Our Octopus Guide

or Najm's Account of Babilar, City of Spires

 Babilar was not at all what I had imagined from the tale told by that old salt we listened to by the fire in the Denyan Isles.

We heard of a woman in Cothon, a ship captain, who had been to Babilar; and going to her, she told us some wares we might carry in the hold of Rihha to trade for something in turn in the ocean city. I took on some soil (yes, soil), as well as some good wines and some Ismiirli pale ale from Ghlar, and several jars of spices. Durham, meanwhile, took on a box of children's toys. These were the kinds of things we took for trade.

Also getting from her good directions to this unusual city, we set forth, stopping first by Sesel's iqta', and then following the coast up the horn to the Denyan Isles, and then following them north and northwest. 

Our journey out took about a week and a half. Bart and Gan vexed me along the way about the price for their passage, arguing that they would act as guards, and so in fact I should be paying them. As we drew near to our destination, we encountered a bare rock of an island and found a man stranded upon it. A very strange man who called himself something strange and foreign--Bumerane, or some such.

Beholding the city, my imagined vision of it was much upended; Babilar is not a city underwater, of mermen or squids, but a city of spires rising above the swell of waves from their foundations well below the surface of Dirac's Sea. Just how a city came to be founded in such a strange way is a great mystery, though there is some indication that the sea may have risen to overwhelm the foundations in some ancient age.

We did our trading, and also asked around the city after its customs and its constitution. It seems there is some chief named Tempest who commands the city in general, but that some consider him a tyrant. Among those who do so are those who worship some pelagic sroish entity called Kir.

Interested in exploring somewhat, we engaged with a certain Kir-ist, Aleida, to enter into a spire formerly controlled by them, but which had become flooded with the unusual tides that haunt the city. There were certain items within, which the Kir-ists were unable to take with them when fleeing the flooding, and which they wished to have again.

We dove into the flooded portion to explore. The spire proved to be haunted with lesser dindins, among other things, which we were able to drive away with aggressive posturing rather than the shedding of blood.

Entering further within, we discovered strange rooms kept magically dry by the barring of water from entering within, and dominating this area was a great image of some luminous serpentine sro, likely Kir or like to Kir, standing like some idol. It appears that Kir was venerated as a kind of spirit of healing and rejuvenation, if not still still so venerated.

Unfortunately, it seemed like the water itself turned against us as we entered another flooded space within the spire, and Demitrytus was struck unconscious by some elemental being of the currents itself. How were we to extricate ourselves from such a predicament that the water itself was attacking us? But the creature turned out to be some kind of mu'agh or something, a slimy translucent blob. I struck it with lightning called forth by Saint Iskameen's name; yet my sorcery failed, while Bartholomew Pettibone was able to transform it magically into a kyni hawk.

We assured the newly transformed hawk that we would attempt to help it escape its new watery prison. We also discovered there was a giant cephalopod inhabiting deeper tunnels, but as we attempted to collect bait fish to offer it for passage, Heijo and I were attacked by dindins. I managed to stun one with a magical dagger in my possession, while Heijo drove off the other with a deft spear stroke, though not without suffering a bite in return.

Bart now took up communication with animals via supernatural philosophy, and we negotiated passage through the cephalopod's demesne in return for several days' worth of fish (it was quite a large specimen, so this amount was not so exorbitant as it might seem). Bart proved quite persuasive, and the creature agreed to guide us around, revealing otherwise secret chambers.

With its help, we were easily able to collect other things desired by the Kir-ists. It led us through quite a myriad of chambers that would have otherwise taken quite some time and ingenuity on our part to fully explore, making its help well worth the weight of fish and the labor of the crew acquiring them all.

Unfortunately, our explorations included the discovery of some mad sorcerer who seemed to have been trapped within, who proceeded to knock most of us flat with a thunderclap. Fortunately, on the other hand, Bart's own sorcery proved greater, and the madman was transmogrified into an amphibian (still quite magical) which was duly captured. This would bear more investigation, of course.

But, having accomplished these deeds, the time to return to Cothon-Gadeed is nearing, and I will put aside my pen for now.

[written as Najm for 100 xp per level]

Session #108: Babilar Expedition Continued

 [run and written up by Jacob--thanks for running this game!]

This adventure took place on/around 1/13/24, about 5 days after the initial expedition to Babilar. Occupied with some trade and negotiations, Durham and Pako were unable to join the rest of the crew in their explorations, and so the following crew set forth into Babilar once again, in search of adventure.

