...a bunch of monsters in the dungeon armed with sweet magic swords.
"Come at me bro!"
Showing posts with label Actual Play. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Actual Play. Show all posts
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Sunday, January 8, 2012
22 Dungeon Levels Are Not Enough - Congradulations to Pete
Today Pete, a player in the group(s) I DM, obtained "The End of the World" achievement trophy (worth 1100 xp), for his PC, 1st level Fighter Orpo, via. the party's cunning use of Levitation and Invisibility spells, reaching the uppermost edge of the mapped & stocked Fortress Eibon megadungeon. (There is still an unplumbed bottom of the mapped and stocked dungeon).
Mind you, he didn't find a staircase or corridor blocked off with "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" signs; he climbed a ladder up to the 11th (upper) level, looked around, and bailed after seeing the 8' brightly coloured snail shell in a corner next to his ladder.
Looks like I need to finish mapping and stocking the next quarter of the dungeon, which currently has 22 levels suitable for PCs of levels 1 through to 7; at this rate the complete megadungeon should have 88(!) levels and be able to handle PCs of up to 20th level.
Mind you, he didn't find a staircase or corridor blocked off with "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" signs; he climbed a ladder up to the 11th (upper) level, looked around, and bailed after seeing the 8' brightly coloured snail shell in a corner next to his ladder.
Looks like I need to finish mapping and stocking the next quarter of the dungeon, which currently has 22 levels suitable for PCs of levels 1 through to 7; at this rate the complete megadungeon should have 88(!) levels and be able to handle PCs of up to 20th level.
Why Sleep and Web Get Saving Throws When I DM...
...because you better damn well believe that I run adversary NPC Magic-Users like a goddamn shark. And if they had access to an "I Win" button they would use it.
Magic goes both ways, but even I'm not that cold-blooded.
Besides, my players love throwing sleep spells at opponents with too high a HD for sleep to affect or that otherwise are immune; why not preserve the confusion by giving the monsters a saving throw?
Magic goes both ways, but even I'm not that cold-blooded.
Besides, my players love throwing sleep spells at opponents with too high a HD for sleep to affect or that otherwise are immune; why not preserve the confusion by giving the monsters a saving throw?
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Tales From Fortress Eibon...
"We had heard rumours of bejeweled skulls, occults of death, and swords that protected and aid in the slaying of an oppenent. So far two parties had died in these towers. one total party death and another where only one survived. He was our leader as we entered through the Northern sallyport, one of the three entrances, across the courtyard inhabited by distracted but none the less size of the dogs cricket like creatures.
There were five of us, three fighters, a cleric and a magic user. We made our way into the building off the East side of the courtyard encountering nought but a large empty chamber. We followed our leader to the place where he had recently fled and lost all companions. It was the farthest door on the North side of the wall. We peered inside to see bodies piled on one another. Pale and shrunken, loose skin weighing heavy on empty dehydrated tissue. There was the sound of a fountain to accompany us while we stripped these dead companions of anything useful.
After we were done we maneuvered over the fallen to fight these giant grotesque deadly fleas, with compact dark shelled bodies, their disgusting sharp proboscis finding any weakness in our armour. There were but three left and still they damaged our prepared party. It wasn’t until broadswords were drawn and injuries sustained that the fleas were finally conquered. The platinum and gold pieces were gathered from the stone floor as quickly as was able and we all came out of that room a fair bit richer but we wanted more. Exploring the South wall we came upon a hall that led off to up to five different rooms. The first held nothing and the second four mushrooms up to ones waist grew out of a floor thick with musty rotting burlap sacs. We moved on
Room with rotting sacks, one was cut open to reveal decaying bolts of cloth with nothing of worth but a gaudy tapestry of a woman in an erotic pose.
Monsters: Hags with cleavers. camouflaged as burlap sacs. Emit an odour comparable to rotting vegetables. Killed the one who led us, quickly and easily. We fled as there were eight of them but when we did return thes only sign of the hags or our fallen ally was a stain of blood on the floor. This was a room off the West side of the corridor we found on the East South entrance out of the main hall. As we exited we were assaulted by the flying heads of the three four feet high mushrooms. They came whirring at great speeds with clear intent of harming us..."
There were five of us, three fighters, a cleric and a magic user. We made our way into the building off the East side of the courtyard encountering nought but a large empty chamber. We followed our leader to the place where he had recently fled and lost all companions. It was the farthest door on the North side of the wall. We peered inside to see bodies piled on one another. Pale and shrunken, loose skin weighing heavy on empty dehydrated tissue. There was the sound of a fountain to accompany us while we stripped these dead companions of anything useful.
After we were done we maneuvered over the fallen to fight these giant grotesque deadly fleas, with compact dark shelled bodies, their disgusting sharp proboscis finding any weakness in our armour. There were but three left and still they damaged our prepared party. It wasn’t until broadswords were drawn and injuries sustained that the fleas were finally conquered. The platinum and gold pieces were gathered from the stone floor as quickly as was able and we all came out of that room a fair bit richer but we wanted more. Exploring the South wall we came upon a hall that led off to up to five different rooms. The first held nothing and the second four mushrooms up to ones waist grew out of a floor thick with musty rotting burlap sacs. We moved on
Room with rotting sacks, one was cut open to reveal decaying bolts of cloth with nothing of worth but a gaudy tapestry of a woman in an erotic pose.
