Slotheim Manor (Saga)

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Title Slotheim Manor
Number 22 Page Forum Saga, & 1 Boss
Date 24 July 2012 to 13 April 2013
Players Tyler (GM), Isabel, DS, Daniel, Robert, Greg
Characters Truth/Stranger, Verinne, Sye, Adrien, Laelia, Cordelia, Mortimer, Eingdahl (NPC), Hannel (NPC), Ahab (NPC, played by Isabel), Madam Mimosa (NPC), Adam (NPC), Anor (NPC), Danielle (NPC), Miss Hordsii (NPC), Ken (NPC), Ryata (NPC), Aberrant (NPC, played by Greg and Tyler), The Everyman (NPC)
Setting Slotheim, Svaldon, Disparatus


Timeline Summary

Backstory

"Greetings, sir or madam.

Congratulations are in order, as you have been selected as one of the lucky fourteen invited to attend a reception held by my master, Fredrik Eingdahl, at Slotheim Manor.

The event will be held on Friday 27 July 2324, at dusk. Directions to the city of Songuil in Svaldon, where we have arranged for transportation to the manor, can be found on the following page. Also included are tickets for the transportation from Songuil.

Sincerely,
Hannel Rosselberg
Butler of Slotheim Manor"


The second page gives directions to the city of Songuil, listing the place and time where you can catch a boat to Slotheim, along with tickets for the boat and a map.

You may find yourself very confused on reading this. You've never heard of Slotheim Manor before, and you certainly never signed up for a drawing or the like to attend a reception there.

The directions indicate it as a small island in the Holensund region of Svaldon. There's still some time before the reception is to be held, so you are left with the opportunity to decide if you wish to attend.


Arriving at Slotheim

On 27 July 2324, the ship to Slotheim Manor leaves from Songuil, piloted by Captain Ahab. Upon arriving, the guests are greeted by the host, Fredrik Eingdahl, and his butler, Hannel Rosselberg. They wait downstairs until 8pm, during which time Aberrant shows up, and Adam Rell disappears.

At 8, the group heads upstairs and discovers that Eingdahl and Adam are both dead in the study from some sort of enchanted source. The butler opens an envelope Eingdahl had told him to read after 8, where they discover Eingdahl had planned to kill himself so that his will could be read with them gathered. The will details a "game" of sorts Eingdahl set up, a sort of treasure hunt where each participant would recieve a piece of a map with a clue so they could find a way to the "Goal". They are all due to start at 8am. Some of the guests split into groups.


Eingdahl's Game

The "game" on Slotheim begins the next morning. Laelia Clair decides to wait at the manor with Hannel Rosselberg as everyone leaves. Madam Mimosa and Anor head off first. Miss Hordsii and Ryata head north together, with the trio of Cordelia, Mortimer, and Sye not far behind. The trio finds a key in a gardening shed, which Miss Hordsii uses a Void Keystone to take from Cordelia. Mortimer arrests Miss Hordsii, and Ryata runs off after failing to swipe the key. Verinne, Adrien, and Danielle head west, finding the locked "Goal", obtaining a scroll from across the water, and coming upon a red-marked pillar. They head back south and run into Ryata, following him back to his group.

Meanwhile, Truth, Aberrant, and Ken run into Madam Mimosa and Anor, but soon part ways as the trio turns west. They find a lighthouse and take a pair of binoculars from the keeper's old home before heading into the abandoned lighthouse itself. Atop the lighthouse they find the second key, and scout the landscape. They return to the docks and encounter the Everyman, who says he's looking for Adam Rell. They then go to the blue pillar in the northeast and activate it with the lighthouse key, before returning to the manor. They meet up with Madam Mimosa, who had found the third key at the dock house, and Anor returns to the Everyman.

Back with the other group, after Cordelia knocks Miss Hordsii out, they finally act on the map clues and head south. When tasked with crossing water, Verinne takes Adrien and Danielle away, leaving Sye, Mortimer, Cordelia, and Ryata with the unconscious Hordsii. They leave her bound and cross the water to the green pillar, activating it with the shed key. When they return, Miss Hordsii is gone. With nothing left to do, they head to the lighthouse. Cordelia falls through the broken stairs and stays at the bottom. When Mortimer gets snarky with her, she retaliates by setting the lighthouse on fire and planting a landmine at the door. Sye, Mortimer, and Ryata get out quickly, spotting the landmine in time. Ryata stays behind to put out the fire, while the rest head off.


Beyond the Goal

Verinne, Danielle, and Adrien return to the manor, meeting up with Mimosa and the others. They tell her where the last pillar is, and head off, Verinne and Adrien sneaking off to the Goal. Mimosa's group activates the pillar, allowing Verinne and Adrien to enter and find a puzzle regarding numbers. They work on it as the other two major groups see a signal that the Goal is open. Mimosa's group makes their way there with Danielle's help, while Cordelia and Sye speak with the butler, who tells them he saw a figure in the woods. They regroup with Mortimer and follow the figure, losing track of it but finding the Goal. With Mortimer's help, Adrien solves the number puzzle and opens the crypt door.