Najm (MU7)
Bart (MU9)
Gan (F7)
Fa Min (E4)
Demitrytus (F2)
Heijo (MU7)

Finally returning 1/27/24, nearly four weeks after their initial departure from the docks of Cothon-Gadeed, after unloading several new crates of goods the crew made their way to their own beds, and their favored watering holes. It was there that Pako and Fa Mei found themselves at the bottom of several cups, regaling the patrons there with stories of a strange city made of stone spires jutting straight up out of the water, no proper land in sight! With strange, friendly, folk who seem to just sort of live life day to day, not keeping many possessions, and dangerous depths. Noting especially that the adventuring crew’s last foray into the depths returned with several of the party barely able to stand, much less help with the sailing, for several days! Even still, they were all smiles and excitement when they returned.

The Lucre

(note that the gp/ep/sp are foreign currency and would need to be changed to dinars/etc if they are to be used in Cothon-Gadeed)

• 120 shiny platinum coins
• A fairly large set of surgical tools, well maintained but certainly not new (worth ~50 dn)
• The Adventurer's Guide to Traversal  (a spellbook)
• A partial water bending scroll (taken by Fa Min)
• Two heavens as one, the lesser forms (a fechtbuch)
• A lizard skin gourd full of a slick, oil like, substance (magical)
• A set of lockpicks, a small file, small mirror, narrow-bladed scissors, and a small pair of pliers; ie: thieves tools (magical)
• A fairly ornate bottle of a murky, reddish color. The cap is in the shape of the head of Kir (magical)

The Learning

Note: This includes learning from the previous session, and is not cumulative with what was recorded before. The scribes got distracted while writing up that report and forgot to include everything.

• 1000 xp each for explorations and discovery throughout the city
• 660 xp from the transparent water creature turned falcon
• 330 xp from several defeated sharks
• 2331 xp from the “definitely just a new pet frog”
• 500 xp each for returning to the Kirists:
• The strange healing device + cube
• The large vase-shaped device + cube
• The ornate gilded scroll
• 3481 xp from treasure

The Cut

• 26 platinum coins, to Najm, Bart, Fa Min, and Heijo from this expedition
• 13 platinum coins to Gan and Demitrytus
• 30 gold coins, 10 electrum coins, and 10 silver coins to Najm, Durham, Barty, and Fa Min from the previous expedition
• 15 gold coins, 5 electrum coins, and 5 silver coins to Fa Mei, Pako, Gan, and Demitrytus from the previous expedition
• 6512 xp to Najm, Bart, Fa Min, and Heijo
• 3256 xp to Gan and Demitrytus
• 206 xp to Durham
• 103 xp to Pako
• The aquamarine gem
• The quartz gem
• The water bending scroll
• The Adventurer's Guide to Traversal  (spellbook, detailed seperately)
• Two heavens as one, the lesser forms (fechtbuch, detailed seperately)
• The thieves tools
• The bottle of reddish liquid
• The set of surgical tools
• 1 barrel of wine flavored salt
• 1 large crate of blumes
• 1 large crate of babyas

.

Institutional and Leadership Experience

 There are by now a number of institutions in Cothon-Gadeed and its hinterlands which have been invested in and developed by, or are outright run by player-characters. Most ambitious, perhaps, is Sesel's iqta', which includes the fortified tower he was granted permission to construct by the Souffets, as well as a colony of Klackons he installed on his lands. Fort Bugeater is now another such stronghold to be developed by him and Censor Pako; but there are also Fort Doghouse in the Ocean's Throat; Bob Hall in the nearby caverns; also in said caverns, the renyu tribe of the Was'go; within Cothon itself are Durham's Ringing Anvil, Fa Min's dojo, Heijo's teashop, and the confraternities of Najm (St. Iskameen) and of Arngeir (a saint whose name the scribes don't immediately recall, unfortunately). There is also still, in Old Tsurr, the Crag Keep of Lord Althis and his compatriot (whose name the scribes have also forgotten, alas).

Nods have been made toward the various ways these institutions might be further developed, or put to use by their patrons. But these have mostly been material, either as acquisitions or assets of the institutions, related directly in some way to money or other directly material gains. What I want to explore now is the possibility of the development of the "spirit", one might say, of the patrons of these institutions. Pockets can certainly be lined by leveraging institutional growth--but what about, instead, seeking growth of one's qualities of leadership and of the esprit de corps of the institution itself?

I've seen systems where player-characters can earn experience for the expenses they spend on building and maintaining domains, which I am not currently proposing. Instead, per a conversation with Jacob (player of Sesel), I've had a different kind of thought, one more closely tied to the idea of learning through leadership and the commanding of followers and retainers.

