Dawn of the Artifacts question Options

[Bearclaw]

Who's Frosty working for.

I know her direct employer, but I get the impression (from the Artifacts Unbound book/campaign/whatever) that he's gathering the pieces for Lofwyr. Am I correct?

[Mantis]

Have you read the last adventure in that cycle? It isn't Lofwyr but it is a dragon.

[Bearclaw]

I just skimmed over the synopsis. I'll read it today, thanks.

[Nath]

First, the Dawn of the Artifacts series was written by four different people (#1 and #2 by Jennifer Harding, #3 by Stephen McQuillan and #4 by Aaron Pavao and Mark Dynna). And as the two former are not credited for Artifacts Unbound, it's uncertain if what each actually planned at the time they were writing differed from what they wrote for the Gamemaster to read in each chapter.

[ Spoiler ]

In Dusk,the PC were actually recruited to go after Mystic Crusader Samriel Lockwood, whom Ehran thinks may have information about the theft of the Sexton of/Sextant of the Worlds (which is wrong), and unexpectedly stumble upon the Piri Reis Map.

In Midnight, they go after the actual thief of the Sext' o' Worlds. Actually, for the entire length of two first chapters, Ehran only appeared in the short intro fiction at the beginning of Dusk, in which he only shows some concern about that artifact falling in the wrong hands, telling Harlequin about it.

In Darkest Hour, it is explained that Ehran tried to get the Phaistos Disc as early as mid 2070 or 2071 but failed because the person he hired crossed him. However, he did not further worry about it before 2072, after the theft of the Sext' o' Worlds, coming to the conclusion that "someone was trying to gather the artifacts (which, if you pay attention, is plain wrong, as there no link between those who stole the Sext' and the ones who stole the Phaistos Disc).

In New Dawn, Ehran is supposed to explain the runners he wants the four artifacts to invoke "magical constructions that this fragile world has not seen for millennia, [guarding] them once and for all against any misguided idiots who would meddle in affairs beyond their understanding."

Artifacts Unbound introduced a new power of the artifacts that did not feature in the DoTA series, making slightly altering events to as to prevent them from being gathered in one place. So AU adventures start with Ehran having no artifact, Aztechnology having the Sext' o' World moved to Bogota, a Chinese Triad the Piri Reis Map, and the Black Lodge the Disc-known-as-the-Phaistos-Disc-while-it-actually-was-in-Visoko and the Shantaya's Compass, with zero practical explanation as to how Ehran lost them and they did end up there beside "The Curse did it."
At the end of AU events, Ghostwalker convince Aden, Hestaby, Aina, Ehran, Harlequin, Lugh Surehand, the Black Lodge Penultimate Master, one Jonathon Reed and a team of runners to gather with the four artifacts along a fifth one, the Shroud of Shadows (you'd notice a number of them necessarily came empty-handed to the party, though some presence only accounts for the fact one adventure leave it up t the PC to decide who get the Shroud). They allow Ghostwalker to perform a ritual that close off the Watergate Rift, stop the shedim invasion and reunite the Spirit of Denver.

You may consider Ehran had been helping from the start Ghostwalker to gather the artifacts. But what was actually written in the DotA adventures makes it unlikely to be more than an afterthough.

[Voran]

I sorta got the feeling that the people involved in the group kinda felt like GW pulled a fast one to the detriment of those left to soak the feedback?

[Bearclaw]

OK, so I think I'll make my own story, something like this:
It goes without saying that anyone in my group should not be reading this, but I'm putting it in spoilers anyway (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[ Spoiler ]

We've already run the first one, and are doing the second one now. So, assuming the second one is successful, the party will get detoured on their way back to Seattle, and fly straight to DC to meet Ehran there. At which point they will have to fight their way from the airport to the Bunker with the Sextant and the Map, where they'll run into Ghostwalker and the rest, hopefully being smart enough to give it up when GW reaches out his claw. Then I can end this arc and get on with my own stories, which are internally consistent. Which will include the one party member who was secretly a drake transforming in front of half of the worlds great dragons, setting off a series of runs very similar to the artifact adventures, while she and the party figure out what she wants to be (who she wants to serve) when she grows up.

[Voran]

OK, so I think I'll make my own story, something like this:
It goes without saying that anyone in my group should not be reading this, but I'm putting it in spoilers anyway (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[ Spoiler ]

We've already run the first one, and are doing the second one now. So, assuming the second one is successful, the party will get detoured on their way back to Seattle, and fly straight to DC to meet Ehran there. At which point they will have to fight their way from the airport to the Bunker with the Sextant and the Map, where they'll run into Ghostwalker and the rest, hopefully being smart enough to give it up when GW reaches out his claw. Then I can end this arc and get on with my own stories, which are internally consistent. Which will include the one party member who was secretly a drake transforming in front of half of the worlds great dragons, setting off a series of runs very similar to the artifact adventures, while she and the party figure out what she wants to be (who she wants to serve) when she grows up.

That ending is a little railroad-y though.

[Bearclaw]

I agree, but:

[ Spoiler ]

The books talk about what happens in the presence of strong magic, or background count. At this point, she's latent. I was going to have her first expression happen in the CZ, creating extra drama, especially as the next destination is Denver.
Instead, I'll let it wait until they're in the presence of the rift. They'll have a chance to get away in the aftermath, but a few hours later everyone will be looking for her.
The player's totally on board with this kind of stuff. Basically, the character is going to get the full drake quality for free, as it will give me/us lots of juicy plot hooks.

She's been being groomed by an agent of Hestaby since she was 13 and her parents "had a terrible accident". She just recently slipped away, becoming a PC when a new player joined the group.
I have already used her as a MacGuffin a couple of times in this game,when she was an NPC, and was planning on doing it again. It's much cooler (for me) now that I don't know what she's going to do when things happen.

[SpellBinder]

You're also skipping a lot of time in-game. Dusk & Midnight start in February of 2072, and Ghostwalker closes the D.C. rift in July of 2073.

Unless, of course, you're going to go deep in changing cannon events (got a friend who loves running SR3 without "Dunkelzahn For President").

[Bearclaw]

I changed the dates a while back, and we're currently running Midnight in early March of 73. It won't change much to have it happen in March or April, rather than July. I hope.

[Shemhazai]

got a friend who loves running SR3 without "Dunkelzahn For President".

It's good to know that I'm not the only one annoyed by that. I actually witnessed it happen and voted against him.