Quote from: Drohem;340706Hey Spike, I just wanted to drop a note that I enjoy reading your game session synopses.  I love old school RQ, so it's nice to read about the ins-and-outs of actual play reports.

You're welcome. I've used this thread as a reference for past activities... essentially my own campaign notes and brainstorming, but I'm always happy to hear that its useful or entertaining for others.

On that note (campaign notes?):  Apparently I'm doing SOMETHING right, at least from my perspective.  I've been thinking vaguely of some of the table discussions from last Sunday.

I've always dispised game play that ignores logistics completely, especially with regards to travel times. Nothing shrinks a world, or breaks suspension of disbelief faster for me, than people who can rush half way around the world to raid a dungeon then return home in time for dinner...

Of course, in my years of GMing I've had games die because travelling was too boring. At least in the case of this RQ campaign (two different groups and long breaks etc...), travel has been both a real concern, in other words part of the difficulty of adventuring, and yet not at all a boring game killer.

When the players 'researched' where to find a Fertility rune I had three successful researchers, so I provided three seperate ideas of where to look. The one that was most appealing was the bandit queen/sorceress on the Hygleac penninsula... obviously a great way to make money and acquire more runes other than just the Fertility rune.

They eventually passed on it because they realized that the Hygleac penninsula was... at a MINIMUM a month's travel in the wrong direction.  Note: It wasn't the potential boredom of the trip but the realization that they had been on their little quest for something on the order of three months already, and going south would essentially mean shelving the idea of returning to Renbluve for a long time: one does not travel a month plus just to kill a bandit queen then return home; one travels a month plus to kill the bandit queen then sticks around to find other adventures.

In other words: I got it right.  Travel represents a real effort with real rewards and real sacrifices to my players.  My world continues to solidify in the nature of 'clockwork realities'.

Now, if you don't mind I've got to see a doctor, I think I sprained my elbow patting myself on the back just now.

Our elven runaway returned and wound up with a small amount of armor. She and Sir Needelbaum wound up with a minor skill boost by taking a second career path to get them closer to the party, though Needelbaum decided to avoid anything remotely combative and the elf witch took 'shaman' persisting in her spell casting. MUST GET HER MORE SPELLS! Specifically combat spells. She spent the entire night trying ot 'vigor' herself for the +2 CON bonus.... and when she finally got into a fight with her dagger... well lets say her maxiumum damage wouldn't get through armor.

I did a couple of fun things tonight to get people more involved in tactics: battlemap and tokens and using more MRQ combat rules (Combat actions specifically...).  It wound up a bit mixed as far as results go.

So:

Dwarven caravan crossing the Scar consisted of five massive armored wagons pulled by heavily armored things (described as tortise like... with horns) and topped with Arbelests. Shift change every twelve hours to swap out tortises (one wagon was 'spare draft beasts and rest wagon for guards') and the trip took longer than the first crossing.  

More than half hte attacks occured during the parties 'rest shift', but the big fight was the two mutated Wyrms (one was more heavily armored than usual, the other exploded upon death), and I was finally able to put a bit of fear into Kitara when she learned that parrying a Wyrm may be better than loosing your leg, but only marginally (MRQ rules: a mildly successful parry only gives half hte AP of hte weapon as extra armor, enough to keep her leg intact, but that was it), her first injury in the campaign that wasn't self inflicted.  She does not deal well with setbacks. Losing combat actions to injury had her pouting and demanding we switch to D&D... oh well.  

Other encounters were with organized parties of broo and 'acid skinned dark trolls in armor'... many of whom were turned into 'zombies' by the greater Death Rune.

At the end of the game it was decided to switch to the MRQ experience method (pre-given 'advances' rather than the checkmarks) to deal with various issues, not the least was allowing players to raise their POW reliably (they've bled POW from gaining runes, among other things...).

Next time: They might invade the ant colony. Luckily they have zombies to take the hits for them.  Still, aside from some complaints about the more compex rules being used, the game went fairly well despite being nothing more than a string of linked, thematically appropriate encounters.

So I was largely without a computer last week. I also worked all weekend and was running rougly 4 hours of sleep a night for five days straight. Still, I shouldered my burden, put my shoulder to the plow, and ran a game.

Ok, I ran a three hour bullshit session that ended with barely and hour of roleplaying that involved not a single dice roll.

Ironically, this weekend virtually the entire session was one long massive combat.  Go figure.  Anyway, I'm sort of rolling both up into one post, obviously.

So, since the players seem enamored of the big ass magic ring of doom, looted from the skeleton of the Dragon Tyrannicus from deep within the dead city of Ysithideri, I planned to have them find a scholar who could teach them a bit about how to use it safely... or safer anyway.

It occured to me that Runequest has long referenced 'hero questing', where characters go to the god plane and live out mythic shit and even come back with 'neat stuff'.  Of course, I haven't found a clear cut set of rules that really mattered yet, but since when do I need rules?

So, they met some old crusty dude who'd done some crazy shit in his day, frequently with Iremi artifacts, and boy did he have some stories.. but he also knew how to get them into the right part of the Spirit world to watch history unfold and maybe, just maybe, learn a thing or two about how to use Iremi artifacts.

Problem: The party couldn't meet his price. Bwahahahahaha!!!!

Cue next session: Lacking funds to pay for a corrupted spirit quest ritual, the players decided to fall back on their ant killing quest, hoping to find a (second!) fertility rune.

A note: Any given rune may or may not have a spell you can learn if you have it. the Spell book I bought has many many (poorly organized for play...) rune spells, many of which require two or more runes.  How can any one really LEARN Runemagic if runes are reasonably common?  So... I've been working on trying to get the players more runes. One rune per researched adventure is awfully slim pickins for a party of five to six.

Luckily for them, their reputation and their plans reached the ear of King Daved of Kelsem, 8th king of the Jorgi dynasty ( I made more notes before game, I am such a GMing stud...), and they were summoned to the keep for a mostly private meeting.

You see: The ant colony has persisted for decades, providing a known threat and buffer against some of the worst creatures of the Scar.  Not that King Daved cared if some adventurers slaughtered giant ants by the hundreds. Far from it.

You see, King Japhod, his father, had prosectued a foolish war against the filty dragon worshippers of Moet, ruining the treasury and trade of Kelsem. Daved, no fan of Moet, took the throne attempting to redress the problems of the past, thus he pursues a chilly peace with Moet... and thus a hostage exchange. He has already received to his court the 'Flower of Moet', the Dragon King's daughter, but his son, Horvald did not make it across the Scar... his hand however was brought to Kelsem by a giant ant, along with a crude note demanding flesh in return for the boy's continued life.

The players, in their eagerness, rushed the keeps arsenal to 'upgrade' for free. They didn't get much, as ringmail and spears are the main weapons, and the party was doing mostly alright armor/weapon wise. They didn't ask about rewards, they didn't ask for more assistance...

Cue the Ant assault, assisted by a non-gaming friend of ours who played an Orc Myrmidon (Kerkeshi mercenaries). This freind will be playing on and off until January, but I don't imagine she'll become a die hard gamer. Still, she had fun rolling dice and hearing she'd speared an ant through the head, so it was all good.

Now: I explained that we were talking about hundreds of ants (500 to be exact, 100 or so would be on patrol and 200 or so less aggressive workers.) but the players didn't ask for help. So sad, too, I'd written up some 'war' stats for the King and his loyalest vassals and the 'royal wizard'.

They had roughly 8 animated corpses, however, left over from crossing the scar. Rather than try to remember which were Broo and which were Trolls, I just used 'zombie' stats with greatclubs for weapon. Seeing as they were zombies, I also 'ignored' any injuries that weren't enough to maim outright... mostly because there were enough ants that extra tough zombies wouldn't last long.

I had determined there were three entrances to the hive and that once they got 'x' close to the queen's chamber the reinforcements would be arriving. This proved a non-issue, as they left the death-horse guarding the entrance they used, along with a patrol escort of Myrmidons who guided them to the scar who hung out and shot shit and generally had a good time while the party fought a desprit fight through the cramped tunnels.

Ok, so the mass of zombies blocked the main corridor two ranks deep, keepign the party in the back for the first several rounds. I allowed them to use spears and bows where the line was thinner. Once the tunnels started branching, and the ants started tearing zombies appart the party got more invovled in the fight.

Not much to say about that really.  I used the Chaos Mutation table and frequently got tougher than usual ants (extra armor was my most common result).  Kitara pissed off the workers just as the party proved to have the upper hand, changing slightly the dynamic of the fight, and the 'party healer' managed to get a good heal off on the orc the round after she was injured.

