This is the first session Chris P joined the fight. There were two Chris’s on G+ that were consummate players. Like Eric, they were almost always down to play whenever you would post a game. Players like that make running a poorly organized campaign work.
When I would share invites on G+ for the Masters of Carcosa sessions I would include rumours and news the players had learned. There was also a post on my G+ community for the game where I would keep all the loose threads up to date. For this session the players knew the following:
Trade between Invak and Jahar presumably remains on hiatus for now while Jahar’s merchants waits for this cult to move on or be replaced.
The merchants will travel East to the Citadel of Brown Men known as Lessel.
Deep One sightings at the Lake to the South.
During the session they would learn more about the deep ones, who apparently had emerald belts. (The deep ones in this game were effectively Mer-Man from Masters of the Universe.) This was the rumour the players decided to follow, resulting in a very straight forward session compared to some of the others: kill some cultists, free some captives, find some treasure.
The party finally learned some more rituals, not that it really mattered. The rituals didn’t really match the vibe of the game, even though Chris’s character was a real dirt bag sorcerer. He was constantly trying to learn and find more, and I basically didn’t really want them in my game so was kind of a real dick when it came to having them show up in play. For the most part playing a Sorcerer was just the hard-mode version of playing a Fighter. The classes were the same, but Sorcerers had harder XP requirements.
The next session the players will return to the “abandoned” Space Alien outpost that kicked off the campaign. It’s kind of neat that it happened to happen at what would be the midpoint of the campaign.
The party decides to remain in and around Glom for the time being.
The city is clearly built within snake men ruins, but no one in town seems to know or care—or at least won’t talk to the party about it.
Rumours of emerald wearing deep ones send the party south to the lake.
There they see a group of cultists camped near the statue and pillars visible last session.
They approach closer and start examining the pillars: rituals!
Then they get shot at.
A fight!
The obvious cultists put up a mediocre fight, missing like the cast of G.I. Joe.
The party are victorious after a protracted fight. Captives are freed. New rituals learned. Success!
Treasure:
500 GP
5 Gems: 2700 GP
6 wax figurines of deep ones
4 Naginatas (6 grabbed by captives)
Rituals:
Summon Amphibious Ones - This eleven-hour ritual can be completed only on a fog-shrouded night. The Sorcerer must obtain the root of potency found only in ruined apothecaries of the Snake-Men. The sacrifice is a virgin White girl. As her life leaves her body, 10–100 of the Amphibious Ones will coalesce out of the mists.
The Blasphemous Sacrifice (to Bind Amphibious Ones) - This ritual cannot be performed on its own, but only as an adjunct to the SUMMON THE AMPHIBIOUS ONES ritual. It adds an hour to the time required to complete the ritual (thus twelve hours total). The sacrifice is further subjected to an hour of unspeakable tortures before being slain. At the end of the rituals, the Sorcerer will have complete control over the horde of Amphibious Ones for 24 hours.
The Call of Cthulhu (to Summon Cthulhu) - This 24 hour ritual must be cast while waist deep in the polluted waters of Carcosa. Once the ritual chanting and genuflection begins, the sorcerer must drown a Purple Men at the end of each hour of the ritual. All the victims must be a willing sacrifices to the Great Old One Cthulhu. When the life leaves the last of the Purple Men, Cthulhu will rise up from the waters.
I remember this session really well, because it was another weird one. Only Dion and Willie could make it, and they didn’t want to do anything risky. The players travelled with the merchants on their trip South, stopping in the village of Glom. There they met affable Carcosans and got totally wasted. The description for the settlement in the hex is as follows: Village of 310 Ulfire Men ruled by “the Unapproachable
Radiance,” a neutral 6th-level Sorcerer. A lot of the Carcosa book is villages like this. That somehow transformed into what is described in the recap below. I am quite certain that going into this session I thought the players would return to the cavern they had been exploring, and so when they didn’t I had to spin something out from my most meagre of notes. Besides the description in the Carcosa book, the only thing I knew about this town was its name, which I had given it when drawing the initial region map for the campaign. In my notes I had something about Mer-Man cultists worshiping Cthulhu by the lake. I’m pretty sure I came up with the idea of evil Cthulhu lake water as a type of booze, and then just extrapolated everything else from that. Sometimes that’s what you gotta do.
