Tale of Navri

Tale of Navri

Kyle Willey An Aduelle Adventure

This game was made for 1km1kt's 24 hour LittleSpaces RPG competition, and this version is theoriginal made for that competition.

The creation of this game started at 11:30 AMMay 5th (Arizona time) and ended at 5:07 AMMay 6th.

You'd never guess what happened the other day; I had ashipment going from Azekal City to a small farming town, andthe captain apparently caused the skyship to get upset and gorogue. -Narvi WindriderThe Tale of Narvi is set in the Aduelle universe,a realm of high magic fantasy with darkerundertones created by Jutil the Worldbringer.More specifically, it is a game/adventure hybridfor one player that takes place on a trade airshipbelonging to Narvi Windrider, a prominentAzekali merchant, carrying medicine to a towndealing with an epidemic that requirespowerful magical concoctions to cure.

Setting

Aduelle is a fantasy world filled to the brimwith adventure and danger; it is built aroundthe strong magic powers that Jutil imbued itwith when the world was created, and all majorsocieties are built around a strong magicaltradition.

Cosmology:

The important players in Aduelle are Jutil andhis avatars and the homunculi, who come fromthe Depth, which is the source of magic Jutilused to create Aduelle.

Jutil exists beyond Aduelle, but is activelyinvolved in affairs there, especially if oneconsiders his avatars to be direct extensions ofhimself. Jutil is far from omnipotent, butbarring rare occasions where he is stripped ofhis powers (the last known one being hismoonlighting as Doctor Azazael during hisconfrontation with Coyote) he is by far the mostpowerful being in the cosmos.

Homunculi, on the other hand, come from the

Depth. They are not capable of enteringAduelle uninvited, and must have a ready host;they are incapable of possessing living targetsand as such require a prepared physical vessel.The skyship the players are stuck on iscommanded by a homunculus going by thename of Keeton.

Technology:

While most of Aduelle is built around magic, itis used systematically and consistently. For thesake of punctuality, most of the detail in theTale of Narvi will focus on Azekali technology,since it takes place on one of Narvi's skyships.

Azekali technology is built almost entirelyaround magical crafting; while some othercultures choose to build using mundanemethods then enchant their objects, mostcraftsmen in Azekal rely entirely upon magic tobuilt their products. In addition, almost allAzekali techology is powered directly bymagic, with few or no moving parts.

Skyships are an Azekali engineeringmasterwork; while they are not exclusive to thetraders of Azekal, the skyships used by thelikes of Narvi are capable of flying using runesand glyphs as magical batteries; while magic isusually plentiful on the ground, it gets patchyin the skies above Aduelle, and as such it isoften necessary to store the magical energy inorder to keep the skyship flying betweenhotspots of magical activity; while most ships'batteries hold about 200 hours worth ofmagical power, it is still standard operatingprocedure to keep a couple powerful magi onboard to keep the runes refreshed just in case.

Gliderships are also Azekali, and are unique tothem due to the difficulties inherent in purelymagical flight. They are light, small craftscapable of gliding through thermals andmagical patches, and either function with thepassenger in an enclosed compartment orstrapped to the bottom, akin to gliders in ourworld. They always rise in the presence ofmagic, due to their design, so when they arekept tethered to a heavy object when not in

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use; like when being kept in a skyship foremergency purposes.

Azekali Society:

Azekali society is built around a weakmonarchy with many powerful merchanthouses.

The king is limited by a constitution that statesthat he can have no more than a thousandsoldiers on hand in times of peace as well as apersonal retinue of two-hundred and fiftybattlemages. Needless to say, this was animpressive number millennia ago when theGreat King gave the people of Azekal basicrights, but now that Azekal is a boomingtrading civilization with plenty of immigrationdue to its lax citizenship-by-sponsorship andpowerful merchant families competing forpower, the several hundred thousand Azekalicitizens are no longer heavily influenced byKing Azalak.

On the other hand, the merchant houses do amoderate job of keeping order. While they maybe somewhat unruly in their personal conflicts,the merchant lords want no disruption to thenormal function of Azekali society, especiallygiven the fact that many of them are meresponsored immigrants rather than nativeAzekali, like Narvi himself, and would attract alot of unwanted attention if they got in trouble.As such the houses try to keep their feuding tominimal levels to avoid hurting themselves andtheir allies by attracting the scrutiny of the kingor the populace.

