Isle Imperium: Episode 1.07

As the party returns from the caverns near Itheka, MANTIUS unexpectedly finds himself in the garb of Concinnarium Vigilo and hears a summons to report for “judging”. Upon his bewildered acquiescence, he disappears, taking with him the party’s entire store of shards, including those currently equipped.

Left defenseless and extremely vulnerable, the remainder of the party does their best to block the entrance of the cave, but not without a Suicide Ferret making its way inside. After some panic, ARCTURUS and VARIAN manage to lure the ferret back out, where it apparently explodes.

Elsewhere, Mantius comes face to face with another warder, who chides the Concinnarium Vigilo (Mantius, it seems, is only incidentally present as the most recent “mount”—or bearer—of said shard) for its tardiness and proceeds to evaluate its performance thus far in the preparation for “the war against the blue”. While it is credited for having assembled the appropriate number of seven mounts, the loss of two shards—leading to the evidently inadequate total of 26 (They come in sets of seven)—is not well received, nor is Mantius’s inability to name the damaged as well as the most recently acquired shard. These two shards are therefore essentially confiscated; and the remaining are compelled to defend (through Mantius) the worth of their most recent mounts, with the final result apparently just passing muster by the critical warder’s standards.

Others are less fortunate. A third warder, the Custodiae Validus, is likewise called and roundly criticized for allowing its group of mounts to overly concentrate on the physical aspect of their abilities; and the bearer is summarily relieved of her store of shards and dismissed, the confiscated shards passed to Mantius with an admonition that it had better be a different warder shard that reports for the next judging.

Mantius is returned to his companions, who are stunned not only by the bounty he has brought, but by the realization that they have somehow become soldiers in a war beyond their comprehension. Nevertheless, after some rest (and acquisitive glee), they decide to proceed with their current plan and explore the beginning of the route toward Itheka.

At a certain point, we referred to the Warped
Woods as walking "Mystic Leafs" -- the
'instant resurrection' item for the game.

Less than a day’s journey from their shelter, they happen upon a copse of Warped Wood, which Mantius and Varian mug, with the aid of a quickening infusion administered by CATALINA. Despite escalating deleterious effects from the infusion, it proves effective and the trees are soon raided and dispatched. Varian finds several items on the ground, including a whelk shaped stone he determines to be a spirit. Accidentally calling upon CARNELIAN, he asks it to reason with the distressed entity, only for Carnelian to devour the whelk’s essence.

Before the whelk is eaten, it mentions the druid Adarius and his “secret sanctuary”; and indeed, there is an entrance to a chamber below ground among the trees. The party enters and finds the remains of Adarius, his face apparently eaten off by the many legged violet spider they soon spot lurking on the ceiling. They battle the creature, and Varian tries summoning a new entity, the Gorgon—which deals with the spider with contemptuous ease, but costs its summoner dearly in the process.

ALECTO suggests searching the chamber for another egress, and MARTA is able not just to find it, but to determine how it is operated. The group passes through into a verdant grotto, in which they soon meet a tree nymph named NERISSE, who was rescued by Adarius and taken to the grotto so she could recover. Moved by Nerisse’s distress, they soon discover that the bloodstained cloth they found among the trees appears to contain scraps of Adarius’s skin, so they put it on his face and place his body in the water in hope that this will help.

By so doing, they are able to summon up Adarius’s shade, which gently avers that it is too late for him, instead requesting their aid, if they are willing, for the families of Gideus (East, across the river) and Tomasina (North, in the valley). In conversation with him and, later, Nerisse, it is learned that:

The distressed nymph expresses her wish to leave the grotto and return to the wild, but is dissuaded when Catalina escorts her near the entrance, where Nerisse is injured by mere contact with some of the ash.

Isle Imperium: Episode 1.06

Thessaly -- the eventual
mount of the Essential
Silk Emissary -- makes
her first appearance in
this episode.

