Introducing Aya (and another contributor)!

Dear readers of The Last Day Dawned; those of you with eagle-eyes may have noticed a secondary contributor recently joining the illustrious Mr Soper.  I am that secondary contributor; I play with Corey in his North Corner campaign as first Tazzak Redscale and then Karvarus Tobias and I run a campaign in which Corey plays as his favourite (anti?)Hero; Righteous Fire Cleans and Scours the World.  My campaign is set roughly 15-20 years before the North Corner campaign (which has its own set of challenges that I’m sure will be discussed in another article) and is called; Aya.  I would like to bring you up to speed with the Aya campaign and perhaps relieve Corey of his topic posting duties, if only temporarily.

Characters;
Arkus – A mysterious and contemptuous Tiefling Sorceror.
Dorjan – An Air Genasi Monk and worshipper of the Iron Tyrant.
Enid – A shy, reclusive human Warlock.
Ikki – An Aarakocra Ranger struggling to make his way in an alien world.
Righteous Fire Cleans and Scours the World – Devout human Paladin of the Iron Tyrant.
Theresa Levasseur (Tess) – Roguish scallywag half-elf pirate, eager to find her lost ship.

Aya is the name of the World and plane that our characters inhabit.  Our adventurers (I am loathe to call them heroes) were called to the mining town of Whetstone in the country of Teres to help rescue a number of civilians who were seemingly lost within the Chiara Mine by the town Duke; Jon Milner.  After a brief sojourn into the mine our characters discovered a strange Artifact that was spirited away by Dark Ones as they battled Gibbering Mouthers that the Artifact had created.  They returned to the town with two rescued civilians in tow to find that Jon Milner had been taken ill and his son, Jacob (who was possessed by an unknown, evil entity) had taken control of Whetstone.

Jacob asked for the characters to retrieve the Artifact with the premise that it would heal his father.  Jacob’s sister, Sephina, requested that the characters somehow heal Jacob of his supernatural affliction during a night-time encounter.  The leader of the Merchant’s Guild, a large, opulent man by the name of Mardouk Vabadou also asked for the Artifact as a collector and purveyor of such relics, while bribing one of the party members with a particularly powerful item that had unknown (and sinister) properties.  The party were missing a few members, so decided to help the local brothel; Annabelles, locate a number of missing ladies.  This led them to an Alchemist by the name of Alkarist who told them that an experimental creature of his had been released into the sewers below and this may be the cause of the missing women.

Arkus, Dorjan, Enid and Tess progressed into the sewers where they fought a many- tentacled and foul creature that seemed to heal as it consumed the various prisoners of its lair with its gigantic maw.  The tenuous party managed to kill the beast, almost losing a member in the process and saving a young girl and a young woman.  Here the party split; Arkus and Dorjan went to Annabelles to collect their reward and to return the young woman while Enid and Tess took the young girl back to her “mother” - a Dragonborn priestess who was responsible for a temple dedicated to Bahamut which doubled as a makeshift Orphanage.  Arkus and Dorjan received their pay from Annabelle and left to head to Alkarists’.  Enid and Tess received a blessing from Zenrish the Dragonborn priestess before also leaving for Alkarists’.

Here I will break from the narrative for a moment to offer a few things I learnt as a new DM during these 3 or 4 sessions (the first session was about 8 hours long during a weekend);
The first thing I would mention is that my sessions during this period (and probably a few afterward) were planned to the most minute detail.  There are many characters, hooks and combat encounters that never happened and likely never will.  This is no bad thing, characters can be rehashed into new ones or simply reused in another setting, combat encounters and hooks with appropriate quests can be transferred to other locales.  Slowly I “let go” and realised that I would have to improvise much of the time anyway, so I might as well plan less and “go with the flow”.   I don’t think this is something that can be taught or learnt, it is something that grows and comes with experience.  That is not to say that I stopped preparing sessions, but my session preparation would focus not on what “the players might do” and more “what the NPCs in this environment might do”.  One of the most important things for me is to make the NPCs feel real, so they have drivers, they have aims, they have ambitions and they will move towards them, regardless of whether the characters choose to do anything or not.

