Ok, D&D&MtG Recap Time!

@mycroft this is the context I was talking about:

@DialMforMara @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer

When we last left our heroes, Tabasha, the leonin artificer, had just accidentally sparked away from the Furncae Layer of New Phyrexia by getting a little too engrossed in examining an artifact.

Cut to-
TARKIR, come centuries ago.

@DialMforMara @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer

Four emissaries are sent to a diplomatic meeting between 4 of the 5 clans: Tarjik, a Temur Loxodon Shaman. Gurcu, an Abzan Aven Shaman. Meshag, a Mardu Orc Shaman. And Kan Lin, a Jeskai Human Monk. The Sultai don't bother sending anyone.

The meeting is on neutral ground, ie Ugin's Nexus, and almost immediately they notice odd things going on and trek into the canyon to investigate.

@DialMforMara @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer

Once inside, the canyons began to split and diverge in impossible ways whenever they weren't looking. The paths all looked identical, down to already having the footprints of Tarjik, the tracker, in them.

When they finally looked up, the sky was gone. Instead there was an upside down reflection of the maze on canyons, except they weren't in it.

@DialMforMara @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer

Instead they saw people from Tarkir's future walking through the canyons. Yasova Dragonclaw, Alesha who Smiles at Death, Sarkhan Vol. An addition small hedrons were beginning to appear around them.

At some point, when no one was looking, Kan Lin disappeared.

Gurcu tried to fly up and escape, and technically did? They fell into the other canyons and vanished as well.

@DialMforMara @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer

Tarjuk and Meshag almost came to blows, but then Aminatou the Fateshifter appeared to Say Cryptic Things, like "it hasn't happened for you yet, but when somebody breaks time it doesn't really matter when they break it" and "if you don't make it out of there, you'll be trapped in there forever, and forever will last a lot longer in there than it will most places."

And then the canyon ahead was a dead end.

@DialMforMara @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer

Meshag disappeared chasing a dragon they, briefly, saw, and Tarjuk found themselves alone with no exit. So they closed their eyes and took a step on blind faith...

@DialMforMara @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer

And then Ariel, Venqwyn, Tabasha, and Tarjuk found themselves in Onumbrica. Since none of them had walked before, knew they were walkers, or were aware of the existance of other planes, they took a little while to get their bearings.

Long enough for a police wagon full of angry sheriffs to pull up.

@DialMforMara @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer

The sheriff, a human, began immediately jumping to all sorts of conclusions about the party's guilt and the smoking wreck of some kind of artifact, and threatened to arrest them all. When the party declined to come quietly, the human sheriff and his orc deputy proved to be werewolves, and the three guys along with them proved to be Soltari.

@DialMforMara @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer

But it wasn't much of a match. Because now that the players were planeswalkers, they were no longer playing with D&D spell sheets. They were playing with decks.

I'd deliberately not warned them, but once they sparked their magic is now done by playing a turn of MtG when the initiative order gets to them. Instant speed spells and abilities are free actions, sorcery speed are partial actions.

@DialMforMara @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer

Ariel summoned a Knight of Autumn and destroyed the Sheriff's wagon. Venqwyn got the orc deputy werewolf lost in the fog. Tarjuk went toe to toe with the human werewolf. Tabasha ambushed the Soltari with artifact creatures out of the tall crops.

The cops fled, vowing revenge, and the party heard a slow clap from behind them.

@DialMforMara @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer

That's how they met Seth Sulimo, an aven wind mage and planeswalker, from Onumbrica, who was with some fits and starts, able to give them some explanation of what planeswalking was and what had happened to them.

He warned them to stay away from the sheriffs and led them toward safety, where he explained about the world they'd arrived in:

@DialMforMara @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer

Which, minus some character was--Onumbrica is a world based, thematically, on the American great depression and dust bowl era. It's dominated by three mega cities, collectively called "the metro," who hold a strict monopoly on all magic.

He asked if any of them knew a spell to bring gods back to life. When the answer was know, he said it was a long shot and changed the subject.

@DialMforMara @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer

Onumbrica has a west pole.

Onumbrica has leonin, but no elves, loxodon, or merfolk. Sulimo advised the party to, if asked "say you're from Vancouver."

There is a system of magic called 'Telemancy' by which spells are sent via thick wires strong from poles. It was a shock from one of these that sparked Sulimo himself.

When asked why they'd all turned up here, Sulimo said he wanted a look at the wreck of the artifact they had found.

@ajanionthespot
@Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer
Does it also have an east pole, and what does that mean for the shape of the solar system? (Feel free to not tell me. Ariel grew up on a big flat plane that fades out to mist around the edges.)

@DialMforMara @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer

Yes. I don't actually know if there's a way to make that work in orbital mechanics terms, but the sun goes down "spiraling around" the west pole every night, and rises by "spiraling up" around the east pole.

I don't know how the far north having glaciers figures into this.

@ajanionthespot @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer so does it go through or under the plane to get from the west pole to the east pole? Is Onumbrica flat or spherical or something else?

@DialMforMara @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer

I think Onumbrica is a globe, but it maybe doesn't have a very stable or regular orbit. That fits with the "something really major happened between several hundred to a thousand years ago, which is why some gods that are supposed to be around aren't" that's going on.

@ajanionthespot @DialMforMara @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer
Do you think each of our characters will get a chance to make a signature spell card?

@Jmaurer @DialMforMara @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer

I'm counting on it.

@ajanionthespot @DialMforMara @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer
Noted. I'll have to figure out what tarjuk would have.

@Jmaurer @ajanionthespot @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer I have an idea, though I don’t know if the plot will go in that direction. Ariel now has a bee in her bonnet about whether Onumbrica has a worldsoul, and if trying to answer that question becomes a big part of her character I’ll want her signature to be related.

Also someone remind me next time I have 1)Druidcraft to predict the weather with and 2) cartographer’s tools to copy the map in case we get separated

@DialMforMara @ajanionthespot @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer that seems like a good goal. Not sure what tarjuk will have for an ultimate goal. But I think I worked what his signature spell would be.

@DialMforMara @ajanionthespot @Tayatranscendent @SliverQueen @Jmaurer
Tarjuk signature spell

Smoke telling
URG
Choose 1
Target creature gets +1/+0
Manifest the top card of your library
Target creature gets -0/-2

@Jmaurer @DialMforMara @ajanionthespot @SliverQueen @Jmaurer wouldn’t -0/-X be a black ability?