Monsters: Hags with cleavers. camouflaged as burlap sacs. Emit an odour comparable to rotting vegetables. Killed the one who led us, quickly and easily. We fled as there were eight of them but when we did return thes only sign of the hags or our fallen ally was a stain of blood on the floor. This was a room off the West side of the corridor we found on the East South entrance out of the main hall. As we exited we were assaulted by the flying heads of the three four feet high mushrooms. They came whirring at great speeds with clear intent of harming us..."
Thursday, April 28, 2011
My #1 Go-To Sandbox DMing Procedure
When I need to further imagineer a situation that comes up in play, or get a mental handle on what the situation is, my main technique is:
A) What would happen in a Jack Vance story? When I need to know the character of a village, or the schemes of the NPCs, or any other sort of improvisational jazz, 99% of the time I pretend it's a Jack Vance story and go with what comes to mind. Usually this results in lots of NPC jerks in the campaign, which I think keeps things spicy.
B) However, when dealing with the Weird, the Preternatural, "The Mythic Underworld" and the lands of "Tyranny and Mutation," 99% of the time I think of how things would be in a Clark Ashton Smith story and go with that for how the situation develops. This does not discount Vancian Magic-Users by any means!
A) What would happen in a Jack Vance story? When I need to know the character of a village, or the schemes of the NPCs, or any other sort of improvisational jazz, 99% of the time I pretend it's a Jack Vance story and go with what comes to mind. Usually this results in lots of NPC jerks in the campaign, which I think keeps things spicy.
B) However, when dealing with the Weird, the Preternatural, "The Mythic Underworld" and the lands of "Tyranny and Mutation," 99% of the time I think of how things would be in a Clark Ashton Smith story and go with that for how the situation develops. This does not discount Vancian Magic-Users by any means!
Monday, April 25, 2011
Pluton Zone II - Dresh pt. 1
Featuring:
The Adventurer Stowaway
The Scientist-Nephew
The Smuggler Drax Corlu
The Fulsome Sow drops out of warp at the edge of the Dresh system. Drax Corlu consults the charts for the Dresh system in the Sow's navigation portfolio; he finds a colorful page torn from a children's book. The ship spends several days manuevering to use it's magnetic scoop to collect hydrogen from the atmosphere of a gas giant and makes way to the orange desert world of Dresh.
Dresh is a massive planet consisting of the lighter rocky elements; although it has twice the circumference of Terra it has the same gravity. It rotates at twice the speed of Terra resulting in days that are roughly Terran-standard in length.
Inversely Dresh is orbited by an ultra-dense moonlet at an extremely low altitude, thusly orbiting at an extremely rapid rate that is also rotating opposite to the rotation of the planet.
The result of these extreme orbital and tidal forces on the light-element desert world of Dresh is that there is an equatorial band of extremely light and fine sand and micro-dust that has virtually semi-liquid properties, functioning as a massive straight-running river-sea of sand circumnavigating the planet. This is visible from orbit as a pale orange, featurless blur bisecting the globe.
The Sow is hailed from an unspecified source seeking mercenaries; when the party informs the speaker that they are merchants the comm line is dropped.
The Sow lands at the rocket field of Iubbu the Slug's Palace; the domain of a Slug-Person Crime Lord. They investigate Iubbu's court, where various factions of the planet meet to sip stale beer and water and attempt negociation. In front of a stained red velvet curtain, smoking a hookah upon a pile of greasy huge cushions is a small-bus sized gray slimy Slug with man-like arms, Iubbu.
At one table, in contrast to the harshly puritan garb of the majority, are several sun-bleached long-haired and beared men in brightly dyed stillsuits and robes, Sand Surfers. At another table several workmen in blood stained work clothes bearing pole-glaives and skinning hooks are glaring at the Sand Surfers. The party inroduces themselves to the Sand Surfers, who are brimming with brotherly love and righteous spirit and are seeking principled mercenaries to plie their trade in the defense of the innocent.
The party excuse themselves pleading a lack of qualification and return to their table. They see Iubbu confering with a pop-eyed hairless pale man in a purple robe who scurries over and informs the party that Iubbu is seeking someone to discretely return some lost property.
A pleasure automation of his escaped in the morning and fled into to rocky hills northeast of the port; the party would be provided with a high speed flit car, and upon the safe return of the unharmed pleasure automation they would recieve a reward of 2,000 Terces. The party agrees, picks up the flit car, and skims into the hills.
Several hours are spend skimming aroung and over the rocky hills before a fleeing pale pink figure is seen in a valley below; the Adventurer, who was a chauffer for Amazon-Matriarchs upon his homeworld, skims the flit cars down into the valley where they can see its pink, woman-like body with flexible silver fittings. The Smuggler repeatedly attempts ESP contact to ensure that it is a robot and not a living being and than the Adventurer attempts to turn and stop the vehicle in front of the fleeing robot.
The high-speed flit cars strikes a rock with its undercarriage while the vehicle is rapidly turning and braking and the flit car loses control, spinning and tumbling over the rocky ground, sending its passengers flying, and shattering the front-end bubble canopy.