The second thing I would state is that during this period and as time went on I slowly learnt to read the players better.  Some players are more confident than others at role-playing, some players are tacticians and love to focus on combat while others like to charge in without thinking too much, some players want to focus on the story while others want to get to the next combat as quickly as possible.  Reading these different players, getting a feel for their play styles and most of all realising when they were getting bored or losing interest was key for me as a new DM.  It helped me manage the sessions much better and introduce various ideas to help alleviate some potential “boredom traps”.  I will talk about this in much more detail at another time, but if you are a new DM, don’t be offended if your players give you the signs of impending boredom – use them to identify what is boring the player and try to manage it during your sessions.

The final thing I would like to say is that I learnt probably the most important lesson (for me at least) during this period – I learnt to read myself.  After a particularly bad session I looked not at the players to see what I could’ve done differently for them, instead I looked inward.  I think the reason I did so is because before the session I just knew it was going to be a bad one.  I wasn’t in the mood for it, work had been particularly stressful and I didn’t really want to be there – all these things added up to make the session quite poor, as one might expect.  Needless to say before the next session I ran I made sure as best I could that I was in a good mood and it made a massive difference.  As daft as it sounds I now listen to my favourite music, drink a bit of coffee and do anything else I can the few hours before the start of a session to make my mood as positive as possible.

What follows is the first session recap that was put online in our secret group on Facebook, for posterity’s sake.  It immediately follows the events of the sessions above. This session was interesting to manage, as two players rejoined the group at different times, one at the start of the session and another (who happened to be Mr Soper!) during the middle of the session.  You will notice the session recaps slowly get longer and more elaborate as I get used to their production.

Aya Session 5 – Digging to Deepmire

Characters;
Arkus – A Tiefling Sorceror with a penchant for acquiring items of considerable power.
Dorjan – An Air Genasi Monk and who falls but always gets up, worshipper of the Iron Tyrant.
Enid – A morally dubious human Warlock.
Ikki – An Aarakocra Ranger struggling to make his way in a strange world with strange colleagues (joined at the start of the session).
Righteous Fire – Devout and pious human Paladin of the Iron Tyrant (joined mid-session).
Theresa Levasseur (Tess) – Roguish scallywag half-elf pirate and slayer of experimental creatures.

After defeating Alkarist the Alchemists' experimental creature, Tess, Enid, Arkus and Dorjan all went to meet Alkarist to collect their reward. Choosing a leisurely stroll over a sprint, by the time our adventurer's arrived at Alkarists' they found it to be under the guardship of two of Jacob's loyal and most powerful enhanced foot-soldiers.

After a brief discourse Jacob revealed himself, he explained that Alkarist was unavailable and was unhappy at the lack of any attempt to retrieve the Artifact. After some particularly clumsly discourse from Ikki, the heroes were told to go to bed or to be imprisoned. The adventurers chose the latter and stayed at the Azure Ankheg Inn for the evening.

The following day Tess, Enid, Arkus, Dorjan and Ikki enjoyed a brief and varied breakfast before being bothered again by one of Jacob's goons, who suggested that his "master" was not happy that they had attempted to go back into the mines and that they should make haste before Jacob decided to employ another band of adventurers. A large sack of gold was provided for the party with the promise of more to follow. Ikki realised that the Artifact was the same shiny object he was *so close* to retrieving in the mines and flew as quickly as possible to the site where the Dark Ones were first encountered. The rest of the party followed, at the appropriate leisurely pace.

When the party eventually grouped up they progressed through the same tunnel the mysterious Dark Ones had apparently fled through some days before. During a close encounter with some Ankhegs, Righteous appeared using his blessed travel stone and the group ploughed on. It was ironic they ploughed, as the claustrophobic tunnel opened onto a farm area where Undercabbages were seemingly grown in vast quantities. The party here encountered unusual psychic vegetables which after much fire, confusion and headache (quite literally) were dispatched.

Travelling further still down into the depths of the cavernous Chiara mine system the adventures next stumbled upon Deepmire, a Dwarven town in a state of ruin, disrepair, death and abandonment. Here all members apart from Tess travelled straight to the lab, unwittingly setting off an archaic alarm system that awoke golems created from the very walls of the lab only for them to be destroyed and re-purposed (enter Chester –a Golem literally made of a chest and under the control of Righteous Fire). A number of ‘Boomsticks’ or ‘Exploserous Carneleans’ (read – Dynamite) were also discovered by Dorjan.

