The Gauntlet podcast mentioned Godbound in its last episode and in the G+ comments thread, Fraser mentioned that he wanted to play. Last weekend a bunch of games were cancelled last minute, so I was raring to play.

We gathered and we played and it was good.

The Pitch

The game is going to take place in Ancalia, a land once ruled by a wise king and his knights. Five summers ago, other worlds, planes and dimensions erupted and tore the kingdom apart. The dead rose and all manner of monsters ate cities and squatted in the ruins.

You live in a small castle town, where you grew up. The duke seems human but it is known that he came through Night Roads with the other monsters. Folk whisper that he came from hell.

For some reason, Heaven’s Broken Engines have bled their power into you. You’re having dreams of a group of heroes who became gods. It isn’t just one hero in you but multiple avatars who have all tread a heroic path towards Heaven.

The Town: New Cresthill

Whose power is in you now?

The Ranger (Beasts, Bow, Earth)
The Thief (Night, Deception, Alacrity)
The Knight (Sword, Command, Might)
Wizard (Sorcery, Knowledge, Death)
Barbarian (Might, Endurance, Passion)

Wizard
Sorcery: Adept of the Gate, Wizard’s Wrath
Knowledge: Excision of Understanding, A Truth That Burns
Death: Scythe Hand, A Pale Crown Beckons

Wizard’s Adept of the Gate Spells: Barred Gates of Forbiddance, Beacon of Celestial Purity, The Bright God’s Canticle, Pore of Hell

FAIR WARNING: Being the Wizard means keeping track of more powers.

Ranger
Bow: Omnipresent Reach, The Seeking Flight
Beasts: Link of Unity, Red in Tooth and Claw
Earth: Jewel-Bright Eyes, Obduracy of Stone

Thief
Deception: Veiled Step, Perfect Masquerade
Alacrity: All Directions As One, The Storm Breaks
Night: Knives of Night, A Road of Shadows

Knight
Sword: Steel Without End, Unerring Blade
Command: Know the Inner Truth, A Thousand Loyal Troops
Might: Surge of Strength, Stronger Than You

Barbarian
Might: Fists of Black Iron, Stronger Than You
Endurance: Body of Iron Will, Defy the Iron
Passion: Terrifying Mein, Fashioning a Friend

Highlights

I asked them to write three sentences about their character, playing fast and loose with the Origin, Past Career, Relationship structure. I told them that if that structure helped them come up with three sentences – to use them but otherwise, to come up with 3 sentences about their character.

It worked. I didn’t roll up any Courts, as I usually do but decided that the duke was in fact Graz’zt, the Demon Prince, straight out of the Monster Manual 2.

Lowell’s Thief was having an affair with the duke’s wife, who was a succubus. I liked how sex positive and gentlemanly his character, Kayban Silverluck, was .

Rich told me as we were starting that he thought his character had broken something in game, like knocked over a tower. There is a busted-looking building on the map, so we decided he had knocked it over in a drunken haze during the previous night.

Mifanwe made friends with a Cloud Giantess who lived on a cloud castle and when they wrested the Wand of Orcus from Graz’zt, he gave it to her for safe keeping.

Dominion

We punched Graz’zt in the face but then we took the time to level up and spend some Dominion Points, changing the world. Details that came out of that:

In Cresthill, the night causes terror for evil-doers.

In Cresthill, the Trinity are known as the new protectors.

Then they pooled their dominion to make a fact come up in a greater area, province-wide: a seed of free will was taking root, with people remembering that they don’t need gods.

Now What?

Now there’s a succubus carrying the child of a thief demi-god (“YOU COUPLED WITH HER?!?” “That wasn’t clear?” “Not to me!” “Oh, Marton…”) leading a pride of lamia’s around.

There is a cloud giantess on cloud castle with the Wand of Orcus.

Orcus is out there somewhere, warring with the Raven Queen, looking for his damned wand.

Demons who have settled in other cities and towers are having trouble with their locals as they start to get all kinds of ideas and rise up in revolt.

I’m going to tinker with the faction rules, that I haven’t even looked at yet. None of us are up for a regular game but an every-so-often game that we come to as we can works. On those odd gameless Friday nights we will cast our devotions to the Cresthill Trinity and see what comes.

 

Dorot Jewish Division, The New York Public Library. “Part of the north wall and moat of Caesarea. The walls are six feet in thickness and are strengthened by buttresses; they are still from twenty to thirty feet in height. The moat is lined with masonry. There are three ruined towers in the north wall, two of which are shown above.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1881 – 1884. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-5f2c-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99