Polaris: The Grasping Dark

This is a summary of a campaign we ran of Polaris with my local group. The first session was December 16, 2005.

The Protagonists:

The Protagonists are all knights within the remnant of Tallstar, who have the shared Fate of "The Grasping Dark" -- a demon set upon the destruction of knowledge in particular.

• Vega: (played by Heather) a ranger and tracker of the wastes.
  Blessing: World's Fastest Horse
  Ability: Lore of the Outer Wastes
  Mistaken: Algol, a slow-moving metallic demon
  New Moon: her brother Castor and his lover Pollux
  Full Moon: her patron Mensa
• Regulus: (played by Liz) a large and powerful knight who wins tournaments regularly
  Office: Reknowned Champion
  Ability: Big
  Mistaken: the Grand Vizier, Rigel
  New Moon: twin sister Regula
  Full Moon: comrade-in-arms Deneb
• Altair: (played by John) a beautiful young knight, rebellious and defiant of authority
  Ability: Sneaky
  Ability: Beautiful
  Mistaken: his jealous and controling commander, Giauzar
  New Moon: his passionate (but still Platonic) confidant, the older senator Arcturus
  Full Moon: shield-maiden and comrade-in-arms Mira
• Bellatrix: (played by Cynthia) a
  Blessing: Greater Starlight Weapon
  Blessing: Bound Companion Arakis
  Mistaken: Etzlitotec, Princess of Spring
  New Moon: her sister Nashira
  Full Moon: the high priestess Alcyone
• Al Na'ir: (played by Bill) a respected, scholarly knight and librarian
  Office: Keeper of the Leftmost Museum
  Blessing: Memory Crystal
  Mistaken: The Grasping Dark
  New Moon: his lover Nashira
  Full Moon: head librarian and his superior, The Garnet Star

Session #1

• We begin in late winter. Regulus goes to answer a summons by the Grand Vizier, Rigel. The vizier asks him to lead an advanced party against the demon onslaught of spring.
• Etzlitotec appears to Bellatrix in her garden within Tallstar, asking her to spy on Regulus. They speak briefly, when Bellatrix's sister Nashira appears in the garden door and freezes in fear. She screams to attack the monster, and Bellatrix attacks -- but Etzlitotec flees and takes Nashira hostage in her escape.
• Al Na'ir is studying at the museum, when his superior Garnet speaks to him strangely, urging him to despair of the struggle. Al Na'ir notices that Garnet's eyes are black -- he is possessed by the Grasping Dark. Al Na'ir grabs him and exorcises the demon, and as it flees he has a vision of his lover Nashira captured by the enemy.
• Vega visits her patron Mensa, who asks her to find a metal part he believes is in the Southern Wastes. He needs it to complete an automaton of a sort. As he works on it, however, an accident severs two of his fingers. He will recover, but realizes that the automaton will be a great weapon -- but that Vega must forge the missing piece.
• Altair is called before his commander Giauzur, and told that Regulus is suspected of collusion with the enemy. He is sent to secretly trace what Regulus' scouting party does, and does not question these orders.
• Regulus rides out of the city on his scouting mission, but he encounters a bird with a human face, who hails him as a hero of the demons. Regulus slays the bird, but finds a perfect human eyeball in its claw as he does so. He realizes it is the Nashira, sister of his peer Bellatrix. The scouting party halts for a time as Regulus rides back and shows Bellatrix.
• Bellatrix takes the eyes to the priestess Alcyone, who gives her a diadem which can let her see back from the eye to Nashira's location. However, she can only see Nashira in pain, unless she is under starlight.
• Altair, with his friend Mira, saw the bird fly to meet Regulus from a canyon. Going there, he finds a trail leading back toward the Mistake where twelve human hostages were taken from Tallstar. The two follow the trail but lose each other in dark mists. Altair finds and rescues ten of the twelve, including Nashira, but he loses his friend Mira in the dark.
• Vega rides south, but at a treacherous point on the trail, she is thrown from her horse and knocked out. She awakens just in time to ward off the demon Algol which has been inexorably following him. Vega takes a hideous scarring wound, but her brother Castor and his lover Pollux join the battle, and the demon is slain in a great battle. With its last breath, it curses Vega with a jinx. However, she searches its body and finds the metallic part that Mensa was looking for -- little knowing that Algol still exists in that part.
• Al Na'ir goes out into the wastes to search for Nashira. Instead, he finds Mira and later Nashira's severed hand, but the trail of blood in the snow eventually leads him to Nashira, who is returning with Altair. They have a tearful reunion.