Tess disappeared from the party during the battle with the golems and returned later with a smile on her face, a new sword at her side and a sprightly gait to her walk.

Artist's Depiction of Chester the Chest Golem

Explosives discovered – 8
Golems destroyed – 2
Golems (Chester) created – 1
Legendary swords discovered – 1
Psychic vegetables slain - 3

Loquista Session 4 - "Chooser of the Slain."

Characters:
Callie Tealeaf, Halfling Ranger and demon-hunter.

Vaina Moynen, Half-Orc Barbarian-Fighter and thug.

Kavarus, Tiefling Bard and social butterfly.

Pheobus Arouk, the Radiant Light, Goliath Warlock.

Eoighan, Order Fanatic and Dwarven Druid.

Landar Farshield, Half-Elven Rogue/Fighter and spook.

The Heroes of North Corner, recuperating in the Broken Fang Inn wafter their high-profile murder of Radoslig, gathered at breakfast after five days to find a member of the party, Durlin, has fled in the night. A brief respite for the cabin-fever of the Inn afforded them a view of the Loquista public: tense, twitchy, on the verge of protest -as the grain shortages hit. Their own ship, The Sea Spider, was nowhere to be seen at the docks, as was the vast wealth their grain speculation had accrued and most of the pirates. The insectile wizard Durlin had taken to the seas on a quest of his own.

The party decided to devote their time to the return of another misplaced party member – Pheobus Arouk, the Radiant Light, who had swan-dived into the endless chaos of the Positive Plane to escape the fury of the Clockwork Wyrm the week before. To that end, they explored the vast libraries of the Loquista Collegiate, climbing the great sky-piercing tower that menaces the Loquista skyline.

Upon entry, our heroes were stopped in their track by Cerelesta’s doorman: a grotesquely overweight imp, hanging from the door, vestigial wings utterly incapable of propulsion. Kavarus tried and failed to bargain with the creature, yet it met every verbal thrust with a speedy riposte – demonstrating an intellectual alacrity not matched by physical presence.

Vaina, every the pragmatist, grabbed the imp by the throat and held him over the edge of the tower. Thus they were granted an audience with Cerelesta, the Dean of the Collegiate and member of the Council of Nine.

This precise, angular woman sat on a throne carved from manticore-bone, surrounded by circular beds with a harem-canopies on which frolicked a rotund panoply of imps writhing in sexual excitement, yawning in deep repose, smoking opiates or grinning behind transparent cerise.  She ignored the heroes and continued to breathe deep of her opium-pipe.

Kavarus spoke up first, asking if Cerelestra could find a means of travelling between planes. She responded by activating her Planar Orrery above their heads, clockwork clicking into life. Kavurus then intoned that they were looking for a certain Arouk. The Magi exhaled, the smoke forming a representation of Arouk. 

Kavurus then asked what the Dean could possibly want by way of recompense. Cerelestra exhaled, the smoke forming a representation of a singular object: a hourglass-shape filled with motes of dust; belonging to a certain hag in the swamps of Loquista known as Black Annis.

The Heroes of North Corner soon strode out to the city gate and whilst being processed by the Loquistan Guards they came across Landar Farshield. A terse conversation revealed that the grizzled Half-Elf also desired Teshei’s overthrow for reason of his own, and he agreed to help them in their current endeavour in return for being inducted into the Resistance.

In the swamps, past where Arouk had once meditated to create a lasting connection to the Positive Energy Plane they first witnessed the silvery, transparent form of Arouk. Deep in the brilliant abyss of the Positive Energy Plane, Arouk had meditated and found a way to project a simulacrum of his spirit into the Prime Material to aide his friends. Incapable of touching any object or individual, he could only imbue others with his light. To demonstrate his mastery, he briefly possessed and humiliated Kavurus*.

Trawling through the swamps, trying to triangulate Cerelestra’s prize with judicious use of Find Object, they come across a party of Lizardfolk performing some kind of ceremonial dance beside a tree. Arouk, deciding that it was completely within his programming to impersonate a deity, emerged from the tree in order to beguile the Lizardfolk into the party’s service.

Using his newfound religious calling, Arouk quickly learnt that Black Annis was not the only supernatural terror haunting the endless mire outside Loquista – there was also the Crow Queen, a wandering spirit who constantly harried the Lizardfolk for their peaceable ways and tried to drive them towards viciousness, vendetta and violence. Black Annis largely left them to their devices, but occasionally would snatch an errant child who wandered too far from protection.

