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I would like to continue and see where it all leads.

sorry wasnt there last week transport problem. will be there tonight.

Hi, Curis sent me a text this morning to let me know he won't be able to make it on Wednesday as he is at a wedding.

Session 4: In which it all kicks off

Having tailed the Inquisition prison wagon and escort and picked up an ally on the way, our heroes decided to spring their attack at night as the Inquisitors camped a little way off the communal camping area at a coaching inn. A fair amount of time was spent planning, but the plan seemed to be a mixture of bluffing and sneaking, without really committing to either strategy. A decent attempt at bluffery was attempted when sneaking went awry, but given the tack that was taken and what the Inquisitors already knew, it was never going to work. Nice try, though.

However, our heroes caused enough of a distraction to enable Natalia to make it to the prison carriage, and there was much memorable heroics. I particularly liked the acrobatics to and from the top of a carriage, charging into a brute squad with muskets and dispatching all of them before they could fire, punching an old man repeatedly in the face then cutting his horse from under him. and some unexpected priestly and dancery badassery.

I don't think the dice rolls were particularly kind to you - Ian seemed unable to soak anything, and Kieran seemed to miss more often than expected, and suffered some exploding damage dice. Having said that, I think in terms of initiative you all did quite well, but then some of you do have bonuses there.

The next session will resume exactly where we left it. El Vago and four of his men have turned up, and he's asked if he's missed all the fun. He either hasn't noticed that you're all wearing Inquisitor tabards, or has worked out that you're not Inquisitors. El Vago - as you may remember - is a mythical Castillian folk hero who turns up to thwart Inquisitors, Montaignian invaders, and evil-doers of all kinds, protecting the good people of Castille from oppression and injustice of whatever origin. Who he is, what he is, and how he does it is a mystery - at least to your characters. It's more fun if the players don't know either. In this picture, El Vago is on the right - the others are Cardinal Verdugo, Grand High Inquisitor, and the boy king, Sandoval. El Vago is essentially Zorro, but the mask shows a clear debt to V.

Your enemies are either dead or incapacitated except for the bodyguard, who's still up and fighting. You've not seen or heard anything from the main encampment, but then you've been rather preoccupied.

I'm in the process of modifying the game's standard experience point system. Roughly, you gain experience points and use them to increase your stats, your skills, or your special abilities. The higher they are already, the more it costs to improve them. Boosting your special abilities will probably be more complicated, and I might have to assign cost on a case-by-case basis. But a good early investment of XP can involve increasing your target number to be hit, or boosting a stat of 2 to 3. There's no "levelling up" as such, and progression is relatively slow. In Pathfinder you become hugely more powerful as you level up - in 7th Sea you're already hugely powerful as a "hero" rather than a "henchman" or "brute", so it's really about slight improvements over time.

Just heard that Kieran is under the weather, and so the shop won't be open today (29th May). Rather than scrabble around for another venue and to get everyone there at short notice, I thought it might be better to cancel.

While we could have found somewhere else to play, I think the directions and organisation and so on would probably have been a fair bit of work and would probably have taken a fair chunk out of the available time. Maybe next time we meet we can discuss having a standard contingency plan - dunno. Next session will be on 12th June' all being well.

In the meantime, I'll try and get my act together about experience points etc, and post something here about how that'll work.

new games up on the calender and vague is open for gaming on wednesday night

Thanks Adam for a great game, where booking the trend of not splitting the party ended up having a very film-ish feel to it.

My highlights were (in chronological order):

• A feast being held in our honor.
• The brawler asking a man for his shirt and carrying him round on his shoulder for the entire afternoon/evening/night as the man becomes increasingly drunk and eventually unconscious throughout the evening.
• The longest in character conversation/debate I've ever heard.
• The monk turning up to the party with hand written copies of our adventure, much to our bosses dismay.
• The Eisen mercenary turning up to the dinner party with his full suit of armor with a cravat.
• An impressive re-telling of our last adventure by our theatrics expert.
• Eating / Drinking / Dancing / arm wrestling / tom foolery.
• The brawler drunkenly slow dancing with a roast pig in the small hours.
• The following morning. Splitting the party and knocks on everyone's door.
• Our resident dancer confusing the inquisition in her nightwear and leaping gracefully and silently out of her window on to their carriage and off down the street.
• The daring roof top escape, leaving one member of the inquisition crippled by a fall from a leap he could never make.
• The monks attempts at trickery, kicking ass with a staff, and then having the inquisition locked in quarantine with a case of 'food poisoning' with symptoms of mass hysteria.
• And a stroke of genius having the final knock on the door being the four recently escaped members of the party being at the door of the fifth party members residence.

yes James discussing with the arch-bishop what we did and what was there and digging a deeper and deeper hole was most amusing. think that it is time for the party to depart the port town and head off to the big city to see what other trouble we can get in to.

