Gateway Chronicle - July 1997

THE GATEWAY CHRONICLE
July 2000

FROM THE BLACK DESK - June 1997

Another session come and gone. I had me a good time. Joe couldn’t make it so I got to play the Gatekeeper which was a kick (performing visions is cool). There was a whole lot going on and all if it seemed to chug along at a nice clip. We even had some very nice moments that came perilously close to being dramatic. Most important, I didn’t come home feeling like I needed to fix anything to make the game work. It works. Anything I do now will be fine tuning.

Credit Where Credit is Due

Thanks to our Judges; Tonya Angelus, Eileen Malony and Dave Simkins. Eileen and David did double duty by playing two travelers who crossed the Threshold. Thanks to Drew Novick and Rob Wilson, who portrayed the Caretaker and his Guardian, your hosts for the day. Rob endured the discomfort of wearing full body armor in sweltering summer weather and the frustration of playing a mute character to contribute a very effective element to the setting (earning himself an extra point in the process). Once again, a heartfelt thanks to Kelly Jordine whose culinary labors have been a boon to us all.

Thanks Kell - really appreciate it.

EPILOGUE
The Final Tally for Session Five

Your three favorite player characters this session were Autumn (as portrayed by Dawn Nystul), Catherine (as portrayed by Lori Ralston) and Captain Rhys (as portrayed by Kevin MacGregor). It’s the third time around for Catherine, a second first. Last issue I claimed Jacko was the first character to receive your accolades twice. It was actually Catherine. Well done Lori.
As of Session Five the top two Factions are Zurek and the Cabal. There is a three way tie for third place between Evangar,Vathos and the Church of Dain. Remember that the Political Power rules are now in effect so Zurek will be the dominant Faction for Session Six.
Zurek has enough of a lead that Duke Jurel can consider making a play for the crown. The other Factions are now in sudden death overtime. They have one Session to close the gap or Zurek will claim regency. From a game standpoint this has a lot to do with the fact that most of your characters have chosen not to involve themselves in the politics of the Realm. This is understandable but it places the reigns in the hands of the ambitious minority.

WAR STORIES - June 1997

The Gateway appeared in Vathos, in what was thought to be a clearing several days from the nearest settlement. When the adventurers arrived they found a Pantheist Shrine attended by someone who called himself the Caretaker and a Guardian that seemed to be an automaton of some kind.
    While the Gatekeeper and the adventurers went about their business the Caretaker attended to his duties, which involved helping the ‘truly faithful’ across the ‘threshold’. No one seemed to fully understand what any of that meant but the necessary rituals were performed twice during the course of the day, once for a healer and once for a warrior. The warrior spent a lot of time with Hunter and gave her his sword before he left. She is rumored to have been looking for her family and may well have found them.
    Fool was conspicuously absent, which may have had something to do with the Clarite Crystals he acquired for the High Elves of the Ivory Tower during Session Four. No one has heard from Fool or the High Elves in over a year.
    The Gatekeeper appeared to be a bit younger and more lucid than he was, the first signs of the effects of the Elixir he purchased from the High Elves.
    There was no word from Captain Gray, who has been gone for almost two years. A tale is being told in the common rooms of the Realm of his search for the Postern Gate, a relic which would allow a mortal man to make the descent into the underworld. This tale describes Gray as ‘wild eyed wanderer’ who is so consumed by his quest that he never sleeps. It also ends with the line ‘never to return’.
    There was also no word from Volo. Again. Gaelen has been unable to find the Barkeep for more than two years and the Gatekeeper has expressed concern that his old friend may have been the victim of foul play.
    The irrepressibly entrepreneurial Jacko Delight unveiled the ‘Bank of Jacko’ and sold deposit slips to adventurers willing to leave their gold in his care.
    Mardigan Trent was seen at the Inn and is said to have hired several adventurers to accompany him on an Magic Map Expedition. For those who don’t recognize the name Mardigan works for Zaven Duvarik, the Tarotmancer of Fallow Spire, an infamous wizard.
    Tragic news to report: Apparently Alejandro the Healer was murdered just outside the Inn and his body was so badly mutilated that resurrection would be impossible. Details about his demise are confused but there are whispered rumors that he was executed by the Turendar for daring to oppose the will of the Lord of the Iron Gates.
    More bad news: Kedrick the Inquisitor never returned from the third Portal Expedition and his companions didn’t seem to know what happened to him. A short time later Count Skye also vanished. Skye accompanied Kedrick on the Expedition but he was seen stepping through the return Portal so his disappearance is even more of a mystery.

CURRENT EVENTS
What’s going on in the Realm...