The Heroes of North Corner pledged to combat the Crow Queen, and staged an elaborate duel at twilight to attract her attention. Vaina and Eoighan agreed to stage a duel, forming a circle. As Eoighan began by taking the form of a bear and swatting at Vaina – sure that they were simply sparring – Vaina assaulted him with utter violence, testing to the phenomenal power of his new blade, Voidwalker. Within minutes, Eoighan was at the point of death, and it became apparent that Vaina was fighting to the very knife. For Voidwalker, veteran of a thousand duels, was cursed to drive its master to accept any duel offered, and ensure that it was combat to the end. As Eoighan shifted form to form, mirroring his opponent’s bloodlust in animal shape, it became clear he was outmatched by the swallow-swift lacerations of the unseen blade. He fell, and Vaina, quivering with rage, anticipation and bloodlust, managed to hold himself back from slaying his friend, giving the Druid a disfiguring scar instead.

Seeing this contest, The Morrigan came: a towering, leather-skinned, knife-sharp crone astride a horse fit for a Storm Giant: with raven-black hair and eyes cold as polar skies she observed Vaina’s prowess. Unseen, Landar crept nearer The Morrigan, crawling through mire and fen until he could see the fog of her breath and smell the sweat of her steed.

Then, he leapt, slicing her with cold steel. The brutal sneak attack would have easily ended a mortal, but the Morrigan survived it easily. Kavarus and Callie followed suit with a flurry of arrows and damaging magic, which the Morrigan ignored, surrounding Kavarus and Landar in a Blade Barrier with casual disdain. Kavarus gave Landar a leg-up to scale the Barrier, feet missing the whirring storm of death by inches, dropping to one knee and rolling, eager to cross steel with a goddess again. Seeing himself outmatched, Landar offered his sword -and claimed he was simply showing his courage to the Chooser of the Slain. Amused by such vainglory, The Morrigan demanded Landar pass a singular test. She focussed her power on him for a second – his skin cracked and decayed, his flesh shrank and drooped and his heart quaked, humming-bird fast, as he resisted the deathly power.

Having survived, The Morrigan named Landar one of her champions – a Knight of the Crow. The party directed her to seek death and battlefields in the streets and arenas of Loquista, rather than the swamps, earning the affection of the Lizardfolk clans.

Returning to their camp, Arouk delivered a divine proclamation. Knowing that Black Annis would only be tempted to feed by a youth, Arouk demanded that the Lizardfolk give up a child from among their number to be trained in the warrior-ways of the Gods – the same arts that allowed them to drive away The Morrigan. The Chief’s precocious son, Sessassurak was volunteered in an instant – the Clan Mothers in rapt adulation that such a warrior come be from the ruling line.

Camp was made as twilight fell at a spot known to be a prowling ground for Annis. Against the crackle of the campfire and the endless buzz of swamp-life, Sessassurak babbled with question – was Loquista, the great shadow on his swamp home, as splendid as they said? Was it sinful, avaricious; a shark-sharp place of subterfuge and salt, as the Clan Mothers said? Would he be mightier than Quizitsutsch? Mighty enough to hew an oak? What tribe was Kavarus from?

Against the fusillade of questions, there was a sudden silence in the swamp.

In the distance, a keening wail.

Night falls.

"The raven himself is hoarse

That croaks the fatal entrance..." Hamlet

Religions Founded: 1
Faustian Bargains: 3
Villains Vanquished: 0.
Treasure: 0gp
Sacrificial Lambs acquired: 1

Loquista Session 3 - “Brightest Candle, Longest Shadow.”

Session Recap – “Brightest Candle, Longest Shadow.”



Characters:
Vaina Moyen, Orcish mercenary.
Kavorous, Tiefling cloak-and-dagger man.
Noone, Gnome Revolutionary.
Aruk, Goliath Crusader.
Callie, Halfing Ranger and irresponsible pet-owner.
Rear Admiral Durlin, Gnomish Wizard and Pirate-King.
Eoighan, Dwarven Druid and Order fanatic.

At the start of this session, the players announced their intention to accept Lomorit’ offer to assassinate Radoslig, the corrupt, boorish Chancellor of Loquista. Lomorit had dangled a cache of magical weapons as renumeration, and there was the chance of destabilising the regime by assassinating a key figure.

