HARLEQUIN’S RETURN

Look, this is complicated. And I don’t want to tell you all of it - if you want to know about the adventure itself, go buy it. However, I do want to give you some of the character information which came out during the game, so here it is. In the beginning there is a loose-lipped free spirit who considers it to be his mission in life to reveal everyone’s deepest darkest secret. That spirit pointed out that Runner had betrayed Koren and sold him to have his soul destroyed by a mantis shaman (see the first half of the set up story) and that Warder knew about this. He pointed out that Lena knew of the mantis shaman and had protected her, and that Petal was the mantis shaman and had destroyed twelve men's souls to invest their bodies with mantis spirits. Anderson was not happy. His first instinct was to geek Petal. Lena pointed out that she was required, by the terms of her agreement with Petal, to provide the mantis shaman with physical protection. If he attacked Petal before she broke her end of the deal, Lena would be forced to defend Petal, therefore Anderson had to agree not to attack until the deal was broken. Thus, Anderson went into watch and wait mode, waiting for Petal to (inevitably) break the rules. Petal, rubbing her hands with glee and the situation, began learning a "slay brown-haired dog shaman" spell. And Lena started developing an ulcer. (This situation eventually DID get resolved when he attacked Petal.)

Anderson did not appreciate any of this, but his loathing of the situation was overwhelmed by the shame and fear of rejection he felt when the spirit revealed that Anderson had killed his own father. Lena didn’t give a damn about what Anderson had done - when she heard the story she figured the old man hadn’t been hurt enough. She was grateful that Anderson did not seem to want to disown her because of her secret and they had a rather bucolic good time through the first couple worlds.

Warder was watching Lena and Anderson making goo-goo eyes at each other with patience and amusement. Petal watched with nausea. Runner decided that this world hopping was "causing him to lose metal cohesion and his sense of himself" and invented rolls to make to decide when he would go insane and geek us all (Can you tell this player is about to leave the group?).

Towards the end of the old west, Lena jumped in front of a fireball saving the girl and disappearing in a bit of ash. Anderson, who had been enjoying that world as it allowed him and Lena to explore all the things that can be done with a flotation spell, was understandably distressed. As a result when he was propositioned in the next world by a certain gentleman’s wife he turned her down out of loyalty to Lena. (Lena still thinks he slept with that woman because of what another loose-lipped free spirit said during the Imago incident.)

Blade, Jericho and Nox were also involved in this grand tale, but did not have a significant impact on the events occurring between the PCs.