This is the first session Eric missed! There was a mixup because I kept on rescheduling. This is why you need to be consistent when you’re running games!
The party begins the session in Jahar, where they returned with the body of a dead amoured space alien and a Bone Man cultist who attacked them on the road. They learned of the base the cultists presumably operate out of.
Since there were only two players today the group decided to avoid the cultists enclave and head South with the traders.
The party ended up in the city of Glom, the trip South was uneventful.
The merchants stay in a quiet Inn, with no name but a strange ancient symbols etched on its door. Sorcerers will recognize this as the snake man word for Torture Gallery.
The party wanders around town, which seems to be a surprisingly easy going place.
They come upon a louder and more boisterous tavern.
The bar servers two drinks, “lake water”, and a purple lotus concoction.
Asha-Rea samples the lotus drink, Grenn the lake water.
Each gets plastered in their own way.
They wake up the next day back in the original inn. (TODO: make a carousing table!)
The next day they explore the town.
“the Joy-Giver of All the Living” sells tonics and potions made out of the lake water. They buy a “healing potion”
“the Inestimable Fullness” is a tailor that is built like the Kingpin. They buy fancy hats from him, and Asha-Rea buys a set of clothes. They will be ready in a week.
The party decides to trek to the near by lake to collect water for sale to the Alchemist.
This occurs without incident, but the lake gives them a thoroughly creepy vibe. There are rumours it is full of Deep Ones.
They see a monument of statues in the distance, surrounded by pillars. They don’t investigate!
They return to town with two barrels of the bizarre lake water, which they sell for 50GP a pop.
The players had found a Space Alien compass in an earlier session and decided to see where it would lead them. I had decided it would lead them towards the tomb of a dead Space Alien hero. A nearby hex was described in the book like so:
In a pure white chamber is the perfectly preserved
corpse of a Space Alien wearing a suit of reflective armor
that protects against the following types of weapons:
microwave, yellow laser, dysprosium, polonium, nickel,
neptunium, cesium, strontium, radon, aluminum, boron,
mercury, thulium, protactinium, niobium, and helium.
8 Space Aliens (AC 12, MV 120’, HD 3), part of an elite combat squad, pursue a group of Carcosan who have defiled one of their tombs through the badlands. They are armed with laser rifles.
They were first mentioned in the session 7 recap, and I likely added them as an entry on the encounter table for the region shortly after. The players would meet them a few sessions later. As I mentioned earlier, I would sometimes use the recaps as a way to share rumours, and also share news about the off camera world with the players. In the session 8 recap I shared that the Bone Men cultists were taking people back to an Abandoned Space Alien Outpost. The players would eventually return there, but I don’t think it was because of the mention in that recap. This is probably too subtle a way to share what’s going on, but it was a fun all the same.
I also used the other entry from Hex 1113 this session, having the mutant T-Rex show up.
There are no settlements in this hex because of the mutant tyrannosaurus (AC 15, MV 150 , HD 15, Neutral, 30 aura of radioactivity, bulging eyes, transparent skin) that slays anything in its vicinity.
The entries in Carcosa are quite terse, but sometimes that’s all you need for something to be memorable. I got quite used to spinning out whole sessions from a few sentences, both in my own notes and from the book.
The party begins the session in Invak, having returned their from Jahar. They decide to follow the strange alien compass to wherever it may lead.
They venture South towards Jahar, but about 4 hours out of town they stumble upon 6 White Men, presumably slaves, dying in the desert.
The party splits up, with one group heading back to Invak to secure a rescue party.
On the way back the encounter a Spawn, a Blue quadruped with a smooth hide, 4 eyes, and a beaked mouth. They give it a wide berth, and it leaves them alone.
They rescue the White Men without incident, who are now recuperating in Invak
The party heads South again, travelling towards Jahar.
They make it to the town without incident and spend the night.
The next day they head East towards the site the compass is pointing towards.
They discover a small white structure.
Examining it, they discover it looks to like a tomb for a dead Space Alien.
The party takes the alien and his armour.
As it is quite late they camp out in the wastes!
At night a group of bone men wander by, but do not see the party.
They party surprises the group.
The bone man snuff out their torches, and a melee breaks out in the dark.
It is violent, and the bone men are put down. One bone man is captured.
The party returns to Jahar, but as they are about to leave a radioactive t-rex shows up!
