Sneak Peek: Reflecting Genre
9 months ago
– Sun, May 19, 2024 at 06:11:39 AM
Hello Outlanders,
First up, before we get to today's sneak peek, let's celebrate! We've flipped another Stretch Goal target from red to green!
ACHIEVED! -At $46,000 in Funding – AT THE GATES SHIRT ON REDBUBBLE – An At The Gates-themed Backer shirt will be hosted on Onyx Path’s Redbubble store for a limited time. Only backers will be notified when the shirt becomes available for purchase.
Next up, some fun tools for online game play.
At $48,000 in Funding – AT THE GATES VTT TOKEN PACK – Digital assets will be created to support online play for At The Gates, including key character and creature tokens from the book. This online asset pack will be added to the rewards list of all backers.
Hopefully we'll unlock this goal over the next week! Things do slow down during the middle weeks of a campaign, so please continue to spread the word and let's recruit new backers to our cause and see if we can continue to move forward on these achievements!
I've got another preview for you today, this time take from Chapter 7, which is full of Storyguide advice and guidance. As noted, Backers will have full access to the draft version of the manuscript for this chapter as well as Chapter 5 on Tuesday, and will be able to read the entire book before the campaign ends - before any pledges are processed or payments collected. So let your friends know they can join in at the $5 or $25 tier right now and read the book as we go along and bail out before the end if the game is not to their liking. I think they'll stick around, though - this game is awesome.
Genre Influences
At the Gates draws proudly on the genres of epic fantasy, political fantasy, and especially the space where they overlap in JRPGs like Final Fantasy and Fire Emblem.
Political fantasy ranges from the dark and violent Song of Ice and Fire to equally dramatic but less bleak fare. At the Gates veers toward the more hopeful side of the genre, like the flash and drama of the Gentleman Bastards series. Young Adult fantasy series, with a fundamentally hopeful outcome, are useful reference points, as are comics like Monstress that adeptly blend the political with the magical.
While Final Fantasy and Fire Emblem are the bedrock of At the Gates inspiration, it also draws on other high magic JRPGs like the Tales series and The Last Remnant. Spren from The Stormlight Archive is a good touchpoint for Everend’s daemons. Octopath Traveller and other games informed At the Gates’ magic.
In truth almost any piece of media that pictures a world of tension and epic fantasy are great resources for At the Gates.
Reflecting Genre
Taking inspiration from these genres, in any media, is a strong foundation for At the Gates stories and characters.
Politics and Intrigue
Politics without intrigue and deception is just a meeting. Wars, treaties, the enforcement and breaking of agreements, and of course personal greed all feature strongly in the genres At the Gates draws from. In roleplaying games, politics gets interesting when it’s personal. Some of the greatest villains of our genres co-opt power structures for their own selfish, sinister, often cataclysmic ends (Seymour in Final Fantasy X being a prime example). They abuse the characters’ trust, turn them into tools (looking at you, Sephiroth) and betray them. Those betrayals cut far deeper than any act of war and they make arch-villains one of the most memorable parts of a story. These genres also give a Storyguide permission to make villains enticing, attractive, and seductive; if the heroes aren’t a little in love with their nemesis, can they really feel the right intensity of hate?
Betrayal isn’t the only way to confound expectations. Unexpected allies are a pleasant surprise. Final Fantasy games make heavy use of mind control for this — for example, Sorceress Edea’s story in Final Fantasy VIII. Any story element gets old when it’s overused, and mind control’s so famous it’s almost a cliché, but you can villain-code any character by giving them an abrasive personality and incredible style. Less flippantly, when the players discover an apparent villain has a relatable motivation, for example saving a loved one, and the group wins them over by solving their problem, the reformed villain becomes an emotionally significant ally.
Fire Emblem, along with the fantasy novels listed in “A Treasury of Inspiration” treat political intrigue as a contest of equals. There may or may not be an evil faction, but there’s rarely an entirely good one. That’s the model
At the Gates uses. There aren’t goodies or baddies, but several factions for whom meeting their own needs requires trampling on someone else’s. That’s helpful for a Storyguide, as it creates far more interesting conflicts than a simplistic model of good versus evil.
Exploration and Travel
A key part of saving the world — and the stakes are always to save the world — is seeing the world. The Zelda games are a masterclass in exploration, presenting different biomes and landscapes, each with their own unique experiences for the players. And experiences are key.
Oh, and airships. Airships, winged steeds, and other inherently magical forms of transport are never a bad addition to a story. Airships, flying castles, and other passenger transports double as a home base for characters, which gives them a chance to defend, rather than attack, changing up gameplay in the process.
Translating Tropes
There are also some genre tropes that simply don’t translate well to tabletop roleplaying. Teenaged protagonists are one of them. In a novel or video game, an author or designer can protect teenagers from anything uncomfortable. It’s harder to achieve that in a tabletop roleplaying game, even with a robust and well-implemented set of safety tools — especially when the source material cheerfully sends sixteen-year-olds, and often younger characters, into mortal and spiritual peril. Plus, players simply may not want to play teenagers. Opening games up to a wider range of character ages is an important tool for player comfort — and who doesn’t love a world-weary mentor, parental stand-in, or hero coming out of retirement?