Zurek continues to gain influence throughout the Realm. Arthon recently celebrated his 18th birthday, a milestone that makes him a man in the eyes of the people and a more serious contender for the throne.
    The ‘Alliance of the Faithful’ is meeting again, this time in Evangar. It is assumed that Duke Claridge, Duke Winterborn and the Archbishop will be discussing the Zurek lead and what can be done about it. The Church and Evangar are still deadlocked on the issue of leadership.
    Blacksteel’s attempts to reinvent himself have been foiled by his ambition and impatience. His first concern has always been rapid reunification and diplomacy is seldom the swiftest route. Insiders think his temporary change of heart was a misguided attempt to impress Dana Vamadrexus that he has recently abandoned. Thallarin’s border garrisons have returned in full force and Blacksteel is hiring again despite impassioned pleas from Duke Jurel to lay down his weapons and join the other lords at the negotiating table.
    Vathos has sent ships to the Kingdom of Kellar with the intention of establishing new trade routes. During the days of the Old Kingdom Kellar and Kaleth were allies but they lost contact during the Shadow War.
    Captain Rhys continues to play an important role in the fight against the Legion of the Damned. His planned offensive against a Legion headquarters will be resolved at the start of the next session.
    The influence of the Gatekeeper hasn’t gone unnoticed. He is said to be a favorite topic of conversation in courts throughout the Shattered Realm. A few of the lords of the land are in favor of what he seems to be doing but most of them are concerned that an unaligned individual has the power to affect the regency.
    Duke Claridge is uncharacteristically outspoken on the issue and has recently stated that the Gatekeeper and his ‘band of rogues’ are not welcome in Argoth. This may be the first move in a play to replace House Winterborn of Evangar as the secular figurehead of the Church.

A WORK IN PROGRESS
Additions, Revisions and Updates to the Core Rules

REVISION: No More Quests
What was I, nuts? Besides the time commitment this would involve the entire concept of Questing would have disrupted the balance of the rest of the game. For example, there are rules for things like Survey Maps and player initiated Expeditions. If I let the players participate in what amounts to a tabletop RPG between sessions I end up robbing the LARP sessions of a lot of their significance.

NEW RULE: Between Time
As you may or may not know the Sessions are intended to be roughly 6 months apart (or 1 year in the 2 month break between 4 Session cycles). This means we have already played about 3 years of game time.
    We know what goes on in the Ram’s Head but we actually have very little idea what transpires in the time between appearances of the Gateway. Your characters have lives and adventures that have little or nothing to do with the Gatekeeper and his Portals. So how do we determine what goes on between Sessions?
    Up until now our answer as a group has been to make a halfhearted stab at filling in some of the details but without guidelines this can be very tricky. For a while I thought maybe the Quest rules would do the trick but that was a bad idea for the reasons I have already discussed.
    From now on the time between games will be called Between Time and will be an important commodity that you will have to spend as wisely as any of your characters other resources. Time is often more valuable than gold after all.
    To keep things simple your character can only do one thing with his Between Time each Session. You will occasionally be presented with opportunities during a Session which are introduced to the game by the gamemaster through Proxy Plots. Those which require a Between Time commitment will be clearly labeled as such. There are also some new Advantages such as Mentor which will require the use of your character’s Between Time.

Things You Can Do With Your Between Time

Pursue Proxy Plots: I have already mentioned your character will be given opportnities to do things Between Time. For example, Hunter, Kobar and Turan went on a Between Time adventure that came from a Proxy Plot given to Hunter at the beginning of the Session. The adventurers won’t recieve any extra experience for the adventure and they weren’t paid for their efforts, in fact, they pitched in to buy livestock for the troubled town. The only material return on their investment of time are a few measures of Troll Blood that they will probably give to Catherine. Why do it? They are heroes and it was the right thing to do.

Fill in personal details: From time to time I would expect a character to fall in love, get married and/or have children, and not necessarily with another PC. Whenever you don’t have anything more pressing to do, use your characters Between Time to flesh out his personal life.

Things You Cannot Do With Your Between Time

Acquisition of Resources: Unless the gamemaster has given you a Proxy Plot which says otherwise, your Between Time activities will not give your character gold or significant items of any kind. Your characters Between Time income and expenditures are assumed to balance out.

Subplot Resolution: Subplots are resolved during gameplay unless special arrangements are made with the gamemaster. If you are supposed to find a lost runesword you can’t say you did it between sessions.

Abilities That Require Between Time Commitments

Assassinations: Killing someone takes a lot more time than you might think if you do it properly.

Cartography: Drawing up a Survey Map requires a Between Time expedition to the area in question.

Mercenary Captain: Leading your unit is now a Between Time commitment. You can let one of your lieutenants do the job for you but if you do your unit will be worth 1 less Plot Point than it would be with you at the helm.

Magicians: Casting 1 or more Ritual Spells which are defined as Major Magic is a Between Time commitment.

REVISION:New Foci
I like the Focus rules but three Foci is not enough. A character's Focus can go a long way toward defining his role in the game but not everyone is Heroic, Mercenary, Political, None of the Above or Nothing in Particular.
I’m adding three more Foci to fill in some of the blanks that will give you six options (seven if you count the Lack of Focus Disadvantage). If one of these suits your character and you want to switch over let me know.

