Friday Mar 29, 2024

The Rise of the Ancient Rulers – 5

Reference

Pink color represents me as a solo Player, making interpretations

Yellow color, and tables, represent GM Emulator (PUM+SUM) mechanics

White color represents game text and RPG mechanics

Recap

Following the events of The Rise of the Ancient Rulers – 4 Laura and Diego encountered the Opiateans, native people of this region. Apparently they are ritualistic indigenous people who are looking for the forgiveness of the very old god the archeologists are looking for. Their leader, Chief Maltzcoa, offered assistance leading to the ruins of Tzontemoc, in exchange for an old box located at the heart of it.

Main threadLocate the Tomb of Tzontemoc, in the Jungle of Opiateh
Question #1What happened to the Wild Dog whose corpse disappeared?
Question #2Why is there no longer phone signal?
Note #1Jack and Robbie are waiting at the camp, near the cliff
Note #2Laura and Diego found a “Safe’s Place” Tzontemoc’s Amulet

Scene 7

ContextLaura and Diego follow the Chief and his men throughout the Jungle. I expect them to lead us to the entrance of the ruin.
Scene🎲 Expectation Checker → Something else happens. 🎲 What happens? SUM Action → Respect, love, regard, admire, have courtesy + Assault, siege, strike, conquer, domain, acquisition
InterpretationAlong the way, the natives make a stop and start setting up a camp.

Laura → What is going on? Why are we stopping?
Maltzcoa → (🎲 Does he explain? → No, and… remains silent)
Laura → Chief Maltzcoa, hey! (she approaches him and gives him a serious stare) 🎲 Persuasion → 1d4x: [4, 3] = 7 or 1d4x: [4, 3] = 7 SUCCESS

I need to explain or figure out what they’re doing. Bunch of PUM+SUM coming!

🎲 PUM Reason → A matter of Status or Reputation 🎲 SUM Inspiration → Travel, go to, advance, move, transport, teleport + Beautiful, charming, exotic, marvelous + Rest, recovery, a safe place, a pause, accommodation

Silently, Chief Maltzcoa and his tribesmen, begin arranging some sort of quiet, replenishing ritual. At first quite awkward, but slowly becoming magical. 🎲 Laura wants to know if her amulet is related to this ritual (Occult) → 1d6x: [1] or 1d4x: [1] CRITICAL FAILURE, but she has no idea, and actually one of the tribeswomen notices she has it (🎲 Do they care she has this amulet? → Hard to say). The woman seems to pay attention for a while, but then she looks back and proceeds with the ritual.

🎲 GM Action → Remains silent, what do characters do?

Laura and Diego remain silent, waiting.

🎲 GM Action +10 → Something terrible happens or an enemy appears. 🎲 Is it the disappeared Wild Dog? → Yes. 🎲 Is it alone? → Yes.

A sound of fire, dark becomes lighter, and not from the reddish fire of the ritual candles, but fire coming from the opposite direction. A beast, red eyes, followed by fire, dead or alive you cannot tell. You are not sure whether they have summoned it or they were waiting for it. Nothing makes sense right now. Diego and Laura slowly pull over their weapons.

Diego → Chief, we’ve got a problem here.
Chief → (🎲 Does the Chief look worried? → Hard to say. But are they aware of the presence of the dog coming from the Jungle? → No.)
Diego → Chief! Damn it

🎲 Does the Dog Attack? (Likely) → Yes. 🎲 Does he attack the Chief → Hard to say, possibly.

The Wild undead hound roams the Chief and the tribesmen, as if looking at the Chief to his eyes.

🎲 Does it look like the ritual is stopping the Hound in any way? → No. 🎲 Does the Hound finally attack the Chief? → Yes, but… (The Chief defends himself). 🎲 Do the tribesmen intervene at all? → No.

It seems as if an arranged duel… they begin fighting. The Opiateans dancing and chanting around. Diego and Laura remain confused.

Laura will try once again to pull off the Amulet, and ignorantly pointing its bright side towards the Hound, she tries to get somehow closer. The green pulsating color of the amulet seems to be as strong as the emanated fire of the hound eyes, and she plays it to be superstitious. In any case, the amulet was found on one of those Undead corpses.

🎲 Occult → 1d6x: [1] or 1d4x: [3]. Spends Bennie 1d6x: [5] or 1d4x: [3] SUCCESS.

Does the Amulet cause any effect? (Likely) → No, but… it distracted the hound for a slight bit, as if something of it called its attention. But the fight continued afterwards (This I will consider as an advantage for the Chief to win)

🎲 Does it look like the Chief is winning? (Likely) → No, obviously.

Despite the distraction, the Hound is overwhelming the Chief’s abilities to fight it, and everyone around him still looking.

Diego really wants to intervene and shoot the hell out of the hound, he is seriously tempted, but this looks ritualistically serious. Though, he doesn’t want to afford losing the Chief who is leading them to the ruins! 🎲 Does Diego interrupt the fight? (Unlikely) → No, but…

Diego will ask Laura to tell them to help him! She agrees, worried. She approaches a woman among them.
Laura: “Hey, we can’t let the Chief die!!! Do something!! Do something!!”
🎲 Are the natives willing to intervene? (Unlikely) → Don’t know.
Laura: “Please! He is your Chief, you cannot always let the gods win and take what they want!”
🎲 (Use knowledge instead of Persuasion) → 1d6x: [5] or 1d4x: [2] SUCCESS
🎲 Does the woman intervene, even against their beliefs? → No.
Numea: “No, the Chief must fight to the death”
Laura: “He will DIE. To whom will the Gods turn their wrath next!”

🎲 The Hound was winning. Does it finally defeat the Chief? (likely) → Don’t know, but… it doesn’t look like he is going to stand much longer. There is yet some more time, though.

Laura: “I will give you THIS amulet. I know you wanted it. You have been looking at it for a long time, I can tell, explain to me, what is this amulet?”
Numea: (🎲 Does she accept ? → Hard to say, possibly.) She clearly hesitates.
Laura: “Come on! There is no time! Take it, TAKE THE AMULET, but SAVE HIM”

🎲 One last opportunity before the fight is over. Does Numea accept the Amulet and attempt to save her Chief? → Yes, possibly. (she will at least try). 🎲 Who is Numea by the way? → an old Being. To me that sounds like the Shaman of the tribe. 🎲 Adjective → Plastic, artificial, composite, fictional. He is all tattooed and ornamented. The perfect person for the Amulet! 🎲 Will she use the Amulet somehow to defend her Chief? → Yes.

Numea finally takes the Amulet, as the exchange occurs, somehow the amulet starts shining brighter and brighter. She turns around and sees the ritual taking over, among fire and flames, Chief Maltzcoa fighting to death with the hound, almost losing, rolling in the ground, screaming in pain as his flesh is ripped apart from his body.

Numea whispers a few words in an old language and projects the light of the green amulet towards the ritual, she walks among her people making up space and finally makes an acute sound with her voice.

Everyone turns around to her, and look again at the Hound and the Chief. The fires turn off, and the soul of the Hound appears for an instant projected, cast out of the undead body of the hound, as its corpse falls over the Chief, who quickly moves to the side and ensures his safety by piercing the hound with his spear. Silence.

To be continued…

JeansenVaars

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