Things went really fast once Kitara changed into an Undine, a spell she has been dying to try out. Against  Giant Ants it was particularly brutal as she could slam several a round and be virtually garaunteed a kill for every target she picked. Against tougher or more clever opponents (or if I'd gotten the fire breathing ants up to the front line...) she might have been really hurting. The extra hit points more than made up for the minor loss of armor.

Rather than trying to 'convert' her into an undine as the spell suggested I found it simpler to use the Undine entry from the book. That MAY have made her more powerful. This is offset by a vast slowing and the limited time she can maintain the spell.  If the ants were less suicidally agressive she might have wasted more rounds trying to catch up to her targets.

After losing over 100 ants (and running late into the night), the rest of the colony focused more on evacuating, rather than killing, with the bulk of the warriors fighting a holding action and getting washed away.  This left the party a mostly abandoned colony to search, finding the boy alive, barely, in a larder, some random 'wealth' including two additional runes to the rune they were searching for. They were handsomely rewarded by the king, including an ancient Danu sword, though they had no idea what it was, that is basically an upgraded Sabre with Bladesharp 2 and Countercleaving (second hit) as innate abilities.  As the Kerkeshi prefer spears, King Daved viewed this as merely some old treasure to hand out as a reward.  His family took it from Ysithideri when the city was being destroyed and they fled.

I have some stuff planned for the Hero-Quest, but I suspect it will be mostly talking that night, and I'll try to keep it down to an hour or so, but it will allow me to showcase the destruction of Irem, a major historical event, and one that is increasingly becoming more relevant to the campaign... I has plans, I does.... bwahahahahaha

Thanks for posting this Spike.  Excellent thread.

No problems, mano.  I get as much out of posting them as others get out of reading as I'm a naturally lazy and disorganized GM.

So, the Orc Myrmidon did not join us this week, but she promised to be back next.

Its alright, I suppose... this was not my finest session though. I planned grandly and ran blandly...

Also: too many distractions at the start of game, what with buying the pizza and picking up one of my wayard players AFTER the supposed start of game. Lost an hour right there, bastiches.

So:  The party, with their crusty old spiritual guru head out of town several hours to a random hillside, accompanied by random NPCs who turn out to be ritual dancers.  They enter a fog, press through it, passing spiritually through the seiging army of the Tuathan army, seeing both the Gods assisting and the Godslayer protecting Irem.

Eventually... they observe an Iremi master Alchemist trading barbs with the Dragon Tyrannicus, learn to use the ring and witness, belatedly, the death of Irem.

There went an hour of almost entirely narration from the GM. Blech.  

I rushed it by as fast as I could, and as near as I can tell, the players did enjoy hearing about the glory of the lost city, and they had MANY questions about the Godslayer, though it was too large for them to see clearly (thing is MASSIVE on a scale that makes comparisons fall flat...). They also learned that something from Irem is hidden in Mor'kath, though they have not heard that name before.

But ideally it would have been a more interactive scene. I also forgot that it was supposed to end with the death of Irem, so I wound up covering this 'very important' bit with more of a footnote.  I KNOW if I had followed the original plan a bit better the players would have at least TRIED to loot the scene a bit... which would have been cool.  By footnoting and sticking to the narrative format, rather than making it far more interactive, I basically wasted opportunity and merely set up future adventures.

Not sure what I can learn from this. My failure was predictable and I made efforts to prevent it and wound up taking the worst route anyway. Ah well, at least they weren't bored to tears.

Anyway: the players wake up in an empty field near dawn, the landscape warped by the echos of Amorphia in the spirit realm and their very souls seared by their near spiritual deaths (-3 HP to all locations, no magical healing.. this left the Elf Witch unconcious for the rest of the session. Oops. A worse die roll would have killed her.) I stalled for time a bit while I looked up the 'critter' that would harrass them from the tear in reality (they WERE doing seriously bad magic, there have to be consequences...) and let them sort out the presence of some Chaos runes... more on that.

Eventually I found the Mithras Demon, which was perfect for my needs. Tough and nasty, able to go toe to toe with the Undine form, maybe.  I also found out I'd been misreading the Undine's 'Slam' ability... supposedly its only usable underwater. Worse: It didn't have a skill associated with it. Against the Giant Ants this was fine (hordes of fanatical, fairly disposable troops...), against a more 'elite', and singular, opponent it was far less 'cool'.  I arbitrarily allowed Kitara to use the Slam as before, but gave her a 50% skill with it.

The Demon in question was tough, lots of hit points, a decent but not overwhelming amount of armor, and an absolutely killer melee attack. Its main weaknesses were its comparative slowness (two combat actions vs the average party member's 3) and lack of defensive abilities.  I also figured it wouldn't be 'alone' necessarily, but I didn't want to wipe out the players so I had them coming at random intervals (1 in six, a new demon, 6 on a d6, the rift closes, ending the extended fight...).  

The first demon went down shockingly fast. Kit made her defense roll, and in MRQ that meant she took minimal damage from teh demon (3 points), which barely hurt her given the massive bonus HP being in Undine form gave her.  then the party 'spell caster', her long companion, let loose a 'skybolt'.

I'm starting to hate that spell.  Three magic points and it is pretty much garaunteed to kill anything. Without a dodge skill, the demon had no real resist, so its leg was blown off, and despite a crazy high persistance, it 'died' from the blast, the bulk of its body falling back into the rift. Two rounds later its buddy showed up. This fight went better (I added a good dodge skill to the demons as that is the defense to skybolt in MRQ as I recall...).  The nobleman used his danu sword to good effect, the demon got a solid hit against the lizardman's shield ( don't know if this is a house rule or not, but taking a hit on a sheild means that teh damage is applied to the shield in full. Shields are tough, but this demon hits like a truck, I ruled the PC's arm was numbed from the impact for d3 actions.)  

And the deathhorse, which had stayed out of the first fight due to be burdened by an unconcious witch came over and put the kibosh on the demon once and for all.  

Note: The lizard used his death touch power on the demon's left arm. In the past this has caused a general withering/weakening of the afflicted. In the Demon's case it caused that limb to dissolve completely, due to the metaphysics involved.  I could have, just as easily, ruled that it didn't work for similar reasons (does death-touch work on a rock? No? Same metaphysical underpinnings you know...)

At this point the lizard player went all 'inquisitorial' on the corpses, mushing them into goo and burning the remains, before claiming the demonic oversized greatsword as a prize.

Back to the Runes: I put three runes of Chaos out, plus THE greater rune of Chaos (called the Rune of the Fallen in MRQ's text...)

As with most items of power in my game, this particular prize is not without consequences.  There isn't a law-chaos axis in the world of Haven, Chaos is an elemental force, one that happens to be horrifically destructive in its natural state. Arguably there shouldn't even be RUNES of chaos... but not having them would be awkward (runes being nodules of reality, nodes and knots in the metaphysical weave of the world... of course, since Choas powers all of that its not an impossibility, or so I rationalize).

THE greater Rune of Chaos (being a truly singular artifact. Sure, there is only one Rune of the Dead, but if Death wanted to make more, he could...), is a reflection of tear in reality that created the lesser Sea of Chaos in the Iremi wastes.  By integrateing the rune, bonding with it physically, the player becomes sort of anathema to Reality.  Like all holders of Greater Runes, the PC becomes more than mortal, but not quite a God.  

The downside is obvious: No cult could accept the bearer, most towns and cities would prefer they not stay (sort of like the Death guy...), the only divine magic is Chaos magic (not even the All Cults divine spells, literally only Chaos magic).

That said there ARE Chaos Cults, rare groups of madmen who worship the primal Fountainhead, and minor deities who 'service' their divine needs... if only to prevent them from trying to tear open reality to get power directly... and the character would be welcome among such madmen.

Ironically, the rune itself isn't all that impressively powerful. The main opponents the players have been facing for the last several months would actually benefit from the aura of chaos, and when using the Iremi Ring of Tyrannicus (who, for the record, was a Girl Dragon, not that the players know that, or care... still... I figured the information exists, might as well share with SOMEBODY... go you guys!), but only when summoning raw amorphia into the world.

Speaking of: The results of their perverted Heroquest was that all present PCs learned (without advances) Alchemy and Lore: Iremi Artifact Use, which is a bit more broad than it should be... I'll have to remind them to keep it simple if they ever try to 'take over' an Iremi Construct... if they ever run into any.

So, our personal incarnation of chaos (Kitara) took teh greater rune of Chaos, sacrificing her plans to join the cult of Ernalda the Allmother, though she is begging me to find her a chaos cult.  They spent two weeks healing up from the 'soul burn' of having their spiritual forms partially dissolved by the lesser sea of Choas, and we sort of travelouged back to Renbluve, as the raw power and rough equipment they have would 'scare off' the sorts of things that plagued the party on the trip south. From now on any 'random' encounters will be with creatures more powerful and will with full knowledge of who they are (and probably trying to steal their shit...).

