Lord Foul

"Quickly, form a circle around Amarande so we can help defend each other." Mandons takes up a position with sword and shield, ready to battle whatever assails them.

It's Triangle. But I can't do one right now so I gift the next one to Tetsubo for that awesome gag. 😀

"I don't know if it means anything... but we have a body this way and a spirit the other way. D'ya think the old spook's getting all philosophical with us again?"

"What I don't understand is why this poor fellow has been left here, whereas there's no sign of any others anywhere we've been so far. Makes me think there must be something significant about him, either another trap or something left to help us." "Best let Jack take a closer look at that shiny thing before you go grabbing things, Theo. There may be more of these poison darts... unless whatever trashed the place set 'em all off."

As a player I prefer the sandbox with plots option, as it provides the greatest flexibility and feels most like a real world that my character is living in and can become involved in. I like to have the agency to decide the path my character will take and what kinds of things I will become interested in and play a part in. It works because I am a highly pro-active player and will drive the game whatever anybody else does around me. As a GM I prefer the adventure path with some scope for a bit of sandboxing, because, in general, players do not tend to be sufficiently driven and self-motivating to find their own way through an adventure without a lot of signposting along the way.

"Jack, d'you fancy checking out the north passage for us? Whoever that is lying down there it just feels wrong to ignore them and go the other way without even taking a look."

Mandons communicates what he has seen to the rest of the party and calls up the thieves to check the way is safe.

Mandons follows close behind Valandil, doing his best not to smirk at his friend's ever-present seriousness. He knows the elf means well, and restrains himself from his customary mockery. Reaching the crossing, he shines the beam of his bullseye lantern down the passage in either direction, to see if his light reveals any more details.

I'm not sure if you are open to this, but I want to nominate Amarande for a suitably large bonus XP award for solving the urns puzzle. As far as I can see, all of the rest of us were fixed on the elements for a solution, and only Amarande thought outside the box, recognised the misleading nature of the clue we'd been given, and came up with a new solution that actually fit the mind of the one who created this place. Without him we'd have just blundered into the trap with blind obedience. I've been around a bit, and that kind of awareness and insight is very very rare. I think it deserves to be acknowledged and rewarded. ☺️

"Aren't we looking for a magic sword? And one of these depicts a magic sword. I'd put that one the way we want to go."

I think if you are going for 'generic' fantasy, then a lot depends on the 'generic' fantasy races that you are going to build your world around. A 'new world' setting is all well and good in a place where everyone has a human-sized lifespan, but as soon as you introduce long-lived races, like elves and even dwarves, that brings with it a need for a much longer history. Otherwise, where did these people come from and why can't they remember their grandparents? It's an aspect that has bothered me about many games. Everybody behaves like they are human, with a human lifespan and the sense of urgency that comes with it. If you really did live for hundreds, or thousands of years, that ought to give you a totally different perspective on time. Important things deserve to have years, or decades spent on them. And so, older settlements, buildings, artifacts etc would all be the result of aeons of careful development by people who are really not in a hurry. Of course, it's entirely possible, essential even, to have some kind of mix of the two styles, as you equally cannot expect the short-lived races to behave like their longer-lived neighbours. And the inevitable conflicts between the differring styles would add unique texture to each setting's history.

"Yeah, I think I follow you... for the most part. Seems though that you have two pretty strong contenders for Alteration, in the one that opens everything and the one that changes form from pot to clay to silver and gold." "And that stuff you were saying about Abjuration magic... wards and the like. That one had a fiery shield, so maybe its the shield that's important, rather than the fire?" "Sounds to me like the odd ones out must be the one with the damp soil that got warm, and whichever of the Alterations feels less likely." "You've shown yourself to be the expert among us, so I'm happy for you to make the call. Come what may, we're all behind you!" 😊

"Are you sure you've identified the right spell represented by each of the urns? I'm not a magician, so I'm happy to defer to your expertise here, but if there are two that are meant to be left out I think it's worth being reasonably sure we don't include them through simple oversight. Maybe two of them don't match any known spell, but our imaginations make links because we want to find them." "Perhaps if you take us through them and set out your reasoning... any that are uncertain might emerge?"

Mandons lets out a slow whistle. "Wow! I won't pretend to have understood half of that, but it sure sounded convincing. I was having similar trouble reconciling the almost elemental forces apparent here. I figured on the four main elements, Fire (I), Earth (G), Water (C) and Air (A), but my best guess for the others had three para-elements (magma, ice, ooze) and three quasi-elements (lightning, ash, radiance)... and that just doesn't seem to work." "If there are eight schools of magic, as you say, then the numbers fit... and this place was designed by a wizard. Is there a logical order to them, in terms of the points of the star here? If that is the right answer, how do we know which one goes in each place?"

Mandons realises he is out of his depth with all this magical elemental stuff, so he is content to stand guard while the magicians and thieves do their thing. He will, of course, offer suitable moral encouragement... "Come on, we haven't got all day!" 😊