Using the intimate knowledge of the city’s waterways supplied by Lomorit, the Heroes of North Corner covertly entered Radoslig’s pile through the sewers, quickly emerging into the grandiose dining hall that Radoslig’s corruption had won him. All around the players sensed a powerful aura of magic, especially in the darkness above them. Pawing through Radoslig’s silent house with the benefit of Pass Without Trace, they came across some minor treasures: an extravagant cape-and-tabard named The Sovereign’s Raiment and a magical dress-dagger. Hearing the moaning of a female figure, they further devlved into Radoslig’s Kunstkammer. There, they uncovered a living mosaic who strove to communicate with the party wordlessly, tempting them to walk across her surface despite the gaping mouth and nebulous intent. The party decided discretion was the greater part of valour, despite Noone’s attempts to use illusion magic to lure Kavorous into the Mosaic Mistress’ maw. Frustrated with his comrades’ inability to focus, Vaina surged upstairs, eager to slay Radoslig in his bed. The party followed suit.

On the upper floor were yet more baubles purchased by Radoslig in his long years of excess: suspended from the ceiling of the Grand Hall below was the enormous skeleton of a dragon, radiating a powerful aura of magic; covered in brass and clockwork. Understandably wary, the Heroes of North Corner continued their search for Radoslig’s bed, coming across an enchanted mirror that allowed a practioner of magick to contact another plane. Aruk, feeling this was a sign from his Patron and eager to light a candle in this darkest of places, contacted the Positive Energy plane.

An incandescence like the sun itself issued forth from the Mirror, and all the players were blinded. Fumbling in a pearl-white haze of purest Positive Energy, they heard the roar of a dragon and the whirring of titanic clockwork. It had awakened.

As the light dimmed, the players marshalled their resources to defy the dragon, which breathed burning steam and struck with jaws of bone and bronze, clawing its way through the home to devour the intruders. Vaina, mind ever set on the mission, strode into the bedroom, axe in hand, and saw Radoslig lying in bed with a quadruple amputee. With his honed reflexes, he brought the axe down on Chancellor and bedmate both, belonging only to his rage and his singular purpose. There could be no witnesses. Meanwhile, the Heroes of North Corner weathered the might of the clockwork dragon as guards streamed up the stairs. Masterful use of magic kept the guards at bay with Callie’s arrows slaying many. Eoighan cast Speak with Dead on the mechanical monstrosity: all then bore witness to its scream, with the force of a hurricane: W H A T    H A V E    Y O U    D O N E    T O   M E
Eoighan desperately tried to talk down the dragon’s spirit despite its roars of defiance and its rending of the mansion, but soon ascertained that the spirit was no longer guiding the bone: artifice, not animus, ruled this horror.

One by one, they fled. Vaina leapt from the window, impaling himself in the fence in his escape attempt, carrying with him the head or Radoslig. Kavorous polymorphed into a hawk and whisked the head away into the saturnine night for reasons unknown. Callie and Noone fled through the crowd, seeing a growing assembly of Loquistan soldiers, guards and marines assembling outside this glowing house as the skeletal dragon bellowed its fury across the night. Eoighan in the guise of a mouse, stole across the city to the docks. Across the city, Loquistans quaked in their beds at the scream and roars and strange lights.

In Radoslig’s  crumbling mansion, Aruk returned a bellow of pure defiance, trading blow-for-blow in the luminosity that poured forth from the Mirror. Durlin unloaded an inferno on bronze-scales and gears and smouldering bone to be found wanting; Aruk’s mighty hews glanced from unfeeling metal and long-dead bone.  Durlin fled first – skittish and spider-like he danced across the rooftops without a backwards glance.

Aruk stood alone before all the might of artifice and the arcane, arms shaking as he held his sword aloft. Aruk stood alone.

He traded blow for blow – steam reddening his skin, claws rending his flesh, spraying scarlet life-blood on the pure-white light that still poured forth from the window. He fell once, and rose again: a gift from his glimmering patron. Still, the engine and gears turned, willing dead bone against Aruk, who fell back to the mirror. At the last moment, facing thankless death crushed by insensate jaws, he swan-dived through the mirror, utterly serene, into the Positive Energy Plane.