Fortunately the party only has minor bumps and scrapes and quickly get to their feet. They see the robot running away and the adventurer runs after it,bringing it down with a tangle grenade. The robot, entangled in restraint bands, is babbling about how cruel Iubbu implants robots with pain circuits and tear ducts and tortures them for his amusement and for sale to "The Weepers"; the Adventurer has some experience with robot technology and immediately turns it off.
At this point a pattering is heard, rapidly getting louder to thunderous proportions, and a herd of one or two hundred cow-sized brown, long-necked, three-eyed, honking animals with moose-like snouts and six flea-like legs come scampering and bounding over the rise of the hill above them, with their dented flit car between the animals and the party.
The Smuggler Drax Corlu attempts to use his yogic flight abilities while The Adventurer-Stowaway and the Scientist-Nephew drop the robot and begin madly dashing across the rock-strew valley.
Panting, they glance over their shoulders to see scores of bounding, hooting borwn forms sweep across the flit-car, elicting loud banging sounds, sweep across the prone robot, and sweep across the attempting-to-fly Smuggler who dissapears into the furry mass.
The Acientist-Nephew throws a nerve gas grenade into thebounding mass while the Adventurer-Stowaway fires blasts into the mass from his energy weapon; the herd panics and begins bounding in away from the party and the valley.
The smashed scattered remnants of the flit-car and pleasure robot are revealed; the Smuggler is mildly trampled but intact. The Adventurer-Stowaway gathers up the contragravity core of the flit-car, the face of the pleasure robot, and the head of one of the slaughtered beasts, and the party begins tramping back to the space port.
Twelve hours later, exhausted, they stramp down the ramp to Iubbu's subterranean court; fortunately he is not present and they are greeted by his purple-robed major domo, who is horrified to hear of and see evidence of the destruction of both the flit-car and the pleasure robot. Fortunately he believes their tale and informs the party that the "Hill Hoppers" are a hated pest on Dresh for their destructive bounding rampages.
The party than inquires about compensation for their efforts; the major domo simultaniously blanches and flushes and than whilst trembling with indignation informs the party how lucky they are that he is sympathetic to their misfortune with the Hill Hoppers and willing to diplomatically intercede on their behalf, as otherwise things would not bode well at all for the party:
"One time there was a smuggler that Iubbu comissioned to deliver a cargo; at no fault of his own, the smuggler was intercepted by a patrol and had to jettisson the Iubbu's cargo. The smuggler attempted to repay Iubbu, but could not keep up with the interest he was accruing; Iubbu hired bounty hunters to capture him and..."
At this point the Major Domo is striding towards the stained red curtains behind Iubbu dais of greasy cushions, and whips one aside revealing the white, porcelain-like perfect life-sized likeness of a screaming handsome space pilot with roguish aspect, arms upheld in horror.
"...had him marmelized and kept here to serve as both a trophy and a warning!"
Shaken, the party agrees that their inconvenience was inconsequential and returns to The Sow.
Whiteboard of Space Adventure
Top: From the Fulsome Sow's charts, a diagram of the Dresh system on a page torn from a children's book.
Center: A rocky hill with the bunker entrance to Iubbu's Palace.
Right: One of Iubbu's uplifted swine guards, armed with a vibro-bardiche.
Bottom: A diagram of the visible layout of Iubbu's Palace.
Left(bottom): Iubbu the Slug, enjoying his hookah upon a pile of moist, stained cushions.
Left(top): The puritanical garments worn by most of the locals.
Centre-Top Addition: Side view of a six-seat flit car with bubble canopy.
Right Addition: Pleasure automation hairstyle diagram.
Bottom-Right Addition: Coffin-like case from alien ruins.
Bottom-Left Addition: Hexapodal Hill Hopper, destructive herd pests of Dresh.
Bottom-Left Corner Addition: Cliff-side facade of alien ruins
Right Addition: Skeleton of alien remains within case, viewed via scientist extra vision.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Dresh Adventure Seeds
1 - The proprietors of the Mohabatan Manhunting Lodge, "Hunters Rock," are shorthanded and desperate, being even willing to hire "outsystem mercenary scum" to staff their "Hunting Expeditions." Rraise communications with the Mohabatan station on the orbiting moonlet for more information.
2 - Giant Slug-Man crime lord Iubbu the Slug is offering a significant bounty for a smuggler that has wronged him; seek an audience with him at his palace for the details.
3 - There are rumors that some of Iubbu the Slug's slave-robots have escaped and that there is a reward for their discrete capture and return.
4 - Everyone knows that the southern hemisphere is uninhabited due to the dangerous megafauna, but ruins have been spotted by smugglers.
5 - A breakaway splinter group of the Sand Surfers that have renounced nonviolence, the "New Revoluionary Light," seeks principled mercenaries.
6 - "The Fountain of Dreams" is a very valuable commodity, perhaps some enterprising amateurs could made a tidy sum of Terces by poking around?
2 - Giant Slug-Man crime lord Iubbu the Slug is offering a significant bounty for a smuggler that has wronged him; seek an audience with him at his palace for the details.