Slow, incremental levelling and resource gathering also falls flat in roleplaying games. Every Final Fantasy player has survived hundreds of hours of grinding, slaying the same monsters again and again for XP and crafting components. It’s an achievement, and it’s fun in a patient, low-key way. In a similar vein, fights where each side stand opposite one another in the middle of an empty battlefield don’t give players much opportunity to use all their skills or add flair to their roleplaying. In a game where fights take much longer and a group plays for just a few hours a week (or month, for some groups), combat must be memorable, exciting, and dynamic. Like boss battles.
Video game boss battles use exciting environments, unexpected power sets (and transformations), and high stakes to make fights breath taking, edge of the seat, affairs. Not every fight should be as epic, or as lengthy, as a boss fight, but they should all have something that makes them memorable. An interesting arena, where characters must think tactically to make the most of the environment; interesting effects to change up play (enemies that steal trivial bits of equipment can get really annoying); consequences such as ticking clocks or people to rescue; or a foe the characters love to hate. There is, however, a lot of value in re-using the same types of foes, as long as they’re interesting. Once characters have refined their tactics to beat them consistently you can simply mention that, for example, the characters encountered a group of Osseous Warriors on their journey and easily defeated them.
The single most important lesson to learn from the many works and genres that inspired At the Gates is this: go bigger. Then even bigger. Everything in your At the Gates game should be lovingly detailed and over the top. Character design, the descriptions of mighty sword blows and powerful magics, elemental disasters, and grand speeches are now your stock in trade. Go forth and tell vast, sweeping, epic stories.
OK, we'll have our next draft manuscript download on Tuesday, covering a lot of the rules and Storyguide bits for the game. That said, I know we're always keen for the next bit after, and in this case, it's all about the Arts and Pillars of Magic.
I'll have a sneak peek coming your way on Thursday and we'll take a look at two of the Arts from the book. As we did with our first sneak peeks, we're going to turn this into a popularity contest! While we'll get all of the information when the draft manuscript comes our way in a few weeks, let's figure out which Art we're most excited to learn about and I'll have a peek at the top two answers.
Arts
Martial practices rise among warrior-cultures all across Gaia. Scholars of fighting styles and martial history call these methods Arts. Some Arts are passed from master to student across centuries of refinement and study, while others are reflections of individual skill, honed by a singular warrior’s unique style. Though they derive from her character’s profession Path, a player purchasing these Arts chooses how her character knows them.
The Art of Succor (Diviner)
The Art of Succor utilizes Empathy, Medicine, and Persuasion. Attacks boosted by the Art of Succor may use any of these Skills in place of Close Combat, Esoterica, or Ranged Combat.
The Art of Motion (Harrier)
Motion Arts utilize Athletics, Enigmas, and Larceny. Attacks boosted by the Art of Motion may use any of these Abilities in place of Close Combat, Esoterica, or Ranged Combat. The Art of Motion allows a harrier to make magical attacks with a close combat weapon rather than a focus.
The Art of Control (Mage)
Control Arts utilize Esoterica, Science, and Technology. Attacks boosted by the Art of Control may use any of these Abilities in place of Close Combat, Esoterica, or Ranged Combat.
The Art of Command (Warlord)
Command Arts utilize Close Combat, Leadership, and Pilot. The Art of Command allows a warlord to make magical attacks with a close combat weapon rather than a focus.
The Art of Might (Warrior)
Might Arts utilize Close Combat, Ranged Combat, and Athletics. The Art of Might allows a warrior to make magical attacks with a close or ranged combat weapon rather than a focus.
Let's vote and I'll share a sneak peek for the top two results on Thursday. I should also note that there are Advanced Arts like the Killing Art for Assassins and the Tactical Art for Tacticians, but we'll learn about those when we get the full chapter on May 28th!
Sneak Peek: Basic System, Advantage, Attributes
9 months ago
– Fri, May 17, 2024 at 06:04:03 AM
Hello Outlanders,
Many of us have seen the Storypath system arrive and evolve over the past several years, and have become pretty familiar with the basics of how the mechanics work and how characters interact with the game.
But not all of us. For some, Onyx Path isn't introducing just a brand new game but also a new system that may be a little different than what they've experienced before. Or, some may be familiar with earlier iterations of Storypath from Scion Second Edition or the Trinity Continuum line but not familiar with some of the differences with Storypath Ultra, the latest version of the rules.
On Tuesday, backers will have access to Chapters 5 and 7 which are the rules-focused chapters in the book, explaining the Storypath Ultra system and how to play the game as well as everything you need to know to run the game for your friends.
Today we'll get a little sneak peek from Chapter 5. Much of this may be familiar to many of you, but for some this is just your first bit digging into the "game" part of the "roleplaying game."
Playing the Game
The core assumption in At the Gates is that your characters are competent at basic tasks. The only reason to pick up the dice and roll is when the result of their actions carry uncertainty, and failure might push the story in a new or different direction.
Any time the outcome of an action is variable, could result in a consequence for failure, or performing the action successfully could set off a chain reaction of unintended consequences, then the player rolls dice to help determine the outcome of the action. This means players should not be rolling dice for everything their character wants to do, especially if the results of the action are uninteresting, or if the failure simply results in the character retrying the action. Instead, consider if there’s something fun that could result from the action being performed poorly or improperly. If you’re ever uncertain about an action’s results, roll the dice.
