PrinceCon 38 Recap - Overview

[Alex Reutter]

Individual GM scenario recaps to follow.

This year, there were a number of interlocking themes:

1. The Murder Mystery.  The primary "hook" for players was the murder of Julius Augustus Arathorn, the First Citizen.  A successful conclusion to this storyline, which would restore the honor of the Hall of Heroes, involved:
  1. Discovering who murdered Julius.  Was it Scipio?  Lucius?  Arujah (this was a popular name bandied about)?  Arujah in collusion with Sextus?  The culprit was discovered to be Sextus conspiring with his lover Aimale.
  2. How the murder was accomplished.  It was through an ancient ritual that killed an entire bloodline; but first, Sextus and Aimale wanted to destroy Julius's reputation.  They did this by driving him mad by poisoning the Laurel tree that contributed the leaves to the First Citizen's crown.
  3. Why Julius was murdered.  It was love!  It says right in the player pack that Sextus would do anything for his Lady.  And you thought he meant Ronkel!
  4. Appointing a new First Citizen.  One by one, candidates were considered and found wanting, with the exception of Scipio.  With a new First Citizen and our greatest general at the head of the military once again, the Republic was ready to stop the Gwhi invasion.

2. The Gwhi Invasion.  The secondary hook was the destruction of Walpole at the eastern edge of the Republic and the impending threat of the Gwhi.
  1. Why are they attacking?  The Gwhi are attacking because of the destruction of their tutelary spirits (see Thoki followers below).  They have communed with their ancestors and determined Clio to be the source of the problem.

3. Old City of Troll.  The third hook, hidden from the players at the beginning of the Con, was the Old City of Troll (located below the city of Clio) and its inhabitants.
  1. Ronkel followers.  More than a thousand years ago, at the height of the empire of Troll, the followers of Ronkel despaired at the corruption of the OrcTuskan people of Troll and called upon their goddess to swallow the City whole.  A generations-long war ensued, which the Servants of Death have recently won.  (And would have won more than a century ago, but for all the dead bodies the citizens of Clio provided the followers of Thoki.)
  2. Thoki followers.  Beaten in the war for the UnderCity, the OrcTuskan followers of Thoki, god of Undeath and enemy of Ronkel and Aru, tried to have their revenge, using Eidolinger as their dupe to use the virtual Colosseum and the Slates to entrap and destroy spirits.
    1. Destruction of tutelary spirits.  Destroying the ancestral spirits of both the Republic and the Gwhi would precipitate a war between Gwhi and the Republic, filling the lichyards with corpses beyond count for animating. 
    2. Samedhi.  The energy of the destroyed spirits both powered the virtual Colosseum and fed a new "master spirit", the Baron Samedhi.  If his growth was left unchecked, Samedhi would one day challenge Ronkel for mastery of Death.  Even in his weaker state at the end of the con, Samedhi could possess almost any living being and would be a threat to the leadership of the Republic, but was destroyed in a battle in the Nymphidae ghetto.

[R. Alex Reutter]

BTW, the "Overview" theme recap is also up at princecon.org (which has a new look), with GM-specific scenario recaps on the way.