3 - There are rumors that some of Iubbu the Slug's slave-robots have escaped and that there is a reward for their discrete capture and return.
4 - Everyone knows that the southern hemisphere is uninhabited due to the dangerous megafauna, but ruins have been spotted by smugglers.
5 - A breakaway splinter group of the Sand Surfers that have renounced nonviolence, the "New Revoluionary Light," seeks principled mercenaries.
6 - "The Fountain of Dreams" is a very valuable commodity, perhaps some enterprising amateurs could made a tidy sum of Terces by poking around?
Monday, April 18, 2011
[Lester/B. Portly] Transmission From The Pluton Zone!
*ZZZT* The log of Drax Corlu, Astronaut…
I grew up on Worx, as a "gutter casteman". On this lawless and corrupt world I took the only job I could find: smuggler. I specialized in deep space missions in one man space capsules loaded with contraband goods. My piloting and navigation skills were uncanny: indeed, I could travel by my knowledge of astronomy alone! But the exposure to the unknown radiations of hyperspace forever warped my mind, and many months in space left my body weak, and atrophied. Great sad lines formed on my face and my pallor became grey and my very psyche was thrown into a torpor. I was forever marked for my excursion into fourth dimensional space! Yet, fantastic revelations and powers were conferred to me from the vastness of the very cosmos…
Yet, I search for the one thing in this universe that is forever lost... *ZZZT*
Sunday, March 27, 2011
The Sounds of the Sea of Spices
Whether treating with half-naked, sun-bronzed indigenes; hacking through steaming jungles; or wading through black water only to have a companion disappear into the jaws of a massive crocodile, the soundtrack is exclusively Exotica...
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
The Sea of Spices - Chapter I, Part III
Kasem Somchai dashes through the pyramidal monoliths, both graven with the form of a powerful looking man, with his back to the viewer, wearing an elaborate witch doctor's head-dress and somehow with his arms outstretched holding back a loathsome vague slug-like shape, stumbling onto a black stone platform, a landing, over the edge of the titanic blue-lit pit before him. Almost toppling over the edge, he desperately swings his arms to regain his balance and somehow, through the instinctive reaction to the sudden peril of a calamitous fall, breaks the mesmerism that has overtaken his consciousness and regains his senses, fully lucid.
Looking around he sees a wide basalt staircase plunging from one side of the landing he is standing upon, horribly worn, descending at a steep incline down the side of the pit. His companions catch up and they all stare in awe at the vast glowing void wondering if the other ensorcelled Henchmen had ran heedless off of the platform into the blue abyss before them?
The situation is discussed and the party begins cautiously descending the staircase, alert and clenching bared weaponry. After 2,000 small, tall, steep steps the stairs come to another landing before reversing course in their descend down the sides of the cyclopean shaft. A narrow aperture gapes in the pit-wall adjacent to the landing, with graven forms in the stone on either side, the same powerful witch-doctor as on the monoliths above, but this time facing the viewer and wearing a face-covering cowl that bares fierce eyes and its palms up and out as if holding something back.
As the party discusses whether to further descend gibbered whimpering is heard from withing the dark portal in the shaft-wall. Zusander, with his skills in languages and translation makes out pidgen words for "Please," "Help" and the like. Inquiries are made and the unseen speaker begins begging in Common "Please take me from this bad place; Please protect me from the wicked ones below."
The companions further discuss their options at length before torch-light is cast into the aperture, revealing a short, narrow tunnel with a prone man at the end, clad in orate Ankhor mail with a round-shield bearing the bas-relief of an elephant's head and a sheathed bolo-sword at his waist. Although he had the frizzy hair and almond complexion of the islanders, his eyes and facial features belied Ankhor ancestry.
The man, and adventurers named Nodcal, explains that he and his Sindhu dwarf companion, Sufru, had descended into the pit seeking gold; they found many abandoned strange huts before night fell and several ghostly bad men emerged chanting wicked black juju. Sufru fell under their spell and wast entranced, but as Nodcal fled they brushed him with their fingers and sucked his vitality, draining him of his strength. He was able to ascend this far before collapsing from exhaustion and dragging himself into the alcove.
Nodcal begged the party to descend and rescue Sufru, but the party refuses and instead conveys Nodcal back to their vessel. The journey through the jungle is uneventful, aside from placid orangutans and an arm-sized leech attacking a Henchman, but Nodcal recovers no strength and requires the aid of two men to walk.
The party weighs anchor and sails for the southern village, delivering Nodcal to their witch-doctor; the half-Ankhor adventurer presents them with a purse of 3,000 worn shiny coin-like flattened lumps of gold. Speculations are made regarding what else he had been carrying while helpless and in their power.
The party feasts, rests, and under the pretense of "hunting" begins navigating an indirect route through the jungle for the mist-shrouded middle mountain of the three looming above the jungle inland from the village.
Looking around he sees a wide basalt staircase plunging from one side of the landing he is standing upon, horribly worn, descending at a steep incline down the side of the pit. His companions catch up and they all stare in awe at the vast glowing void wondering if the other ensorcelled Henchmen had ran heedless off of the platform into the blue abyss before them?