Rolling the Dice
Storypath requires the use of multiple 10-sided dice (d10). Whenever a character is taking an action that comes with risks, the player forms a dice pool for their action using a Skill and an Attribute. Usually, the Storyguide, the person running the game, tells the player which Skill and Attribute to use after the player describes the action she wants her character to take, but the player may also suggest a Skill and Attribute combination that she feels is appropriate. Players roll dice against a difficulty set by the Storyguide, and must accrue hits equal to or greater than the difficulty for their character to accomplish the action.
The player collects a number of d10s equal to the number of dots she has in her Skill plus her Attribute combined and rolls. Each die that meets or exceeds the target number of 8 is considered a hit. Any die showing a 10 is considered a double hit, which means the die counts as two hits instead of just one. Special abilities may grant double 9s, which conveys the double hit ability to dice showing 9s as well as 10s.
When rolling for actions, players have access to a special mechanic called Enhancement; which are additional hits that are used in the same way as hits from rolling dice. If the result of the die roll comes up with at least one die at the target number or above, the player can apply her Enhancement to the roll as additional hits.
If the player accumulates hits equal to or greater than the difficulty, the character takes the action as described by the player. This is considered a successful result. Afterward, the player may choose to spend extra hits to purchase Tricks, which allow the character to do more with her action than originally intended, such as take an extra action or gain a benefit.
Some actions come with Complications applied, which create unintended consequences of succeeding in the action. When the player nets enough hits to overcome the difficulty, but there are Complications applied, this is a success with consequences. When an action has a Complication, the Complication is noted in parentheses next to the difficulty. (Ex. Bribing a caravan guard is difficulty 1(2) because it has a Moderate +2 Complication.) The Complication’s number does not factor into the ability for the character to take the action, only to avoid the consequences of succeeding in the action. If the player succeeds and buys off any Complications, then that is considered an extraordinary success.
A player may choose to accept the consequences of a Complication and instead spend her additional hits to purchase Tricks if she so wishes. If she has enough hits, she may choose to buy off the Complication and purchase one or more Tricks that would apply to the action.
Rolling Breakdown
Roll d10s equal to Skill + Attribute
Count all dice showing an 8 or above as a hit. 10s count as 2 hits
If any dice show hits, add Enhancement
Use hits to overcome the difficulty of the action as set by the Storyguide
Roll Results
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Disaster; the player does not garner enough hits to overcome the difficulty, but chooses to allow any Complications to occur anyway. (Gain 2 Momentum.)
-
Failure; the player does not garner enough hits to overcome the difficulty. Complications do not occur.
-
Success; the player accumulates a number of hits equal to or greater than the difficulty and may purchase Tricks with remaining hits.
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Success with consequence; the player suffers consequence for any Complications on the action. Players may avoid unintended consequences by using leftover hits to buy off Complications. Players may also purchase Tricks instead of buying off Complications.
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Extraordinary success; the player buys off any Complications, and may purchase Tricks to make their action better.
Failure and Disaster
If the player fails to meet the difficulty of the challenge with her hits, then she fails at her action. If she nets zero hits on her roll, then the action is considered an automatic failure, and Enhancement is not applied to the action. If the action carries a Complication, the player may choose to turn any failure into a disaster by allowing the Complication to proceed, even though the action is not successful.
Failure on an action does not imply that the character failed to act, but that his attempt was unsuccessful in some way. He might miss his mark, say the wrong thing to a guard, or get spotted by a struther while sneaking around a nest.
The result of a failure should always push the story forward and may even include the character succeeding in her attempt, but creating a larger issue in doing so. Failure should always be interesting and introduce a new story element or change the story’s direction based on the character’s attempted action.
On a failure, the player gains a point of Momentum, which goes into a group pool for any player to use in the future. On disaster, the player gains two points of Momentum.
Momentum
Momentum is a shared resource pool that any player may spend from to gain a variety of benefits. Each game session begins with Momentum points equal to the number of players around the table, regardless of how many Momentum points were available at the end of the previous session. More Momentum is added to the pool by players rolling failures and disasters, using the Bolster Trick, as well as via specific Arts.
Momentum can be used in the following ways:
- Add an Enhancement hit to an action on a one for one basis. Spend Momentum after the dice have been rolled, and only if the dice roll has at least one hit (as per normal for Enhancement). Normal restrictions for Enhancement apply.
- Spend 2 Momentum points to change a failure into a success or a success with consequence, if a Complication is present. If you choose this use, you cannot spend more Momentum points for Enhancement for Tricks or to turn the action into an extraordinary success. Other sources of Enhancement apply normally.
- Spend one point of Momentum to describe a story element in a scene that is now a fact. For example, the player may decide the strange goat-man is a long-lost Caparan uncle, or that the rogue summoner is actually a member of an underground movement to overturn the Vitrumarian president. This is subject to Storyguide approval.
- Spend 1 Momentum point to gain a piece of evidence about an investigation.
- Certain Arts require Momentum expenditure to activate. Arts also have special rules that track how much Momentum is in the pool. To learn more about Arts, see p. XX.
Advantage
Sometimes, characters in At the Gates are so incredibly different in certain aspects, that they are beyond normal comparisons. Instead of simply using the base system for taking actions when dealing with these situations, we turn to Advantage to describe it.