The Clockwork Dragon screamed defiance that shook windows and pierced ear-drums, and smashed the mirror to a thousand pieces.

Days later, our players regroup at the Broken Fang Inn and compare scars. The Loquistan army had vanquished the bone-dragon as it rampaged through the city that night, and confusion and discord reigned supreme in the Council of Nine.

Kavorous enquired at the Loquistan Collegiate about Interplanar Travel, to be told that a great Magi can manage it – perhaps one of the Deans, the Council of Ten, a Zunian Shaman or one of the Court-Magi of the Eternal Throne of Damesht. There were artefacts that could grant interplanar travel, but their location was unknown.

Lomorit, true to his word, granted the party three weapons of considerable power.  These were Voidwalker, Whisper and Yilidrim.

Callie claimed Yilidrim, due to her mastery of the bow.
Kavorous claimed Whisper, due to his mastery of subterfuge.
Vaina Moyen claimed Voidwalker, due to the machinations of terrible intelligences beyond mortal comprehension.  
To bond with the sword, Vaina asked Durlin’s help with the ritual. As Durlin chanted, Vaina dreamt he was in a world of perfect and complete darkness. He wandered for a time, sensing shapes prowling at the proximity of his vision and flashes of sudden vision: a dragon coiled around a Titan’s Heart with thousands bowing before him, a shaven-haired human child crying in her hands, a tall Elf fall to his knees in despair, burying Voidwalker in the dirt; a dark-skinned man caged and whipped bloody above a teeming throng of fiends, and always: a dark figure, so dark as to be visible in the darkness all around who mirrored Vaina’s every move. He eventually came across the sword, reached out to touch it, and finally met hands with the figure. He was The Wielder now.

Miles across the city, in a rose-scented chamber within his harem, Teshei meditates before a strange device: seven orbs over around him. Five lifeless as bone; one an incandescent gold, a second a baleful red. As one orb is suddenly wreathed in cold, jet-black flames – Teshei’s eyes open, glinting with the faintest suggestion of panic.


“Subtlety may deceive you; integrity never will.“ - Oliver Cromwell.

Villains Vanquished: 13
Players Lost In The Positive Energy plane: 1
Dragons Definitely Not Humbled: 1.
Sex Worker Death Toll: 1.
Magic Items claimed: 5
Ancient Dread Prophecies Unknowingly Fulfilled: 1.

Items:

Voidwalker
Greatsword * 2d6
The sword is a single hilt of bone. The blade is not visible. When held aloft in darkness, a series of glowing runes are visible on the blade. In Infernal, they read: THE GREATEST WARRIOR FIGHTS AS THOUGH ALREADY DEAD.

Powers:
Stillness: Once per day, the wielder of Voidwalker may use his move action to make an additional attack with Voidwalker.
Brightest Candle, Longest Shadow:  If the wielder of Voidwalker hits 0 hit-points, they may instead choose to stay standing at 1hp and gain a random curse.

Secrets:
An Arcana check could reveal…

A History (25) will reveal Voidwalker to have been the sword of Musashi, who founded the Dameshti Swordfighting college that offers the swan-pendant for excellence in combat. Musashi was gifted Voidwalker by Dispater after triumphing in 66 duels to the death. A great reward would be offered if it was returned to the College.

A History check will reveal Voidwalker….

A Religion check could reveal…


Yilidrim
This bow is made of springy ash-white wood, and is intricately carved with an Aarakocra creation story, featuring the first male Aarakocra being born from a thunderbolt striking a man. The second image features him wearing a crown of thunderbolts and roaring. The third shows him prostrating before an unseen figure.

It grants the ability to fire an arrow once per day which functions as the Thunderbolt spell, as an attack action.

A History (22) will reveal that this bow…..


Whisper
Rapier * Finesse Weapon
d8
Whisper is an enchanted sword cane. As such, it can be concealed as a walking stick. The pommel and hand-guard resemble the mouth of a serpent.
Bonuses: Even if drawn - and pressed against the throat of a foe – opponents will not recognise Whisper as a weapon unless actually attacked.
Once per day, Whisper can inflict the Paralysis condition on an opponent (DC 15 CON save. Save ends.)

Sovereign’s Raiment
This is an enormously pompous cloak and tabard. It cannot be worn with armour. You may cast Suggestion and Command once per day. You have advantage on any attempts to deceive others of your authority.