Fair Warning!
There are a few game spoilers below... continue at your own risk.
However, considering that the GM (who inexplicably did his best to force
my character from the game) had earlier said I was the best player
he'd ever had in his three attempts to tell the story he had in mind,
and considering he's now huffily closed the game down, I didn't want the
discoveries I made to be simply lost or forgotten.
I suppose there's a bit of pride in my discoveries
too. ;-)
 The first gold star was for figuring
out that the player characters Benedict and Roxanna were brother
and sister. When the game was closed down they'd not yet realized
that. ;-)
The second one was for figuring
out that the Flowering Path was the trail left by the Horned Man
when He and His Lady were incarnated (unfortunately as mortals, due to a
magical accident) on the Heartwood -- the trail He left as He fled the
murderous Eastern Hordes to the shelter of the Dirkwood. The trail was
tinged with sorrow because his Lady did not escape the grasp of their
enemies... and so that day She died horribly at the hands of the
Easterners.
The third star I received when I
commented off-handedly that the discovery of Montague's 24-year-old
crime -- the kidnapping, rape, and imprisonment of the Dawnview
Lady Brittany Allaine, and the ambush and murder of her fiancee,
the Highgaard Lord Danton Kierkegaard, and their wedding caravan --
would invariably lead to a war between the families and their
allies. Apparently this was something no one had ever figured out
before in the two previous attempts the GM had made to tell the Heartwood
story he had in mind... which surprised me. It seemed quite self-evident,
considering the facts.
The players also already know about
the fourth star -- namely that the Forgotten Fleet at the end
of the first human/easterner wars was led by Dayallans. That was
figured out when I realized that the Dayallans were the only ones that
could measure time and work astronomy... therefore they were the only
ones capable of navigation.
The reason that's significant is because the Forgotten Fleet is
presumably the 'seed people' that started the Bankorpool Empire. It was
significant to Brisa because it showed her once again that her people,
the Dayallans, would bust their asses! to save folks -- and
every single blessed time they got tromped on after the emergency was
over, and reduced to the status of despised "swordbitch." This made her
quite unhappy, and she wanted to work to change things for the better...
unfortunately I think that's what caused the GM to have a mental breakdown
in regards to me playing my character -- I committed the unforgiveable
sin of having a strongly played character deeply enough involved in the
world that she wasn't following the GM's script.
The fifth star I got when I figured
out that the cloaks of Arilys are in actuality the shadows of
Krysta, or as Lady Kara put it, her 'puppies.'
The sixth star concerns a discovery
that the GM will doubtless never use in the game now that he's expunged
Brisa from his game [later note -- especially now that he's quit
running it due to pique! ;-) ]... but I figured out the Nehrimstel
were (at least one of) the causative force(s) behind Brisa's
ancestry and raising, and apparently were still quite interested in
her, due to their managing to provide her with a (in-game very
expensive) horse. She certainly intended to have words with them at some
point, especially concerning their assumption that they could 'breed'
her with some man of their choice in order to start a 'race' or 'line'
they had in mind! ;-)
The other players had doubtless
noticed that Brisa was an animal gentler, and according to the GM
all the PCs had something 'special' about them. I was only able to
figure out one other though, with quite a bit of help from the GM, by
the time he made it impossible to continue gaming with him... namely,
Anuje is a psionicist. Remember the time she said that Garrick
would doubtless have given the bracelets to Romana & Roxanna if they'd
been meant for them, and so Garrick must have meant the bracelets
for Brisa? That was apparently the first time Joel had had Anuje state
something definitively, and that's why all the other characters believed
her implicitly. Disturbingly enough the only other psionicist in
the game appears to be Velikii -- that's why he was able to murder
someone's son in front of them and no one reacted badly to it.
The GM helped me a bit with the
eighth star, mentioning that I should read the information in the
glossary about the Kories. It was at that point that I realized Dominic
the Arilysian was also the youngest (and supposedly recently deceased)
Korie. I subsequently tried to show that discovery in-game and
ICly, so that the other players could have a change to 'get it' on their
own, with the same amount of hinting I'd had. Unfortunately only Walt
figured it out before the GM had it 'come out' in game. ;-)
The ninth and final star I got,
amusingly enough, only moments after the previous discovery came out
in the game -- when I realized there was one other interesting thing
about Dominic. The GM confirmed my suspicion immediately when I paged
him asking about it -- namely that Dominic's an unconscious weather
witch. When he's unhappy it rains, when he's happy it doesn't. That's
why it's been such an unseasonably mild storm season.
Brisa copyright © 2000 B. "Collie" Collier
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