Narvi himself is a mid-ranking merchant lordwith the Windrider family; he hails from thenorthern lands, though he often gives outdifferent nationalities to different people, so hisexact origin is unknown. You are on his ship toensure that nothing goes wrong, and thatmeans the mess that Captain Tyret caused isnow your problem.

The Scenario

You were hired as a watchman for Captain

Tyret's trip; it wasn't far, not even leavingAzekal, so you figured it was easy cash, honestwork, and a good chance to see some sights.

Then you met Captain Tyret. At first glance,he's an ordinary, well-known captain, but hehas a devilish temper. The ship was movingslower than he would have liked, so he chewedout the homunculus in charge of actually flyingthe ship and managing all the critical details,Keeton. Tyret being the man he is, threatsstarted flying around and he swore todismantle Keeton when the ship lands. Andnow Keeton's keeping the ship up in the sky.You have to get it down, one way or another.

Your goal is to convince Keeton to set theskyship down at its destination, and you areallowed to do whatever pops into your head toget it done.

The Skyship:

Narvi's not particularly creative with his skyshipdesign, making it barely more than a flyingbrick (since Azekali ships don't operate usinglift or mundane thrust, and rely on magicallevitation operating outside the physicalrealms, they are seldom engineered to begraceful and sleek). It has an open deck with ahatch in the center to remove cargo from, aswell as two elevated platforms; one for thecaptain to stand on in case of battle andmanually direct the craft, and another forlookouts. The lookout's elevated platform alsohas a catwalk leading out beyond the ship'sglyphs' magical bubble, allowing a mastermage to replenish the glyphs with outsidemagical power.

The captain's chamber is at the rear of the ship,at the same height as the cargo hatch. It holdshis private chambers as well as a small armory.On the opposite side of the ship is Keeton'schamber. His homunculus form is bound to agiant Lantern of Life suspended in this room,and though the homunculus is actually part ofthe entire vessel the Lantern of Life ensuresthat he can survive any damage to the ship. Itwould be necessary to destroy both objects to

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“kill” Keeton and send him back to the Depth.

Below the deck there are some passengercompartments holding the various passengers(see The Passengers for more detail), and evenlower in the ship is the massive cargo bay,secured in a metal vault that reaches throughthe passenger level to allow easier unloading.At the very bottom of the ship is a small deckthat holds gliders to allow people to safelyleave the ship in the case of an emergency.

How to Play

Characters in Tale of Narvi are created using alight ruleset built to quickly and easilydetermine outcomes of events. Characters havefive Traits: Combat, Stealth, Magic, Charisma,and Handiness. These are given a ratingbetween zero and four which is then addedonto all skill rolls, which simply use two eight-sided dice (or d8) to determine a result (dicerollers are available on the internet should apair of physical d8's be unavailable).

Combat focuses on brute strength and fighting,in addition to the agile movements required toland devastating blows.

Stealth focuses on getting around opponentsand their deterrents, larceny, and even primitiveforms of forensics and investigation.

Magic is the trait that focuses on the usage,channeling, and disruption of magical energiesfor one purpose or another.

Charisma measures a character's looks andability to get through social situations withoutcausing offense and assure another party oftheir honesty.

Handiness focuses on all things not strictlyfalling under other skills, such as a character'sskill at their profession, their lore of Aduelle,and such things as awareness, persistence, andluck.

Making a Character:

Your character is a watchman, but that doesn'tnecessarily mean that they're a combat monsteror archmagus. Your main job is to smooth outproblems, and every skill you have can be usedto work through the issues around you.

You gain ten points to spend on your traits,which you can spend in any way you like, solong as no trait exceeds a rating 4.

Example: Jim wants to make a character whocan beat any taker in a straight fight, sneakpast any observer, and sling some mojo around.He doesn't so much care about his charactergetting along with others, so he decides to put4 points in Combat, 3 in Stealth, 3 in Magic,and leave Charisma and Handiness at a ratingof 0.