Advantage is a comparison tool that determines if one character has… well, a major advantage over another in a certain arena. It’s only relevant when two characters are in opposition to one another, or a character is in opposition to a noteworthy force. Advantage is numbered, but those numbers represent a level of difference and nothing more. Characters have no Advantage over others unless a specific power or ability says they do. Some abilities that give Advantage stack with one another, but that will always be spelled out — otherwise, if multiple possible Advantages apply, the player or Storyguide picks the best or more appropriate one.
Characters can gain Advantage in different arenas, and their Advantage applies only to actions within that arena. The arenas are Durability, Intellect, Power, Social, and Speed. Most Advantage types are direct comparisons, such as two characters with a Social Advantage will compare that Advantage to one another. In the case of Durability, a character with a Durability Advantage is simply harder to attack (Durability Enhancement applies directly to their Defense) and requires Power Advantage to overcome.
Characters with Advantage tally up their total Advantage and compare it to each other and use the results below when taking an action against that character:
- Gain +2 Enhancement for every point of Advantage a character has over the other.
- Suffer +1 difficulty for every point of Advantage a character has under the other.
- In an opposed action, the character with higher Advantage gains the difference in Advantage as Enhancement on their action, but the character with lower Advantage does not suffer a difficulty increase.
- If the difference in Advantage is three or more, neither character rolls, and the character with higher Advantage automatically succeeds. This success is always phenomenal, meaning that an attack deals damage and the attacking character can purchase any Tricks they want.
Enhancement from Advantage breaks the normal Enhancement rules for both stacking and the maximum Enhancement bonus on a single action.
Some non-character set pieces in a scene might also gain Advantage for the purposes of comparison. For example, a character may attempt to shoot an airship out of the sky, or race against a rolling bolder. While the airship and the bolder are both inanimate objects and do not roll dice, they may have Advantage. The character acting against them must compare Advantage and either gain Enhancement or suffer difficulty on the action. These special case Advantages are assigned by the mechanics that create them, such as area effects or special abilities.
Example: Yvette is attempting to parlay with the Orydonian congress, which collectively has a 2 Social Advantage. Yvette has a special ability that gives her +1 Social Advantage when making a speech, so comparatively, the council has a net 1 Social Advantage above her. Yvette’s persuasion action is made normally, but the Storyguide adds +2 Enhancement to the council’s Integrity action to resist it.
Attributes
Attributes reflect a character’s inherent capabilities. While Skills represent her learned abilities, Attributes represent mental and physical training. Attributes fall into three different Arenas: Mental, Physical, and Social. Within each arena are three different Attributes that make up the character’s composite abilities.
The Mental Arena’s Attributes are the genius of Intellect, the quick-wittedness of Cunning, and the discipline and attention to detail of Resolve.
The Attributes of the Physical Arena are the brute strength and speed of Might, the deftness of Dexterity, and the vital toughness of Stamina.
The Social Arena is divided between the charisma of Presence, the subtle graces of Manipulation, and the cool and collected nature of Composure.
Mental
Mental Attributes represent cognitive functions, and anything done by sheer power of thought, deductive reason, leaps of logic, mental fortitude, intuition, acts of concentration, and willpower in the face of adversity.
Intellect: Intellect covers a character’s raw computing power. It is used for deduction, problem solving, and processing information.
Use Intellect when trying to recall specific facts, calculate the trajectory of an object, determine how to fix a broken machine, understand an ancient script, or find a safe place to sleep at night.
Cunning: Cunning covers mental tasks that require speed over power.
Use Cunning when trying to notice something hidden, understand a political situation, solve a riddle or puzzle, apply emergency medical care, or get away from pursuers in a chase.
Resolve: Resolve measures a character’s strength of will and resistance to trickery or mental pressure.
Use Resolve when trying to study evidence, search archives, move silently, follow tracks, resist persuasion, understand scientific theories, or stay focused under pressure.
Physical
Physical Attributes cover the control the character has over her body and its interactions with the environment. Feats of strength, coordination, and resistance to illness and injury are reflected in these Attributes.
Might: Might is raw physical power and brute strength.
Use Might when trying to forge a sword, lift or throw heavy objects, intimidate, punch someone with your fist, swing a sword, or climb walls.
Dexterity: Dexterity covers motor control, fine movements, and hand-eye coordination.
Use Dexterity when trying to jump over a chasm, pick a lock, dance, walk over treacherous ground, maintain balance, shoot a bow, build a delicate machine, or impress people with physicality.
Stamina: Stamina covers how well a character can resist physical threats, and endure physical pain, injury, and illness.
Use Stamina when trying to run long distances, continue in a fight despite injury, recover faster, meditate, or resist diseases or poison.
Social
Social Attributes gauge a character’s ability to interact with others. This covers both positive and negative social interactions and how handily a character can interact with and sway others.
Presence: Presence measures a character’s ability to convince other people.
Use Presence when trying to give orders, influence another person, give a speech, interrogate a prisoner, sing, act, or train an animal.
Manipulation: Manipulation measures a character’s ability to fine tune their social skills and to analyze social cues. The “hard sell” requires a high Presence. Intricate trickery requires Manipulation.
Use Manipulation when trying to manage people, lie convincingly, perform sleight of hand, notice social cues, or seduce someone.