It is distracted by the pile of carrion and lets the party move away.
Back at Jahar the party hand over the captured bone man to the merchant caravan guards.
Treasure:
Space Alien Armour - full body and reflective
3 laser guns (from cultists)
Well preserved dead Space Alien
50’ of Rope x 4
10’ of rusted iron chain, with manacles (no key)
One small pouch of Green Lotus Powder
Ceramic short swords, perhaps space alien in origin x 8
6 torches
I was still apparently not confident the game was actually fun, 9 sessions in. Reading these recaps now it’s funny how unsure I was about this game.
Eric Boyd (2015-05-06 01:13): Side note: my character is named Orange Julia.
Ramanan S (2015-05-06 03:45): I added items of note from the dead cultists. They were wearing leather like armour, but that would be ruined from the fight. Green Lotus Powder: A victim of the green lotus powder falls into an unconscious trance for 9-12 hours, then awakens in a state of extreme weakness and sickness. He can do little other than speak sparingly, recline, and eat and drink. The green lotus sickness does not directly cause death, but the body becomes very thin and the mind prone to despair. Eventual suicide is common among victims of the green lotus.
Eric Boyd (2015-05-06 06:24): Is the green lotus powder something we can throw in someone’s face, or is it an ingested poison?
Ramanan S (2015-05-06 09:43): I pictured it like a throw in your face sort of thing, like you make a small cloud. Ingesting works too and is probably a more reliable vector for administrating it.
Chris G (2015-05-06 16:44): I freakin’ love these recaps. One of these Mondays I’ll get off work early enough to join.
Ramanan S (2015-05-06 23:48): The actual sessions are probably less exciting. Hah.
Chris G (2015-05-07 20:46): That sales pitch needs some work …
Ramanan S (2015-05-07 22:03): Once I figure out how to be a good DM i’ll get on that next. Ha!
Eric Boyd (2015-05-07 23:17): Hey, enough with the self-deprecation and imposter syndrome! If you didn’t know what you were doing, we wouldn’t show up.
Ramanan S (2015-05-08 04:09): Fair enough. I think my main problem is everyone I play D&D with also happens to be an amazing DM. Ha! I think I can do a better job if I was like 20% more organized. One day.
… the leader of Invak would pay for the heads of Jale Slavers, and so the game because all about hunting the slavers and chopping of their heads. Blood Meridian, but in Carcosa. (Except the party would actually kill slavers, not any old person.)
Wait, I lied. This session the party does end up killing people and taking them back to Invak to collect their reward. Bad PR for OSR players everywhere.
Were these Bone Men slavers? No, I’m pretty sure they were cultists working for The Dominant Reflection. If you have been following along, in the very first session the players freed a Bone Man they found imprisoned in the Abandoned Space Alien Outpost. He disappeared into the wilderness, but that wasn’t the end of his story. At this point the players had not encountered him or his followers again, but that was soon to change.
The party also some how manage to turn the death of two hirelings they recruited in town into some positive PR, paying for their funerals. Jahar initially had a negative disposition to outsiders, but the group would slowly change that over the course of the campaign.
The main goal for the session was to pilfer Alien technology from the campsite of the lost Space Aliens they had rescued recently. This resulted—once again—in a battle with insane Mi-Go. How many times would I have the players fight Mi-Go? Several: I always listen to the results of the dice!
Sam Pearson is the person behind two of Games Workshop’s greatest games: Warcry & Spearhead. He has recently started a YouTube channel after ending his time at the company as one of their lead game designers. So far the videos are all straight up bangers, but he’s recently shared three videos on game design that are worth watching in particular:
Meaningful Player Choice is an incredible discussion on game design, whether you’re interested in war-games or not. The last video is about turning your ideas into a polished product. This is all top tier! Enjoy.
The caverns the party explore this session were another way I had imagined to get the party out of the region they were in. The Protector of Truths was leading a group of Yellow Men in a war against evil Mi-Go on the other side of Carcosa. The Mi-Go the players would encounter on this part of the world were those lobotomized by The Protector of Truths, so they were more like animals than intelligent adversaries. My notes for the NPC were: disfigured, easy going, idealistic. I made a small map of the caverns that lead to the hidden castle, and then a map of the castle itself. I didn’t figure anything else about this particular thread, or who the evil Mi-Go on the other side of Carcosa were. This was the right call, because this was another thread the players didn’t end up pursuing.
