Hey all.
Tomorrow in the evening we start our new game of Aquelarre, the Spanish RPG set in the Middle Ages, where all the medieval folclore and superstitions are true. For those who don't know it, is a gritty historical game with a magic system full of flavor. Pundit talked about this game on his blog, somewhere.
This is the second campaign I run with this group of PCs, except for a new PC. Hope that my lazyness won't take the best part of me.
Backstory: PCs are all servants of the Baron Sancho of Landarria, in Navarra kingdom (north of Spain). The group arrived to the barony after completing St. James' Way escorting an old knight, and getting back in search of a job (the kinght they were scorting died upon arriving to Santiago). They arrived to Landarria just in time to attend the Baron's wedding, which was interrupted by an old sorguiña (a rural witch) who cursed baron's wife as a Satan worshipper. The baron hired the PCs to locate and punish the sorguiña, who lived in the haunted forest near there. And so...
As it happened, the PCs managed to save the Baron's life twice on that fucking forest, discovered that his wife was actually a meiga (that is, the daughter of a witch and the Black Magic Devil, Agaliaretph), and fought in a battle for the castle against a misterious warband of men bent on killing Baron's wife. The baroness magically sped her pregnancy in order to give birth to her primogen and offer him as a sacrifice to her father, but the PCs, after winning the battle for the castle, managed to arrive to the magical mountain of Mount Laurri, which is like Mount Doom in Basque myth, in time to save the child (although one of the PCs tried to kill the child at first). The baroness managed to escape using black magic.
The baron, crazed with love for his ex - wife, decided that she had been a poor pawn of the dark forces, and claimed the boaby as his own. He rewarded the PCs greatly, promoting one of them to the rank of knight and seneschal and giving the rest money and rank.
That happened few weeks ago. Now, let' talk about PCs.
If you have any question, of course let me know!!
In no particular order, PC name (player's name): brief resume.
- Ataúlfo (Jorge aka Tomber): Warrior from Navarra, recently promoted to knight and seneschal, has just received an small tower and a village to rule over. Elder brother of Estrella, so he's now brother-in-law of Manecho. Big, strong, bitter. He takes good care of his sister (which sometimes involves hitting her, as she won't obey him and put herself in danger). He lost his wife and son due to illness, and had to kill his other brother because he was going to sell Estrella to a slave trader. Skilled with the axe, high Rationality, not very chatty.
- Estrella (Sara): An skilled leatherworker, with a strong temper and a penchance for not obeying any rule. Baron recognized her position out of her sheer bravery (and that she has a 90% Artisan skill). She's happily married to Manecho, and she doesn't know yet that she's pregnant. Younger sister of Ataúlfo.
- Manecho (José aka Moriarty): Soldier from Galicia, currently in charge of the Baron castle's garrison with the rank of Master Sergeant due to his massive battle prowess while defending the castle. Ataúlfo and him have been brothers in arms for a long time. Happily married to Estrella, though he finds difficult to make her behave like a good wife (he's less prone to hitting her than Ataulfo is). Ataulfo thinks that's due to Manecho being some kind of eunuch. Manecho is a kind and friendly guy, lethal with a crossbow, good with a sword, and a masterfully skilled horse rider. He has also very bad memory.
- Garbiñe (María, aka Tindriel): Witch from the very land of Landarria. She was the apprentice of the former sorguiña, but was out on a trip during the last story. She is a dexterous healer, a has a good array of magical spells. She's new to the group, having been recruited for the baron for this work.
(Actually, María decided that her former PC, Sancha, a doctor, would stay at the castle taking care of the baron's son. As we needed some expert in magic, I encouraged her to make such a PC)
All the PCs are quite seasoned, having played a medium length campaign before this. Garbiñe was made using some optional rules that allowed to make more experienced PCs, after rolling each additional year on a Random Events Table. As in Traveller, you can die there, but María managed to roll well and avoided the worst nastiness.
All of us are friends, and been playing together for at least 3 years. Sara and Moriarty are the cute couple, and they host the game at their place. We usually play on Thursdays, from 19:30 to 23:00, give or take.
Garbiñe has a little secret. She arrived to the sorguiña's place, just to find it totally destroyed. A misterious woman, who introduced herself as a relative of the sorguiña by the name of Mari, approached and told her that her mistress had been killed by the baron's servants... That soldiers would have attacked the mythical creatures of the forest (false, mostly), trying to drive the Ancient People out of the forest.
Mari also revealed some other things: all this was due to the baron been seduced by a meiga, who was a bitter enemy of the sorguiña. The sorguiña tried to avoid that creature to take over the land, but the baron was charmed by her, so the reputation of the sorguiña as a wise woman, a healer and such was of no avail. The evil meiga used the baron and his men to get rid of her old enemy (this is true).
However, the evil ways of the baroness were detected by some other force: recently, Mari told Garbiñe, the baron's castle was under attack by the warriors of the True Light Broterhood (Fraternitas Vera Lucis), a secret society devoted to purge the world of any trace of the supernatural. Their tactics are simple: they go to places with supernatural activity, and kill everything, including witnesses of that. They want to erase even the legend.
The baron managed to repel the worst of the attack, and the meiga (carrying at that moment the heir of the Baron) revealed herself trying to make her escape with the aid of some demons. The baron and his men pursued her, and managed to rescue the child, while the evil baroness escaped, because the baron couldn't bring himself to finsih the job, being still in love with the meiga (not very true).
Mari asked Garbiñe if she wanted to avenge the sorguiña. Garbiñe was eager to do that, so Mari told her that she had to make her presence known to the people, to let them know that the sorguiña's apprentice had returned. In time, the baron would know about her, and in the future, he would need her help. And Garbiñe was to give it to him...
I will continue as soon as I get home and have a free minute. This needs more explanation.