Below is to the start of an Idea I had penned this in my notebook September 05th 2025. Here it is clean up for reading. Enjoy!
It occurred to me that in order to help my notes and sessions. I might want to put session recaps, journaling the TTRPG campaigns I run and my journey through a system.
I usually recap my session in my own notes, with quick sentences in a dedicated page. I’m also relizing at this moment as I reference it, I have not upkept it well. It was usually a quick note to remind me; “Session 05: Heroes escape prison and sneaked onto a pirate ship”.
Instead of one sentence, I’ll be writting out more flesh out notes along with any GM notes or moments that stood out. Probably a paragraph that I could read at the next session to recap the players. I’ll also place things like system troubles, flubs, or anything like the sort in thoughts at the bottom. Hopefully this will involve over time.
Now as I came late to this idea, I will have to give a recap of the over all campaign up to this point.
Table of Content to jump around:
Characters
Our characters at the start
– Beagmund, the Naive chosen one
– Felicia, the reckless treasure hunter trying to find a better world
– Arthur, the rival of the chosen one destined to protect me
Campaign Recap
Arc 1 – Home
The first arc dealt with the heroes’ hometown of Rimea on the night of festivities. Suddenly An evil goblin known as Knick-knack attacks their village. Facing overwhelming forces, our heroes were saved by an old mystical man with a long beard, yellow village clothing that called himself The King of the Stars. He bestows upon them the Stone of the Star which would light up when allies to be trusted were near. Though these allies may not stay for long.. They may be there for a few days, and sometimes it will feel they were there for about four hours. Maybe three. ((If we had anybody that wanted to jump in to try the game, this is the in universe reason for our characters to trust the new one)
Our heroes then fled to the capital of Rimea, Queensberg. A large city with waterfalls built over the old kingdom of Kingsberg. At the time, Games were being held to find new warriors to join the prince of Rimea, Maximillian, on a quest to face Knick-Knack. While they failed the contests, they did impress someone enough to received a quest to venture into the caves under the city. To find an artifact, known as the Iris Cube.
They entered the Kingsberg Grotto where they fought the bandits housing in the ruins of the city. They met the queen who was secretly spelunking, and fought agaisnt a giant shrimp boss known as Prawn Caw’neri. They also dealt with pirate entering the grotto also searching for the Iris Cube for their own motives. Afterwards they were able to get the Iris Cube which showed a map of the world. Only ships equipped with the royal navy and others in shipping that were able to fund mercenaries and weaponry, could venture through the seas due to the rough waves and dense ocean fog. When the Iris Cube was discovered, the fog lifted and the waves lessen.
They headed back home to Innsville to slowly start restoring the town and after to the Blackwoods on advice from Prawn. Here they defeated evil bug bandits and more of Knick Knack’s villainous henchmen, the Paddy-whacks. More importantly, they found a wolf that they made their new friend who promptly got named “Good Boy”.The chaotic nature of the Blackwoods had caused our heroes to be separated the evil of Knick Knacks transform “Good Boy” into a new monster, the Dog-a-bone. Arthur was separated for a time to face the shadow of his past mentor. Successfully defeating the shadow, but arriving to late assist in fighting Dog-a-bone. Failing to hold their ground. All our heroes were knocked into a nearby river where they were capture by the Rose Skull Pirates and their captain, The Pirate Queen Eileen. Taken to the pirates secret hideout, taking the Iris Cube from our heroes.
Using magic, wits, and weapons, our heroes snuck out of the prison.Then sneaking onto the Rose Skull before it headed out into the world in order to steal back the Cube. After a few hi-jinks, they eventually reach the Captain Quarters. After a tense battle, our heroes defeated the Pirate Queen Eileen who agreed to ally with the heroes if they helped her brother with a curse that keeps him alive albeit in a horrible state. With new allies in tow, the Rose Skull sails forth to Knick Knack’s evil dark tower that is slowly building power.
Climbing the tower, they found a way to quickly save their town then face Knick-Knack themselves. The final battle is intense as Knick-Knack uses all his magic and power taken from people in Innsville. Yelling that he will not stop from saving the world from the chosen one. Defeating Knick Knack the heroes clarifying they have no intention to destroy the world. Then across the horizon, Maximillian’s ship comes into view then fires on the tower as the battle finishes. The heroes grab Knick-knack and flee.
Arc 2 – Mirage
Making a new friend in Knick-knack to try to figure out what may destroy the world, our heroes are trying to decipher rune across the Iris Cube. Knick-knack mentions an old sage known as Sarcothsis who might know how to read them. The Rose Skull ventures north to the Narra Steppes.