This session was also the first encounter with the race of Space Aliens that made the mistake of exploring Carcosa long ago, who now find themselves trapped on the planet. The players would encounter more Space Aliens as the campaign progressed: the scientists that ran the abandoned output that started the campaign, and the bad-asses of the Space Alien Strikeforce.
This was a funny session, with the party wandering back and forth between the nearby towns and these caverns, where they kept encountering Mi-Go and not making much progress through the caverns.
I came close to going the whole year without playing a single game of Mordheim, but a visiting gamer from Vancouver put the call out to see if anyone in our Mordheim league was free to play while he was in town. Of course I said yes. Another regular from the store’s Mordheim posse joined in, alongside someone who had never played a game of Mordehim before. We had planned to play 2-3 games, but we all forgot that multi player games usually take a while. We got through one, but it was a fun one.
I used my undead warband again. They are the team I feel most comfortable playing. After the last campaign my vampire leader, Lord Volchyakrov, was killed. I was tempted to try and paint a new vampire before this game, but didn’t have the time. I have to assume the necromancer Gallean the Mad helped bring the vampire back to un-life. As usual, I prioritized bodies over equipment. My warband consisted of my vampire, a necromancer, and 3 dregs, who were accompanied by 2 ghouls, 7 zombies, and a dire wolf. (Though in my case my dire wolves are dire rats.) I actually have wolf models now I should build and paint. Maybe before the next big league or campaign takes place.
We played a pretty crazy scenario, themed for the holidays. There were 6 building that contained presents for us to steal. Each building was guarded by d3 peasants armed with spears. All the units in your warband were carrying a torch they could use to set these buildings on fire, after they had fist been explored (and then number of peasants inside had been determined). The game ends when all the buildings are burned down, or the last team routs. The session had some real old-school D&D energy. It felt very violent and chaotic.
The peasants proved to be surprisingly tough. In true Mordheim fashion, one peasant held off my dreg and a zombie for basically the entire game. Another peasant single handedly held off a team of dwarven slayers. That old man was only killed when my team set his home on fire and it collapsed upon him. (Killing a few dwarfs in the process.)
I hadn’t played Mordheim in ages, but I quickly remembered how it all worked. The game has lots of little edge cases, but its core is quite simple. Our new player, who had only played 40K, really loved how evocative the game and its rules were. It really is the gold standard for narrative gaming. (Though perhaps Trench Crusade will soon carry that torch?)
Hopefully we’re manage to get another game (or more) in before the holidays season is over.
The party finally visits the merchant town to the South, Brown Man village of Jahar. These merchants were the ones who escorted the players up to Invak in the first session, when the party encountered them on the road. Because the party had gained some notoriety in the region they were able to wander and meet with the people of the town. I’m quite certain I ran this sort of things using reaction rolls. I tracked the groups renown, which I would sometimes use to modify results up or down, but not in a way that I was particularly consistent about.
You can see that once again I was laying it out pretty thick when it came to reasons to explore the Putrescent Pits of the Ameboid Gods. Don’t worry, the players wouldn’t take the bait.
The party travels south from Invak to Jahar.
The trip is uneventful. They travel through the night to make it to the town in one day. They camp outside of town, but encounter nothing.
Unlike Invak, Jahar is particularly xenophobic.
One of the guards is aware of the Rainbow Connection, and lets the players into the town.
Most of the people manufacturing goods in the town, along with the guards, have a fairly negative reaction to the party.
The merchants in town have a more positive disposition.
The party meets the person who runs the “resale items” shop, along with his children. They pick up some random knick knacks.
They meet the sage that lives in town.
For 10 GP he tells them two locations that he thinks feeds the water in the Castle of Decline, which could be the source of the human waste and guts that are poisoning the water
For free he lets the party know their map of the Putrescent Pits of the Ameboid God is probably junk. The story goes that a cult worshiped the god, that lived in an impossibly deep pit to the North. They would feed the beast all the gold and jewels they could find. Another cult came and fought the god and its cultists, culminating in sealing the god underground by building the mountain range on top of it. He lets the party know that mountain ranges form over millions of years, and this story is probably nonsense.
The party learn about a citadel to the North East, hidden out of sight. Some merchants saw it a few days back, but avoided the site. The sage will pay 10GP for information confirming its existence.