Composure: Composure measures a character’s ability to resist social manipulation. It measures a character’s ability to remain calm when being interrogated by the town guard or make sure that negotiations go their way.
Use Composure when trying to resist manipulation, stay firm under pressure, remain calm during an emergency, cut through guild bureaucracy, or notice deception.
Again, these are just snippets from the rules, and Chapter 5 will outline the entire system, explaining Enhancements and Complications and so many more tools to make this game exciting and challenging! I'm a big fan of Storypath Ultra's bit on Advantage, and feel it's a solid implementation of rules that have been hotly debated in years past.
On Sunday, we'll get another sneak peek, this time from the Storyguide Chapter digging into how to reflect various aspects of the genre in your games, from politics and intrigue to exploring and travel.
I know how excited we are to get to Chapter 6, which is full of all the magic bits in the book... and we'll get there. But first, we'll get Chapters 5 and 7 in our next backer manuscript section on Tuesday. As mentioned, this will cover the rules and Storyguiding advice, but it will also include... the
Fishing Minigame! So, you won't want to skip past it!
(I love that there's a fishing minigame. That's so perfect)
Have a great weekend, please continue to spread the word, and I'll be back with our next sneak peek update on Sunday!
#AtTheGates
Fire Rain Part 2
9 months ago
– Thu, May 16, 2024 at 07:54:31 AM
The ride to Marr’s Torpor took three days, which the Night Hunters took at ease following a caravan most of the way. The caravan was pleased to have them nearby, though it wasn’t like they were in any danger of bandits this far into Talpidium’s interior. They parted ways with the caravan several kilometers from the ancient volcano. Falconer pulled out a map, checking it against the surroundings.
“There are mine shafts four kilometers from here, half of that down the Old Talpi road, past the Twin Magi, and in a little abandoned hamlet called,” he chuckled, shaking his head and making his leporine ears flop around. “Marr’s Shadow.”
“That’s not ominous at all,” Skylar said, her over large ears in constant movement, listening to sounds only she could hear without magical aid. “Anyone else have a bad feeling about this?”
“You have a bad feeling about every mission,” Lucien said with a laugh.
“As well I should. Every mission is ten seconds away from utter disaster,” Skylar said.
“But you’d be there to patch us up if it does, won’t you Corporal?” Falconer asked, smiling wide.
The banter continued as they marched their way up the Old Talpi Road. While they met no one, the signs of recent passage were clear. The main road ended at the Twin Magi, the two statues all that remained of Rastra and Volyn Evergold who protected the residents of Old Talpi with their dome of pure energy. Every Talpidian knows the story, but Cassanda’s parents were there when Zerahad happened. They told her harrowing tales of watching as the mage twins conjured the magical dome that protected them from the hot gasses and lava from the erupting Marr’s Torpor. They burned their souls to do such powerful magic, and now their petrified remains stood as a bleak reminder of that day.
Cassandra squatted at the feet of Volyn, looking over the offerings of coins and gifts left at her feet. The most plentiful of these being roses carved from the obsidian hewn from the lava floes. They glittered in the sunlight the same blue-black as her skin. She pulled a pair of coins from her pocket, dropping one at the foot of each of their monuments.
Some believed that the Twin Magi had earned the moons’ blessings on that day, becoming demigods. Many worshipped them as patrons of Talpidium, looking over the people and protecting them to this day. While Cassandra wasn’t a believer, the Twins did save both her parents and hundreds others. Patron deities or not, she still wanted to give them a little respect. She didn’t even realize the rest of her cadre had followed her action until she heard the clinking of coins joining her and muttered prayers of thanks.
From there, they turned down one of the smaller cart paths to Marr’s Shadow. Boom towns were common in the nation. Small settlements would pop up near a new mineral vein and people would flock to them for work. When the mines run dry or become too dangerous to exploit any further, the people leave looking for the next rich vein. In the past, they would leave whatever buildings and machinery they couldn’t move, leaving decaying husks of houses, refineries, and businesses. Marr’s Shadow was a ghost town, old and worn even before Marr’s Torpor had erupted and forced everyone out of the area.
The town was a single main road that led directly to the mine’s opening. The cadre stopped at its darkened entrance and waited for orders.
“We got a map of the mine, Falconer?” Cassandra asked.
“No ma’am.”
“Then we need eyes and ears. Tamsyn?” She looked at the scribe.
Tamsyn nodded and pulled out a clean sheet of parchment, ink, and a brush, and set them on the dusty ground. She muttered to herself, then exhaled a cloud of iridescent teal smoke. The smoke coalesced into a sphere and flew off into the mine. She breathed deep again, and as she exhaled, took up the ink and brush. She muttered soundlessly, drawing tunnels and natural cave features onto the parchment.
“There are no sounds coming from the tunnels,” Tamsyn said, moving her head around as if craning her ears to hear. “But I can feel something, almost at the edge of my senses. It’s odd though, I can’t...AH!” She shouted and fell backwards, her brush and paper flying away from her.
Tamsyn swore as she rubbed a growing red welt on the side of her face. “That was bad. I’ve never been cut off like that before. That hard. It was, well, like a slap to the face.”
The rest of the cadre looked uneasy. They dealt with powerful summoners all the time, and none of them liked when the hunted were stronger than the hunters. Brink picked up the map and looked at it. His family were prospectors, and he grew up moving from towns not unlike this. He read the tunnel map and pointed at a junction of several tunnels a few inches away from where Tamsyn’s magic had been cut off.
