S3: The Sixth Maelstrom

Summary

A mixture of sounds break out across Stygia as modern alarms and ancient bells erupt. They soon discover that the access to the Veinious Stair is being closed as the Spectres are assaulting it from below so they hastily begin their heroic descent down into the Maw of Oblivion.

The Prophecy

As the final days come to be and the apocalypse hangs over reality the Son of the Fallen, He Who Wields The Last Malfean, The Chosen of Luna’s Star, and The Master of Artifice shall descend down The Veinious Stair, through the maze and stand before the Well of Oblivion.

They will face The Daughter of the Nuclear Chaos, The Fabric of the Dark Umbra, to free a soul and in doing so bring about the sixth and final maelstrom.

Key Outcomes

  • Descend down the Veinious Stair, across the Labyrinthine Bridges and through The Labyrinth and to the Maw of Oblivion to rescue the soul of Isis.
  • Be given the opportunity to rescue Isis at the cost of collapsing the Underworld and destroying all the untranscended dead.

The Big Plot Facts

  • The pack rescued Isis from the relic nuclear bomb designed to free the Malfeans at some point in the future (assumed to be related to the arrival of The Dark Sun)
  • Broken Claw sacrificed himself to take the Grand Maw down into the May of Oblivion. This was after seeing himself fail as a leader in the future with The Labyrinth and face the ‘possessed’ Red Claw weakening him for the bigger fight.

The Other Facts

  • In order to save the untranscended dead fleeing the Veinious Stair, due to the Spectres, Red Claw revealed himself to the occupants of Stygia to ‘hold the door’.
  • Red Claw was taken over by the burgeoning power of Chernobog as it got closer to The Labyrinth this caused a conflict on The Labyrinthine Bridge
  • In The Labyrinth, Red Claw saw a future in which he failed to chain Chernobog to his axe. He successfully saw off the attack.
  • In The Labyrinth, Dekota was shown himself failing to lead some of his kind away from The Garou. He did not see off this attack.
  • In The Labyrinth, Broken Claw was shown him failing to unite the werecreatures and thus failing an unassailable Malfean force in the Summer Country. He did not see off this attack.
  • In The Labyrinth, Midnight Shadow saw his father belittle him as not living up to his legend and his father leading a horde of Black Spiral Dancers.
  • Dakota removed Isis’s soul from the bomb but failed in some way that will have implications in the future.

Dramatis Personae

  • The Grand Maw, the vast Malfean that actually contains the Underworld and the Labyrinth that holds the Malfeans was taken down into the Maw of Oblivion by Broken Claw’s sacrifice and then destroyed by exploding the relic nuclear device. Destroyed.

Metagame Observations

  • Another great example of how we are all handling the vast amount of setting material – we pull it in only when relevant and then we all have a common understanding to simplify it to its core. In this session, we delivered the Underworld from Wraith in a single session that I believe had weight.
  • Interestingly the destruction of the Underworld via a relic nuclear bomb from WWII happened in the official World of Darkness setting I believe so I stole it.
  • I am not sure the full relationship between The Grand Maw and Apophis was communicated effectively or her actual plans, what the bomb was, etc, but it all seemed to be appreciated so it can’t have been that big a problem (I suspect player drama overtook events).
  • ‘Failures’ or compels can have longer-term impacts such as The Grand Maw being aware of their arrival due to consequences in session two. Sometimes it’s best to not come up with something on the spot – this is used a few times across the sessions.
  • The use of different ways of representing the fiction was awesome:-
    • The hordes assaulting the pack on the bridge as an attack that cannot be destroyed
    • The use of a track to make the impact of Chernobog inevitable at some point as they got closer to his power-base
    • The fact the conflict between the characters literally diminished Broken Claw’s narrative power resulting in the decision to take The Grand Maw out through sacrifice
  • While I was not fully convinced of the ultimate sacrifice of a character only three sessions in it actually went on to define and shape the campaign moving forward in amazing ways.
  • The fact the players were feeding into exactly how I wanted the game to work – less about power growth and more about character growth. A heroic sacrifice, and more importantly, Red Claw feeding that into his character as his fault (which narratively it was!)
  • I have to add the way the system modelled the narrative which inferred player choices and cycled back around for great outcomes was nothing short of fantastic in this one.
  • This was one big sequence of fiction first action scenes, but woven with drama, from the opening through to the close and it was…everything (personal goal of mine).
  • You know you’re onto something when the players want the background music on!