In the hewn chamber within the mausoleum, the party is beset by a Calcified Guardian, seeking revenge for the death of its master, Aelurius. Despite over half the group falling before the creature’s attack, CATALINA, DUMAS, and VARIAN manage to triumph, reviving their fallen comrades except for MARTA, who is hastily dragged out as a violent temblor strikes and portions of the mausoleum begin to collapse.

They make their way to the entrance of the mausoleum, where they discover that it is impossible to attain adequate rest and, later, that the pathway to the lower depths has caved in completely. Catalina and Varian are therefore obliged to make two trips through the ashfall to transport their companions under their single tarp to the shelter of a nearby cave. During the second trip, they ambush two Chainers in order to acquire thistlethorns from these; and upon their second arrival at the cave with ALECTO, MANTIUS, and the unconscious Marta, are surprised to find ARCTURUS and a disgruntled Dumas in conversation with a troop of undead legionaries.

These were encountered by the latter two outside the cave, and granted shelter by the sympathetic Arc. After some discussion, Catalina is able to use her acting skills to learn from the legionaries’ leader Honorius that they were assigned to help local towns in the wake of the catastrophe—notably Itheka, located close by the volcano—and eventually she speaks in a voice of authority to let them know that they have fulfilled their mission. The legionaries’ remains are put to rest some distance from the cave, upon which the party is privileged to receive the silent acknowledgement of a ghostly complement of the Thirteenth Legion.

Catalina asks for a day to further investigate her new abilities as Mitis Scientia, during the course of which she discovers, among others, a method of immunization against the harmful effects of the ash. Aly puts forth her proposal to essentially scam needed supplies from the nearby palisade by posing as the Inheritors of the Catastrophe. Albeit with some tense moments speaking to BRIANNA and an arrow to the shoulder womanfully sustained by the lead actress, this is successfully enacted by Catalina, Mantius, and particularly the revived Marta, who proves to be a thespian of some potential.

Returning to the cave with their loot, the party is once more surprised when they receive a distress call from an unknown shard. With the exception of Marta, who stays behind to guard the supplies, they promptly answer, finding themselves transported to yet another underground cavern facing an Infested Gorgon, which has apparently already savaged an injured man and an unconscious woman, both clearly shardbearers, the man in particular evidently bearing some version of the Concinnarium Vigilo.

As his companions help the wounded and deal with the Gorgon itself, Varian realizes that it is a spirit of some sort, and sends Carnelian off to deal with its controller. Carnelian not only succeeds but obtains a new spiritstone for its master; and the party is able to summarily, though not quite easily, deal with the Gorgon in its master’s absence. As Catalina, Dumas, and Mantius assist the grateful but wary BRANDEUS and his sister THESSALY, the other three party members sidle off to recover the shard from the body of the creature’s late controller, whom they soon surmise to be one IGEDUS, supposedly a missing friend of their new acquaintances.

Regrouping, they further learn that Varian and Brandt have met before, as fellow sons of athlete fathers; that Itheka is approximately a week’s travel east from the current cave; and that the people of Itheka have had and been using shards (again called ‘stones’) for some time prior to their own discovery of same. After witnessing a quarrel between Brandt and Thessaly and receiving the pair’s invitation to come find them at Itheka, the group returns to their cave via Brandt’s invocation of one of the abilities of his Virtuous Warder shard.

Back at their own cave, the party members are elated to learn that Marta has managed to recover one of their lost shards, the Specialis Vesica, during their absence.

Isle Imperium: The Early Shards

A more advanced version of the Ossis
Potior shard -- the Essential Savant of
Bone (Ossis Potior Excelsis)

Shards are (usually) finger-sized stones with a semi-crystalline shape, with a light to heavy pattern of silvery metal veins that criss-cross the smooth surface (and probably the interior) of the artifact. They confer abilities, costumes, and a subtle personality shift to those bearing them.