Here is the near future plans for the party along with a short list of 'adventure seeds' I've thrown their way.

In Renbluve a Prince of Tenebria is waiting for them, to hire them to escort him, alive, OUT of the Underworld.  The 'payment' for this little adventure will probably be their very own skyship, which will give them far more mobility and the ability to set up bases of operation (alchemy lab for instance?).

Yes, I am modeling this adventure path after Stephen Brust's Vlad Taltos and his very own trip through the Paths of the Dead, why do you ask?  

Before they can go, however, there is still the matter of Factor Johan, who hired them to get the ring. They've stated their intent NOT to turn it over to their mysterious employer.... too bad, since a bag full of Orichalcum coin would be an adventure in its own right... and doubly bad since the 'man' who hired Factor Johan is, in fact, a Dragon... who will not look kindly at being thwarted.

Then there is the matter of the GodSlayer. This monstrosity is still wandering the wastes of Irem, 'immune' to the Amorphia of the lesser sea of Chaos and preventing the Gods from doing much about said sea. Its big enough that the players can actually enter it and wander about its innards like it was a gigantic mobile city/dungeon.

Then there is the mysterious package Tyrannicus delivered to Mor'kath from Irem, taking the ring in payment.

And Sir Needelbaum is continuing his quest to learn more about the Dealyryth... which will eventually take them either to Paravail or the northern Edge of the World, where the Queen of the North maintains the edge of reality.  Of course, Mor'Kath is IN the north, though not quite as far.

Of course, dealing with Prince Tourop might get them involved with the political landscape of the Tenebrian Empire... the amount of power they represent WILL make them of interest to various powers of the South... and The Thousand represent a military force that might be able to seriously challenge them.

Then there is the matter of Azaezelbunny. The less said the better.

Session 842, take 3...

Just kidding.

So, the party arrived in Renbluve once more, and I had a fun time describing the city to the players who had started later in the game, and we revisited a few of the sights from the previous campaign for the two 'old schoolers' at the table.

The players, having now the need to confront Factor Johan (the man who had hired them lo these many moons ago) regarding their decision to NOT hand over the ring (ironically, not because they really desired it for themselves but because it was too dangerous.... what weird players, no?) strike upon a need to do some gumshoe work, trailing and investigating and so forth.

Cue realization that they have no idea how to do any such thing, and don't have any really relevant skills either.  Much fun (and turkey, by the way...) was had by all.

Eventually, Sir Needelbaum made his way to the upper city and the tiny temple-library of Lankor Mhy (his cult), where he was able to learn much lore regarding Factors in Nornsa, but not much about Mr. Johan, businessman.

Factors, you see, are a long standing, if antiquated, tradition that is believed to have come from the Elves of Illyaclie with Versilimatu himself as he founded the Nornsan Empire. The word itself, however, is only found in the remanents of the southern half of the empire as it is a Helthdan loan word. The use of Factors, or professional middlemen, fell out of favor during the Warlord era, though some few still practice the old traditions, including the use of magical contract oaths and such...

Eventually the players shrugged and went to his offices directly. Half the party seemed hell bent on torturing him to death, for reasons I am not entirely clear on, with the rest set to grill him for information.

The office, as such, was a tiny wooden room built up against one of the outer walls of the Upper City, occupied by a single desk, and the hapless Mr. Johan sitting behind it.   Upon recognizing the two PC's who were still with the party he grimaced slightly and admitted that he had been 'had', tossing a bag of coins upon his desk and letting the gold spill out.  Counterfiet, sayeth he.  

Now that they had returned that put him in an awkward position, as his mysterious client had technically delivered the payment, but had not.  It turned out the fearsome Factor Johan was merely a relatively harmless businessman with no personal stake in the purchase... something he had TOLD THEM at the very start.

Despite the fact that he more or less offered to let them take the fake gold coins, Sir Needelbaum made the counter offer of buying only ten of the coins from him for the princely sum of 100 silver. In short he offered one REAL gold coin for ten FAKE gold coins when he could have had 1000 fake gold coins for free.  Economics, the lifeblood of the city... alas.  

I not too casually (I've never found a way to ask these things truly casually...) asked what they were physically doing with the coins as they left the office.  Putting them in a bag inside of a bag, was the answer, followed shortly by the realization that Sir Needelbaum owned no bags.

I made the fair call that they were 'in hand' as they left the tiny office and thus they saw what Factor Johan had not (I hate that name, btw. Only germanic name in the entire game...bah). When struck by direct sunlight the coins actually glowed. Not glinted nor shined, but glowed with their own light.

After inspecting the coins (harder than gold and lighter, and larger than normal sovereigns), even spilling some blood on them, they determined that the markings were definitely alchemical symbology. They recognized some of them from their dream quest to Irem, but as they'd learned that Iremi Alchemy was the 'source' of all northern alchemy schools, they felt this was not definitive.

So they took one to the Alchemical guild of Rebluve, the finest source of alchemical knowledge in all of Haven, and rather than get a short list of first impressions from teh alchemists, handed a coin over to the guild and promised to return in a week for complete findings.  Not that this would explain the actual ORIGINS of the coin, merely what it was made of.

That night, as they slept in a hotel in the upper city, they were awakened by a slightly distant but terrible racket and people running and shouting. Following the ruckus they came across the ruins of Factor Johan's office, which appeared to have exploded outwards. The Avatar of Death knew someone had died here very recently, though no body (or parts) could be found for a definitive questioning (Via divine magic), only a partially washed away smear of blood on the stone back wall (there was  bucket brigade putting out a few small fires) that read 'I want my ring'... which had been applied with enough force to gouge the stone underneath.  Most disturbing were the utter lack of tracks leading away from the wreckage... given the amount of debris some sort of obvious trail was to be expected.

Rather than force the players to either investigate this, as they do suck at such things, or to wait for the attacker to come to them (they DID try dancing in the streets with the coins in hand... and failed at the dance check... don't ask me, I just report), I went ahead and continued with my clockwork, active world.

In other words, Prince Toorop, of the Tenebrian Empire, a man of power and distinction amoung his people, hired them to help on his impossible quest to retrieve the sword of the Empresses ancestors that he might be successful in his attempt to woo her, rather than having to fall upon his sword at the end of the year.  He wanted to be escorted into and out of the Underworld.

Cue the 'Dun dun DUUH' music.

The Lizard/Avatar of Death immedeatly assumed this was some sort of 'anti-Death' mission and hated it, taking a long talking to by the party and some explanation in the character of Prince Toorop to explain how Death had literally nothing to do with the Land of the Dead except for his business of sending people there and his rather peevish attitude towards people refusing to stay dead once he'd killed them... neither of which applied to the party or Prince Toorop.... more importantly: An undead Prince Toorop, successful or not, could not marry the Empress and father a dynasty.

Once they accepted the Prince's offer, they had twenty four hours to do what they liked until they met him at the skydock (which I had fun describing, and watching some players look a little nervous about walking out on a rickety looking wooden dock suspended hundreds of feet in the air... ow, my shoulder!)  They brought their two ponies and the omnipresent death horse (when, really, resummoning it later would have been much simpler).

The Tenebrians are, if anything, MORE serious about their horses than the Helthdanes (the ethnic group of the southern Nornsan empire region, a short, bandly legged and swarthy peoples if you've read my long thread creating Haven...).  Of course, Tenebrian Horses are larger, heavier and eat raw meat.... and immedeately Kitara wanted one.  Prince Toorop assured her that should they be successful, in his role as Imperial Consort he would be in a position to possibly get her one... if she came to Tenebria.  

Cue music again!

I was tempted to draw out the travelogue flight over a session or two, throw in a stop along the way, maybe an encounter with the Sky-pirates of Parleon. However, a sore lack of proper adventures over the last couple sessions and a serious lack of ideas on how to really do it justice, I decided to keep the Sky-pirates as 'color' for the time being.. something seen as they flew by. I described the long flight, the few sights they saw and landed them at the Island at the Edge of the World in about 15 minutes. WHEE!!!

The Island is a tropical jungle, with very little animal life (none that they saw going in... and a shortage of bugs).  

I missed the point that people had to have come here in the past (Prince Toorop having a map is one clue), regardless of how remote it is. I did realize that many 'necromancers'... that is to say: People who have escaped the lands of the dead, may have actually climbed up the edge of the world and ended up trapped on a mostly deserted, fairly useless spit of land far (FAR) off the beaten track... thus most encounters will be of the 'undead' sort. Must include a proper, spell casting, necromancer type. At least one.

