[This is an AP of the second game in my current campaign. Note that it is a long post - 2500 words long.]

In the second game of my Warlords of Atlantis campaign, Dina (a Greek alchemist/engineer), her husband Ralda (a Thalangarian – think ice age north European – mercenary scout) their friend Mulius (an aging Atlantean explorer and scholar) have been compelled to accompany an Atlantean prince - Prince Taras of Moytura – on an expedition to Sokaria (North Africa 10,000 years ago). Prince Taras has an ancient map that shows the location of the tomb of Gon-Sar, an Atlantean soldier of great renown from the early days of Atlantean imperial conquests.
 
Gon-Sar’s tomb supposedly contains a cache of sunstones – the advanced tech energy sources that power Atlantean war machines. Atlanteans have lost the science of making sunstones, which makes any surviving ones very desirable and effectively priceless. Despite Mulius’s fame as an explorer, Prince Taras has refused to show him either the map or the accompanying notes about the location of the tomb.
 
They sailed to the Moyturan colony of Utikan in Sokaria – the jumping off point for their trek into the Sokarian interior. They sailed in an Atlantian ‘Ghost Ship’. This is a warship similar to the triremes of the Greek nations of the Inner Sea, but there are no rowers – a sunstone powers the oars on both sides  of the ship. (This is faster than human rowers can row and the ship doesn’t need to rest for the rowers to recover – effectively it’s like a trireme powered by a steam engine that doesn’t need coal.)
 
The prince was accompanied by an honour guard of Atlantean hoplites led by a taciturn warrior called Pylartes. Watching the hoplites train in their bronze armour on the voyage – with no rowers there is plenty of room on the ghost ship – Ralda suggested that “Those boys will burn up in Sokaria.” Meanwhile Dina idly wondered what would happen if one could crack open the metal casing of a sunstone, something that has never been done. Could you use the power of a second sunstone to do that? (Is Dina trying to invent nuclear weapons???)
 
On arrival in Utikan they met the governor of the colony, the Viceroy Lord Balash. He was accompanied by his secretary, an elderly man called Kur-Alanu. They were introduced to the commander of the garrison, General Selu-Ku, and his son, Captain Chalan, who led the garrison’s hoplites. Chalan addressed the prince in a familiar fashion as simply ‘Taras’ before being rebuked by his father. Chalan apologized, but as a old friend of Prince Taras’s younger brother – Prince Tirigan – he had met Prince Taras when he was a child and he said had simply forgotten to use his title.
 
Prince Taras cordially hated his brother Prince Tirigan, and the feeling was mutual. This is common knowledge. It was hard to see Captain Chalan’s dropping of Prince Taras’s title as anything more than a deliberate slight. The Viceroy diplomatically covered up this faux pas and had his new guests shown to their sumptuous rooms in his palace.
 
 At the feast on the first night to welcome the prince, Dina observed the body language and obvious dislike between the wife of the Viceroy – Lady Iphis - and the wife of the General – Lady Panope. There was also a tension between Lady Panope and her husband. Chalan was in merry form and had something to say in every conversation.
 
After the meal was over the diners watched some skilful dancers as they finished their wine. The lead dancer was a very pretty young woman called Rhea, and she took a bow at the end of the performance. Which is when Chalan rose and grabbed the woman and threw her into Prince Taras’s lap. “Please enjoy our hospitality, your highness!”
 
This caused a bit of a scene. The General apologised profusely for his son’s behaviour and he forced Chalan to leave with him and his mother. (In the confusion, no one noticed Chalan snaffling Prince Taras’s water cup.) Prince Taras said the young officer was probably drunk and to pay no mind. The party broke up soon after.
 