The first batch of shards that our group bore were:

• Ossis Potior (Bone Collector) -- taxonomy: cleric
• Proeliator Lamniar (Blade Bravo) -- taxonomy: warrior
• Umbra Beatus (Saint of Shadows) -- taxonomy: rogue
• Sanomagus (White Mage) -- taxonomy: cleric
• Aduromagus (Fire Mage) -- taxonomy: wizard
• Tripudior Tempestas (Storm Talon) -- taxonomy: dragoon
• Cepi Monstrum (Blue Mage) -- taxonomy: acquisitor

... even here some contradictions and hints about the nature of naming and taxonomies could be seen. Why was something called White Mage, and yet given the taxonomy of cleric? Why was something called Blue Mage when it lacked the -magus suffix that the other two mage shards enjoyed?

At the time, we didn't exactly know how these things were named and classified -- their meanings came to us as a vague understanding, already distorted by several layers of misinformation. But it was often useful to keep track of these contradictions, as our GM was fond of hinting at future complications that would bedevil us.

The next batch of shards that we came across were:

• Vitualamen Ex Vesperis (Paladin of the Lost Hour) -- taxonomy: knight
• Specialis Vesica (Hexrazor) -- taxonomy: artificer
• Silvamanus (Thornthumb) -- taxonomy: forester
• Pandus Phantasmis (Phantom Archer) -- taxonomy: warrior
• Mitis Scientia (Gentle Chemist) -- taxonomy: chemist
• Concinnarium Vigilo (Harmonic Warder) -- taxonomy: aggregator
• Nuncio Caecus (Cyclopean Nuncio) -- taxonomy: summoner

Our D&D / RPG class awareness was stunned at this point, because the implied complexity of taxonomies was formidable, and we wondered how consistent or accurate taxonomies were.

Of course, in addition to these mysteries, we were struggling to survive -- so these types of thoughts were pushed back as we struggled to find out what these damned things did. Ossis Potior gave my character useful abilities against the undead, Silvamanus granted Catalina a very useful ability: "avoid pitfall", Sanomagus was our go-to shard for healing anything, and both Ossis Potior and Pandus Phantasmis helped me greatly later on in the campaign in avoiding certain death many times.

Isle Imperium: Episode 1.05

A more advanced version of the Thornthumb
shard, which allowed Catalina to avoid pitfalls.

Returning to Finger Cave, the party is beset with a variety of troubles, including numerous pitfalls (fortunately negotiated by CATALINA), a shadowy flying predator, the heavier and more corrosive ashfall, and the loss of three shards (Sanomagus, Cepi Monstrum, and Specialis Vesica), apparently to the strong winds.

After fending off the flyer and doing their best to mark the spot where the shards were lost, they attain shelter, where it is decided (after a startling but thankfully uneventful confrontation with a manticore attempting to seek shelter in their cave) that their best recourse is to return to the mausoleum of search of the supplies that the humans they saw earlier presumably would have stored.

As they take turns resting and keeping watch, they experience multiple earth tremors, which they soon deduce is attributable to the active volcano that VARIAN (with his new clarity of eyesight from the Nunzio Caecus shard) identifies nearby. Following the terrifying experience of Varian becoming acquainted with the shard and his summoned entity, CARNELIAN, they return to the mausoleum, suffering significant damage along the way, spotting a new cave en route, and transforming their supply sled into a sort of mobile shelter.

At the mausoleum, they find that the earth tremors have caused significant damage, leaving both human and inhuman corpses behind in their wake. Defeating a Chainer, a Puppeteer, and several Bone Golems, they manage to locate some supplies as well as the apparent remains of Bartomeo’s missing daughter Rima, who has become a sort of zombie. Continuing on (and opting to leave an apparently terminally injured pit creature to its fate), they enter a hidden door and find themselves in a corridor of hewn stone, which is guarded by four Will o’ Wisps.

Dispatching the creatures, they press on into a wider chamber with a table and steps leading down to an area where they discover an evidently dormant Bone Dragon. Choosing discretion as the better part of valor, they retreat to the upper chamber, to which they are soon followed by a man calling himself GENARIUS, who clearly bears a shard similar to Ossis Potior. He is fairly cordial with them and they exchange names (with only ALECTO opting to conceal at least her full name), despite the party’s wary refusal of his offer to trade shards (which he refers to as ‘stones’).

