Session 7 Recap: Looting with Lorelai

And so the search for a new home continues! This session saw us finish off our inspection of the Sindar ruins and get a good start on the abandoned naval base, leaving only the old dwarven castle to explore next week before we have to make a decision.

As promised, the next floor of the Sindar ruins that we explored held two recurring characters, Killey and Lorelai, who were arguing over how to proceed. A trap door closed us in on the floor, with the only exit being the door where the two of them stood. There was a riddle on the door, which Sciath quickly dealt with, and Killey and Lorelai agreed to join us for the duration of the exploration. (Both Killey and Lorelai are noted treasure hunters and Sindar aficionados from the Suikoden games).

We hacked and slashed our way through some banshees, giant bats, and ghost armor as we headed deeper into the ruins. Royce was indispensable in getting through safely; his sharp eyes caught every trap, and his dragon flew us across a pit or two with ease (though Daisy and Harold both jumped the largest pit to show off, with Daisy flying clear over Harold’s head in a display in a rather silly show of machismo. I think Daisy and Harold will be good friends, don’t you?).

Finally, we reached the final chamber to find a very strange enemy waiting for us, guarding a chest…. Yes, it was a flaming goat, like the picture up there. Its main attack was using fire magic against us, so once Kuarjav blocked all magic with Silent Lake a few turns in, the poor creature couldn’t do much more than a headbutt. Luckily, Daisy is quickly becoming a murder machine beyond all reason, and her powerful attacks helped bring it down without too much bloodshed (though Kuarjav did almost kick the bucket, being weak to fire and all).

We were disappointed to find that the chest the goat guarded was empty, but not as much as Lorelai and Killey were. The latter took his leave of us then, pausing only to try and discourage Lorelai from her endless search (for what?) and to pay his respects to Daisy’s father Viktor. Lorelai, lured by the prospect of more ruins to be explored, agreed to officially join our party.

After a quick rest and check-in with the rebels, it was time to check out Potential Dream Home #2: the abandoned Harmonian naval base in the far north. A Harmonian woman named Lyn was waiting outside the main building, apparently considering whether or not to go inside. She told us that she was a reporter working on a story about the abandoned base, but there were too many monsters inside for her to explore safely. We offered to accompany her, and she gratefully accepted.

On the first floor, the main enemies we fought were gaggles of flying electric eels (because some of us have an odd imagination). Daisy killed one group with a massive shockwave attack, thanks to a critical attack with maximum damage. The first floor was all monsters and random treasure in chests: a water rune; ghosts who dropped a Sacrificial Buddha; a treasure hunter scarf for Sciath to go with her armor of the same type; more eels.

Next time, we will continue heading up the staircase to next level, where more treasures, monsters, and perhaps some Harmonian secrets await us. Don’t forget, we will be playing on MONDAY (1/8/12) next week! See you there!

The Head Bishops

The Five Head Bishops of Harmonia have ruled ever since Hikusaak has, for all intents and purposes, "withdrawn" from service. Though Hikusaak is technically the leader, he has not been seen in over two hundred years, despite public knowledge that he has a True Rune. The Five Head Bishops have been around for so long that no one in the country can remember a time when they have not ruled. So who are they and what is known about them? Let's review:

• Head Bishop Angelo: An old man with a double chin. Nothing is known about how he became a Head Bishop,what family he is a part of, or when he was born, and no public records are known to exist.
  

• Head Bishop Rudolf: An old man with long ears. Nothing is known about how he became a Head Bishop,what family he is a part of, or when he was born, and no public records are known to exist.

• Head Bishop Ivan: An old man with a long nose. Nothing is known about how he became a Head Bishop,what family he is a part of, or when he was born, and no public records are known to exist.

• Head Bishop Dominic: An old man with a large bald spot. Nothing is known about how he became a Head Bishop,what family he is a part of, or when he was born, and no public records are known to exist.

Interestingly, all four look otherwise very familiar, old wrinkled men who look as though they could die any moment. Alas, that is all we know. How quaintly mysterious. So who's the newest recruit, the last of the Head Bishops? He's a man we know a little more about.

• Head Bishop Rodin Relos: He became a Head Bishop only recently and is middle aged and in shape. Rodin Relos is from the famed Relos family, incredibly gifted sorcerers and strategists. Rodin's younger brother, Romulus, is the current head of the Soledt Academy (where Caesar was recruited). Rodin has been in the church for many years and he was a Priest General for some time, working with the military to conquer and subdue other nations. We know that he has a way of making enemies disappear, and is rivals with Kuarjav. Unlike the others, there are public records known, and information can be found out on him if the proper people are asked. We also know that he has been involved with the taking of the True Night Rune, an heirloom of Daisy. Harold will note that Relos is surely a man to be wary of.
  