Entering the small deserted port town of Nigh’leon, the heroes found Sarcothis house ransacked. However they found clues to point them to the city of Mirage in the desert. A city that can not be found by those searching for it, and is only found by those that are lost.
Eventually they arrived, where the Stone of the Star lit up as they say a new face. A lizard folk who was called SharkClaw, a templar from an organization dedicated to helping the chosen one accomplishing his faith.
Sharkclaw joins the party! A templar of the old faith duty bound to the chosen one (from about Arc 2 onward!)
They find Sarcothes hiding from mercenaries. All led by Commander Maul, a Kreigshold commander who is trying to take over the Narra Steppes for his country, seeing potential in the beasts and magic that lies in the land. Sarcothes Informs them of an ancient tome called Egdoh-rillian. In it, contains several stories of the world, dense and dry written. It had been destroyed during the last time the world ended as its powers were used to turn it into a tome of chaos. In order to grab it, our heros would have to complete a powerful ritual that would send them temporarily to another time. They would need to gather the ingredients; the Staff of Rising Earth, and an object that somehow survive the worlds destruction, then perform the ritual at the site of a destroyed city; E’lu’zhan
The Staff was currently held by the Mayor of Mirage as a prized for their beast catching competition. Ceremonies are held at the Moonlight Spring, however dark energies were clouding the spring making hostile to the town. Investigating this strange phenomenon, our heroes find a strong a plant beast place by Kreigshold to steal the life force from the lake and increase the water trade with Kreigshold. They defeated the plant which spewed out some sort of small baby of a plant creature which Arthur called Cabbage.
While the Mayor and his staff readied for the competition, our heroes visit the kitsch tourist trap, the Tower of 100 Mirrors. A mirror of what had existed in E’lu’zhan. The tower was haunted by the dragon of Wind, Gus, cursed to be a spirit stuck inside in a shard at the top of the tower and terribly annoyed with the tourists. They gather the shard with Gus and took part of the beast gathering contest. With Sharkclaw’s ability to talk to beast, they were easily able to find a beast, and the Mayor, Imma En’charj, was grateful enough about clearing the moonlight springs, almost anything would work as a for the Staff.
With the two parts in hand, they raced to the site of E’lu’zhan, dealing with a tribe that worked with Kreigshold to ruin the steppes and killed Maul’s lieutenant, who was also his fiancee. Sarcotheses sent to our heroes to the past just before the world was destroyed. Racing through the original Tower of 100 Mirrors to stop the chosen one of this cycle, D’Num Ga’eb. Beating him, they grabbed the Egdohrillian however the fight was not over. Maul entered through the portal with a sort of mech, mixing the dinosaurs of Narra Steppes and the magitech of Kriegshold. Maul eventually stood to face our heroes himself. Once killed time froze. A giant dark purple rune hand reached out. It cried “You do not belong here”. It defeated all the heroes single handily. It reach to crush them when Sarcothes was able to spend his life force to fling them back to the present time at the cost of his life. The problem was they weren’t in the same space, our group of heroes was thrown to different areas of the world.
Two Months Past
Now we have reached where we currently are.
Arc 3 – Death, Session 1
Characters in session: Arthur and Felicia.
On an island, there lies a small village. A village aware of the troubles that come with the sea and the rough waves. A village that for months, have not need to worry about the waves since they suddenly stopped. A village where the sun shines, and the kids play. Then it comes, at first a small black ooze. More get placed by the seas waves, leaving them on the bank of the beach. The wind stops and the waves quiet as the evening sun set. A guardsman pokes the ooze with a staff. It coils around the point, moving up to the staff slowly burning his skin, consuming him. Cries barely escape as it enters all the holes available. His remaining mouth gurgles, dissolving until the ooze solidifies to a tar. Rising from the puddle, it forms a woman in knight armor with evil eyes. She unsheates her sword and points forward to the village. The ooze lurches.
We start with revisiting our heroes. First, we visit Arthur who is now sporting a proper cape with all black outfit (Reminisce to Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi, player’s words). Hair now slick back. We find him among the streets of Teskun City. A city made of several different nationalities that search for freedom from their original homes, mainly Kreigshold. He’s spent the last two months journey and trying to find his child, Cabbage. The one thing that fell off his back on his landing. He kicks in a door.
“Where is my child” he asks. The shopkeeper has a tale, one from a recent shipment. His merchants were attacked by a pirate ship on the seas, however the strange thing that stuck in their mind was a small plant like child on board that helped rob them. Arthur tosses the shopkeeper down and heads out. He reaches out to a few smuggler friends to help him acquired a small boat and take the seas.