Two days of obtaining mules for the expedition and gathering further supplies ensued. Ralda was busy assisting Mulius with that while the prince was studying the map in his rooms. Dina explored the palace garden with Lady Iphis, who was responsible for the planning and design of the garden. Lady Iphis gossiped about Lady Panope, who apparently longed to return to  Moytura, but her husband the general refused her leave to go. General Selu-Ku had once been held in great regard by the King of Moytura, but a botched battle in the last war with one of the other Atlantean kingdoms had seen him posted to this sleepy colony. He had dragged his family with him, and both his wife and his son hated him for it.
 
Early that afternoon a swift despatch boat arrived from Moytura – King Bardisan has fallen ill, and it is though he may not survive! Prince Taras as heir to the throne obviously had to return home directly. A farewell dinner was arranged for that night and the prince would leave the next morning. Prince Taras passed command of the expedition to Mulius and they spent all afternoon going over the map and the accompanying commentary.
 
That evening the meal passed without much jollity, but still the dancers entertained the guests. At the end of her dance, Rhea the dancer suddenly launched herself at Prince Taras and plunged a dagger into his side! Pylartes the guard commander struck her  head from her shoulders with one sweep of his sword. The prince was down and convulsing, frothing at the lips. The blade had obviously been poisoned. Dina tore his clothes aside and attempted to suck poison from the wound. She managed to do some good, but Prince Taras soon fell into a coma.
 
The dancer was dead, but Dina and Ralda was sure Chalan was behind the attack. Since their arrival he had hardly made a secret of his contempt for Prince Taras. But they were nobodies, and he was an Atlantean noble. Dina thought that the Viceroy and others also suspected Chalen, but without proof they did nothing. Also, if the King was dead and Taras died the crown would pass to Prince Tirigan, and who wanted to arrest a close friend of the new king?
 
The foremost healer in the colony was Athamas the Sage, the chief priest of the temple of the Atlantean god Damurama the Healer. He attended to prince and for some hours Prince Taras  seemed quieter but then he became restless and feverish. Suddenly the prince’s eyes opened, and he began screaming – “It comes in the darkness! It comes for me!!” Athamas gave the prince a draught and the patient quietened again, but Dina (who has some knowledge of healing herself) began to be suspicious of the priest’s treatment of Prince Taras. She confided in Mulius and then observed Athamas closely.
 
She became sure that he was simply drugging the prince while doing nothing to treat either the poison or the fever that now gripped him. She noted that the fever had only taken hold after the priest started treating him. When Prince Taras suddenly rose up again, she told Ralda to hold Athamas while she took the flask from his hand and gave it to Mulius. Ignoring the priest’s protest and the Viceroy’s demands to know what was going on, she tried to calm the prince so she could examine him.
 
Prince Taras screamed again and said, “Dina! It comes in the dark! The beast comes to sever my soul from my body! I can see it! It tears at my soul!” 
 
“This is magic, not poison,” said Dina, “ and the priest is drugging the prince, so the magic has time to attack him!”
 
Mulius sniffed the contents of the flask. “A sedative. It puts him to sleep, but nothing else. And a demon attacks him in his sleep from a distance – I’ve heard of this sort of sorcery before. It’s Sokarian, I think.”
 
Dina started to treat the prince to keep him conscious and to give him strength to fight both the  fever and the magical attacks. Meanwhile Athamas was taken away for interrogation. He soon started telling all he knew. He had been paid by Captain Chalan to keep the prince unconscious and to not deal with the infection from the poisoned blade. Chalan was arrested and General Selu-Ku was asked to explain his son’s actions. The General claimed to have no knowledge of his son’s actions and renounced his only heir as a traitor.
 
Some hours later the prince’s temperature was down and while he was weak from loss of blood and the effects of the poison, physically he seemed much better. The sorcerous attacks continued however, about once every hour. Mullius asked if there were any known sorcerers in Utikan. The Viceroy’s secretary, Kur-Alanu, said that there were none, but that over a year ago a priest at the temple of Damurama the Healer was discovered to be teaching himself magic. This priest, Kallipos, was dismissed by Athamas and now lived outside the city in the Sokarian village of the local  Wakaye clan. The people there have accepted Kallipos, and among them he is known as Tsebo.
 