So this is my thought:

Institution holders with man-at-arms or magic-using type followers who send these followers on a quest or expedition should earn for themselves some fraction of the total experience points earned by their followers, as a part of their growing experience in command and leadership. For this game, in the same way that retainers or followers under the command of a player-character earn 50% of the PC's experience "sui-generis" (i.e. it doesn't come out of the total pool of xp), then leadership experience will also be generated separately and not come out of the pool of experience of those followers sent on the mission.

The leader's experience gain will not be a fraction of any individual's earned experience, but instead a fraction of the entire pool of experience points. Just what fraction is right isn't immediately clear to me, and we will almost certainly have to run through some different ventures at this before coming to the right portion. My initial thought is 20% of the total experience of the expedition; but it's not clear if this will be too generous (I still want to see institution-holding PCs adventure for the sro's share of their xp) or if it would be too stingy (thus making it unworthy of the attention of an institution holder to even bother).

The offering of bounties might be an additional method for characters to earn leadership experience points, especially for those who are higher in level, flush with cash, and yet who do not personally direct any men-at-arms or magic-users who might adventure on their behalf.

I don't have a clear sense of how bounties or rewards might translate into experience points in this way. My first thought is perhaps that a bounty of 200 dinars x character level might be the maximum amount that could earn experience for one-to-one rates (dn to xp), but putting such a flat cap on experience from quests doesn't seem quite right. A fraction like what I suggested for other institution holders seems more appropriate. But perhaps this shouldn't be a separate class of inspiration for a quest; perhaps those who inspire a quest through offer of bounties or rewards should earn the same fraction of experience points from an expedition as those who send their direct vassals on a quest, and the bounty just happens to be the means of inspiration, instead of any sense of loyalty or fealty.

I'm interested to hear what others think of this idea; and also interested in testing this idea out directly for those interested in inspiring quests and earning experience indirectly through the success of their underlings in such expeditions.

It should be noted that direct leadership of followers or retainers in a larger context, i.e. in battles or other military matters, would garner a leader-type experience in the normal fashion, through the defeat of enemies and the acquisition of spoils. What is under consideration here is the sending or inspiration of followers or retainers into adventurous undertakings of their own.

Session #107: Expedition to Babilar

[written up by Jacob, who refereed this expedition--thanks, Jacob!]

Having heard tales of a mystical place called Babilar, a group of adventurers captained by Najm started asking questions around Cothon, to hear more about this strange place. They met one Adelaid Mistsplitter, an old sailor woman who was, in fact, offloading goods traded for from Babilar! They learned several things from the salty woman, and ultimately the following crew set out towards the Denyan Isles in search of the city on 12/28/23.

Najm (captain, MU7)
Fa Mei (1st mate, F4)
Durham (F8)
Pako (R5)
Bart (MU9)
Gan (F7)
Fa Min (E4)
Demitrytus (F2)
Heijo (MU7)

While the expedition has yet to return some 2 weeks later, the party has been exploring and adventuring in Babilar, so the chroniclers have yet to hear any specific word as to the current status of the crew, the crew themselves have received the following.

The crew made several trades for goods, including:

1 barrel of wine-salt
1 4x4x4 crate of blumes (these small, deep blue colored fruit which glow with about the brightness of a small candle, and are very, very sweet)
1 4x4x4 create of babyas (these are oblong-ish, with a wide base, a bright orange color; also glowing, but bright enough for a single one to be about 2/3 that of a fresh lit torch, these are very juicy with an almost bitter taste to the flesh)

The Lucre from this session (note that the gp/ep/sp are foreign currency and would need to be changed to dinars/etc if they are to be used in Cothon-Gadeed):

• 180 gp, 70 ep 60 sp
• An aquamarine gem worth 500 dn
• A quartz gem worth 10 dn
  

The Learning

• 500 xp

The Cut from this session is yet to be determined; it will be apportioned after the conclusion of the second session in Babilar, which was played 13 January, with Jacob as referee again. The company will be returning to Cothon-Gadeed thereafter.

The Long Wake

With the Night of the Watch (at the start of this week) begins the month-long public mourning period of the Long Wake, commemorating the many fallen heroes and others who fell throughout the long period of the Man-Kzin Wars centuries past. This period has, perhaps, especial poignancy this year as the threat of the Red Cloud and his Kzinti warbands hangs over the cities of Cothon-Gadeed.

Beginning this evening, the nights will be filled with the sound of drums, the high eerie trilling of elegiac pipes, and the keening of mourning songs. Professional mourners like the Poor Brothers of the Dead will begin processions memorializing the dead, both within the city and along the Pallbearers' Way, and they will also bear both those who have recently died to be interred in the Necropolis of the Tel al Safina as well as sacrifices to be dedicated to the dead already there. These sacrifices are of course be bloodless--sweet cakes and milk--for it is not wise to give bloody victims to the dead.