Anyway: Setting a sky-ship down on land is pretty much impossible (they are built out of ship hulls, or resembling them, anyway) and they aren't properly sea-worthy either, so the crew comprimised by setting it down in the shallow waters near shore and began the long preparations to re-lift it later. Prince Toorop brought his five bodyguards (members of the Thousand, wearing massive plate armor of some black iron and riding THOSE horses. The prince has claimed membership in that august body as well...) and that was it, indicating that the experienced adventurers he had recruited (no promises of payment were asked for... crazy PC's...) lead the way. Slow going, breaking trail.

By nightfall fat bloodsucking flys had become a nuisance, but luckily the players had two tents they'd purchaced in Kelsem eons ago, houseing up to eight people, and Toorop had his own pavilion (but nothign for his bodyguards, alas). A watch was set of one player one Thousand and to sleep they went. They'll need to hunt, however, as collectively the party has little food on them.

Sir Needelbaum was on watch and saw the feral manlike shapes rushign towards camp through a strange mist and sounded an alarm. Half the players (but not the death avatar...) awoke. He chopped one ghoul down, avoided being poisoned by virtue of having just enough armor, and resisted their demoralizing howl (not true of the elf witch and the 'mage', who both ran). Teh Thousand came out swining, leading his horse to the fray (not having time to mount properly) and Kitara had traded her Undine form for Gnome form with my permission earlier in the night (as we were finding the water elemental too problematic on dry land. Last swap for her, however!), and cast her spell.

Then teh mist turned into the vampire and tried to bite Sir Needelbaum, getting a shield to the face instead.  Of course, being smart, he simply grabbed the shield.

Next round he tore it from Sir Needelbaum's arm (contested strength roll, which our dauntless nobleman failed by six...) and proceeded to crit on a bit attack, and rolled for a head location. Down goes Sir Needelbaum at -1 to the head.  He was actually preturbed to learn that he wasn't suffering on-going blood loss from the wound, however... (I ruled that damage was straight up blood-drain, not an open wound).

Kitara finally got to the fray and punched the vampire in the gut for 15 points, scattering it back to mist and leaving the clearly outclassed ghouls (already down three from Sir Needelbaum and the bodyguard+horse combo) to be butchered, those that didn't flee.

Everyone agreed that being harried by a vampire and ghouls every night was simply un-supportable and easily tracked them to their lare, a crude low lying stone building.

And... that's a wrap!


I keenly feel my failure to plan the sky-trip portion better, as I've known about it for weeks.  Still, it worked out okay, so I can't complain too loudly.

You may feel a bit disoriented by the sudden shift in action from the ongoing 'ring' quest to the sudden trip to the lands of the dead, but I assure you, I have that well in hand. I do find it funny that the players know literally nothing about the coins, and failed to follow up even remotely before taking off for what promises to be several months. There will be (minor) repercussions.

I did have to point out that vampirism is NOT contagious.  Essentially the Vampire represents a true, educated, necromancer who knew mostly what he was doing when he left the Underworld, while his more debased Ghoul minions are more typical of what happens when you don't know what you are doing when you try to get out by sheer determination. Their rotten bodies can not sustain their intellects and continue to slowly degenerate.  They may represent mis-informed or poorly educated necromancers as well.  Other forms of higher or lower undead are merely different shades of the same basic division.

Of course: SOME undead are given the divine stamp of approval and were sent back to do something important by teh Gods themselves. They would have fewer weaknesses, less signs of being actually DEAD, and are not actually necromantic in any way.  Zombies are generally, however, merely animated corpses (ditto skeletons), with no actual necromancy or 'undeadness' to them at all.

Pay attention, there will be a test.

Had a short game night, not much to report. Sir Needelbaum's player was out, as was the elf witch.  That left me with three regulars and the guest player, who... as it turns out... had not been using her XP so far.

When we left, the players had tracked the vampire/necromancer to his lair, a low stone building in the middle of the jungle.  I kept it simple, it was a single large room with an alter, with a dozen or so ghouls and the vampire himself in the back directing traffic, as it were.

The fight went rather poorly for the players. Round one, the lizard activates (with his luck rune reroll... I warned him...) the divine spell 'Grave maul'. Then he fails to resist Madness and spends almost the entire duration of it doing the herky-jerky.... though after four rounds of amusing results on the random table he was paralyzed by the ghoul poison.

Almost everyone was at some point, even Prince Toorop when he finally waded into the fight... and immedeatly fumbled badly.

It took seven rounds to clear out the ghouls. Of course, our 'mage' was blasting the Vampire with chaos bolts and fire bolts...

The problem was they'd already chopped him down before. RQ vampires, upon 'death' just 'mist form' away. So... he'd get blasted, mist for a round or two and come back angrier than ever.  The only player I could count on to remember what I'd told them was out on personal business and the remaining players couldn't figure it out even after numerous repeats.

At one point Kitara decided to use the ring to cast Exorcism on the vampire. I mentally ruled this would actually work, severing his blasphemous soul from its protective flesh long enough for the already present angels of death to snatch it up and take it for judgement... then she proceeded NOT to do that...  

They did learn, having waited until Madness ran its course (I did point out that dispelling magics would break the enchantment... they don't actually KNOW any, its true... they think like artillery gunners or something... but they do have the ring...) before unparalyzing the Lizard (Super easy: Any healing magic at all will do).

Yes, virgina: Grave Maul is brutal against necromatically empowered flesh... and for that matter, any divine magic is.  Unlike before, every time the vampire reformed from mist he was suffering the damage from the grave mauling he was taking (death touch would have been just as effective).

Unfortunately: The gormless lizard had kept to a single magnitude of power, which was pretty lame for 'necromantic damage', and he only had about four effective rounds to use it in after the madness spell.  Still the party used good teamwork, grappling the vampire long enough to keep him from dodging the blows.

Eventually, the vampire took a bite of him. Instead of healing it was burned worse, but the lizard's tail was crippled (took several shots that night). He used the ring to recharge some Magic Points to fuel his death touch, which he laid smack dab on the Vampire's head, finishing the beast.

Point of note; I finally turned the tables a bit on the party: The vampire used chaos bolt, blowing the leg off the party Mage. Luckily for her, Kitara's 'blood alchemy' includes a 'potion' that allows for regrowing limbs, though the process is fairly slow.. one round per Siz point of teh character, which in this party means an average of about 14. They are all hulking brutes, I tells ya.

I think I will start using counter-magics again. It's not 100%, but it shuts down the 'I win' button a bit, forcing them to work a bit harder to beat bosses.  And it MIGHT motivate them to learn some themselves.

How'd the party take the session?

Sounds like they 'were not getting' a lot.  
I think that it is important to have consequences, so some serious damage sounds proper for the PCs.

I have one player who is very much of an 'entitlement' mindset, eggregious enough that I would seriously consider not playing with them if it were not for extenuating circumstances.   On the other hand I do manage to learn how to handle the players better, and avoid being excessively dickish over little things like provisions and the like.

I do think for the most part the players do understand there are consequences to actions, which is why they haven't been terribly eager to abuse the ring.  When the Lizard used it to 'get' MP back, he first burned himself fairly extensively when he failed, then when he succeeded, marginally, he was burned a little more. This, I think, was why Kitara's player was very leery of actually trying to try the exorcism, which I think she saw as a gamble: If it failed she'd be hurt for no effect if it succeeded she'd still probably be hurt.

Ironically, they already know a safer way to use it for this purpose (fueling magic...), they just haven't put it to use yet: The ring can generate amorphia (liquid magic) which can be stored in specially prepared vials.  Given that the storage containers can be reused the only difficulty comes in filling them safely.

Of course: If they had done the 'MP into Amorphia' trick they already know, it would have been both safe and effective. They know that it will dissolve souls as well as anything else and the whole problem with the vampire is that the 'body' was just a magically conjured vessel for a blasphemous soul that refused to stay dead.  Of course, even I didn't really think of that until just now, but if they had TRIED that is how I would have been forced to rule for consitancies sake. Never mind the fact that I was

Due to a fat tree in my game room I moved the rest of this years games to Sir Needelbaum's house.  Thanks to snow and ice, we started a little late. Missing were our observer, and once again the Siti witch. Not a major loss, but it does strip the group down to the bare essentials. In this case a 'good thing'.

While the party waited for Prince Toorop's bodyguard to return with additional supplies, they spent the time studying the interior of the stone tomb. They determined that the necromantic writing on the altar was in some unknown language using the forms of the Runes as the basis of their written language. Sir Needelbaum, the only academic, determined that this was an extremely primative form of writing that  predated known cultures.  