The secretary Kur-Alanu clearly had eyes on people both inside and outside the colony’s city, although Chalan’s treasonous actions had gone undetected. Kur-Alanu agreed with Mulius that killing the sorcerer would end the magical attacks on the prince. Dina and Ralda said they would deal with the mage if Kur-Alanu could provide a guide to the Wakaye village. Mulius said he would accompany them, as he spoke perfect Sokarian. A guide was found and they set off into the night.
 
It was dawn as they approached the Wakaye village. People were preparing food and starting to move around the settlement. They were spotted and approached by curious but friendly people who spoke to them in a mix of Atlantean and Sokarian. With surprise out of the question Mulius explained that they were looking for the man called Tsebo. They were taken to the leader of the village who wanted to know why they wanted to see Tsebo. He had never been visited by his own people since he had come to live with the Wakaye, and the people of the village loved him. The threat was obvious. Mulius lied about not wanting to harm Tsebo, and so they were directed to his house at the edge of the village. This was going to be difficult to pull off and survive.
 
Kallipos aka Tsebo was a middle-aged man carrying a bitter grudge against the colony, but he denied all knowledge of the magical attacks on Prince Taras. He agreed that the magic sounded like a form of Sokarian magic, but it was one he had no knowledge of – his studies were based on Atlantean practice. A quick check of his magical texts confirmed this. Dina and Mulius were inclined to believe in his innocence.
 
Kallipos said that there was a Sokarian wizard living in a cave some hours walk away. He had been expelled from the village for working magic against the villagers. His name was Lefu. Dina said that to prove his innocence Kallipos had to come with them to this cave where they would deal with this sorcerer. Kallipos said he was a priest not a soldier but grudgingly buckled on a battered old sword.
 
A few hours later found them outside a cave, the entrance to which was decorated with skulls both human and animal. Inside it was dark but a small fire was glowing. In the light they saw an elderly Sokarian tending a cooking pot over fire. He smiled and said, “Travellers, you look tired. Please rest and share my humble meal.”
 
He looked like a sweet old grandfather, an impression only increased by the way he petted a small lion cub that he treated like a kitten.
 
“We’ve come to stop your magical attacks on Prince Taras – how do you target them, by the way?” said Dina.
 
“Ahh..,” said Lefu, before muttering another phrase. Suddenly the lion cub was surrounded by smoke and standing in its place was a seven-foot-tall demon. It launched itself at them, razor sharp fangs chomping!
 
Kallipos froze to the spot, goggle eyed, while Ralda threw both his throwing axes at the demon. He hit with both! But the foul monster closed the distance on Dina. She hacked at the demon with her sword but missed. The demon swiped at her with its long claws but missed. There was no sign of Lefu, who had scuttled off to the rear of the cave and was swallowed in the shadows.
 
Ralda had drawn his two bronze short swords, and he buried both blades deep into the monster’s trunk. It roared and slashed the barbarian’s side with his claws. Dina had stepped to the side of the horror and cut its head clean off – dousing her husband in a gush of black blood.
 
Kallipos finished a short chant and raised his old sword high. It burst into light, illuminating the rear of the cave, where Mulius had been searching for Lefu in the dark. Lefu had been making for a passage at the rear of the cave, but his escape route was now visible thanks to the light from Kallipos’s sword. Mulius charged him cut at his arm, as the sorcerer began to gesture and chant. Lefu shouted in alarm and pain, as Dina rushed up and thrust her blade into the old man’s chest. He crumpled and died at her feet.
 
(They didn’t search the cave, so they never found Prince Tara’s water cup from the feast on their first night in the colony.)
 
It was towards dawn the following day when they got back to the Viceroy’s palace, Kallipos refusing to accompany them. They found the palace in uproar.
 