The party ventures off in search of the site, which they find without any complications.
It appears to be sealed from the inside. The party doesn’t want to make a noise by breaking down the front door, or a trapdoor in the roof.
A cavern near the Castle is also found, and explored.
The party encounters a group of 6 Mi-Go’s. They kill one and then flee. The Mi-Go’s make a half-hearted pursuit.
The party returns to Jahar, where they let the sage know of their findings.
Treasure:
10 GP paid by the Sage.
Notes:
Provide clue about next complication.
Being worried about the game being boring was a common theme it seems. Once again some planning for the next session takes place in the comments, and I share a little bit more about what the group has learned about the world. Cole suggested I write a follow up review of Carcosa, having run the game for a few months now. That review ended up focusing a lot on how I prepared to start the game, but didn’t talk much about actually run the game.
Ramanan S (2015-03-10 17:13): Sorry for the quieter game. I owe you guys a clue for a haven complication. I’ll also update the campaign map with trade routes from Jahar.
Richard Hawkins (2015-03-10 17:21): Sorry that I missed out on this one, I will look forward to eating brains soon!
Beloch Shrike (2015-03-10 18:38): Nothing to apologize for. I got to kill a Mi-Go. Lets do more of that. =D
edchuk sockmonkey (2015-03-10 20:23): Richard Hawkins Lightly sauté them with garlic and a little lemon. Delicious!
Richard Hawkins (2015-03-10 22:45): Yes… yummy!
Richard Hawkins (2015-03-10 22:45): Beloch Shrike a CoC MI-GO! … Yikes
Ramanan S (2015-03-14 03:41): The merchants reveal the location of towns along their trade routes. To the south they visit: Glom (Ulfire Men village), Lesel (Brown Men Citadel), Brackdor (Bone Man Village), and Cron (Ulfire Man Village). They abandoned routes to the East decades ago because of the Slavers. They stopped trading to the West some time ago, though people can’t give you a straight answer as to why. What do people want to do?
Beloch Shrike (2015-03-21 16:57): I wouldn’t mind returning to those caverns and exploring further.
Eric Boyd (2015-03-21 20:03): Are there trade caravans headed anywhere interesting that need guards?
Dion Williams (2015-03-21 21:34): Either of the option mentioned work for me.
Ramanan S (2015-03-21 22:33): Eric Boyd traders will leave from Jahar heading South to the town of Cron soon. The route they take is as follows: 1 week in Glom, 1 week in Brackdor, 1 week in Cron, 1 week in Brackdor & Glom, 1 week back in Jahar. (i.e. That’s where they’ll be for the next 5 sessions.) If you wait a session another group will leave for Lesel: 1 week in Glom, 1 week in Lesel, 1 week back in Jahar. I’ll figure out how to update the map or something.
cole long (2015-03-21 22:47): Ramanan S you should do a post (or have you done one already?), having DMed several sessions, about what you find Carcosa brings to the table and what you’ve done to make it “yours?”
cole long (2015-03-21 22:50): i feel like it is one of the rorschach-blottiest settings
Ramanan S (2015-03-21 22:51): cole long Good idea. I’ve certainly had to do a bunch of flesh things out.
Ramanan S (2015-03-22 01:06): From the old thread, of note: The merchants reveal the location of towns along their trade routes. To the south they visit: Glom (Ulfire Men village), Lesel (Brown Men Citadel), Brackdor (Bone Man Village), and Cron (Ulfire Man Village). They abandoned routes to the East decades ago because of the Slavers. They stopped trading to the West some time ago, though people can’t give you a straight answer as to why.
Ramanan S (2015-03-22 01:10): Also: the merchants won’t pay you to be guards, they have their own guards, and they don’t think your acting troupe is menacing enough. They are fine with you tagging along on any trip, however.
Ramanan S (2015-03-22 17:52): Event is up. Can do upkeep and haven stuff there.
Ramanan S (2015-03-28 05:54): cole long http://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/review/carcosa-review-reprise/
The session began with exploration and learning more about the world. This was the first time the party got lost in the wilderness, an important part of the game. My travel rules worked. The party found more caves to explore in the future, and learned of a second citadel that purportedly held a tomb of vile sorceress magic—the best kind. The party would refuse to seek it out for the remainder of the game, of course. The later half of the session was spent getting high with some stoner Carcosans. Dion joined the game this session, and was a fixture in the campaign for a long time to come, playing Ulfire Sorcerer Asha-Rea. His character used the distraction of everyone getting high off their ass to steal some Jale Lotuses to sell later. A quiet session, but they can’t all be loud.
