From: Jo Walton <[REDACTED] at [kenjo.demon.co.uk]> Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc Subject: A cold coming we had of it - Everway Xmas Scenario Date: Fri, 22 Dec 95 17:46:52 GMT This is a Christmas present for anyone who wants it. I retain copyright and the right to be identified as the author. It is really just my notes written up into a slightly more coherent form. I've run it twice, and it was instructive to see how long it took people to realise what story they were in and what their role was. A COLD COMING WE HAD OF IT ========================== This is an Everway scenario for Christmas. You want a maximum of six players, and it requires a good improvisational ability from the GM. The players should create characters from vision cards as usual, with the comment that it doesn't matter what they're doing at the end of their story, and the worlds they come from don't need to have gates to Everway or anything. The GM should decide before starting play which god would call which player, and put that into the dream-sequence below. The basic plot is that it is time for a new covenant between the world of Arhanna and the gods. A miraculous child is about to be born, who will embody and enact the new covenant. Before she is born, the new covenant must be decided, and it will be symbolised by the gifts given to her. 1) A Dream. ========== "You see shadowy figures playing cards, sometimes softly exclaiming. It is hard to see how many of them there are. One by one they come clear as if a light shines on them as names are called and they each call a name and play a card. The names they name are your names." The best way to run this is to explain that the PCs are dreaming, and that they hear a deep voice calling names, and then to call the names sonorously, naming which god calls which PC, and showing the gods' cards. The Gods ======== (Don't give the PCs the information about the gods, just show the pictures.) SEYANNA - V 77 (wisdom & war strategy - air) ERITHREY - FGP 39(death and justice - earth) CALLANAN - V 57 (war, power and action - fire) THANGARRAH - Rarity Quest card (treachery, death, sex - water) MORLENDEN - V 76 (civilization, art - air) AVAYYA - FPG 18 (birth, love, fertility - earth and water) YORORRHEN - V 34 (hope, destiny, tipping the scales - fire) "Yororrhen does not play a card; as he is about to, you feel yourselves being tugged hard, and you find yourselves standing, fully dressed, in a pentagram." 2) But will they come when you do call on them? =============================================== The PCs find themselves in a pentagram in an evil wizard's study. With them are the wizard and his apprentice. The pentagram feels like resisting but solid walls to them - they can push through them with a great effort. Immedietely the apprentice (V 72) will begin interrogating them: "Where is the princess?" "When will she be born - answer, demons!" Naturally they won't know - but they will realise that they can sense a direction. One sees one hears one smells one tastes one feels one has a sixth sense The direction in which the Princess is. (The one who sees can see a tiny spot of light against their eyes, which remains in one place when they moves their head. Don't make it too much like a star, but don't make it too much unlike a star either.) The wizard's questions will give some information, and they will give more if pressed, about the covenant etc. If anyone steps out of the pentagram, they will attack. If they are persuaded that the party can lead them there but not give directions they will reluctantly allow them out, but attack at the first sign of trouble. 3) The Tower Struck by Lightning ================================ If there is a fight in the tower, the apprentice will use his staff - and if the staff falls and strikes the floor it will cause a gaping chasm to appear, cracking the tower and making flight a good idea. The wizard will cast balls of fire which on impact turn into pythons. People wrestling pythons at the edge of the chasm make a good touch, as does having the tower crash down just as the last person gets clear. The wizards can be killed by physical means. Anyone grasping the staff (which is one of the items of the covenant) will have dire special effects, such as hair turning white. 4) An old king on a carven throne ================================= Escaping the fall of the tower, the party should encounter a grand vizier. (I used a rather good Arabian Nights roofscape from the Time Life book _Magical Justice_ to show the palace). The vizier is frightened, but will give information and take them to the king. By this time they should have figured out that they are trying to find this princess. If not, the vizier should tell them the legend that one day a princess will be born and remake the world. Make it seem like their only way of getting home. The king will pretend to encourage them on their quest and offer them every assistance, gold, camels (or mammoths if camels are too obvious) but will send people after them to try and kill them and the child. The king has no children and is bitter and old. 5) Fear not, said he, for mighty dread ====================================== This part of the scanario deals with confronting other people, who are likely to be terrified by the party if they are at all odd looking. The party head off following their signs, defeating the half a dozen guards the king sends after them and encountering harmless people, children, shepherds etc. who will try and run away from them. The first time I ran this scanario this was a very brief crossing of the city, because they had taken so long in the palace. The second time they went up onto an icecap (on mammoths) and met people in ice- stations. 6) God doesn't play dice with the universe... ============================================= As they reach the place where the child will be born (possibly a humble stable if they have not yet realised what story they are in) they see a bright light and are again in the realm of the gods. This time the gods are staring at them, and Seyanna shuffles the fortune deck. "Will you play for the fate of the world?" she asks. She deals them two cards each, and the gods have the pack. The gods play a card in turn, interpreting it and demanding of a specific PC that they play. Then they interpret the PC's card, and say if it is "One to you" or "One to us". The GM should actually shuffle and deal the cards, and make the interpretations openly. You should interpret the cards in terms of what has happened on the adventure. For example: Morlenden plays The Hermit (reversed) meaning isolation. "You found yourselves alone in the world without help. Play." PC plays The Cockatrice (reversed) Recovery. Morlenden: "Yes, you managed well among the people and found friends" (assuming they did...) This is a terrific strain on the GM, but works spectacularly if done right. When they have three points, they should be asked if they will play on and risk losing it all or if they are ready to choose. When all cards are played they are asked to choose the new covenant - and shown a pile of things to chose from. They should in no circumstances choose more than five. The things are: a knife (fire: war, conflict) a cup (water: love, peace) a staff (air: law, justice) a coin (earth: prosperity, greed) a book (air: civilization, the arts) a flower (fire: magic, possibilities) a feather (air: communication, gates to other worlds) an apple (water: love, adventure) a crown (earth: strong rule, control) Again, don't tell them what the things symbolise until they have made their choices. Then explain the new covenant in terms of what has been chosen. When they have chosen, Seyanna takes the knife and stabs Yorrhorren through the heart. As its blood seals the covenant it is reborn as the princess. You can either play through the giving of gifts, or just have the PCs awake each in their separate worlds. -- Jo *********************************************************** - - I kissed a kif at Kefk - - *********************************************************** Storytelling Card Games from the Magellanica Company: Into the Dark Continent, Dragon's Cave, & Deserted Chapel Now available nationally, distributed by Esdevium Games