Recording Your Character:

There is a character sheet available in aseparate PDF that you can print or modify inyour PDF reader to allow you to tally yourcharacter's ratings, as well as track yourprogress through the scenario. It is importantto note that your character starts with 5 Healthand 20 Resolve, which may be lost throughoutthe course of your adventure, and that there isalso a section for Secrets, which should be leftblank until you are instructed to mark somesecrets down. There are also two scales onwhich to measure your influence with bothKeeton and Captain Tyret both as a Friend andas a Threat, which will determine the ending.

Wandering the Skyship:

The skyship is divided up into several differentareas (See the Map of the Skyship at the veryend of this book) each of which has its ownunique encounters. You as a player may chooseto investigate these in any order, rememberingthat some areas will require you to pass aSituation to move through them; you should notmove into an area without checking that thepathway there is clear. You may interact withany character you have access to, though some

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will require you to have acquired a certainSecret. The player should be assumed to start intheir quarters, Area 10.

“Calming” Situations:

Of course, your Trait ratings don't just sit thereand look pretty, you will run into Situations thatrequire an immediate reaction or response.When this happens, you roll two eight sideddice and add on your trait modifiers.

Each situation will have a notation like thefollowing: (Trait; Trait, 10). This means that youwill add both the listed traits to the result ofyour dice to determine your final result. If yourresult is higher or equal to the target number,you would win, while if your result is lower youwould lose. After you finish this situation, youmay then consult the appropriate page in theBooklet of Secrets to determine what exactlyhappened.

The Booklet of Secrets may draw you intoanother Situation, in which case continue withsituations until the Booklet tells you you arefree to explore the ship again. If the Booklet ofSecrets tells you to check off a Secret on yourcharacter sheet, do so.

You may not attempt to try the same Situationtwice, unless you are explicitly told by the Bookof Secrets that it is permissible.

Example:

Jim's character gets into a fight with a mugger. The challengeis (Combat; Magic/Stealth, 14), and Jim rolls a 7. Heconsults his trait ratings, and adds 4 for combat and 3 for hisMagic (he had 3 Stealth also, but he could only use one orthe other). His final result is 14, a success so he checks tosee what the page he should consult in the Booklet of Secretsis, then looks to see what happens should he have succeeded.The Booklet tells him he restores some Resolve (he hadn'tlost any, so he doesn't need to worry), and that he is free tocontinue on his way, so he chooses a place to go next.Ending the Game:

If at any time you convince Keeton to land youshould go to the “Ending” portion of theBooklet of Secrets (page 91), which will thendirect you to your appropriate ending. Inaddition, some incredibly disastrous events maylead to your death or those of everyone aboard(including Keeton, potentially), in which casethe Situation's result in the Book of Secrets willmention that the game ends.

Finally, if you ever run out of health, the gameends with you failing at whatever you weretrying to do and becoming a lifeless corpse. Goto page 99 in the Book of Secrets should youdie in combat. If you run out of Resolve, youautomatically fail the next roll if you are incombat or lose the ability to apply traitmodifiers to your next non-combat roll, butregain 10 Resolve after recovering.

Some ideas for how to get Keeton to land:

Convince him that you can stop Captain Tyretfrom hurting him.Have Captain Tyret killed, incapacitated, orimprisoned.Scare Keeton so much that he feels it is betterto take his chances with Tyret than you.Persuade him to take a risk for the sake ofthose in the village who are sick and dying.

Areas

Bridge Deck

The Bridge Deck is where the captain would becontrolling the ship in a dangerous situation,since Keeton is not aware of things happeningoutside the ship unless he can hear them fromhis chamber. There are two separate areas here;the Bridge at the rear of the skyship and theLookout and Catwalk at its front, both of whichlead directly to the Lantern Deck.

1. Bridge

The captain's wheel is here, but it is unusedsince Keeton has taken over manual control ofthe craft. Nothing can be done here but lookaround.

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Stairs here lead down to the Lantern Deck.

(Handiness; Magic/Stealth, 15): Search aroundfor hidden items, go to Page 3 of the Booklet ofSecrets

2. Lookout

This is the lookout where a crewman wouldusually be looking out for bandits in adangerous region. Since the region is so quiet,the crewman here is sleeping despite being onduty.

Stairs here lead down to the Lantern Deck, andyou can walk out onto the Catwalk.