Inside the main crypt room, the group activates the trap, a large robot. Putting together the clues from everyone's map pieces, Adrien eventually realizes that the clue that "the real Key to success is sacrifice" refers to sacrificing a Keystone on the robot, which Verinne does for them. The robot collapses, allowing access to the treasure. They then learn from a letter in the chest that Eingdahl originally intended to fake his death with the Clone Form scroll they found on him and leave while they worked on the puzzle, but the killer got to him first. The group retrieves Keystones from the chest, but before Sye could decide on one for himself, he notices a blue gemstone identical to the green one he got from his father, hidden among the treasure.

During all of this, Aberrant steps forward, asking Sye to hand over both gemstones, revealing them to be two of the three Laquiri. He reveals that the blue one was Eingdahl's true treasure, passed down through his family, which he wanted to pass on as an unnotable bit of treasure so that Aberrant and his people would not get it. He notes that he entered the manor through a side room window before the storm, and interrupted an argument between Rell and Eingdahl about the gem, killing Rell and demanding the gem from Eingdahl. Eingdahl, having expected one of Aberrant's group to show, insisted Aberrant play the game if he wanted it, to which Aberrant responded by killing him. He then escaped through the window he entered and walked in the front door to cover his tracks.

After questioning from Ken and Truth, Aberrant notes he hoped to take the gem with no one noticing, but Sye finding it first left him with little choice, as his other option would be to face Sye later when Sye had two Laquiri, which was something Aberrant's group did not want any one person but themselves to have. Miss Hordsii interrupted the group, seeking revenge on Cordelia. While everyone's focus is shifted and confused, Ken intervenes, saying that this is what caused Aberrant to originally escape, and that this would lead to something that would threaten the stability of the universe. Aberrant, oblivious to what his group's plan would do, brushes this off as a scare tactic. As people group together against Miss Hordsii, she accepts Aberrant's offer to team up, and he reactivates the robot with a Keystone of his own as a distraction.

The group splits into two, with Truth, Sye, Verinne, and Adrien fighting Aberrant and Miss Hordsii, as the rest hold off the robot. Miss Hordsii immediately knocks Cordelia out as the battle ensues. Aberrant focuses on Sye, Adrien and Truth going to help Sye out. Verinne fights Hordsii on her own, setting up an obvious mine and later taking on Hordsii in a massive explosion, as Hordsii followed up by knocking her out. Meanwhile, Sye manages to take down Aberrant, surprising both his attacker and himself. Adrien begins to halucinate a tiny Verinne as he, Sye, and Truth turn focus to Hordsii. Hordsii, furious with the way the fight was heading, consumes half of the room in a massive blast, killing Sye as he strikes back through the wave. Truth begins hallucinating a tiny Sye of his own, as Miss Hordsii attempts to slaughter Adrien. Truth stops her with an explosive excess of energy, ending Hordsii's life and saving Adrien's.


Ken's Tale

As the fight dies down, Truth consumes Miss Hordsii's flesh and snaps Aberrant's neck, ending the man's life. He takes the blue gem and hands it to Adrien for safe-keeping. Meanwhile, Ken, Mortimer, and Mimosa stop the battered robot, and take the injured and dead back up to the manor, where Anor and the butler have just finished repairing the phone line and calling for the police. An awakened Cordelia helps with the injured, and Ken sets up a camera to record his explanation to everyone so Sye can see later.

Ken explains that Aberrant is one of the last two dozen Orkans, having survived in stasis for 2,000 years until 2305. He notes that their leader, Parus Vandir, believes the Laquiri to be holy artifacts given by their gods, and plans to use them to break the barrier around the Two Year Gap to travel back in time and save the Orkan race, as with all three a hole can be created that is large enough to let a group that large through, but that the barrier may well be destroyed. He says the barrier is there for a good reason, but does not elaborate.

Truth realizes that Ken has implied that he's time travelled himself. Without directly revealing his true identity as a version of Ganchi Hiaba, he notes that things originally went differently here, and he was forced to take the last remaining Laquir by force and travel back in time to kill Parus' group before they could even wake, ending up in 2287, but his second soul stopped him before he could kill the Orkans. The discussion wraps up, and Ken pulls Mortimer aside to warn him not to trust Ken's two past selves. Truth asks Ken to meet him in Gravenholt on April 15th. As everyone boards the boat to leave, the Everyman tells Ken that his previous offer to him still stands, both surprising and annoying Ken, who tells him off. Ken takes Sye and Aberrant's bodies with him as the group finally departs.


Notes

  • First appearances of Fredrik Eingdahl, Hannel Rosselberg, Captain Ahab, Madam Marigold Mimosa, Adam Rell, Anor Ironshield, Danielle Granexelten, Elanen Hordsii, Ken Hiyama, Ryata Lar Taltzvani, Aberrant, and the Everyman. (And, by proxy of the Everyman, first appearance of the Nameless Ones.)
  • First mention of Darren Curt, whom Truth had killed and impersonated for the game.
  • This saga takes place on 27 and 28 July 2324.