Not long after they had left the previous day, Lady Panope had bribed a guard to free her son Calan from his cell. Rather than fleeing straight away, Chalan had gone to the garrison and persuaded over half of his men to desert with him! The Viceroy had ordered General Selu-Ku to take the colony’s cavalry to arrest his son and bring him back for judgment. But the General had not returned. Despite the fact that his wife had been arrested, and despite his protestations of loyalty and denouncing of Chalan, General Selu-Ku had joined him in revolt.
 
Since the destruction of the demon and Lefu, Prince Taras seemed to be recovering although he was very weak. Also, a second fast despatch boat had arrived saying that the King had recovered and was no longer in danger. General Selu-Ku and Chalan had moved too early, but they still outnumbered the Viceroy’s loyal troops by a large margin. “We need to plan our next moves,” said the Viceroy.
 
Then a guard rushed in, saying, “My Lord, the harbour is on fire!!”
 
(And that is where we left it. We played the third game in this campaign yesterday – report to be written.)

Well, Paul asked about the characters in my current campaign, so here’s some background.
 
These are the starting backgrounds of the two main characters in my Warlords of Atlantis campaign. It’s as they first appeared back in 2022. My PC is Ralda who plays second fiddle in a 1GM-1Player game for my wife Alison, who’s PC is Dina. Ralda was originally her father’s slave who trained her in combat. She freed him from slavery – which legally she wasn’t entitled to do – and now he is her husband.
 
This role of ‘Allied PC’ is one we’ve used successfully in these games for a while now. They are generated just like PCs but have no Hero Points and have minimal or zero advancement. This mimics the ‘best buddy’/sidekick character in tv shows who is the ally of the protagonist – who are competent but don’t really change much over the run of a series. In play,  Allied PCs hang back and follows the PCs lead. They may make useful minor suggestions, but don’t take an active part in future plans or problem solving – that’s the PCs job.
 
Ralda of the Raven Clan is a Thalangarian northern barbarian. Ralda left his clan and the frozen north some years back, and his hunting skills got him regular employment as a mercenary scout for some years. But as time passed, he felt that at 30 years old he should give up soldiering before his luck runs out. So, as he wanted to stay in the civilized south he became a thief. Finally, his luck did run out after all, and he faced the gallows, along with his sidekick, a fellow Thalangarian called Hiruz.
 
But then a rich Greek used his influence to purchase both of them as slaves – even though Hiruz suffered a crippling leg would when arrested. Ralda has been tasked with being a bodyguard and providing security for the rich man on his wealthy town house, while Hiruz does menial jobs around the house. As he is being fed and housed better than he managed as a thief and he isn't being treated harshly, Ralda's was prepared to stick with this arrangement for a while before figuring out a way for him and Hiruz to make a successful escape.
 
But now he has been asked to teach his master's daughter knife fighting and to accompany her on a trip to Atlantis. There is something fishy being planned, and he seems to be part of it!
 
Ralda is not what people expect from a Thalangarian, being only of average height and with dark hair. He wears his hair shoulder length and keeps it out of his eyes with a thin leather headband. His hair is kept longer at the back, and her wears this in a thick plat. He has a wiry build – all skin and bone – rather than the muscle-bound form of a stereotypical Thalangarian.
 
(This description taken from a jogger we saw running one day, as we crossed EsmaRALDA Road.)
 
Dina of Mysios is the daughter of Vettias of Mysios, a noted merchant and member of the Navarch’s Council. (The Navarch is the merchant prince who rules Mysios.) Vettias is also a noted Alchemist. Dina is his oldest daughter from his second marriage, and he has indulged her terribly. Still unmarried at 18 (so an ‘old maid’) Dina is regarded as headstrong and independently minded. She is also a skilled Alchemist/Engineer, who is currently working on a design for a diving bell (Mysios is noted for the quality of its sponges – a major quality export item from the island).
 