Arcane: Magicians Only. Characters with this Focus seek magical knowledge and power before all else. They recieve an extra Experience Point for any Session during which they acquire magical knowledge or power in the form of Grimore Pages, Monographs or magical tools such as Magestaves, Magic Wands and Orbs of Power (Spell Scrolls and Magic Scrolls don’t count). They gain 2 points if what they acquired is truly unique (an Orb of Power is worth 1 pt, the Orb of Alkaris is worth 2 pts). Arcane characters thrive on tapering with powers they don’t understand.

Evangelical: Priests Only. Characters with this Focus exist to further the ethos of their god. This is true to an extent for all priests but for Evangelists all other concerns are inconsequential. Evangelists recieve an extra Experience Point for any Session during which they actively preached the tenets of their faith on at least three occasions to at least three characters. If the Evangelical character manages to convert one or more player characters he scores 2 points instead. If you decide to give this Focus a shot, go easy on the heathens or they will make a habit of avoiding you.

Wicked: Characters with this Focus are simply evil. They recieve extra experience for any session during which they were truly despicable. This is intentionally vague and is decided by the gamemaster. If your character would be booed if the game were a movie you probably qualify.

REVISION: Indebted
The current description is unenforceable. From now on an Indebted character must pay gold equal to his Wealth plus 10 at the end of every Session or he earns one less point of experience (a character with a Wealth of 12 has to make a payoff of 22 gold a session). I’m aware that this reeks so you are free and clear after making a number of payments equal to the number of points you take for the Disadvantage (Indebted is now worth anywhere from 1 to 10 pts and isn’t worth anything extra for Poor characters).
You can make a lump sum payoff but it will cost you one and a half times the value of the remaining payments (a poor character with 6 pts worth of debt who made 2 payments could buy off the rest of his debt for 60 gold).

REVISION: Political Power
Some of the Factions say they offer ‘twice’ or ‘double’ experience under certain circumstances. In each case this should have said ‘an extra point’.

REVISION: Quarterstaff
Quarterstaff is now a Subskill of Outdoorsman so you will be able to learn how to use a Quarterstaff as an Outdoorsman or Warrior.

REVISION: Rivalry
This just don’t make any sense. Competing for experience doesn’t work. Let’s try this instead - when you buy this Disadvantage you and your Rival decide what it is you are competing for. It can be just about anything. The loser gets one less point of experience for the session (the winner doesn’t get anything but the satisfaction of beating out his Rival, this is a Disadvantage after all).

LIVING LEGENDS
Famous Characters

Captain Owl Darkhunter
as written and played by Corrie Hrubes

As related by Lieutenant Darylle Jimm

I been with the Captain from her begin'en, before she had a real army. I was captured an forced into slavery by the evil Legion o' the Dammed. They done put us to work in a nearly deserted outpost in the middle o' nowhere. The gaurds was none to smart but escape seemed impossible, as it were desert all around an we was beat all the time with whips, an near starved, an everything.
    My life was over. Not that I'd had much of a life. Working as a freelance mercenary ain't all guts an glory like they talks about. When I got captured I had no gold what-so-ever, a tavern bill I could'nt pay, an was seriously considering a life of crime. The Legion, and then the Captain, changed all that and I stand here today as the best I can be.
    The day I first laid eyes on Captain Owl a dark cloud passed over my heart which I surely believed would never be lifted. Her black armor was spotless an shining even in the dusty streets, an she moved with an attitude of authority, even arrogance, amongst those I consider, to this day, to be my enemy.
    She walks right up to the taskmaster in charge. I recken she knew he was in charge, cause he was the biggest an ugliest o' the bunch. She orders him to get her a wagon an to have it filled with supplies an he argues with her.
    She killed him.
    On the spot.
    The next brute in charge moved right quick to obey her, an when the Captain ordered me an another slave to carry supplies to the wagon for her, we thought she was just another black-hearted Legion commander so we obeyed for fear of our very lives. We done loaded the wagon. Then she ordered us to drive it.
    When we got to a town, she sold the wagon an the supplies, an bought us horses, new weapons, gave us some silver, an even bought us drinks in the tavern.
    We followed her orders then not knowing what to make of it, an traveled with her to more small outposts, where she did the very same thing, (ordered a wagon be filled with supplies by soldiers, then ordered them to drive it to saftey.)
    She built herself a loyal army out o' nothin in a matter o' weeks. By the time I figured out that she wasn't a Legion commander, we had shared in many life threatening situations, destroyed evil creatures, an the Captain had more than proven herself to us in battle.
    Do you know, she has even shed her own blood to protect her men, an it ain't green like they says elves blood is. To this day I don't know where she got the nerve to steal us away like that an I don't much care. Come to think of it, I don't know anything about the Captain's life before she found me, but thats o.k. too. People may think it strange that an army would blindly follow a lady, especially an Elven type, see'n as how they're sposed to be all, you know... funny... odd like, and magical?
    But the truth is, the Captain takes care o' us, an treats us all with respect. I have found her more worthy of my allegience than any King or commander I've ever seen or heard of. I'll follow her anywhere an serve her loyally.