Who's That? It's Viktor the Bear!

Viktor the Bear, father of Daisy, was born in the city of North Window of the Window City State (window is not a typo btw). A headstrong lad, he was performing some chores outside the city when the Vampire Neclord came and eliminated the entire city of North Window (thousands were killed). Viktor swore vengeance against Neclord, but being powerless and unable to find him, he went south to the Scarlet Moon Empire.

While training in the Scarlet Moon Empire, he met with Blue Lightning Flik, a leader of a growing rebellion movement against the stagnant and corrupt Scarlet Moon Empire. With his strong 2-H sword skills, straight-talking ways, and cunning mind, he quickly became a leader of the movement, being the fifth highest ranking leader. When the original leader died, it was he who helped the 2nd leader of the rebellion find its strategist and home-base. In addition, Viktor found the True Night Rune, a talking sword, and used it to gain vengeance by slaying Neclord. Viktor fought in every major battle of the war, constantly leading his units to victory over the two years of war. He was in the last assault group at the capital, but when the True Sovereign Rune was defeated, the castle collapsed and Viktor was thought to be lost...

Except he went back, along with his best friend Blue Lightning Flik, to his home country, raising a mercenary army for the powerful City-State of Muse, future capital of the Dunan Republic (country of Daisy, Harold), under the banner of a badly drawn bear. He was on the vanguard against the hordes of the Highland Empire, but lost several early fights, ending with Muse being conquered. Teaming up with the eventual hero of the Republic, the son of an old disgraced general, he again helped the leader find a tactician, a capital, provided solid advice, was constantly ragging on his foes, and was consistently a valuable ally. He also killed Neclord... again (it's a long story). After a year of war, the Highland Empire was no more, the Dunan Republic replaced the Five City-States, Viktor was a high ranking general and he had a kid.

Giving up his True Night Rune Sword, he and Flik would occasionally wander to fight the good fight, though their daughters ensured that they stayed close to the Dunan Republic. Viktor has always been relied upon as a most valuable ally in times of need, who laughs at danger, drinks quite heavily and is always willing to give the good fight. Viktor may have slight anger issues, but he is as true a friend as you will ever find in the Suikoden World.

True Runes

As told in the Origin Story of Suikoden True Runes originate from the original two runes that created the universe. In addition, all other runes are derivative, weaker versions of True Runes, and all True Runes are supposed to rule or represent an aspect of the world. There are also some that allow creatures from other dimensions exist in our world (i.e. Dragons and Demons).

True Runes have personalities: they can be cruel or scared; fiercely loyal to their owners or willing to abandon them as soon as a better user appears; servants or masters; constantly trying to appear or trying to hide - but they are never morally good or evil. They simply pursues their own goals, whatever those may be, being a true representation of their nature.

A simple rule of thumb when dealing with a True Rune is this: you deal with a minor god, who could, at any moment, destroy your insignificant life in a flash. A partial listing of True Runes is as follows:

• True Unity Rune: AKA the one we all have.
  

• True Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Lightning: They rule their elements and...yeah pretty self-explanatory

• True Beast Rune: The main villain rune of Suikoden 2, it desires to create giant beasts (created from the blood of innocents) for its own uses

• True Rune of the Beginning: Aka Sword and Shield from the original legend. The two always are opposed against each other...or so they think.

• True Moon Rune: Allows Vampires.
  

• True Rune of Change: Owned by the Sindar Leader. No details known.

• True Dragon Rune: Allows the existence of Dragons, and owned by the leader of the Dragon Country that Phil is apart of. If destroyed, all dragons would die.
  

• True Hachifusa (Eight Fold) Rune: Unknown powers, allows summoning of monsters, can't be killed, massive powers.

• True Gate Rune: Allows gates to be opened to other dimensions. Used usually to make monsters appear and disappear.

• True Rune of Life and Death: A.K.A. Souleater, it allows the user to eat other people's souls.

• True Night Rune: Currently in the form of a sword. Used to be owned by Viktor, Daisy's father; now owned by Harmonia.

• True Rune of Punishment: Representing Punishment and Forgiveness, gives massive power at the cost of the user's life energy.

• True Sovereign Rune: Villain Rune of Suikoden 1, representing absolute rule.