The situation is discussed and the party begins cautiously descending the staircase, alert and clenching bared weaponry. After 2,000 small, tall, steep steps the stairs come to another landing before reversing course in their descend down the sides of the cyclopean shaft. A narrow aperture gapes in the pit-wall adjacent to the landing, with graven forms in the stone on either side, the same powerful witch-doctor as on the monoliths above, but this time facing the viewer and wearing a face-covering cowl that bares fierce eyes and its palms up and out as if holding something back.
As the party discusses whether to further descend gibbered whimpering is heard from withing the dark portal in the shaft-wall. Zusander, with his skills in languages and translation makes out pidgen words for "Please," "Help" and the like. Inquiries are made and the unseen speaker begins begging in Common "Please take me from this bad place; Please protect me from the wicked ones below."
The companions further discuss their options at length before torch-light is cast into the aperture, revealing a short, narrow tunnel with a prone man at the end, clad in orate Ankhor mail with a round-shield bearing the bas-relief of an elephant's head and a sheathed bolo-sword at his waist. Although he had the frizzy hair and almond complexion of the islanders, his eyes and facial features belied Ankhor ancestry.
The man, and adventurers named Nodcal, explains that he and his Sindhu dwarf companion, Sufru, had descended into the pit seeking gold; they found many abandoned strange huts before night fell and several ghostly bad men emerged chanting wicked black juju. Sufru fell under their spell and wast entranced, but as Nodcal fled they brushed him with their fingers and sucked his vitality, draining him of his strength. He was able to ascend this far before collapsing from exhaustion and dragging himself into the alcove.
Nodcal begged the party to descend and rescue Sufru, but the party refuses and instead conveys Nodcal back to their vessel. The journey through the jungle is uneventful, aside from placid orangutans and an arm-sized leech attacking a Henchman, but Nodcal recovers no strength and requires the aid of two men to walk.
The party weighs anchor and sails for the southern village, delivering Nodcal to their witch-doctor; the half-Ankhor adventurer presents them with a purse of 3,000 worn shiny coin-like flattened lumps of gold. Speculations are made regarding what else he had been carrying while helpless and in their power.
The party feasts, rests, and under the pretense of "hunting" begins navigating an indirect route through the jungle for the mist-shrouded middle mountain of the three looming above the jungle inland from the village.
Monday, March 14, 2011
The Sea of Spices - Chapter I, Part II
The party returns to the Salty Voyager and settles their nerves after the shocking jungle episode. The next morning they return to the pond carrying a rowboat from their xebec. They use a complicated scheme to ferry all of the adventurers and retinue to the pile of crumbled black ruined stones in the center of Nushnos' death lake.
The islet is searched, and although Amarath the Scholar ascertains that it is indeed the ancient remains of some ruin that they are standing on, no entrances, passages, chambers, shafts or treasures are found. Zusander strips to his scimitar and dagger and dives several times to the bottom of the pond, but also discovers naught; the party returns to their vessel and rests another night.
The next morning they set out for the mountain rising above the jungle; for two days they slash and tread and sweat and drudge through the thick undergrowth and choking lianas, encountering naught but occasional placid family groups of orangutans. By the evening of the second day they have reached the rocky base of the vegetation encrusted mount and while searching for a campsite they discover an ancient road of worn black stones in the jungle, heading directly for the mountain. There are intermittent piles of crumbled basalt slabs alongside the road which the Scholar Amarath identifies as the vastly ancient remains of buildings.
As twilight sets in the party makes camp alongside the black road but are disturbed by the sudden sussurus of ghostly chanting whispers coming from the mountain above accompanied by a vast vertical shaft of shimmering blue light thrusting up into the night sky from a spot on the lower reaches of the mountain, with the road pointing directly at this ghastly illumination.
The Physician Asem Somchai, the Fighting-Man Ulnoc, and the Henchmen Hanamandu, Modibi, Sabmon and Fulompha begin running down the road towards the blue shaft of light upon the mountain, ignoring the calls of their companions. Zusander grabs Mobidi's arm and tries to overpower her but after she begins pummeling him he lets her twist out of his grasp and rush after the others.
The party attempts to chase their apparently mesmerized compatriots, but all of the ensorcelled dashers aside for the mail-clad Asem Somchai are able to outpace the party. Fearing further violence if they physically interfere with the Physician they instead follow him.
An hour later Ulnoc comes to his senses while dashing down the dark road leading steeply up the mountainside; he attempts to stops Fulompha but she soundly ignores him so he instead turns around and begins jogging down the slope, soon coming across the Ankhor Physician followed by the rest of the un-mesmerized adventurers and Henchmen.
The party continues following Asem as he dashes up the steep mountain road, and an hour later they come upon the source of the massive shaft of blue ghost light; upon a small ledge or plateau in the lower reaches of the mountain, the ancient road leading up to it, is a vast circular pit, from which the beam of light emerges. Two monoliths, resembling vertically elongated pyramids, stand close together where the road intersects the pit, one of each side of the terminus of the paves, with Doctor Asem Somchai dashing straight towards the point between these two markers...
