Catalyst Castle

Gareth and I played our "Times Forgotten" campaign again today. I'm calling issue #2 "Inquisition". We picked up exactly where issue #1 ended; with Gareth's character Claas waking up in a medieval-looking room 1000 years in the past. As a reminder, this game isn't taking place in our world. It's an earth-like universe with its own history, though the progression of civilization in this world more-or-less resembles our own. Issue #2 seemed a little bit slower than #1, but I still had fun.


Claas woke up in a medieval-looking room 1000 years in the past. He's laying in a bed with a blanket thrown over him. No one else is there. Claas gets out of bed and opens a door that leads to another room. As soon as he does, his vision warps and he sees a medieval/renaissance-looking kitchen. The young woman and man that fought in the college gym are sitting at the table eating soup. A moment later, his vision returns to normal and the two people disappear, replaced by the same kitchen and an older man with long grey hair and old-timey spectacles.

The older man introduces himself as Prof. Christopher Parkas, and explains that he is the headmaster of the Great University here in Kingstown. He informs Claas that Claas and the other two appeared nearby an hour ago. He brought them back to his house on the campus of the university. The other two had woken up earlier, and after he fed them, they got into an argument and left. Claas says that he's going to go after them, but Prof. Parkas warns him to be careful. Knights of the Church are prowling the streets as agents of an inquisition against people who are "gifted". Parkas explains that the church feels that super-powers come from one of two sources. Those who serve the Church receive their gifts from god, but anyone else is guilty of practicing black magic. Claas asks Parkas where he thinks such gifts come from. Parkas is a renaissance man and says he believes there must be some scientific explanation for such powers.

Claas tells Parkas he'll be careful, and then leaves his house to pursue the other two. As he leaves the small building, his vision warps again, and he witnesses the young man and woman arguing in the street. The young red-headed man throws fire at the woman, before going his way. Then, Claas' vision returns to normal and he finds that the street is empty of people. It's the middle of the night, and everyone is shut in. Claas wanders off, looking for the other two people who traveled here from the present. The town is built entirely in an old renaissance era style, with coble-stone streets and oil lamps burning at roadside. In the distance, Claas spots a massive cathedral looming over the cityscape. Claas leaves the university campus and seeks out anyone who might be able to help him. Eventually he spots a beggar man and asks him about the presence of "gifted" people. The beggar informs him that those gifted by god serve at the cathedral, but he seems superstitiously reluctant to talk about those gifted by the devil.

As Claas continues to wander, he discovers a large iron building under guard. What looks like train rails can be seen passing through the building. When he asks the guards about it, one of them informs him that this is the Royal Steam Coach Station. The guard then asks Claas what he is doing out past curfew, and suggests that he go home. Claas continues to wander until he arrives at the cathedral. The massive building is under heavy guard. Emblazoned on the guards’ armor, and featured prominently on the building, is a symbol that closely resembles the one on Claas's pendant. Claas inquires about the building, but the guards tell him to come back during the day when the church is open to the public.

Claas decides that he will return to Prof. Parkas's home, but as he leaves the cathedral grounds, he notices that a couple of guards begin to follow him at a distance. As he heads towards the university, he sees two more knights on the road ahead of him. As he approaches, the two knights ahead of him draw their weapons and charge him. Claas slips into a side alley to escape, but discovers two more knights blocking that route. Class begins to climb up the side of a building to escape, as the knights draw bows and begin to bombard him with arrows. After a hard struggle, Claas reaches the roof of the building. As soon as he stands on the roof looking out over the city, his vision warps a third time. This time he sees an explosion erupt some ways away, and then as time seems to fly by in fast-forward, a fire sweeps across the city. After a moment, his vision returns to normal again. Meanwhile, the knights search for a way to get up to the roof, but Claas evades them by leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Eventually he shakes off their pursuit, and after resting for a bit, returns to Prof. Parkas.

When he arrives at Prof. Parkas's place, he finds that the young woman is there nursing some minor burns she has received. Claas officially meets her for the first time. Her name is Lynn Deyu, and she reveals that the young man she's been fighting is her younger brother, Larry. Agitated by being suddenly transported to another time, Larry took off to try to find a way back to the present. When Lynn tried to prevent him from doing anything reckless they fought again, and she lost track of him. Claas decides that it's too late to do anything else and Prof. Parkas offers him a bed for the night.

When Claas wakes up the next morning, Lynn and the Professor are already up. Claas leaves the house again and visits the university library. The library is a large, four story building, which occupies a quarter of a block. When Claas enters the building, he senses a large, but faint, "presence" like the one he felt in the college gym in the present. The "presence" seems as though it lies underneath the solid stone floor of the library. Claas finds a stairwell, and climbs up to roof of the building to survey the surroundings. From there he can see the cathedral and the steam coach station. He also notices a castle on the North end of the city. After this, Claas returns to Prof. Parkas's place and tells Lynn he's going to look for her brother, and a way for them to get back to the present. Lynn says she'll come along, because she doesn't think Claas could handle Larry if he decided to put up a fight.

The first place that Claas and Lynn visit is the Royal Steam Coach Station. Having come during the day this time, they find that it is bustling with activity. Inside there are four sets of train tracks. Two of them head south to other cities beyond Kingstown. One of the others goes north, straight to the cathedral, and the fourth one goes north to Ralaskas Castle. Tickets are being sold to ride the first two lines, but not the latter two. Claas and Lynn decided that Larry probably wouldn't have left by train, so they leave the station and head north on foot. They visit the castle briefly but find no leads.

The next obvious place to look is at the cathedral. When they visit during the day they find people going in and out freely. Inside the main hall of the cathedral, people sit in pews praying, while a priest goes through a series of rituals in front of the alter. The symbol from Claas pendant is featured prominently inside the church, and Claas asks Lynn if she knows anything about it. Lynn says that she’s seen it on a few old churches in the present, and that she knows it to be a common "holy symbol", but she doesn't know it's exact meaning or significance. Inside the cathedral, Claas senses many different "presences", but none of them seem to be emanating from anyone he can see.

Sneaking past knights of the Church, Claas and Lynn leave the main hall of the cathedral and begin to explore a network of rooms and hallways not open to the public. Eventually they find a stairwell, and climbing down a level, find themselves in an extensive dungeon where prisoners of the Church are held. Using Lynn's sonic blast power, they distract some guards and delve even deeper into the dungeon. Finally they reach a large set of double doors. Beyond these lies an even longer network of tunnels where the walls, ceilings and floors are covered in giant black spider webs. Echoing through the dark halls come the screams of those suffering at the hands of the inquisition. To be continued...


That was our second game. Overall, it was a pretty good session, though looking back I think it could have gone better if I had done a little more planning. I'm looking forward to playing again next week.