They also observed the pictoral 'cave paintings' on the interior of the tomb seemed to suggest a written history of this particular 'band' of necromancers, and included frequent battles with other bands of necromancers and some sort of 'wise men/monsters' in the mountains.

The party moved on, getting attacked nightly by more ghouls (but with their practice and the seriously 'heavy' Thousand on their side, I hand waived this to keep things moving...). Prince Toorop suggested, as they reached the mountains, that these attacks had been 'probing attacks' and that the real battle must lie in the mountains.

Disturbingly, they noted that the sun was dimmer this close to the edge of the world, and that their shadows were much longer than they should be. They entered the pass, noting the caves in the mountains, complete with hide curtains to keep the sun out.

As the sun grew dimmer they heard the cries of the Ghouls behind them, seeing a vast wave, mixed with more advanced undead, sweeping through the pass behind them.  I started calling for riding rolls. No one fumbled, but the Lizard and Sir Needelbaum both failed several times, falling farther behind each time. Luckily, the Lizard, on the death horse had less to fear as it was both terrifying to the undead... or at least moderately fear inducing, and being essentially a magical construct not prone to falling down. Sir Needelbaum was not so lucky, and as the temple came in sight and they made their final push to sanctuary, his horse fell. Luckily one of the Thousand scooped him up, leaving the poor pony to the undead.  

The temple (detailed on the Island on the Edge of teh World post) was of course dedicated to Death, and therefore absolutely impassible for the undead. Of course, only the NPC's recognized the place any, though they could not make the Death temple claim, saying it was a place for fallen Heroes to take their final rest, etc.  Much to the party's shock, the Prince and his bodyguard slew their horses, leaving them (and their armor) on the stone biers. They would not leave the beasts to die of starvation and did not expect to leave the way they came. It was obviously a moving moment, but... alas... the players were less interested. They rested the 'night'... being this close to teh edge of the World meant it was always night, and the next mornign began their climb.

Prince Toorop had ensured his men were excellent climbers and they were fortified with herbal leaves to stave off exhaustion. Sleeping in the land of the Dead was inadvisable (sleep being the 'little death'...and they would not likely wake from it).

I worked hard to establish the length of the climb and the sense of timelessness in the effort to bring in a sort of otherworldliness, which seemed to be working. Early on they lost on of their climb master NPC's (I planned to whittle the bodyguard down a bit during the adventure...), and Prince Toorop even fell once, but was saved by the rope.  I used a sort of endurance thing: Failing a climb check resulted in falling a step down the fatigue chart, while regular intervals meant further checks to avoid exhaustion (fatigue). The Tenebrian herbs (cocaine analog?) could stave off the effects of fatigue for a few hours, and the lizard, for one, had a useful divine spell that kept him going for eight hours at a shot.  At the very end, however, he and the elf wizardess fell during a rope exchange (they had to keep moving the rope down the long climb... which was when the lost the first Tenebrian... he was free climbing to move the rope when he fell). Luckily they fell in a still, salt water, lake. Unfortunately, the lizard landed head first and was knocked unconcious... and as he was the only one still wearing his armor, he started to sink.  Everyone jumped in to help him to shore, and one of the Tenebrians twisted his leg doing so.  As there would be lots of walking, Prince Toorop granted him permission to attempt to climb out rather than wait for death at the lake. Not that climbing out, even successfully, would mean he lived, just that he could chose where to die.  These Thousand are tough men...

Prince Toorop had a scroll with some instructions and for a time they followed them, going around markers to the left or right as he indicated, but eventually he had enough, going over the marker and ignoring the traditional paths of the dead. They lost another tenebrian (and almost half the players) to whispers off the paths...

Finally Toorop made his Divine Intervention check, and using the same dagger he'd (lovingly) killed his horse with, and left with the body, he cut open a whole in the paths and led everyone straight to the Temple of the Gods... loosing 9 POW in the process... which will have repercussions for the NPC, but that doesn't mean much to the players. I'm sure I cheated a bit letting him 'multicheck'  here, but the paths weren't really doing much for the players anyway.

Ah: The Temple of the Gods, all the Gods have seats, and you can see every god clearly and know who they are, but there are so many Gods you can't take them all in at once. Divine stuff.  The ten thousand Gods of Tenebria were immedeatly supportive of Prince Toorop, but the Sun, as one of the First, ruled that Mortals could not leave the underworld. Period.  This, however, did not apply to the living avatar of Death, or for that matter the Avatar of Chaos, but that left both two players and 6 NPC stranded. Luckily, while the gods debated, they let the Players wander the city of the Underworld to at least look for the sword they were here to find.  Versilimatu, the youngest God, escorted them out and gave them some friendly advice/hints before returning to the debate, locking them out.

Toorop, at this point, was pretty helpless. He and his bodyguard were infallingly polite in asking random souls pointless questions and getting the brushoff.

But the players, having talked to Versilimatu, knew they could ask the purple robed 'servants'... those souls that had gotten lost on the Paths and paid for it with mindless servitude for.... a while... to lead them (and prince toorop) to the Empress's Ancestor, Von Bahn Tor... who turned out to be a big stinky barbarian of a soul, weighed down with furs and gems and other grave goods... including the sword they wanted. Of course, he had little use for 'soft' civilized people and refused to give up that which set him apart from the other souls unless they could give him something of equal value.

Eventually they decided the dagger which had torn a hole to the Temple of th Gods was that sort of awesome. Trouble is: Prince Toorop had dropped in after going through the hole.  Eventually they found it and brought it back, but Von Bahn Tor was less impressed than they thought.

Eventually, one of the nameless Thousand snatched the dagger up and, cursing Von Bahn Tor for being a terrible ancestor, killed himself.  Impressed at the nameless minions loyalty, Von exchanged his sword for the dagger...and the soul of the thousand to serve as his Banner Man in the underworld. Von, it seemed, wanted to conquer the Underworld, damn the Gods.

Of note, the lizard and Von took a serious dislike to each other during the exchanges and Von threatened to leave the underworld to kick the lizards ass, and the lizard swore that once he died for real, he'd happily go to the underworld to whup Von's ass.  My NPC's were well characterized tonight!

Their servant/guide took them to the library of the Gods, where all books that have ever been written lay so they could do some research on these Laws that the Sun had spoken of.  Sir Needelbaum got sidelined a little with his personal fascination with the Dealyreath. They eventually learned that only those with the blood of the Gods, spirits or the personal servants of teh gods could leave the underworld legally, though by some 'Legalist' philosophy those 'adopted'... particularly using an ancient, fairly simple, alchemical ritual could be 'blood bound'.  

A plan then.  Treck one was to find Darsyltier Dealyreath himself... I'm not sure why they did that, but it had been a reoccuring topic all night, so it wasn't unexpected. The Servant led them out of the strange deathly city, out and out into ashy wastes until she could go no further, but she pointed and they headed out.  There they saw the mad would be God, only about 40% complete (a hand not attached to an arm, but floating in space... pulsing organs with nothing aroudn them, that sort of thing).  His terrible words in the ancient language of the elves of old, and the terrible things he said in his madness, struck the party dumb for several rounds before his monsterous form shuffled off, leaving behind smoking pools of ichor in the ashes.  Sir Needelbaum collected several vials of the foul stuff.

They decided, for their own reasons, that the 'adoption' needed to be from a sympathetic source... mystically sympathetic. So they tried to track down the ghost of the first Queen of the elves, only to learn that she had never arrived in the underworld. Her nearest 'relative' was her father. This ghost, slain by Darsyltier before his attempted apotheosis, was a mournful soul, saddened by his many failures and the terrible things his life had seen (the death of the titans, the cursing of the dwarves....). He agreed, eventually, to do the ritual with the Elf Mage, if she would swear to find a way to undo the three curses: The curse of the lizardmen that left them trapped in Savagery, the Curse of the Dwarves that kept their women infertile and prone to disease, and the curse of the 'deep dwellers' that trapped them in madness and insatiable hunger (he referred to the Goblins, but no one asked...).  

So they were down to one player trapped in the underworld.  Sir Needelbaum first tried to convince his god, Lankhor Mhy to give up some divine juice, but as sympathetic as this worthy was, he could not be swayed. He did offer to provide a place in his divine library as a librarian... which Sir Needelbaum seriously considered until the other players dragged him away.  

They asked Versilimatu, who was far more helpful and sympathetic. He offered to make Sir Needelbaum his personal 'Divine Agent' in return for one thing.