“I bet this is where our summoner is holed up,” he said.
“I got a voice before the spell ended. There’s something else, hold on.” Tamsyn took the map and turned it over. She quickly dipped the brush and sketched out a few symbols on the back. Voidscript. None of them knew what the symbols meant, but they were recognizable, nonetheless. Voidscript all looked the same: warped Vitrumarian lettering but the words never meant anything. While Cassandra didn’t speak it, she had a working understanding to recognize it from the otherwise random scrawling of mage writing.
“This is a summoner’s circle, and a strange one at that. These forms are some of the things found on the battlefields in Invesse, but the lettering is off, not Vitrumarian, maybe it could be Talpidian?” Lucien said.
Cassandra swore to herself, not only were people flouting the law and doing this chaotic magic in Talpidium, but they were innovating it as well? She turned to her soldiers. “This summoner isn’t just dabbling. We’ll need hex banes.”
“Yes, ma’am!” rang the simultaneous assent of her cadre.
The Night Hunters went to work arming themselves with protective shields and weapons. The anti-magic effect was strong enough to give Cassandra a mild headache just by looking at it. She’d seen wards cut in twain from one of Falconer's twin scimitars, and ducked behind more than her share of shields. However, no amount of anti-magic would guard against a daemon. Their magic was perverse, not of this world. She hoped that they didn’t run into one.
They moved in twos, Falconer and Brink in the front, then Cassandra and two mages behind them, and Skylar bringing up the rear to keep watch over their backs. Cassandra felt a small gust of wind on her back as Skylar flapped her wings, and a swelling of hope and confidence in her heart. Skylar was bolstering them with emotional magic to make sure their courage didn’t fail. Cassandra appreciated the boost, but always insisted that she keep it marginal. Too much added courage and vigor got soldiers killed, and fear kept their eyes sharp.
They walked cautiously through the mine until they neared the junction Brink had pointed out. Here, the signs of summoning were obvious. While the void taint was minimal, she could see the signs a gate had opened in the area recently. She didn’t see any daemons, and more importantly, no summoner.
The group fanned out, looking at the connecting tunnels. A deep rumbling rose up, shaking the ground and causing fine dust to sift from the cavern ceiling.
“What was that?” muttered Falconer.
“Silence!” admonished Cassandra. She knelt, placing a hand on the ground. She reached into herself, pulling a stand of her soul, and casting it into the earth. The rock was solid, but something deep had cracked. This mine wasn’t huge, and the crack seemed to come from far off. It rose and fell, as though something primordial slept nearby.
“The ground… it’s breathing,” she said with awe in her voice.
Everyone stood in stunned silence for a moment, digesting what she had said.
Falconer was the first to speak, his voice steady though Cassandra could see he was afraid. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know, but I’m sure the summoner has something to do with it. We press on. The sooner we find this blighted caster, the better,” Cassandra replied with a bravado she didn't feel.
They all looked to her, hope and determination written on their faces. Her team was good, she trusted them, she just hoped their trust in her was as strong. She looked to Brink for their next move, and he pointed towards a northbound tunnel.
They started up again, heading deeper into the mine.
As Falconer and Brink passed a stone support pillar, it uncoiled into a huge serpent-like daemon of living stone hissing like a rockslide. Cassandra was caught off guard. In all her encounters with daemons, she had always felt the bit of void that came with them into reality. She should have felt this one too, but something was dampening it.
The serpent snapped at Falconer’s hand, but the warrior skip-hopped to the side in a feat of agility only rabbit-people could master. He narrowly dodged the serpent’s fangs and the viscous black substance that sprayed into the space he had previously occupied. The fluid sizzled on the ground, acid eating into the rock.
“Shields!” Cassandra called out, moments before a screeching sound echoed around the tunnel, disorienting her.
Lucien quickly cast a ward, which appeared as a thin shell of iridescent gas webbed with hot pink lightning and smelled of cinnamon that encased the cadre in protective magic. The ward appeared barely in time to deflect an attack from a smoldering daemon with ten spider-like legs that dropped down from above.
Regaining her orientation, Cassandra debated on which daemon to attack. Falconer seemed to have the snake’s attention, so she focused on the spider. With a bit of will, her fists ignited into violet light. She leapt through the skeins of power that defended them and delivered a one-two punch that left violet impact craters in the daemon’s blackened carapace. She tucked into herself as she came down, just missing a bit of molten webbing that fell uselessly against Brink’s shield.
“I can see the summoner!” Falconer shouted. He gestured past the snake daemon further down the tunnel.
“Push through, I’ll hold the nasties off with Lucian. Tamsyn you’re with Falconer. Brink, you’re with Skylar. Make sure none of them are on our rear. On my mark!” Cassandra called.
Falconer grunted his assent, and the rest of the team sprung into action. The daemon was not inclined to let its quarry go, though. The stone serpent lunged across Falconer’s path and coiled around Tamsyn’s feet. Tamsyn tried move away, but it moved too fast for any of them to react. With a movement so fluid it was eerie, the daemon swung Tamsyn up into the air and shoved Falconer and Lucien against the wall. The three tumbled together against the cavern wall and sank to the floor. The spider daemon skittered around to cut Brink and Skylar off from the rest.