The islet is searched, and although Amarath the Scholar ascertains that it is indeed the ancient remains of some ruin that they are standing on, no entrances, passages, chambers, shafts or treasures are found. Zusander strips to his scimitar and dagger and dives several times to the bottom of the pond, but also discovers naught; the party returns to their vessel and rests another night.
The next morning they set out for the mountain rising above the jungle; for two days they slash and tread and sweat and drudge through the thick undergrowth and choking lianas, encountering naught but occasional placid family groups of orangutans. By the evening of the second day they have reached the rocky base of the vegetation encrusted mount and while searching for a campsite they discover an ancient road of worn black stones in the jungle, heading directly for the mountain. There are intermittent piles of crumbled basalt slabs alongside the road which the Scholar Amarath identifies as the vastly ancient remains of buildings.
As twilight sets in the party makes camp alongside the black road but are disturbed by the sudden sussurus of ghostly chanting whispers coming from the mountain above accompanied by a vast vertical shaft of shimmering blue light thrusting up into the night sky from a spot on the lower reaches of the mountain, with the road pointing directly at this ghastly illumination.
The Physician Asem Somchai, the Fighting-Man Ulnoc, and the Henchmen Hanamandu, Modibi, Sabmon and Fulompha begin running down the road towards the blue shaft of light upon the mountain, ignoring the calls of their companions. Zusander grabs Mobidi's arm and tries to overpower her but after she begins pummeling him he lets her twist out of his grasp and rush after the others.
The party attempts to chase their apparently mesmerized compatriots, but all of the ensorcelled dashers aside for the mail-clad Asem Somchai are able to outpace the party. Fearing further violence if they physically interfere with the Physician they instead follow him.
An hour later Ulnoc comes to his senses while dashing down the dark road leading steeply up the mountainside; he attempts to stops Fulompha but she soundly ignores him so he instead turns around and begins jogging down the slope, soon coming across the Ankhor Physician followed by the rest of the un-mesmerized adventurers and Henchmen.
The party continues following Asem as he dashes up the steep mountain road, and an hour later they come upon the source of the massive shaft of blue ghost light; upon a small ledge or plateau in the lower reaches of the mountain, the ancient road leading up to it, is a vast circular pit, from which the beam of light emerges. Two monoliths, resembling vertically elongated pyramids, stand close together where the road intersects the pit, one of each side of the terminus of the paves, with Doctor Asem Somchai dashing straight towards the point between these two markers...
Sunday, March 13, 2011
The Sea of Spices - Chapter I, Part I
The Cast:
Amaranth, Kumarikantam Magic-User and Scholar
Doctor Kasem Somchai, Ankhor Cleric and Physician
Nushno, Sindhu Fighting-Man, Step-Brother to Zusander, and his henchmen:
- Sabmon (Cleric), Fulompha (Sorceress), Euvero (Fighting-Man) and Ulnoc (Fighting-Man)
Zusander the Tiger, Sindhu Fighting-Man, Step-Brother to Nushnos, and his henchmen:
- Clodius (Iskander Fighting-Man), Faruza (Sindhu Fighting-Woman), Hanamandu (Kumarikantam Fighting-Man) and Modibi (Sindhu Priestess)
&
The Salty Voyager, Sindhu Xebec
Nushno and Zusander, step-brothers that hated each other, shared an adventurer-uncle, Abheems, who told them tale, of a mist shrouded mountain, the middle of three, looming above Snake Island, west of Dread Island and north of the port-island of Amphorae in the Sea of Spices. This uncle spoke of tales and maps and of the treasure horde of an ancient lost empire sequestered within a hidden temple upon said mist-shrouded mountain before setting out on a expedition to recover these treasures.
Uncle Abheems was never heard from again.
The the intervening years the brother grew to despise each other further, while emulating their uncle by pursuing lives of wandering adventure. Nushno gained a second enemy to his step-brother when both he and a Kumarikantam Scholar-Sorcerer pursued the same woman, only for both to earn her scorn for their competitive efforts.
This Scholar was Amarath, an adventuring companion of the Ankhor Physician-Priest Kasem Somchai, the two of whom has been inseparable companions since they saved each others lives on a disastrous expedition where the rest of their companions expired.
Before the aforementioned expedition, Doctor Kasem Somchai has served a term of hard labour in the gaols of a cruel Vizir with Zusander the Tiger, where the two of them banded together for mutual advantage.
Years later the two rival step-brothers grudgingly decide to work together and go after their missing uncle and the treasure horde he was seeking. Zusander brings along past ally and cleric Kasem Somchai and the Sage-Sorcerer Amarath to bolster the party, and Nushno is dismayed to see that the "help" that his step-brother has obtained includes a former romantic rival.
The party pools their resources, the step-brother gather their henchmen, and they all commission an adventurer-captain and lease a xebec before thrusting out into the vast reaches of the Ouroboric Oceans into a harrowing journey to the Sea of Spices.
Much later the vessel floats alongside the western coast of a large jungle isle, according to their navigation Snake Island. Four mountains thrust out of the lush greenery, one to the north, and three closely clustered together to the south, the middle of which is shrouded with thick gray clouds. In the initial scout of the coast two hut-villages are spotted, one below each two mountainous regions, with a distance of 50 miles separating the villages along the coast.