Unfortunately, as they way the gods seemed to work, he insisted on having Sir Needelbaum explain exactly what he would DO for Versilimatu in the world of the living. As set by precedent: The agents of the Gods are not given marching orders but are instead almost completely independent. They are chosen because they are 'right for the job'. Sir Needelbaum said he simply could not serve as Versilimatu's agent.  Instead he drank Darsyltier's blood (which, due to the way the Dealyreath had consumbed their leader earlier was 'good enough').  This done the Gods finished their debate and the players entered to see if they had met their legal obligations.

The six armed 'demon goddess' that was Toorop's personal patron from the tenebrian pantheon greeted him personally and explained that as his actions were for the continuity of the Tenebrian empire he could leave with the sword, taking his surviving men with him as they were bound to him by blood oaths, closer than family.  Kitara and the Lizard were already free to go on account of their Greater Runes, with Kitara granted only reluctant disposition and cooly informed that if she mucked things up she'd be cast into the greater sea of chaos just to be rid of her... but if she didn't she could sit in council with the gods after death to speak on behalf of the 'Source of All'... which has no representation in Haven.  Not quite a goddess, but better than being just another soul, one assumes.

the Sun, ever the stern legalist, admitted that the blood of a ghost, no matter how revered, was not 'divine'... however, due to his long ago service to the Gods, and her sworn oaths to see his last wishes done, they would honor his petition on her behalf.

As for Sir Needelbaum... he was just crazy.  The blood (or flesh) of Darsyltier was divine, and his followers cursed. It was legal, he was free to go, but there were terrible prices to be paid.  

They left through a door that led them to a fantastic beach (the metaphysical depiction of the border between reality and Chaos), to one side a giant stone wheel turned slowly (time). Eventually the beach became a normal beach... and the game ended.

Whats up next week? Consequences and repercussions. Both the elf mage and Sir Needelbaum know that their mythic transfusions are not minor deals.

I believe that some 'blood sucking' changes may be appropriate for one, but I'm not so sure about a ghost transfusion other than stealing HP.

Also: A visit with an Emperess and rewards.

Interesting tidbits: Got to use a LOT of my mythic history tonight. BAD ASS from where I sat and the players, even my hack/slashers were deep into it and loving it.  They also opened up a few more potential quest lines (the armaggedon scythe that goes with the death horse is somewhere in the wastes of Irem, that came up... its inside the Godslayer but don't tell the party!), the numbers and 'roles' of the Dealyreath (40, protected by the Gods... sort of... as the mad ghost/god consumbes his followers if they enter the Underworld to get his stolen soul back. If he ever gets whole again....).

They also learned that Reptile doesn't even have a seat among the Gods and... other than Death is the only God to walk the face of Haven freely for unknown reasons. Death can and will kill Dealyreath if he finds them, regardless of what that means in the Underworld, but he leaves them alone as long as they stay in the Demon realm.

They probably learned a bit more, but I can't think of anything more stand outish than all of that.

The last session was a full four hour block of gaming (late sunday nights are hard inappropriate for 8 hour plus games that I prefer when playing... on the other hand, I can usually fake a game for four hours, which I couldn't with a longer session).  The Underworld Session was closer to six hours, for those keeping score at home.

Anyway: Having passed the Wheel of Time (or whatever) on the mythic beach they kept walking onto a normal beach.  They were, eventually, met by some Tenebrian soldiers on patrol. Luckily for the party, the patrol was not hostile and they were escorted to a local lord's manor house, then given a full military honor guard all the way to the Imperial City.  

The Imperial City, as described, is fairly unique: One broad avenue through the heart of the city leading to the city within a city of the Imperial Palace, lining that singular avenue (suitable for battalions of soldiers to march through) were smaller palace complexes, homes of the various powerful lords of Tenebria...  There were no other habitations, no merchantile stalls or what have you.  As one approaches the Imperial Palace the smaller palaces grow larger and the local lords more important.  Prince Toorop lived very close to the Imperial Palace.

The players observed the local elaborate customs, and were given suites in Prince Toorop's palace where they lingered for a couple of days as the Prince recovered from his ordeal.

This was all narrated and passed reasonably quickly. I gave the players a moment to see if any of them had anything they wanted to attempt, to do, and when they didn't I had the Prince summon them.

Prince Toorop explained that the various Banner-Men, of which he was one, were selected not only for their political and military powers, but also for their enemies. The idea was that the various banner men, those closest to the Throne, would be unable to really ally with one another to attempt a coup.   The Prince was worried that, despite his success, the Empress would attempt to reject his gift and the other Banner Men would support her to eliminate him. Thus he wanted to bring a little... persuasion to the table first.  He offered the players two possible ways to help out. The first was to go to various Tenebrian lords in the city and attempt to persuade them to support Prince Toorop, he had several in mind that he had no personal beef with who might agree just to spite their own enemies.

The Second was to travel south as fast as possible to the Orcs of the Hru'tha. Prince Toorop's personal patron god was Verra, the Demon Goddess, who was also revered by the Orcs.  If the players traded on that shared tradition and could convince the Hru'tha to travel north in force to ally with Tenebria on Prince Toorop's behalf, it would send a powerful message to the Empress... and the enemies of Tenebria.  It was risky and would eat up precious time, but...

The players debated very breifly and decided they wanted to talk to the Orcs.

I personally am getting tired of travelogues and 'massive' quests that are done in a day.  THe players looked at their options, listened to the threats of the Sea of Grass that lay south of Tenebria that they'd have to cross, and decided to take a ship. Prince Toorop agreed and said he'd try to send the Airship south to meet them if he could get word to the crew.

So the players used messenger posts and horses to travel to the coast.  They were attacked by double their numbers in mounted, armored archers, obviously allied with a rival of Toorops (though that had to be inferred as none of the PC's were remotely skilled with heraldry, much less Tenebrian Heraldry).  I gave the archers a 60% skill (bows, spears and riding) and 4 points of armor.

I also almost butchered the party.  Longbows are brutal even with decent armor and the players lack of decent ride skills (and apparently shields...) proved problematic.   This fight was a long, long grind of 'not quite enough' from both sides, but eventually the players were victorious.  Kitara shattered her bow with a fumble on the very first shot, which didn't help. Her transforming into a Gnome cut her actions to nothing, and attempting to swallow a horse is very hard to do. The engulfing rules for a Gnome are poorly written, at least in the spell, and it seems impossible for an earth elemental to engulf anyone unless the elemental is the size of a house... we're working that out, however... and the progressive nature of engulfing. Still, it was a poor tactical choice compared to doing the big beat down (4d6 strength bonus makes for powerful hits... one hit kills usually)

Luckily the Tenebrians were fumbling as often as the players.  Interestingly, the Death Avatar Lizard dude didn't raise any dead.  The only real deaths were so brutally mauled by the elemental that there was little point in raising them, and everyone else just fainted from wounds and started dying slowly, or they ran off once they started loosing.

The PC's, having won despite some serious injuries, made their boat and the night ended.

I didn't post a report last week but we still played. And since this week's session was cut in half (only a solid 1 1/2 hours of play. One of my players had to go home early and I was his ride, along with two other players (we moved for this week to Sir Needelbaum's house).

Last week the players made their boat and spent a leisurely month or so sailing down the coast of the southern continent, resting and enjoying the sights.  I've been avoiding the long travelogues as the game progresses... the first adventure took the players almost a year of real time to accomplish and several months in game due to travel times, the needs to set up shop in various towns and get side tracked earning the money to buy necessary upgrades. I don't want EVERY adventure turning into that, so...

... besides, I don't want to waste time setting up a sea battle just to fill 'empty space'.  

They were able to observe fairly small and primative looking fishing villages on the coast line once the left Tenebria proper (the seaport they left from is Kha Doum, from my notes. Yes, I took notes. Well... a note. That's it.).

Eventually they arrived at a small bustling colony port. Not much of real value this far south, not yet, but I suppose the Tenebrians have hopes of finding something worthwhile, perhaps trade with the Barrier Peaks Dwarfs? Anyway, compared to most of the cities the PC's had been too it wasn't much... yet. They were able to get some crude directions and so they set off.

My 'random encounter dice' failed me miserably. The PCs followed a river west for some time (Seven days or so) without incident. Of course, they needed to head south!  Finally they enountered a small herd of Aurouchs drinking at the river (cows the size of wagons!), and rather than fight the aggressive bull guarding his herd, they finally crossed the river and, double checking my map headed south to the mud flats of the Hru'tha.  Again they were able to travel without undue incident and they eventually reached an outlaying 'village' of Hru'tha orcs.  By village I mean a couple of wattle and daub huts holding a population of about six adults and some children.   I missed a stroke here with the lack of dogs (as I've made hounds a major part of Hru'tha culture... they wouldn't appear until late in the night, and then just barely).  Where-upon the players learned they had failed to prepare very well. No one spoke Hru'tha, and the Hru'tha didn't speak anything else. At least not here. However, Sir Needelbaum made a critical success on his influence check to pantomime 'speaking', and a orc youth, after a meal of giant bug meat, led the players to the next village, where another youth led them deeper in the mudflats to yet another village and so on for several days.  I described how the conditions of villages grew progressively more primative and harsh as the got deeper into the blasted wastelands until they finally got to a much larger village where an old woman came out to speak with them in broken Tenebrian.  I should have made players roll dice to comprehend her, given their own relative lack of skill (no one EVER puts skill raises into language. Still, I don't want to make this game: Language: The gibbering, so...)