Thanks both - glad you enjoyed it. I thought it all went quite well - there were a number of different ways that could have gone, and I'd half prepared for rescue attempts, prison breaks, and all kinds of shenanigans, because I couldn't predict what you were going to do, and in what condition each character was going to finish the night. I was three-quarter expecting some of you go either get captured/surrender/paralytic and then kidnapped, and others to escape/fight your way out and then have a properly messy split party situation.

What I hadn't expected was Javier going straight to the Bishop, but in hindsight it was exactly what his character would have done. Probably the only thing that could have gone better as Henrick not getting an individual encounter, but the Inquisition were never going to storm Don Bosco's house - that's a step too far.

Next game on 21st August if I'm got my calendar reading right. Let me know at some point (not necessarily here) if you're going to be away then.

The campaign (such as it is) opens out a bit from here on, and will start to move away from "NPC with question mark over his head asks you to do this" or "weird thing appears in front of you, go investigate, you heroic heroes, you" - or at least that's the idea. There will be some San Christobel set piece adventures of this kind (some of which may take optional sidequest form - stuff which will either take your interest or not), but before too much longer you're also going to have the option of different substantial leads/campaign directions to follow, based on what you as a party want to do/see as your priority.

Once that happens, all I'd ask is that you don't change your minds without giving me plenty of notice!

Season 2: San Cristobel

''"The traditional Castillian capital is famous for its architecture and complex aqueduct and sewage systems (both designed primarily by Crescent occupants), The centre of the city is both beautiful and highly defensible, rising and falling by slight grades which accommodate its many guard towers and ramparts. Even the highly-regarded mosques and cathedrals designed by Crescent invaders are decorated with exterior alcoves spaces to allow for maximum defensive troop placement.

At one time, the Vaticine Cardinals threaten to tear down the city's numerous Crescent structures. But Castille's military lodged an effective argument in the halls of Vaticine City's courts ensuring that San Cristobel's relics would remain intact. Today, new buildings stand around the original Crescent designs, forming an "outer ring" where most commoners and roving Dons live. This ring contains countless promenades and plazas, painted in brilliant colours to blend in with the lasting vibrancy of the Crescent structures.

In addition to the nation's bureaucratic headquarters, San Cristobel also houses one of the world's foremost universities. The University of San Cristobel was built within an old Crescent garrison and houses a substantial percentage of the nation's scientists. The Inquisition has been unable to close its doors thus far (although they're not above abducting an unwary professor or two), making it a haven for displaced students and teachers. Hundreds have flocked here from occupied Castille, pushing its resources to the limit. Still, the faculty makes do, and the University continues to make impressive advances in the scientific arts."''

Plot hooks:

Who is the mysterious "SV" referred to in the coded correspondence between Knight Inquisitor Gaspar (who died in a horse-related incident when you freed Professor Rios?) and "T"? The "SV situation could be very serious", and looks to have been one of the reasons they wanted to speak to Professor Rios (others being flushing out a spy and finding out what he was up to). What's the situation, and why do the Inquisition want him so badly?

What's in the puzzle box that you found in Knight Inquisitor Gaspar's effects?

What's the purpose/significance of the Albatross feather from the ship La Gaviota that now resides in Alejandro's hat?

Fernando Cabbellaro is retired back to NPC status and has taken the book code to the Invisible College in San Cristobel, where he'll be your contact for other Invisible College work. He's only been there a few days, but perhaps he already has some work for you.

What happened to Moneda to cause him to lose his memory? Who is/was he? We know he has two tattoos - one of the Prophet's Cross, and a more recent-looking on of a girl's name (Chantal). We know he's not from Castille, and is probably from one of the northern countries (Eisen, Avalon, Ussura, Vendel/Vesten). He had the peculiar quasi-vision of a small blonde boy's face near the ship, and has a (possibly unrelated) earworm - "The Lord is My Shepherd".

Marta Lorenza is an academic anatomist, biologist, and surgeon, and former colleague of Javier's former mentor. She would no doubt be very pleased to see Javier again.

What will be the fallout (if any) from the incident with La Gaviota, and our heroes' flight from the city? El Vago seems to have taken the credit/blame for freeing Professor Rios and the death of Knight Inquisitor Gaspar, but Knight Inquisitor Isabella saw most of you and lived to tell the tale. Where did she go, and what's her (and the Inquisition's) next move? Will they come after you again, or do they have bigger fish to fry?

San Cristobel is a big city... perhaps there are some rumours, and perhaps there are some people wandering round with gold question marks above their heads?

Thanks for the info.