The party is in Invak, returning after vanquishing the cultists to the North.
They elect to escort two of the bone from the the Citadel of Decline back home.
Get lost on the way there, ending up South of Invak.
Encounter Jale Slavers on the road. 17 in total and they look like bad asses.
The party books it, escaping into the wilderness. They are forced to abandon a pack animal to do so.
They spend the night in the wilderness and then head back to Invak.
Once more, the party heads North West towards the citadel.
The trip is uneventful, but on the way there hey find two caves to explore later.
The citadel is as it was before. Lots of sad sack bone men and women.
The party hears a rumour of a citadel to the south the bone men avoided when they stumbled upon this castle many years ago. This other citadel was also abandoned, but covered in sigils and markings that left everyone feeling disturbed. The scouting party who ventured within claimed to see a book of foul sorcery that so terrified them they turned and ran he moment they set their eyes upon it.
The party rests the night and heads towards Invak, stopping at cavern on the way.
It’s home to stoner brown men, who snort Jale lotus and receive visions.
The characters decide to get high with the Brown Men.
Orange Julia learns of a Sunken Temple filled with Amphibious Ones held in Stasis.
Renoir learns of a Forlorn Citadel.
Usha Ray sneaks some Jake Lotus while everyone is busy getting high.
The party returns to Invak.
The apothecary examines water from the Citadel of a Decline, and informs the party that the water is full of human filth and dead humans. He suggests they don’t drink it.
Almost a full month since our last game! The fastest way to kill a campaign is to miss games, and playing every week meant that a missed game had an oversized impact. I’m impressed the Carcosa game managed to last as long as it did, as I was a bit too quick to reschedule when I was a little busy or tired.
Reading the comments I see that at this point I still didn’t have a clear procedure for wilderness travel I was happy with. I suspect I was just using travel times from OD&D and winging it. Before the next session I would settle on Hazard Die based procedures, borrowing from how Brendan ran his games. Earlier that year (2014) Brendan wrote two seminal blog posts: Overload the encounter die and Proceduralism. I joke that I am part of the OSR that is obsessed with Adventure Time, but I’m also part of the OSR that is obsessed with procedures of play. It felt like everyone read Torchbearer, didn’t want to play it, but did want to add procedures and downtime to their games.
In this session the players decided to attack the Orange Man Citadel to the North. They were aware the citadel was an ally of their enemies the slavers, that they apparently ran gladiatorial games. Evan using his teleporting laser gun to teleport the Frog God away was great conclusion to the fight, as it meant the Frog God was now wandering the wilderness alongside the players. I added the Frog God to my encounter table. My encounter tables would slowly grow and change based on the actions of the players each session. Will the frog show up in a future session?
The players found a “strange metal collar with buttons and lights (Treasure #1)”. The players had to figure out what the magic items (or super science) they found did. I had a list of items so I wouldn’t forget. Treasure #1 was a truth collar the space aliens used for interrogation. Will the players figure out what it’s for?
I don’t recall if Nick named his character or not. He was killed this session. His previous character, Horace, was killed in the session 2, the previous game he played. The game was a bit of a meat grinder.
The rainbow connection were resting in the cavernous castle, home to the Ideal of Decline and his sad group of Bone Men. They debate heading North back to the Putrescent Pits, or South in Invak to help start some sort of alliance between the two towns.
The party suggest to the Ideal of Decline that they abandon their crazy castle and come live in Invak.
He is wary of the idea, but sends 6 of his Bone men with the party to investigate the town and report back.
In Invak the party meet with the Speaker of All Graces, and decide that it’s the red moon and they should save those slaves.
The Speaker of All Graces is always down for fucking with slavers, and provides one of his best lieutenants and 40 men to help the party.
Organina recruits another 7 Orange Men from the refugee quarter to help as well.
The party head north to the Orange Man Citadel, home to cultists famous for feeding the winners of their gladiatorial games to their spawn god.
The citadel seems strangely abandoned.
The party does some scouting, and then attempts to scale the walls.