The party sails into the harbor of the southern village; the villagers are friendly and their chief greets the xebec from a dugout catamaran, making welcomes and inquiries of cargo. Zusuander makes of gift of a vial of perfume which impresses the chieftan greatly, other sundries are gifted, and the party is feted with roast pig, fruit, arrack, and gracious hospitality. They notice that the boulders scattered about the village appear to be the remains of ancient architecture, and that the harbour, apparently natural, seems to be artificial albeit of extreme antiquity.
The next day the party speaks with the cheiftan and witch-doctor, and when inquiries are made of the mist-shrouded mountain they are informed that it is taboo and forbidden. The party sets sail for the northern village, consisting of grass huts on wooden platforms and barges of reed-bundles, and again gifts of "cargo" are made, this time a block of incense impressing the chieftan. The people of this village wear many pieces of rude gold jewelry, which piques the parties interest.
They inquire of the mountain looming above this village and learn that long ago a wicked tribe lived in a village inside the mountain and performed black magic upon and enslaved the people of the island. Eventually the mighty sons of gods saw fit to stop this tribe, and punished them for their wickedness and imprisoned them within their mountain.
Nowadays people stay away from that mountain, and those that hunt too close to it often disappear. The party agrees that is seems wise to stay away from the mountain and asks about the gold jewelry. They are told that the jungle is full of the weathered rubble of ancient ruins, and that sometimes hunters find trinkets or amphorae under rocks or within the burrows of capybaras; after many years the tribe has accumulated many trinkets. It is said this gold comes from when the wicked tribe of the mountain was struck down, the jewels of those that were slain in the jungles.
The next day the party sails north-east along the coastline for a few hours to a spot north of and close to the mountain and anchored in a sheltered harbour. The party decides to search the jungle for a few hours and seek out some of this gold. After an hour they stumble upon a small group of orangutans, who placidly munch on forage while watching the party. The party continues searching the jungle and in the darkness beneath the jungle canopy, among the singing, chattering and screeching of birds, monkeys and insects, sweltering in torrid humidity, they find a stagnant black pool with a tumbled pile of black rocks resembling the shattered stone ruins of a small step-pyramid squatting in the center of the pool amidst the poison-green floating vegetation, only a few shafts of sunlight piercing the canopy above to illuminate a few slime-encrusted boulders among the rotting edge of the islet.
The party discusses investigating this ruined pile for gold; the Sindhu step-brothers Zusander and Nushno are both trained and skilled swimmers and divers, and the two resolve to see if they can wade to the islet. The cautiously step into the waters, the much sucking at their feet; at about a third of the way to the black rocks, about thirty feet from the shore, the waters reach above their waist. There is a sudden explosion of white foaming water and blackened green scales; a massive crocodile lunges out from the deeper waters, grabs Nushno within its jaws, and disappears beneath the suddenly blood-slicked and still waters.
There is a shocked silence as the birds, monkeys and insects still their cacophony before Zusander begins slashing with his scimitar through the murky waters, but to no satisfaction.
He staggers out of the slimy pond to rejoin his stunned companions; Nushnos' former flunkies discuss their situation, and at the urgings of the Sorceress Fulompha, Ulnoc is nominated as the new leader of this particular knot of henchmen. Meanwhile the rest of the party speculate on how suspicious this tale will sound to the family of the rival step-brothers, "Nusho went on a sea voyage with a former romantic rival, his hated step-brother, and someone that his step-brother met in prison; they go into the jungle and than he gets killed by a crocodile that disappears with his body..."
Friday, January 7, 2011
[Spoilers]Dungeons and Dungeons
Just as a friendly disclaimer, players in any of my games should refrain from reading this.
Work Progresses on my Algol Megadungeon, which now consists of a ten level complex with 1138 rooms; at this point, aside from the first level, I've been focusing on the mapping before stocking and detailing the lower levels, although I have some monsters, treasures and features roughed out.
Below is the first level; in play it's been pretty barren and picked over. The southeast portion of the top map is an ancient convention center facility; the large chambers in the southwestern potion of the top map are ancient supply storage hangars, long since stripped aside from several barrels of "dimetheloxychloxcyanidateonium..."; the spiraling and flooded center potion of the bottom map is the House of the Snail, the aforementioned snail being some sort of savant or oracle. There's a staircase to a submerged portion of the fourth level in the center of ole Mollusk Manor. I dig how the silhouette of this level turned out.
The second level; the upper map is actually the first draft of what became the northern map of the first level; I still liked the map, for both it's rectangular "city block" layout and also how it made me think of tomb complexes. The southern map is primarily the remains of a suicide cult temple, as well as a gladiatorial arena presided over by evil robed skeletons.
The third level; the western region is a maze of chambers of "baroque decrepitude," whereas the eastern portion is some sort of scientific research facility. The topmost map is the uppermost level of another temple complex. One feature of all three maps is that I placed "major avenues" of corridors and chambers without doors, to allow the free passage of inhabitants sans hands or equivalent.
You may notice that compared to my previous Algol Megadungeon post that I've incorporated the previous version's second and third levels into the current second level; and also that I've further modified and expanded the maps.
For the fourth level and downwards the dungeon becomes four "sub-dungeons" and two side-levels, including a couple of Indiana Jone-esque "deathtrap treasure mazes."