Characters here:

Kulo the Watchman

(Handiness; Stealth, 12): Pickpocket Kulo. go toPage 4 of the Booklet of Secrets

3. Catwalk

This is where a mage occasionally comes out torecharge the sigils and runes that serve toprovide magical power to the airship when it isin a zone of low magical activity. There isnobody here right now, and you're not sure ifthere's anything to do here.

You can walk back to the Lookout from here.

Secret 1: Go to page 5 of the Booklet of Secrets

Lantern Deck

The Lantern Deck has an open area with stairsleading up to both the Bridge and the Lookouton the Bridge Deck. It also has two rooms tovisit, plus two hatches leading down furtherinto the skyship.

4. Captain

Captain Tyret is here, as is his stuff. He haswhat could be considered a small arsenal here,as well as various baubles, captain's gear, and

luxuries to make the traveling he does easier. Itlooks like he just moved in. He is payingattention to the door, and notices you when youenter.

Characters here:

Captain Tyret

5. Keeton

Keeton's Lantern of Life is here, as is his “face”,a collection of magical devices that allow himto speak and listen to those inside. From hereKeeton has magical connections to all the partsof the ship, allowing him to direct the skyshipto anywhere with only a few directions andbasically do what a small army of magi wouldhave had to do if there were no homunculusavailable.

Characters here: Keeton

(Magic; Handiness, 16): Examine Keeton'sLantern of Life and general vicinity for anythingof interest, go to page 6 of the Booklet ofSecrets

6. Cargo Hatch

This hatch leads down into the Cargo Deck; it'slocked tightly. A winch here would allow you tooperate the lift below if the hatch were open.

(Stealth; Handiness, 12): Pick the lock on thehatch, go to page 7 of the Booklet of SecretsSecret 2: Consult Book of Secrets page 7

7. Ladder Down

This ladder will allow you to go to the BerthDeck.

Berth Deck:

This deck has the lift to the Cargo Hold runningthrough it; it has been blocked off with metalwalls that look shoddy and haphazard but areresilient enough to deter theft. There arequarters in the general area, plus a ladder up to

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the Lantern Deck and a locked room with aladder leading down to the Cargo Deck.

8. Ladder Up

This ladder will allow you to go to the LanternDeck.

9. Ladder Down

This ladder would let you go down to the CargoDeck, but it is behind a door that is currentlylocked tight by Captain Tyret.

(Stealth; Handiness, 12): Pick the lock, go topage 8 of the Booklet of SecretsSecret 3: Consult Book of Secrets page 8

10. Your Room

This is your room. You can do whatever youwant in here, but you probably won't be doingmuch good here, since you don't have anythingfancier than a bed and an empty bookshelf togo with whatever you brought with you on thetrip. You can pretty much just go out into thegeneral area of the Berth Deck from here.

11. Crew Room

The crew of the skyship reside here; everyonefrom the magi that recharge the ship while it isin flight to allow lengthy journeys to the cookand the indentured woman whose job it is toclean up the mess. It's clear that the crew isgetting tired of being up in the air.

Archmagus- Andreas BucerCook- AzetMagus- Martin KarlstadtServant- Azein

12. Healers

The healers have their own quarters on theskyship; their chambers are second best next tothe captain, but they are obviously weary andworried about the delays. They have a hiredguard who looks remarkably more benevolentthan most mercenaries you've ever encountered.

Healer- Brother Olen the GentleHealer- Father Merle the ForgivingHealer- Sister Gwen the KindMercenary- Luc Broadsword

(Handiness; Stealth 12): Look for things ofinterest, go to page 9 in the Booklet of Secrets

Cargo Deck:

The Cargo Deck is littered with a variety ofmedical supplies and miscellaneous goodsdestined for the village down below; there is aladder up to the Berth Deck and a lift that willtake you straight to the Lantern Deck, shouldthe appropriate hatch be unlocked first.

13. Cargo Lift

If you've unlocked the Cargo Hatch above, youmay return to the Lantern Deck using the lifthere.

Secret 2: Consult Booklet of Secrets Page 7

14. Cargo Hold

There are various crates and several loose itemsin this hold; they've been somewhat jostledaround during the flight so if you're looking forsomething specific you'll have to search for it.