This old lady eventually got around to allowing the PC's to hire one of her grandchildren to guide them to Hru'tha to speak with the Hru'ga (the first they'd heard of the actual city or the Hru'ga, so this was cool.).  Their new 'permanent' guide was a young bull orc, nearly and adult then, and he led them across the mudflats for several more days travel until they reached the city itself.  (description in the stickied thread).

They were eventually led to the heart of the city.. a mix of ancient stone buildings dug from the mud and newer brick buildings built to house the growing populace, to what appeared to be a sort of colliseum, heading up some steps to where the Hru'ga held court. Along the way they were able to observe Hru'tha warriors training and so on.  They were handed off to a dwarf, of all beings, who spoke reasonably decent Tenebrian and translated the conversation, at least at first, between the players and the Hru'ga.

The Hru'ga himself was a massive old beast of a warrior, his hair white, scarred skin and broken tusked.  After a few minutes of exchanges between the dwarf and the PC's, complete with a couple of sidebars to explain how the Barrier Peak dwarves had some sweetheart trade deals to keep the Hru'tha friendly, the Hru'ga roared and chased the dwarf away, letting one of his mystics do some mumbo-jumbo to provide a translation spell.  

The players learned, to their shock, that the Hru'ga had no love for pointy-ears or soft 'pinkskins' who couldn't hack in his lands, and a huge amount of national pride.  On the other hand he absolutely loved speaking with Prince Toorop via a scrying bowl the PCs had brought with them, referring frequently to the 'Tiny man in his Tiny bowl'.   Of course, the Hru'tha had no problems with hiring out mercenaries in return for grains and iron (an oft repeated point the PCs regularly failed to grasp. The Hru'tha care little for traditional wealth, gold and silver are meaningless when you are starving and the local critters a feirce armored bug-beasts... though they are willing to accept large amounts of it as they can trade it to the dwarves or the tenebrians for things of real value).  Prince Toorop, more or less, accomplished his 'mission' by having the players bring the scrying bowl to the Hru'ga... but the PC's weren't quite up to speed on that.

The Hru'ga told them that before they could do anything else... including leaving Hru'tha alive, they would have to gain the approval of Verra, the Demon Goddess, and patron protector of the Hru'tha (and, not coincidentally, for those not paying attention, Prince Toorop's patron goddess.).  Then there was the little matter of the ancient beast poisoning the lands via the rivers that crossed the mudflats, living in the caves in the mountain where the waters came from. Finally, he had a domestic matter that he wanted help with.. the competing cults of Gru'gu, the Hound, were becoming a major political thorn. He couldn't break the back of the 'Masters of the Hounds' faction without earning the enemity of the 'Beasts' branch of the Cult, but the Masters branch was making serious moves to unseat him and take over the city.  

Thus the session ended as the players headed to the Temple of Verra, also in the heart of the city.

Last night's session opened and closed in the temple and not a single dice was tossed.  I take some pride in running these deeply interative sessions where the dice aren't used. They are a lot more interesting and fun than the random combats.

Anyway: The temple of Verra was one of the ancient stone buildings, inscribed with carvings of the Goddess and so forth.  Inside it was dark, windowless, lit only by flickering torches. The priests were waiting for them and led them deeper into the temple, down some stairs into a basement where there was a massive bloodstained stone alter near a giant statue of the Demon Goddess (six arms, each holding different implements, standing on the head of a screaming demon, shark toothed, scaled and taloned...). There was an acolyte with a ceramic platter with five cups (for my five players) of some steaming brew.  The head priest reached into a stone box with a wicker lid and pulled out scorpions by their tails and squeezed venom into each cup... doubling up for the lizard man after thinking about it.  

Kitara drank first, almost eagerly (to get it over with?), with the rest of the players following without excessive comment (well, the lizard man wanted the scorpions for a snack...), and they all passed out.

Sir Needelbaum was up first, finding himself on the familiar beach just outside the Underworld.  He could see the massive stone wheel turning behind him and the Goddess dancing in the waves of Amorphia.  Coming from opposite sides of him were a gauntlet of black iron and a jeweled crown, and he had the impression that both were behind him, crawling through the sand to reach him.

Just then Verra appeared before him, called him the Twice Apostate and asked him if She should offer herself up for his pride to become the third god to be refused.  There was some conversation about self determination, destiny and the nature of freedom and Gods and men.   She chastized him several times in the conversation for failing to understand the nature of destiny, then finally offered him up a cup of the Amorphia to drink, which he accepted. As he 'blacked out' of the vision he heard her remind him one last time that no one can run from destiny forever.

I put the elf mage and our infrequent guest elf witch player together, I almost had all three elves up at one time but I remembered at the last second that Kitara was a 'special case', and that I had something different planned for her.  The elf 'mage' is a new player, this being her first ever RPG experience (as too the Witch) and she definitely struggles when put on the spot in an 'in character' moment. I reminded her that while the other characters might not be present, the other players at the table could still talk to her out of character to give her advice. Kitara was somewhat disruptive, being on a caffeen high and reading two of the MRQ books right next to her and trying to ask questions... which didn't help.

The two elves found themselves dressed as Danu warriors facing Hru'tha as it had looked thousands of years ago, though there was no opposing army, just Verra, looking angry.  She told them she had no love for Elves, for the Hru'tha had summoned her long ago to oppose the invading Danu in desperation.  She asked why she should tolerate Elves in her lands, among her people.  The dialog here was accuasatory and weak, as I needed to both keep the right tone and not overwhelm the players.  Eventually, it turned to the mage's promise to the ancient elf ghost to undo the wrongs his people had wrought. Verra sneered at this, for the three curses that needed to be undone were not related to the orcs at all. She offered to show the elves just who she had promised to help, and the elves were able to witness the destruction and canniblism of the Hru'tha at the hands of the 'Hungering Ones', or the Goblins, then the same for Proud Danu.  

Verra pointed out that it was the GOBLINS who she had promised to help, those who had pulled Hru'tha down, and that the only justice the Orcs had was when the Goblins consumed Danu.   Then she offered an 'out'.  Verra, it must be recalled, is a demon goddess and probably the closest thing to a chaos god the players are likely to find (though she is more like 'disorder' than potential... a word that came up several times in Sir Needelbaum's vision). She slyly promised to reveal a deep secret with the caveat that the elves swear to bring it to the first tribe, the Siti.  The PC's leapt at the offer, liking secrets apparently.  Verra then continued the history lesson, showing mixed bands of orc and elf refugees all the way up to the birth of the first humans from this mixing.   The PCs didn't seem to care, being PC's, but the delivery of this message will shake the world of Haven as the Siti mobilize to destroy the human stain on their racial purity... a war Verra believes they can only lose. Oops.  

Kitara found herself in the temple Basement alone, until the statue came to life and began walking around her. Verra still doesn't like Elves, but as Kitara.. as the living incarnation of Chaos, is a future colleage in 'god-hood', Verra offered her a 'job' of sorts.  Join the cult of Verra, by special exception, and recognize her holy days and religious rites, and Verra would accept her. Surprsingly, since Kitara has spent several weeks since gaining the Greater Rune of Chaos trying to find a cult that would accept her, she wanted to turn it down, to negotiate for the benefits of joining without the obligations. The Gods do not, generally, negotiate, and her pleas fell on deaf ears.  To be honest I half expected her to attack (she did suggest, repeatedly, attempting to fight the Hru'ga to gain some sort of honor position or some such... of course, as an Elf this would just be more 'pointy ear treachery' from the Orc point of view... so its good she never actually tried it).  She eventually accepted the offer with a sullen 'fine'.

Lastly we had the Lizard dude, Avatar of Death.  He's been asking a lot about Reptile, the god of all scaled things, so I threw him a very minor bone here, both going into, and out of, his vision visit with Verra he had a strange layover in a vast desert where he realized he was being watched by a massive lizard... not long enough to do anything.  