Cassandra’s mouth formed a grim line as she glanced between them and the now open path between her and the summoners further in the mine tunnel.
“We got this, go!” Falconer called as he got to his feet, his enchanted blades already in his hands.
She nodded, offering a quick prayer to the moons before turning and sprinting away.
The tunnel opened to a large cavern, the ancient, abandoned railways of ore movement coming to a conjunction here. A soft glow lit the chamber, filling it with an amber hue. In the center of the room, etched in what appeared to be chalk, were the unmistakable voidsymbols of a summoning circle. At the circle’s center stood a crystal-person chanting with her eyes closed. As Cassandra approached, the summoner raised her left hand, black-blue obsidian fingers clawing upward. A gate appeared with the motion, allowing a small being made of gossamer wings and too many eyes to flit into the space. Cassandra stopped in her tracks. She knew this summoner like she knew her reflection in the mirror.
While they hadn’t spoken in the better part of a decade, Cassandra would know her sister Ophelia anywhere, as they were identical. When they were young, her twin sister joined the mage’s academy and Casandra joined the military. The split created a rift between them that neither had tried to bridge. Apparently, in that time her sister had grown as a mage, and taken up daemonology. As their eyes met, Ophelia’s mouth fell open in a surprised o. The daemon took up a place at the edge of the circle, hissing a menacing warning at Cassandra.
She paid it no heed, staring into her sister’s eyes. Time seemed to stop as she took in everything around her. Her sister’s thin frame, the hissing daemon positioned to defend her, and the pack of digging tools at her feet. Ophelia just stared back at her, clearly as surprised as she was by seeing her sister.
The dull sounds of fighting behind her grew louder, but Cassandra didn’t look back on the Night Hunters, her focus drawn to her sister and the horror that was washing over her. Brink and Skylar burst into the room, fighting the spider daemon. Brink’s shout of alarm broke her from her reverie.
She called out to them, “Stand down!”
At the same time, in almost the same voice, a command rang from her sister. A word of power halted the daemons in place. It was just in time for Brink’s blade to sink deep into the spider’s thorax, or approximation thereof, which caused a cascade of glittering gold infused dust to spill out onto the cavern floor as the daemon disintegrated.
“Moons damn it all, stand down Night Hunters!” She called out again, batting away Brink’s blade with one gloved hand. Even through the leather the hand came away buzzing with pins and needles from the anti-magic effects of the blade.
“What the hell Lieutenant,” shouted back Skylar flying above the fray, “She’s right there. She’s...”
“My damned sister, stand down!” She replied, releasing the magic that she didn’t even realize she had been drawing on.
The silence in the cave was broken only by the rumbling of the earth and Skylar’s landing. All mortal eyes turned to Ophelia, then back to Cassandra.
“Hi.” Ophelia said in her quiet voice.
“Hi? You fool of a woman. We haven’t seen each other for years. You disappear into a magic school and come out the other side summoning daemons and causing mines to cave in and all you have to say to me is ‘hi’?” Cassandra all but screamed in reply.
“I’m not causing this.” Her sister said, even quieter.
“You’re…what?” Cassandra’s fury nearly sent her hurtling at her sister.
“I’m not causing the earth shakes. We’re here trying to figure out what’s going on and see if there’s anything we can do to fix it.”
“We? We who? You have other daemon summoners here?” Skylar said, pulling her dagger from her belt.
“We.” Ophelia said simply, gesturing to the remaining daemon. “They are in tune with primordial magic. They’ve told me that there’s something primordial deep in this mine, and it isn’t of this world. We’re trying to figure out what’s happening and how to stop it.”
The silence lasted a handful of heartbeats before everyone broke out into chaos. Skylar and Brink were calling Ophelia a liar, Ophelia launched into some scientific explanation of what she was saying, and Cassandra tried to ask for her to slow down. As the cacophony reached a crescendo, Cassandra hung her head for a moment then shouted, “Quiet!”
Silence fell once more.
“Does this ‘we’ include the snake daemon out there in the hall?” Cassandra asked with an edge in her voice.
Ophelia’s eyes widened with surprise and she swore before squeezing her eyes shut and snapping her fingers with a spark of blue-green light. “Yes, The Watcher Among the Stones. Sorry about them, they can be…single minded in their tasks. Had I known that you were coming...”
“Oh, so if any other summoner hunters would have come, you would’ve been fine with this daemon murdering them?” Cassandra cut her off.
“No, I wouldn’t have been fine with it. But would you be fine with your hunters murdering your sister? They are just protecting me.” Ophelia shot back.
The other Night Hunters came running up the tunnel way, Falconer at their head.
“Good job on the summoner…” his voice trailed off as he took in the scene before him. He held his twin scimitars at the ready and before Cassandra could stop him, the rabbit-man hopped-ran to the daemon in the circle with an arcing attack. Despite his speed, the daemon was faster, bending at a ninety-degree angle to dodge the swing. It grabbed the solider by the wrist and flung him to the other side of the room. Falconer flew like a ragdoll, back striking the bare rock with a crunch, where he collapsed to the ground.
Cassandra swore. “Night Hunters stand the hell down, Skylar, tend to Falconer now!” Her command to the diviner brooked no argument, the bat-woman flying over to the fallen Falconer in two beats of her wings.