Genarius takes his leave of the group and goes back downstairs, whereupon Varian promptly commences to spy on him, eavesdropping on the man’s conversation with an unnamed woman below. Aside from naming the terminated Wight as ‘Aelurius’, they also mention their amazement that the party is composed of no less than seven shard bearers; their decision (spearheaded by Genarius) to leave the party their “claim” on the ongoing “small Catastrophe”; and an intimation that, possibly, they have traveled backwards in time from the future.

Following this, the pair makes rather dismayingly short work of the Bone Dragon, and thereafter disappears.

Isle Imperium: Episode 1.04

Playing Ossis Potior at basic
levels was originally because
I needed to round out our
"cleric" abilities in the party,
but was risky -- I didn't know
how prevalent undead were
going to be this early in the
game. Fortunately, it paid off.

Wight Night

MANTIUS awakens in the middle of the night with the dreadful certainty that undead are upon them. Unable to wake his companions due to some glittering motes and the low hissing sound that fills the air of the cave, he faces off alone against three Chainers—which are apparently responsible for whatever sleep spell is active—managing to dispatch them and awaken his friends in time to hear a crackling noise of lightning from outside.

The party rushes out to see DUMAS, the factor from the traveling circus, battling several more Chainers and losing, despite the lightning magic he evidently wields. The group springs into action to aid him, with ARCTURUS taking the undead down. Dumas tells the party that he has been traveling alone since Shardfall, chancing upon five shards in the course of his desperate search for his ward, the fourteen year old Alina.

VARIAN and MARTA both assert that they have seen Alina within the nearby town. Upon discussion, the party agrees that the most fruitful course for all concerned is to try and defeat the Wight within the mausoleum, thereby alleviating the most pressing danger to the town and hopefully smoothing the way for recovering Alina and potentially allowing Marta to return home.

Leaving Marta the Proeliator Lamniar shard in order for her to guard their supplies within Finger Cave, the party hies off to the mausoleum, where they are soon stymied when they reach a dead end not far inside from the entrance. Varian determines how to manipulate the figures of Pluto on the wall, however, thus opening the door and allowing them entry into the deeper reaches, where Arc again quickly dispatches some Chainers seeking to block their passage.

Two left forks further into the catacombs, they defeat one Skull Spider and are nearly decimated when they decide to attack a second one, which extrudes a ball of toxin that poisons, paralyzes, and renders everyone but ALECTO unconscious. She is able to fend the thing off and, through Varian’s help or under their own steam, the other members of the party eventually manage to recover, with CATALINA finishing off the spider and everyone working together to destroy its clutch of eggs.

Going back and taking the second right hand fork this time, the party hears the disembodied voice of the Wight, giving them the option to turn and leave. They refuse once—consequently needing to defeat some Chainers again—and upon the second refusal are trapped within the Chamber of Bone, where they are successively attacked by Frostlings, Haunts, and Puppeteers.

Working together, they manage to survive and defeat each of these opponents, finally coming face to face with the Wight himself in his most fearsome guise. Running low on both life and mana, they nevertheless manage to overcome even him, most notably through Dumas’s clever stratagem of dying in order to trigger his reaction as Scintillamagus.

As they prepare to leave the mausoleum, a door opens on the far side of the bone chamber, through which they see two human men leading a bound human girl. The men hastily retreat, but not before Aly’s shout and the girl’s startled reaction confirms that she is Bartomeo’s missing daughter, RIMA.

Isle Imperium: Episode 1.01 to 1.03

Surprise! I actually do play in games on a regular basis. It's a homebrew setting using a homebrew system (several, actually) that sometimes goes systemless depending on the "season".

Here's the game summary for Season 1, Episodes 1,2, and 3 of Isle Imperium (actually Season VIII of the entire Isle campaign).