He found himself on the same beach as Sir Needelbaum (nice bookending, actually), only without any weird pursuing destinies.  They had a long conversation as well about mastery of the soul, the Ender of All and so forth. The lizard PC is very into his own idea of 'Serving Death', despite all lack of communication with his God directly he keeps referring to himself as a loyal faithful dedicated servant. Verra challenged that directly, pointing out her own span of days on the wheel of time, and then his, and challenging him repeatedly. If Death set him against Her, whould he obey? Would he challenge Death, kill the Ender of All and take his place?    She pointed out that power was there for the taking, enough to equal any god, pointing to the sea of Amorphia. I had to briefly restrain the character to keep him from just diving in as she pointed out that he merely had to figure out how to use it. She also talked very briefly about destiny, how he'd already chosen his, it was set in stone... but stone could be broken...

And with all the vision quests done, the players awoke, still partially paralyzed and lying side by side on the stone Altar, with a massive sword, in the hands of the Statue of Verra, all but lying across their collective necks.  Kitara was hauled off so the priests of Verra could carve the symbol of a scorpion into her back, showing her newfound devotion to her Goddess...

After that the players were left to their own devices until the venom wore off and they could stagger upstairs to process their visions. The elf mage had a crystal feather that would repeat her entire vision for anyone who held it, but other than that they didn't seem to gain anything. I informed Kitara that she would have to buy the Lore: Theology Verra with her next advances, which she protested.  

After that the players managed to hire a guide to take them to the caves, and that was a wrap. Everyone was willing to go on for a little longer but there wasn't enough time before the lizard dude needed a ride back home to actually accomplish anything (a fight, say), and there wasn't any real roleplaying to be done either.


A note: Verra, of course, is a bitch.  Sir Needelbaum could have ASKED to become Verra's mortal servant, or even joined her cult (he doesn't need an exception...), but as she explained she wasn't going to OFFER it.  He completely misunderstood the symbology of the gauntlet and the crown, thinking they referred back to his encounter with Versilimatu in the Underworld. Heh.  I has plans. The gauntlet is quite a bit less symbolic than he thinks while the crown... is. BUt he'd already refused that destiny, these are new destinies. The repercussions of drinking, even symbolically, from the draught of Amorphia she pulled for him have yet to manifest.  

Obviously, I've revealed her plan regarding the truth about humanity.  The cruelty of having elves deliver this news to the oldest, proudest bunch of genocidal motherfuckers on the planet is not lost on her, nor is the likely outcome... which is the entire point. This doesn't serve the players interest at all. It doesn't really serve Renbluve's interest at all.  Delivering that feather is a 'bad thing'... of course... NOT delivering it means a very unfriendly goddess...

As far as Kitara, thats pure forward thinking power politics at the divine level.  Getting a future demigod as a worshipper only increases her power, and as they will have overlapping interests, getting her under thumb early... well.

And the Lizard? Well, the Reptile bit was pure character porn. He's constantly looking for the creator of his race and so forth, this absent father/god thing he's got going on, and the mystery of Reptile is one he personally wants, so why not give him a taste?  That asside, Verra is setting him up for a real shakedown. Breaking the wheel of time to escape his own (and by extension possibly Her) inevitable 'ending'? Setting him up to challenge Death and become a God of Death himself?  Thats just Verra being, well, Verra.  In some ways she is the opposite of the Sun, she is corruption and breaking laws and so forth.  If I can later convince the players that she's deliberately been manipulating them since Prince Toorop first hired them I will have scored a major coup in the GMing business...

Once in a while I get, "Language:the Gibbering", actually.

Somehow had NOT picked out the mention of the Deom Goddess Verra.  You are a cheeky little thief, aren't you?

Love the dreamwa;ling sequence...quite the intro for the 1st time player.

And nice job keeping the lizard character on his toes...

Quote from: LordVreeg;354559Once in a while I get, "Language:the Gibbering", actually.

Somehow had NOT picked out the mention of the Deom Goddess Verra.  You are a cheeky little thief, aren't you?

Love the dreamwa;ling sequence...quite the intro for the 1st time player.

And nice job keeping the lizard character on his toes...

I be Shameless: The Theiving...

Of course, I keep having to throw them bones regarding language, given the vast tapestry of languages available to them and the fact that I don't really want to keep them cooped up in a single region necessarily.  I've already take the short-cut of not forcing them to raise any given language skill to communicate, which feels punitive given the MRQ XP system we've taken to using.  I need it to keep the players more or less balanced with each other.


Friday night was a short game. Everyone arrived on time but everyone was stupid and giggly for hours and I wound up calling the game half an hour early as I had to work early Saturday.  I think there is an obstacle to regular Friday nights, but frankly I can't remember. I do recall that one reason for the switch is that Sir Needelbaum's player and the Elf Mage player have a 'relationship' and when we game on Sundays it interferes with their love life or something.


Anyway: All the players really managed to accomplish was following their guide out into the barrens and traveling for some time. I tossed in a descriptive scene of some of the hazards of the mudflats and the ways the Orcs survive out there, when their guide set a hook line across the trail and led the party away from the trail to stir up a swarm of mud rats that would probably have eaten the party if they'd walked across them.  Later they were attacked by large bugmen (Timmnit Myrmidons with the serial numbers filed off. These ones spat acid coated darts and didn't use weapons but had natural weapons and shields). The fight was, for once, decently balanced. Kitara was brutal as an archer, combined with the low skill totals of the myrmidons (35%), each time she shot was a killing headshot pretty much. The lizard blew a divine Bless Spell, which I pointed out he wouldn't be able to get back until after this quest, seeing as they couldn't spend an entire day in prayer out in the mudflats. Regardless, Kitara popped off with a Madness spell she'd swagged from Verra, which was only half effective: The myrmidon's random effects were generally 'attack a random person with a ranged weapon' and the dice for 'random' always landed on 'Player Character' despite the numbers being on the players side... then he ran away.   Still they won without looking much like they were going to die, but it wasn't 'easy' or fun.

Amusingly: Kitara also tested out her 'Blasphemous Word' ability from the Greater Rune of Chaos.  Of course the Myrmidons are 'neutral creatures' just like MOST of the party, so they only lost an action each, just like the party. Ironically one Myrmidon and Sir Needelbaum both saved.

However, the Avatar of Death (the lizard) and the Deathhorse are NOT neutral creatures, by default.  The Deathhorse lost 5 HP to the head and so did the Avatar, so the lizard, who was in melee, was helpless for five actions! Oops.  

The players settled down for an extra long camp at the site of the battle and chowed down on grilled bug man (a nice change from BBQ mudrat), while their guide sent smoke signals so the nearest tribe camp could come and take the excess off their hands.

It was getting late and I didn't want to run any major 'boss fights'... and I still had something important to throw up to the players before we went there anyway so I decided to expand my initial idea a bit.  

I rolled some dice to make it look good then dropped Sir Needelbaum into hole in the ground, where he noticed a small tunnel leading away... and fade to black.


Note:  

So, I've the following bits sketched out ahead of time.  One, Barrier Peaks Dwarves will ambush them at some point once they've reached the mountains. This, of course, is to protect their exclusive business arrangement with the Hru'tha orcs rather than malice.

The beast in the cave isn't really planned to be a long dungeon sort of thing. Rather, there is a huge monterous 'demon' that I REALLY need to stat out properly that is essentially chained into the cave where one of the major waterways flows out of.  Obviously massive, immortal (demony) and toxic... and very very angry.  The curious bit would be who put it there and why, but I know my players... the real curiousity is going to be 'what do they do' when they see whatever it is isn't there willingly.  Of course its been there an awfully long time.

Thirdly, and this is where I expanded it: The Mythic Age Hru'tha worked magics like other races did. Working in black iron and drawing upon the life force of the 'user', their artifacts are essentially symbionic attachments.  The guantlet that Sir Needelbaum saw isn't symbolic, its literal. I had planned to put this item out somewhere near this cave but making it meaningful is important.  

Thus I've decided to give them a 'side quest' of exploring a buried (and occupied) complex under the mud to clear out to find this particular item.

Of course, once he recognizes it, if he remembers (the player that is.. I may prompt him if he's forgotten), will he try it on, pass it to another player or leave it down there?

The 'crown' from the dream is more complex in symbology, but we are talking a game here, so I'm not going to pretend its too hard to explain.  I've felt I've neglected the player's intentions regarding his 'roleplaying' his backstory out. THeir stay in Renbluve was remarkably short and lacking in any details. We know hes a younger son of a noble family and that he is part of a gentlemen's club of explorers... and that neither element has really come up in play or been expanded upon. So when they get back to Renbluve he'll get the disturbing news that his brothers are dead.  I've a strong mind to link it to the long fallow plot involving the Iremi artifact they've been lugging around...   I can milk this a long ways if I play it right.