The grappling hooks alert two Orange Men inside.
A crazy fight breaks out—I bet Zak has some rules for mass combat in Vornheim I could have used here.
The Orange Men have laser guns, but are about as good a shot as Cobra.
Things are overwhelmingly going the parties way until the interior doors to the citadel are opened, and the giant spawn god, a huge feathered frog with a beak, lets out a croak that scares most everyone in the battle.
A small number of reinforcements join the fight, but in the end they are also put down quite quickly.
Nick’s character is eaten by the terrible toad.
The Spangled Inquiry had been shooting at the frog with his teleportation ray for several rounds, finally hitting the beast when it was perhaps almost dead. The beast disappeared into the wilderness, and presumably ran off.
Searching the citadel reveals a stash of valuable gems.
The Speaker’s lieutenant gives the party the first 3 gems (100 GP, 5000 GP, 5000 GP). “The Speaker of all Graces would thank you for pushing us to finally finish these slavers off. I will do so in his stead: 100 GP a slaver to your strange troupe. The remaining treasure we split evenly. The money due to the dead will be given to our home Invak. I will keep 35 men here with me to secure the fort these slavers wasted with their idiocy. My remaining men will head south with you and he freed slaves to report to the Speaker of all Graces. Tell him to send word of what he wishes to do here.”
35 Bone Men and the lieutenant stay behind in the citadel, the party returns to Invak the next day.
Strange metal collar with buttons and lights (Treasure #1)
There are 52 people on this adventure: 368 GP each, or there about. 1100 GP for killing slavers split 4 ways is 275 GP. So each player gets 643 GP.
Monsters Defeated:
11 crazy Orange Man Cultists (and slavers)
1 Spawn of Shub-Niggurath, a huge toad
It’s funny reading all the “who will run next week” chatter. This Monday night spot was a hot commodity. You can see I didn’t have any concrete treasure rolled for the citadel, I figured things out retroactively. I was all about just in time prep, which worked until it didn’t.
Eric Boyd (2015-01-27 05:16): Player Notes: We need to write an easy-to-sing ballad about killing slavers, so our motives are clear when we show up in situations like this.
Ramanan S (2015-02-02 02:36): I still owe you guys: loot, a players map of the region, and better rules for wilderness travel!
Ramanan S (2015-02-07 20:59): Still behind on things. I asked to see if Bryan Mullins can run next weeks game as well.
Bryan Mullins (2015-02-07 21:39): Just got out of work, sorry no quick replay Ramanan S. I’ll post an invite for that game (the 9th) tonight.
Ramanan S (2015-02-10 05:24): [Ram figures out the treasure for the session, finally. There is lots.]
Bryan Mullins (2015-02-10T05:38:34.431Z): Damn, thats the one I missed!
Ramanan S (2015-02-10 05:42): They raided that orange man citadel to the north to free slaves, bolstered by a militia from Invak. My notes for that citadel were a small map and stats for the frog God, which is why I didn’t have treasure handy at the time. I wasn’t sure how to allocate it till I saw Courtney Campbell’s post about treasure types today and that seemed like the obvious thing to do.
Eric Boyd (2015-02-10 06:41): clarifying: is the party splitting 10,100 GP of gems four ways?
Ramanan S (2015-02-10 11:03): The party splits their 3 gems worth 1100 GP between the 4 of them. It’s like a bonus or finders free or something. For simplicity we can just assume the Speaker of all Graces in Invak can swap the gems for currency.
Ramanan S (2015-02-10 12:04): My current thinking is that “gold” is ancient super hardy metal coinage from some bygone era. So it all looks pristine and new, and most Carcosans don’t have the tech to mint new coins or mess with the old ones. So they are a good hard to counterfeit common currency. Thoughts?
Ramanan S (2015-02-11 04:55): Bryan Mullins Am I running stuff on the 23rd (normally when my next slot would be), or this Monday (normally your spot, but you covered for me so I don’t know if you need / want a break or not). Let me knows.
Bryan Mullins (2015-02-11 05:05): Um…lets say that I just did you a favor so you could get up to speed? Ultimately, I’d like to see Richard come into the rotation so that I can rest my Monday game more often. Sorry, side track. I’ll be ready and running for Monday the 16th, and you’ll be back on for the 23rd. Sound okay?