(Handiness; Magic/Stealth 14): Consult Bookletof Secrets Page 10

15. Ladder Up

If you unlocked the door above, you can returnthrough it, but if you haven't then you are foiledby the padlock here.

Secret 3: Consult Booklet of Secrets Page 8

16. Ladder Down

This ladder leads to the Glider Deck, but youcannot leave without Captain Tyret givingKeeton the order to open up the glider launchbays, making going down here moot.

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Characters:

Kulo the Watchman

Kulo is a tired-looking man with a grim face.He's a long veteran of skyship travels, and thecurrent predicament is getting him a little angryat the captain. He was just transferred here, andknows little about the ship's history or itscaptain, but he chats with you freely andloosely.

Consult Booklet of Secrets Page 11

Captain Tyret

Captain Tyret stares at you as soon as you enterhis quarters; he is an angry man who is near thepoint of breaking into a rage at the delay that isruining his reputation and his employer'slikelihood to pay him. He's not terribly friendly.


Keeton

Keeton is a homunculus, so you have a little bitof trouble trying to penetrate the mysteries hismind contains, but he's friendly and amicableenough. He does, however, seem to fear Tyret,and is staying airborne to prevent anymisconduct on the captain's part.


Andreas Bucer

Andreas is a powerful magus dressed in someof the fanciest robes you've ever seen. Hegreets you cordially, and seems to be notterribly bothered by the situation. He's got aforeign look and speaks with a Western accentjust like Martin, who appears to be his brotheror pupil. He looks young, but his speech andeyes indicate a deep wisdom and knowledge.


Azet

Azet is a strong looking man and wears anapron over his simple clothes. He offers yousome of his latest cooking, figuring that if he'sgoing to be up in the skies for a while he mayas well make the most of it and befriend somepeople. He's not indentured, but he's obviouslynot a terribly highly valued member of thegroup, so he probably is looking to moveelsewhere.


Martin Karlstadt

Martin's more easily agitated than Andreas,and he is obviously upset by this delay. He's notunfriendly, but you can tell he's packing up togo somewhere as soon as the skyship lands,and he'd rather focus on that than on talking toyou.


Azein

Azein moves away from you slowly, hiding herface from you. She's a little older than Azet,and you can tell by her wristband that she'sindentured to Captain Tyret. If you approach,she's not unfriendly, but she's clearly anxious oftalking to you.


Brother Olen the Gentle

Olen is a soft, slightly overweight man with abooming laugh, which you were able to hearfrom the hallway outside his quarters. He'sbeen double-checking his stuff before the shiplands; it's clearly apparent that he's somewhatput off by the delay, but his jovial natureprevents him from becoming too upset over it.


Father Merle the Forgiving

Merle is tall and thin, but has an air of peacearound him that counteracts his somewhat

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sharp features. Unlike most of the peopleonboard, he doesn't seem to be bothered byKeeton's delays at all, and though he isprepared he does not seem to be anxious aboutwhat will happen after the landing.


Sister Gwen the Kind

Gwen is small and graceful, and is practicallyburied in her healer's robes. She's got an air ofintelligence about her, and she has the samepeaceful air as Father Merle. She's waiting tohelp people, and she chat with Olen and Merleabout what to do when they land at the village.She's got an armband that marks her as atrained battlemagus.


Luc Broadsword

Luc is big and strong, but also pretty laid back.He seems to recognize there is little he can doabout the situation that doesn't involveneedless violence, and unlike most mercenarieshe is content with that outcome. He's gotseveral particularly painful looking weaponssheathed or slung across various parts of hisbody, and you're pretty sure he could takedown almost anyone on the ship.


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License:

Tale of Narvi is licensed under CC 3.0 BY-NC-SA, or under the following short license:

Credit me when distributing this andanything you make based on this.

Don't sell this or anything based off of thiswithout all prior contributors' permission.

Anything you make based off of this must usethis license, including crediting knowncontributors all the way back to myself.

Photo Credits:

Cover: DSC07831 p.jpg by “Kahanaboy” onMorguefile

Font Credits:

Aquiline II, Optimus Princeps and Timeless byManfred Klein

Be sure to get the Character Sheet andBooklet of Secrets from the official website.

Index:

Setting

The Scenario

How to Play

Areas

Characters

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Documents

Tale of Navri