• True Sun Rune: Owned by Falena, not to be seen in this game

The Sindar

The Sindar are the supposedly extinct race of the world of Suikoden. They existed long before Harmonia, the great Empire that all calendars are based on in Suikoden. Mighty and mysterious, there are many who spend all their lives trying to discover the Sindar secrets...and dying.

So what do we know about them? Well, according to one fan-site:
"[The Sindar are] a group of people known to have been technologically advanced and knowledgeable in runes. Notable Sindars, such as the engineer Dennis Tauer and Bora Atkins created the discipline of alchemy, which led to other technical disciplines such as blacksmithing, trickmastery, and gun-power manufacturing. The Sindars are cursed by the Rune of Change [owned by their leader], forcing them to move from place to place. They are commonly believed to have disappeared without a trace, but some say they have found their "Eternal City."

So let's review: yes, their famous leaders include a guy named Dennis. At least it's not Marvin. Anyways, the Sindar ruled for an unknown time, teaching man much of their technology and likely the various rune-inscribing techniques used by Rune-Masters today. They went south, south of Harmonia, but left behind ruins all over the continent Suikoden 6 (our game) takes place on. In the continent we're on, ruins are typically stone-based, often temples of good size for different and usually unknown purposes.

In Suikoden 2, a ruin was found to grow some extremely rare herbs that gave life. In Suikoden 3, they served as a center-point to a magical ritual. In Suikoden 1 and 4, the Sindar forgot to show up. In Suikoden 5, they are said to be the ancestors of the Queen herself (this taking place in a different continent btw!), and a large castle was found in the middle of a lake...along with advanced sluice gates to control the lake's water levels. There was also another religious temple, this time in the shape and form on a very similar Egyptian pyramid, this being made for unknown purposes and being the exception to the more medieval stone-type architecture we've seen. Still, all ruins are guarded by tough monsters and bosses, possibly left behind to protect their legacy.

No Sindar people have been seen in the game. Still, the Sindar were expert architects, wizards and craftsmen - any headquarters build by the Sindar can be considered safe. But also quite dangerous...

Dwarves

Dwarves are a bit of an oddball race in the Suikoden World. They are some of the most cliche things you'll find in any fantasy world... and yet can be very cruel and conniving. There are some consistent facts about Dwarves in the Suikoden World: they have a small population relative to humans, tend to stick to societies based in mountains, live in caves, stand about half the size of men, the males always have beards, they are always good diggers, they don't like Elves and they are generally left alone by most people/races.

But there are two distinct versions of Dwarves in Suikoden. They are as follows:

Suikoden 1: In Suikoden 1 Dwarves live near in the Mountains away from the neighboring countries, content to be in a type of cold war with the Elves of the Great Forest. The two sides have been anxious to fight each other, but have not actually fought in years. Then a General of the Scarlet Moon Empire comes and seeks domination, first by defeating the more willful and resistant Elves (this, after defeating the Kobold tribes of the Eastern Forest). The Elves and the General fought many battles, but the Dwarves did nothing to aid either side.

This was a grave matter for the Elves. Despite their animosity, the Dwarves likely had the strongest army in the region. For the Dwarves of the Scarlet Moon Empire were wizards of technology, inventing Windmills, coal factories, elevators, robots, and, their most powerful, the Burning Mirror, a giant laser capable of destroying an entire forest. Eventually, the Scarlet Moon Empire "stole" the Burning Mirror, and used it to, that's right, burn the entire forest down, committing genocide on the Elves (if you're wondering, yes you need to recruit that General).

The word "stole" is in quotations, because many people, like this one and myself, believe the dwarves let the Elves die by allowing the mirror to destroy the Elves. Only after the Elves died did the Dwarves use another "secret" weapon to aid the rebellion and destroy the burning mirror. In the end, the Dwarves of the Scarlet Moon are powerful, technological magicians who prefer letting others do the dirty work. In the game, everyone else who joins your rebellion aids you directly - the dwarves do not. If a dwarf was like this, one should certainly be wary of making such a friend.

Yet, in all the other Suikoden Games Dwarves appear (III, IV and V) Dwarves have lost their side of playing in the shadows, their gray color. They are almost always cheerful but stupid, great miners and that's it, wanting to be alone but willing to help out. They play no role in Suikoden II, cameo in III and IV (with just a single miner dwarf) and in V only help when the bad guy of the game tries to kill them all because he's a xenophobic villain (noticing a theme with Suikoden?). Dwarves in these games only use axes or pick-axes, and display none of the cunning displayed in Suikoden 1.