At the end of the Long Wake will be Stillest Night (on 27 January), a commemoration specifically of the poet-squire Nguen hla Rii standing silent watch over his slain master, the warrior Karkhor, composing the death song as he waited for dawn to come for him to retrieve Kharkor's corpse to Tsurr after a disastrous battle. This is a week of silent mourning when nothing new is undertaken and no downtime is to be undertaken even by barbarians.

And then, as Stillest Night ends, the next week brings the beginning of the Coreguyi Games! These are the great circuit of athletic and gladiatorial games, mostly held within the huge Coreguyi Arena in Cothon, which begin the solar-year cycle of the Tripartite Games. These Games will be held during the week ending 3 February this year, and more information will be provided for them then.

For player-characters interested in participating in the Long Wake, the scribes suggest these opportunities (these are suggestions; individuals may describe for themselves what they are paying for if they prefer otherwise):

Gold Spent	Public Mourning
25 dn	Pay for a great mess of pottage of beans and greens for the Poor Brothers
50 dn	Hire torchbearers for a procession to the Necropolis
100 dn	Pay for a Poor Brother's stint as a tomb-watcher for the month
250 dn	Dedicate a burial mask of a hero in silver or electrum to the Necropolis
500 dn	Hire gladiators for a private funeral games for the recent dead

Any player-character who spends at least 100 dinars will get +1 on reactions with the Poor Brothers of the Dead for the rest of the year. Spending 500+ dinars on ostentatious public mourning will extend this +1 on reactions to the Dual-Cities at large.

A Procession for a Princess

Some months ago, Iqtadar Sesel received a petition from the Mnor Klackons who make up a portion of the population of his iqta': in short, we demand a princess for ourselves, so that we may be fruitful and multiply--and if you do not, we will seize one!

Here are the arguments with which they put forth their petition, in short (not being the full presentation, but rumors of what was argued to Sesel):

• We are no longer outcasts and dregs barely surviving at the edge of society, but are now organized in the service of a Spire (i.e. Sesel's tower)

• We have provided good service to this Spire in helping to build its infrastructure and maintain its fields (however strange it is to eat the produce of the land, rather than eating the fungal fruits of the fruits of the land)

• We assist in the common defense of this Spire

• Yet we are left bereft, incapable of maintaining our population in service to this Spire! This injustice is injurious, both to ourselves and our lineage which is denied, as well as to the Spire itself, and to the City of which the Spire is only a part, like to a drone being part of the body politic of a Spire

• Therefore, we petition our Ersatz-Princess Sesel to acquire for us a true breeding princess, wherewith to begin replenishing our numbers and the health of our body politic

Hearing these arguments from the subjects dwelling on his iqta', Sesel ultimately ventured directly to the Attine Spire and requested an audience with the princess of the Fifth House (with whom he and others have had the most communication, during the affairs of the cleansing of the Sixth House).

Though many were aghast to hear of the possible intermixing of one of the blood of the Fifth House to intermix with Mnor outcasts, the translator Txach'achit warmed to Sesel's arguments for the mutual benefit of such an agreement and argued eloquently on behalf of his friend's request to his princess--and she, after much hedging and uncertainty, finally acquiesced to allow a junior cousin of her line to be taken by Sesel as a princess for his Mnor.

But not merely taken, of course--as is only proper, there must be a grand procession for such a union!

So, in order to effect this union, Sesel must organize the procession for his Mnor Klackons (and/or other subjects) to receive this princess into their company at the Attine Spire and then transmit her to his iqta', in a representation of a kind of faux-raptio (abduction), which the Attine Klackons observe as a ritual remembrance of their past as many separate spires having to abduct princesses from each other.

Sesel must, in addition to picking the date*:

1. Spend a minimum of 1000 dinars on trappings for this procession (and may earn xp equal to the gold spent above this minimum, to a max of 100 times his level)
2. Spend a minimum of 2500 dinars on a feast for the bride's reception to her new "Spire" (the iqta') (and may earn xp equal to the gold spent above this minimum, to a max of 100 times his level)
3. Describe the procession in a write-up to be posted to this chronicle. Necessary trappings are:
1. a suitable gift for the princess (300-1800 dinars would be suitable; if Sesel spends in excess of 1800, he may earn extra xp as above)
2. fungal lightbearers to lead the way
3. armed guards for the protection of the princess (pay a special wage for the procession, i.e. a full month's pay for mercenaries per the table from the book; pay humans as normal, but pay for any Klackons, e.g. the Mnor, as if they are Elves--and once again, any money spent here will earn Sesel xp up to 100 times his level)
4. optionally, if Sesel invites leveled friends, he may pay them as special guards at 100 gold per level, and earn xp equal to that for each one involved)