For reasons best known to himself, her father has bought two new Thalangarian slaves – one of whom is badly lame – and has insisted that she learns to defend herself. So, the able-bodied slave is teaching her to use a dagger (a waste of her time in her opinion). Still, her father is not himself lately, as his eldest son – Halius – has gone missing in the great Atlantian port city of Triton; so, Dina is decided to accept the training with good grace. Apparently, her barbarian instructor says that she is a quick learner and has natural talent for this sort of thing – imagine!
 
(Mysios is a small island in the settings Hesperides chain of the Inner Sea.)

[This is an AP of my current campaign - note that it is a long post, some 1533 words long.]

The third session of my Warlords of Atlantis campaign started with Dina, Ralda and Mulius accompanying Prince Taras’s honour guard and those members of the city garrison that remained loyal rushing to the harbour of Utikan. Rebellious cavalry had descended on the port and was torching the harbour.
 
Before rushing down the long stairway from the Viceroy’s castle to the city and the port beyond, Dina remembered (at the cost of a Hero Point) that the ingredients to her contraceptive lotion seemed to unnerve horses and other animals – there was something about the smell that they found deeply unpleasant! Grabbing her lotion and filching a set of bellows from the backsmith’s stables, she followed the others down the stairway.
 
In the harbour some cavalrymen had dismounted and were setting fire to warehouses, while their fellow soldiers remained mounted and kept the men from the town putting the fires out. Dina saw a young man of no more than 15 dead in the street with a javelin in his back. The honour guard pitched into the horsemen, while the garrison troops helped the townsmen put out fires on the warehouses.
 
However, the first thing the rebels had torched were the ships in the harbour, including the ghost ship they had arrived on, and the two small fast despatch ghost ships. General Selu-Ku was trying to cut off the colony from the outside world.
 
No sooner had they arrived in the chaos of the port than Dina was charged by a cavalryman. Praying that her idea would work, Dina waited until the horseman was nearly on her before working the bellows. The Gods (and the dice) were kind – the stratagem worked! As soon as the horse got a face full of the lotion it reared up and threw its rider. Mulius had picked up a discarded spear from somewhere and the old bloke skewered the rider to the pavement. As the man gasped in shock, Dina bent down and slashed his throat.
 
Ralda retrieved the soldier’s cavalry spear and handed it to his wife. Dina rammed the butt spike into the gap between the paving stones and stood next to the upright spear as another cavalryman charged. Again, Dina scored a hit on the horse with the lotion and again a rider was thrown – Ralda killed him with a single thrust of his spear. Another rider appeared, and another. Dina’s aim stayed true, and the lotion worked each time – and the soldiers always lost their seat, fell to earth and were skewered.
 
A bugle sounded and the cavalry began to withdraw, but not before another horseman tried to run the party down. This man still had a javelin left, but he missed in a cast at Ralda. He then charged Dina, who missed with the lotion spray! She quickly dodged the spear point and snatched up her cavalry spear as the man turned to have another go. She got inside the soldier’s thrust, turned his spear aside and buried her spear in his throat.
 
A trumpet sounded and the cavalry rode off.
 
Some time later back at the palace a conference was held in Prince Taras’s bedroom. The prince was propped up in bed and was obviously still weak, but he listened intently to the report of the cavalry raid. Plans were discussed about how they should respond to General Selu-Ku’s treason. Mulius was invited to attend as a respected scholar, and Dina and Ralda followed him into the room. The Viceroy objected to their presence but was overruled by Prince Taras.
 
 The general was obviously trying to cut off the colony from the outside world by firing the ships in the harbour. No ship of ocean-going size survived. Dina suggested that the  sunstones that powered the ghost ships should be recovered from the harbour bottom as soon as possible, along with the bronze gears and struts that powered the ghost ship oars. However, it would take a good deal of time to build a new hull to receive the equipment. (Was Dina still toying with the idea of detonating a sunstone?)
 