Now these Dwarves live in other regions, other continents, so it's not far-fetched to simply say that the Scarlet Moon Dwarves evolved into something much more geared towards trickery and innovation. But the games do not state why, leaving us to speculate. It's for this reason that Harold, having seen both types before, is cautious about trusting the Dwarves. For if they be like the Scarlet Moon...

Session 6 Recap: Roughin' up Relos

Picking up right where the last session left off, the party marched off to the Academy to find Caesar’s precious book. We got into the library without incident used Caesar’s key on the locked door at the back to find a secret staircase leading downwards. It led us to a network of underground passages full of monsters and possessed floating books and, weirdly enough, a small zoo of sorts. There were many cages of varying size with exotic labels like “zebra,” but the only animals we found were a bunch of rabbits and a lone giraffe. The rest of the cages were deserted with no sign of where the animals had been taken. We debated releasing the caged animals, either as a distraction or just on principle, but ultimately decided to leave them where they were for now since they looked healthy enough.

Our explorations deeper and deeper underground led us to a secret second library, where we found Caesar’s Old Book Vol. 6 (Intro to Warfare by Leon Silverberg, autographed). Mildly concerned that our future chief strategist was seeking a book called “intro to warfare,” albeit one written by a Silverberg, we nevertheless secured the book and took a secret shortcut that Royce found back up to the main library.

In a stroke of luck, we noticed before barging blindly into the upper library that it was now occupied by two old men speaking in conspiratorial tones. One of them was none other than Rodin Relos, a member of the Harmonian Order of God and the man who had thrown Kuarjav in prison thirty years before. Relos addressed the other man as his brother. We eavesdropped on them for a while and heard some things that we (or at least Daisy) couldn’t fully understand about recruiting people and getting rid of others who didn’t conform, possibly referring to students at the Academy. What piqued Daisy’s interest, however, was mention of the Star Dragon Sword. Relos said that a man had been captured in Harmonia carrying the sword, which contains the Night Rune, one of the 27 True Runes. This sword previously belonged to Victor, Daisy’s father, and one of Daisy’s many goals in life is to reclaim that powerful sword for herself. Unfortunately, Relos did not give any clue as to where the man or his precious sword were being held.

Once the team decided that we had eavesdropped long enough, it was time to make our exit. While most of us snuck quietly towards the door out of the library, Harold threw a potch against a far wall and booked it out through the stacks. Relos had locked the library door behind him, but Caesar’s key still worked and we all made it out of the Academy before Relos caught up to us. We ordered the NPCs to run to the inn to find Caesar while the PCs stood and fought the powerful mage. Harold tried to stall Relos with nonsensical talk, but that didn’t last long. Relos’ first spell was almost enough to wipe us out by itself, but through a combination of healing medicines, Harold’s wonderful spell to raise DB, and Kuarjav cancelling all magic immediately after Harold’s magic was cast, we managed to best the Harmonian villain. Relos retreated into the Academy for reinforcements while the rest of us fled. The party met up with Caesar and the others outside of town, and we beat a hasty dragonback retreat.

Once more at the Liberation Army headquarters in Belhurst, we consulted our brand new strategist as to how we should proceed. Caesar stated in no uncertain terms that it was high time we had a solid, permanent, defensible base to call our own, and presented us with three options, a Suikoden first. One possible base used to be a dwarven castle up in the mountains and now stands abandoned. It’s difficult to reach for Harmonia, surrounded by dwarves who hate Harmonia and treacherous mountain paths, and our dragonback travel would allow us to come and go unhindered. Option two is an old Sindar ruin that sits on an island in the middle of one of the largest and busiest rivers in Harmonia. The river connects the Crystal Valley itself to at least four other major Harmonian cities, so while Harmonian ships could reach the base easily enough, so could we sail into the country’s very heart if we had a navy of our own. Plus, Sindar ruins are always cool. Finally, option three is an abandoned Harmonian naval base in the far north, built into the very rock. With defensible cliffs and an abandoned port just waiting to be filled with a revel fleet, this base would make as fine a headquarters as all the rest.

Unable to reach consensus, we decided that the best course of action would be to explore each of the three possible bases in turn to see for ourselves how suitable they would be. We flew to the Sindar ruins first and started hacking our way in past the monsters who had necessarily taken up residence there. The team got all the way to level 3 of the ruins, but just as we were about to meet a new recurring character, we decided to call it a night. Our adventures in the Sindar ruins will continue after the New Year. Happy Holidays, everyone!