*a note on the date--it would be considered bad form in Cothon-Gadeed to pick the week ending 27 January for this procession, as that is the week of Stillest Night when it's evil luck to start anything new

The guards may seem at first blush to be ceremonial, and they certainly are--but let it be noted that they may also be necessary, as they once were. One mere fact is that a procession overland from the Spire to the iqta' has the chance of running into some dangerous beast from which the princess will need to be protected. More realistically, however, there are definitely interests against the union of a Fifth House princess to a colony of outcast Mnor. It may be that such ill feeling toward this union could instigate a counter-raptio, in which Klackons from the Spire would rush forth to attempt to seize the princess and return her to the Fifth House--a coup which would no doubt end any possibility of such a union being successful in the future.

So the guards may be necessary as they were in the old ritual, as insurance against a counter-raid against the procession. It's up to Sesel to determine how seriously he wishes to take this concern--and therefore how many guards to hire and how well to arm them.

This will be a downtime action taken by Sesel (or by Zaida if he can convince her with a 7+ on two dice). Anyone else involved does not need to spend a downtime to participate, as they're not really planning anything, just taking a day out for a procession and feast.

ديسمبر Saba' al Khair

 News

• The lunar new year has come and passed, and the current year is now Urodas-Bayzadis 2. Iqtadar Sesel has not been elected to any particular office, but may well be called up by the Souffets for extraordinary service, especially with the threat of the Red Cloud still hanging over the city
• Pursuant to Pako's election as censor of Fort Stormbreak, Pako has also been granted citizenship by the Souffets
• The Sakkra merchant Glarh arrived, heralding the renewal of merchants periodically appearing with wares for adventurers in the city, every few months or so. As for Glarh, he will be debarking from the city during the next week, so his remaining wares are only available until 6 January, after which Glarh will have departed for further shores
• Durham at the Ringing Anvil was commissioned to create a new enchanted item, a magical khopesh for Fa Mei, first mate of Najm ibn Marwan; this khopesh was forged of chromium, and it was deemed prudent by the Ringing Anvil to spread information about that metal for anyone else interested in seeing it enchanted
• Tales of the sunken city of Babilar were noised in the city after a seaborne adventure some months since. Najm was excited to seek this place out, as a maiden voyage for his new ship, the Rihha. He and a number of adventurers took ship on 28 December to go seek out the strange place, and still have yet to return from their venture.

Rumors

• There has been some kind of uproar at the Souffets' Court of the Moon. No details have filtered out of the palace, but some new report seems to have caused the furor. Perhaps more information will be available soon
• The Long Wake, a time of fasting and mourning in memory of those lost in the many Man-Kzin Wars, will begin next month; at the end of the month, the Coreguyi Games will be held in the arena at the culmination of the Long Wake (because of the intercalary period, the months of the lunar year have been pushed back approximately one month in comparison to our own calendar--I forgot to do this in the last year)
• There are reports that the Beyg of Ittiyqa has raised a private army of mercenaries with the intent to personally send them against the Red Cloud, in despite of the Souffets' apparent inaction
• Iqtadar Sesel is known to have appealed to the Attine Klackons in the Great Spire on behalf of the Mnor Klackons of his iqta'. There is no doubt something in the works regarding this action, which may merely be an opportunity for a festival, or perhaps moreover a chance for action ...

Items of Interest

• The Confraternity of 'Issa the Baptist is offering a bounty of 1000 dinars per shanu'u egg, or 3000 dinars per shanu'u fledgling on behalf of the Alkari of the coast (from Kir Sabaha). Shanu'u (gryphons) are known to roost in the high hills and mountainous territory over the Turma River to the southwest of Gadeed, especially over the Cataracts.
• Dindins are still plaguing the waters between Ittiyqa and Cothon and attacking fishermen and sponge/pearl divers there (see here for a former effort at hunting them). A more formal bounty has been placed upon them, claimable in any of three harbors, Ittiyqa, Cothon, or Baldashmun: 250 dinars per 3 dozen stone weight [don't be scared--this means 250 dinars per hit die, but we wanted to provide a diegetic number ~the Scribes]
• Per the inflammation of the Red Cloud's aggressions, a new bounty is being instated in Cothon: any detached head of a Kzin can earn one 200 dinars, while any live Kzin captive can earn one 500 dinars. Kzin lieutenants or captains would be worth at minimum twice such a bounty, but possibly far greater, depending on the importance of their position