The military situation was not good. The majority of the infantry in the colony, and most of the cavalry have gone over to the rebels, although General Selu-Ku and his son Captain Chalan have probably told them a pack of lies. There is a fort in the east of the colony and one in the south, both of which hold more troops, mostly cavalry. It was assumed that the general will attempt to take both.
 
Pylartes, the commander of the honour guard, entered the room carrying a letter. It had been found pinned to a door in the harbour by a dagger. It was addressed to the Viceroy and was from General Selu-Ku. It suggested a parlay to be held midday tomorrow by ‘the bend where the river turns east’. The General wanted to discuss terms to accept the surrender of the colony.
 
It was agreed that the prince should not go. There was some discussion about if Selu-Ku should be told that the King had recovered from his illness and that Prince Taras was still alive. Also, should whoever went to the parlay offer the general anything? Dina suggested that his wife could be returned to him, as an act of good faith. Mulius suggested the general and his wife should be offered exile instead of death, with the loss of all lands and wealth held in Atlantis – but they would have to surrender their son for punishment.
 
In the end it was decided that he should be offered nothing, but the emissary should simply hear what he had to say. It was decided that Mulius was the nearest they had to a neutral party, so he should represent the colony at the parley. Mulius declined a military escort but asked Dina and Ralda to accompany him. The rendezvous was half a day’s ride away, so they planned to set off at dawn. That night Dina filled the bellows with the remaining stock of her contraceptive lotion.
 
On the ride to the parley Mulius said he would ignore the orders of the prince and offer the General and his wife exile if he would surrender Chalan for judgement. Mulius did not expect the general to accept this deal, but he thought it was good to get it rejected so any accompanying troopers would realise the course the general was set on. He assumed that most if not all of the rebellious soldiers had been spun some tale that put the rebellion is a good light.
 
Around midday they reached the bend in the river. They had not pushed their horses as they wanted them to still be fresh if they needed to flee. No sooner had the arrived at the rendezvous than a force of some 60-70 horsemen burst from a small stand of trees and quickly surrounded them. There seemed that fleeing would not be an option. Once they were surrounded an officer signalled and General Selu-Ku and Captain Chalan rode out for cover.
 
The parley did not go well.
 
Mulius made his offer, at which Chalan laughed, and General Selu-Ku rejected it outright. In turn, he offered to accept the surrender of the Viceroy and to allow him and any of his followers who wished to leave the colony to go in peace. Mulius pointed out that more soldiers would only arrive from Moytura in due course to retake the colony, and the general and all his followers would be facing overwhelming force. Led by King Bardisan. “The king still lives, my general.”
 
Dina asked if the general was willing to sacrifice his wife, at which Chalan grew angry. The general told his son to hold his peace, but Dina couldn’t resist taunting him, disclosing that Prince Taras lived and his attempt at assassination by sorcery had failed. The general looked disconcerted by this, as if he had no idea of his son’s use of sorcery. Dina smiled and began sprinkling some herbs in front of her horse while looking directly at Chalan.
 
We found your sorcerer Captain, and your Lefu is now our Lefu – this is Lefu’s magic!
(It was actually herbs to flavour a stew, if they had had to stay away from the city for another day.)
 
Chalan roared with rage and spurred his mount towards Dina. Deaf to his father’s command to stop, Chalan drew his sword and cut at Dina. Dina drew her sword and got in the first blow. Her strike did little damage, but Chalan fell from his steed. Shouts went up from both Selu-Ku and Mulius, but Chalan and Dina ignored them. As Chalan got to his feet and stabbed upwards, Dina also used the point and stabbed down. Her blade ripped through Chalan’s throat, and he fell dying between the two horses.
 
General Selu-Ku roared, and Mulius, Dina and Ralda suddenly faced a wall of spear points. Selu-Ku stared speechless at Dina, radiating hate, cradling Chalan in his hands.
 
“See to my son,” he commanded the nearest troopers. “Captain Tisandros, secure the prisoners. We return to Fort Chania. For a cremation and an execution.”
 
(We played the following session last Sunday.)