Shardfall (Parts 1, 2, and 3)

In the beginning there was only one great key. But chaos came and the key shattered into three great fragments—one that retained the starfield-like appearance of the original, one distinguished by a gray hue, and one bearing the likeness of obsidian—which separated from each other across the void, creating galaxies, planets, and eventually life in their wake. The three large fragments shattered as well into smaller pieces, one of the larger of which—a portion of the obsidian key—formed and acted as a sort of second sun to the world of the Imperium.

On this world, in the township of Koros, the citizens and some snowbound members of a traveling circus are amazed one day to see the sun blaze to a suddenly unbearable intensity of light (though not heat), to the extent that all eventually lose consciousness. Some time later, ARCTURUS, VARIAN, CATALINA, ALECTO, and MANTIUS awaken separately to find themselves in a devastated landscape, as the town and its environs have apparently been flattened by some sort of tremendous impact.

Coming together as evidently the only human survivors of the catastrophe, they go to what once was the center of town to investigate. There, they find a curious stone which breaks apart under cautious prodding into seven shards. Each taking a shard or two, they quickly discover that the shards miraculously confer certain extraordinary abilities upon their bearers, specific to the particular shard borne.


After scavenging what provisions are to be had among the ruins, the group decides to journey to the nearest town, braving a landscape now made more hazardous than ever by the constant precipitation of harmful acidic ash and wild animals apparently made extraordinary as well by either the ashfall or the shardfall.

They quickly become lost, since the great road system and most landmarks have all but been erased by the heavy blanket of ash covering the ground. Along the way, they encounter normal and infested wolves, malignant trees called warped wood, and suicide ferrets, in the possession of which Catalina spies another stone that likewise shatters into several shards, which the group promptly collects. It is through use of the various shards that they are able to defend themselves and cross the perilous desolation.

They are soon joined by Alecto’s former pet tiger, BAKLAVA, who unfortunately has also been affected by the chaos that has twisted the wildlife and is eventually deemed too dangerous to take along with them. Varian makes friends with an unusual and possibly uninfested ferret, but it is unfortunately devoured by Baklava.

It's hard convincing regular folk
that you mean well when you're
wearing bone armor and weapons.

Finally spotting what looks like a town after traveling some distance, the group heads for it, but first happens upon a graveyard, with a mausoleum apparently guarded by a wight, some bone shades, and skeletons known as black bones. They manage to fight their way free and proceed to the town, where they are attacked and driven off by the inhabitants, who brand Varian and Alecto as undead due to the bizarre accoutrements granted them by their shards.

Retreating to the nearby Finger Cave, a cave opening in finger-like protrusions from a steep mountain face (in which they have found some supplies as well as evidence of several couples trysting or at least meeting in secret at the spot in the past), Varian and Aly decide to remove their shards and approach the town thus unprotected, in hope of purchasing food, weapons, and sundry. So doing, they return to a belligerent welcome, but a welcome nonetheless, from the surly ARIUS and the generous BRIANNA, who appear to be in charge of the town’s defense.

Within, they discover that the tarp-protected town is evidently digging down into the earth, presumably with the intention of relocating to greater safety. They make the acquaintance of the shopkeepers MARTA (who tells them about her missing [?] husband) and BARTOMEO (who has a missing daughter, Rima), and are able to purchase some few items of food, clothing, weaponry, and gear.

Reunited afterwards, the group examines the purchases, among which they find a note from Marta imploring Aly and Varian to help her. Together, they deduce that the townsfolk have perhaps made some sort of bargain with the undead in which they surrender a citizen nightly in exchange for the safety of the greater populace. The group travels to the environs of the town once more, whereupon they find their suspicions dismayingly confirmed, and quickly go into action to rescue Marta from the company of undead into which she has been delivered, which is led by the wight they encountered earlier.

After a pitched battle, they are able to recover the terrified Marta and defeat—though again, not destroy—the wight.