The Rose Skull glides across the sea. Felicia looks at her cabin, filled with string stretches from runes to papers to sketches. Knick-knack places another box on string on the ground. Tireless working, they have manage to decipher two pages of the Egdoh-rellian. The tales of a being known as Tragedia, a cosmic being whose goal is to have world meet it’s end whatever means necessary..
While trying to set up another stringboard, they see the smoke from the kitchen below. Running down, they found Cabbage sword fighting the chef. As usual, they have to take Cabbage away and keep an eye on them. To add to Felicia troubles, is the strained relationship with the Pirate Queen Eileen. Someone she’s fancied over the time they spent on the sea,
As the two heroes get closer, their have tattoos matching the Stone of the Star which start to glow. Pointing to each other. Soon they find each other.
Together at last they swap adventure tales and dealings. Arthur finds that Cabbage also shares some entropy magic that he also dabbles with.
With two party member still missing, they venture to try to find Beagmund. As they travel, they come across a manta ray with a house on its back. Standing outside were three knights of Teskun city that venture out to fight evil in the world. This knight is an older man in is 70’s, on a quest to deal with the obsidian tower in the area of Rimea. Though he finds himself bored, and sees a chance to share stories with the ship.
This is when Arthur, remembering his friends telling him not to mess with the knights, decides to immediately ask for a warrant. The knight raises an eyebrow. His order were not to deal with a pirate ship. Though it is up to his discretion to disregard them if he senses a bit of evil, and Arthur has his senses. Arthur threatens him, and the knight transforms into his Mech-knight form. He had not had a fight for a good while. He toys with Arthur, keeping him at bay as his squires search the ship.
The squires calls for him as Arthur tires out. The knight finds Cabbage holding a deadly darkness sword over the Iris Cube and a bucket over the Egdoh-rillian. He goes “interesting” before quickly drawing his pistol and firing a shot.
—
Alright Thank you for reading. That’s the main story and session recap. Below are my GM Notes, and some thoughts I scribbled as I was prepping the session and a bit after the session. Hence they may be a bit scatterbrained. I cleaned them up as much as I could:
GM Notes:
Originally this session was going to have 3 players. As we got online to play, Beagmund’s player had internet troubles and was unable to join. I was a tad worried as my prepped was spread between the 3 players of Felicia, Arthur, and Beagmund. Though decided to press on. I find that when I run 2 player session, the scenes get more played out and more personal. We find we have time to let scenes breathe as I don’t have to jump between a bunch of players to keep there attention and move the plot foward. Plus everyone was fine to play on with just the two players, including the absentee players.
I find myself having trouble with Fabula Ultima enemy creation system. There are two ways to create an enemy. The first to take an enemy in the bestiary and reflavor it to fit the scenario. The other is a multi-step process to create an original enemy which I find myself doing more and more as we reach higher levels. Before the game, it’s easy and I love steps. Though when it’s at the table, that’s when I get caught off guard. Both methods are a bit time-consuming for higher levels that I have to ask for a quick break in order to stat the characters out.
One planned for scene was when the players rolled an unexpected discovery on a travel roll. I took a second before I took inspiration Dragonball and a Mario Sunshine boss. Instead of a giant turtle, Manta Ray. Originally the knight was to talk and be an exposition NPC. I could drop a few bits of lore here and there. Then Arthur’s player immediately was on the offensive. I had NPC say “Don’t mess with them,” which was taken as “Don’t trust them”. I think I should’ve been more clear the idea “Don’t get on their bad side”. I was totally fine with cause half way into the session I was sitting at the table thinking, “What can I do for the last hour or 2”. then when I saw the fight coming, “Well never mind then”
In my playthrough, I found Fabula Ultima similar to Dungeons and Dragons, where the higher level you get, the longer your turns can take. Especially the martial classes, where character are trying to figure out which moves bounce off each other in order to find out the damage an enemy can take. In game, it was probably about 3 to 5 turns between just Arthur and the NPC. It still took the rest of the session. I still jumped between the turns to Felicia’s character to make sure they were still engaged to the story.
I had the idea of “Knights that mix Western Sheriff with power ranger transformation”
I have to think how would these Knights from this country would deal with powerful objects. The Knights of Teskun are broken into 3 different department. Peace Keepers the ones that venture out to the world. Justice Keepers, the ones that monitor the city. Then there’s the truth keepers, the ones that run the council that also patrols the dome in Teskun city.
—
Well those are all my notes, and the session recap. As I mention, this project was more to help me archive, place notes, and remind myself of what happen during sessions. If there are any questions regarding Fabula Ultima, let me know. Until next time!
A Stray Blog 
Leave a comment