“You can’t believe a moons cursed daemon summoner boss!” Brink exclaimed, taking the opportunity to harp on her again.
“What is she even doing still alive?!” Lucien started in.
Before Tamsyn could join the fray, Cassandra shouted again. This time magic laced her words. “Silence! The next threat of violence to this woman will be a threat to myself. She isn’t the bloody cause of the instability.”
The cadre stood stunned, betrayal shining in all their eyes. Only Skylar had the courage to speak. “Why do you believe her?”
“Because she’s my sister. I know her.” Cassandra said in a defeated tone.
“You didn’t know she was breaking the Prohibition.” It wasn’t a question.
Cassandra’s glare would have withered any other member of the Night Hunters, but not Skylar. She withstood it with no more trouble than a light spring breeze under the light of the three full moons. “I know my sister, she told me she isn’t the cause of this, and I believe her. Do you want to fight about this, or do you want to find out what is really causing this problem? It isn’t like the Twin Magi aren’t here to protect us all this time.”
“I mean, we are twins…” Ophelia started before Cassandra’s glare killed the sentence in her throat. “I’m just saying.”
“Please, shut up.” Cassandra turned to each of the Night Hunters, meeting their eyes one by one. Some of them wore injuries from the battle with The Watcher Among the Stones, but all had some combination of anger, confusion, and mistrust on their faces. “Hunters, do you trust me? Have I ever given any of you cause to question me?” When none of them said anything, she nodded. “I trust you all with my exposed back, I do this every mission. Can you extend the same to me now?”
Once again, she met the eyes of each member of the cadre. They each nodded, slow begrudging nods, but assent all the same. Cassandra nodded once, then closed the distance to her sister.
“We need to get you out of here.” Cassandra said to her as she started picking up Ophelia’s pack.
“What? We need to figure out what the hell is going on in this mine.” Ophelia replied, her blue-black eyes wide.
“I can report it to the mages back home. What I can’t do is protect you beyond this moment with these people. They’ll send someone else after you.”
“I can’t leave this unsettled. This mine will collapse, and so will countless others. If we don’t investigate now, we lose our best avenue into the depths,” Ophelia pleaded, taking her sister’s hands in hers.
Cassandra sighed, relenting. “Fine, we can figure out this mess, then we are getting you out of the country.”
“No!” Interjected Falconer, rubbing his head and pulling away from Skylar’s healing touch. “We aren’t letting this thrice damned daemon summoner go anywhere. She’s a dangerous criminal. Daemon summoning is punishable by death. That’s the Queen’s law Lieutenant. You know this. I don’t care if she’s your sister or your mother, I’m not letting her go.”
“Are you going to let this situation simmer then? And what happens when mines in populated towns collapse? Are you going to tell all the families that lose loved ones that dealing with a summoner was more important than protecting their lives?” Ophelia snapped.
“This can’t stand Lieutenant.” He said, venom dripping from his voice.
“It will.” Cassandra replied resolutely.
Falconer rose, shaking the dust and dirt off of his uniform. He hefted his scimitars and stepped towards Ophelia. “Lieutenant, turn around, I can do this for you. You don’t have to watch.”
Before she could move or reply, he sprung into motion, crossing the room in a single leap. Ophelia put up a hand in a warding gesture, clearly about to slam him with a magical blast. Cassandra stepped between them, crossing her blade against Falconer’s and stopping him mid-air. Ophelia’s blast went wide, slamming amber light against the cavern wall.
Falconer struggled against her blade lock, meeting her eyes with a stoney gasze. “You’re really defending this summoner? No. I won’t stand for this,” Falconer’s voice sounded like gravel with the strain.
Cassandra gave him some slack and he stumbled forward, as he did, she kicked him hard in the side, knocking him to the ground. “Stand down, soldier.”
He looked up to each of the others. “She’s a traitor. If you stay with her, you’ll be traitors too. No better than the daemon summoner.”
He rose gingerly and gasped in pain. She had clearly broken a rib. “Fine. It’s your death sentence,” he spat as he stumbled down the tunnel they had come through. Slowly, one by one, the others followed him out of the cavern. All except Skylar.
“What, you aren’t afraid of being branded a summoner too?” Ophelia said to the bat-woman.
“I am, but I’m more afraid of letting you sink your claws into my love. I’m her only backup,” Skylar said, her voice full of determination.
Ophelia looked between Skylar and Cassandra. “Well then.”
The ground quaked underneath them. Cassandra and Ophelia swore at the same time, their voices perfectly in unison. “We don’t have time for this Ophelia. Do you really think your daemons can get us down to wherever the primordial influence is?”
“I don’t appear to have much of a choice, now do I?” She replied, running her hands through her hair. A frustrated gesture she must have picked up in their years apart.
“Nope, let’s get going,” Cassandra said.
“Too bad they banished Seer of the Unseen. Thanks for that, Night Hunters. Honestly, what kind of name is…” A glare from Cassandra cut her off again. “Yeah, we can do this. I’ll have The Watcher Among the Stones clear the way. You two ready?”
Cassandra looked at Skylar, who had moved to her side and slid a hand into hers. She put a light reassuring pressure on it and was rewarded with a firm squeeze. “Yeah, let’s go.”
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