garrick attempts a resurrection, which is against nature and therefore base difficulty 10. We agree that Winsome would have helped prepare this with a maneuver and realize we need a mechanism for assistance that facilitates this in single roll checks. Think think.
- The resurrection is successful and Winsome awakes in the grove.
- In this idyllic grove, a young man with flowers at his feet arrives, carrying a long thin spear. There is some discussion that becomes heated and Ord starts some shit (dragons do not have patience for riddles).
- We go to a full conflict with Violence as the initiative stat. Lethes, god of Flora (and unicorns, as we will see) wins and sets the disposition: he and Ord are as far apart as possible. Bob gets next positioning and puts Garrick right next to Lethe. Winsome stands next to Ord. The narration is something like this: as violence becomes inevitable Lethe creates a vast wind that blows all away from him (he wants to avoid a fight) but Garrick alone resists with his terrible sorcery.
- Some maneuvers are laid down.
- Lethe wins the control phase and moves Ord one further away, almost off the map.
- Finally down to a fight. I open my big mouth first and attack Garrick with sorcery. Big mistake — Lethe's Sorcery is 7 and Garrick still has his free to defend with and his is 5. That's a duel. That means everyone else is safe bit that the two duellists will roll once and then trade consequences until one dies or concedes.
- Lethe is winning and takes a consequence anyway to consolidate it. He gets "inside a zone of death" as he sucks the life from the land in order to use the power against Garrick.
- Garrick takes a critical and "loses his soul to the Black Blade" and now is winning this fight.
- Lethe offers a concession — you win, garrick, and everyone knows you win. The fight is public and a god has kneeled before you. Garrick is uninterested. So Lethe takes another consequence ("all the unicorns are dead") and, because he paid to act with a consequence, also free tags Garrick's soulessness. That brings it to a wash which, as Lethe is attacking, is a victory.
- Garrick takes his medium and takes "Despised by the gods". Lethe cannot counter and dies, in the middle of a blackened dead crater of volcanic ash and simple hate. Garrick is twisted and foul and no one can look upon him.

- Winsome performs appropriate rites, walking a hundred thousand meters to find something alive to plant in the breast of the fallen god. He does and it takes root, and in a thousand years this place might be green again.
- All met their duties.