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Megadungeon Maps (Spoilers!)
Disclaimer: If you are a player in one of my games than you damn well know better than to be looking at these or the comments ;)
Below are the maps for the first four "main" levels of my Algol megadungeon; there are a few multi-level side dungeons as well. Click to embiggen:
The main area of the first level, with more to the south.
The southern region of the first level, SPOILER "The House of the Snail," the eponymous inhabitant being some sort of invertebrate savant./SPOILER
The second level.
The third level, SPOILER which I think of as an "offside mezzanine"; the connections between the second, third, and fourth levels are complicated by an adjoining complex of levels, the maps of which have not been posted./SPOILER
The forth level, SPOILER with architecture dissimilar to that of the above regions./SPOILER
Below are the maps for the first four "main" levels of my Algol megadungeon; there are a few multi-level side dungeons as well. Click to embiggen:
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Planet Algol - Monday Oct. 4th
The characters:
Sabroz - scaly, three eyed Shereshi
Xerigil - Yellow-and-orange mottled Morheeg Man Thief
Gorlo - Black-and-white piebald Lhoyg Man Fighting-Man
Roald Bloom - Green-skinned Photosythetic Fighting-Mutant with melting eyes and leafy hair
The four companions sit at Tazahat's Tea Stand in the Xeno District of Agog City discussing how to refill their depleted purses. Xergil notices a metallic blue robe shrouded Agog man motioning at him and investigates while a loud, drunken orange-skinned, perfumed Zhaghri Man lout clad in gaudy, low-class ornamentation approaches the remaining three and regales them with tales of quick riches obtained by ambushing and killing adventurers in the depths of the Tenement Canyon.
Meanwhile the mysterious Agog Man conceals his visage within his blue cloak and makes an offer regarding the retrieval of an erotic Hepatizon idol, 'Ecstatic Writhing in Tentacles' from the Concubinatorium with the Autarch's Voluptutary, a long abandoned pleasure dome of the aforementioned world-emperor's in a forbidden sector sector with 100-foot tall walls topped by thickets of iron stakes bearing the impaled remains of trespassers. A secret entrance in the depths of the Tenement Canyon is mentioned.
Xerigil accepts the commission and makes arrangements to meet the Agog Man, 'Sapphire Vapour' at the tea stand in three hours. He returns to the party who are drinking gin-infused tea bought for them my the garrulous orange braggart and muderer, 'Hazak the Inhuman-Slayer' (the two adventurers that he brags of murdering for his wealth being a Shereshi and a Puulvi).
Hazak explains that he wishes to find companions for an expedition, as he wishes to retrace teh steps of the two adventurers that he murdered and find the source of the treasure that they bore, for surely they must be more!
The party agrees and they five of them set off, Hazak procuring lead canteens of gin to fortify them on their venture. The Zhaghri bravo leads them down through the depths of the Tenement Canyon to it's lowest, lightless reaches, where constructions ends and the rocky walls of the bottomless void plunge into darkness. He shows the party where the slain adventurers had attached a rope used to climb down and back up out of the stygian abyss below.
The vegetation-humanoid hybrid mutation Roald begins applying a garrote to the loudmouthed drunken killer and the orange skinned man is soon dead and looted before being thrown into the bottomless canyon. Against the protestations of Xergil, Garlo takes and wears the dead Hazak's distinctive, flashy mail coat of bright blue fine metal scales.
The party returns to the surface, meets with Sapphire Vapour who leads them to a different location at the lowest reaches of the tenement canyon and soon the party is crawling through a narrow ceramic pipe with a lumpy, gray chemical scum encrustation.
After a significant period of travel they emerge into an illuminated complex of metal alloy. Machinery is examined, a notice regarding a 'Critical Moisture Failure!' is read, a lever is pulled, cries are hear from behind a hatch which reveals a large pink region holding the descendants of those detained for appointments currently being flooded with feces ridden water. The hatch is soon reclosed.
Further explorations reveal a massive kitchen area with several planters containing dessicated fruit, vegetable and flesh bearing vegetation; sewage, yeasty nutrition, and strange silvery fluid flesh vats; a chamber full of robots with cut-open torsos and a technological circular-saw device.
Sabroz the Shereshi uses the saw to cut a square section in the metal allow walls and than uses a crowbar to pry out the cut section. He is rewarded by a shower of sparks and mild electrical burns, and an inches deep gap filled with severed crackling black cables in revealed.
Xergil is currently keeping watch on the illuminated corridors, having spotted three strange bronze and silvery fleshed guardians previously, and sees the lights in the hall go out and Sabroz yanks out the wall section.
The party proceeds through now dark halls and finds a chamber full of lush purple vegetation bearing ametheyst, lavender and gold blossoms in planters and trellises, and Sabroz collects a bouquet for his shirt.
Deeper in the chamber an unilluminated area full of dead, withered vegetation contains two gradening robots with cut open torsos, and a third, active gardening robot that the party bluffs. The robot solicits a cutting from Roald Bloom the plantman mutant leafy head and directions to the Concubinatory are provided.
The adventurers follow a wide, long, gently upward sloping ramp from the gardening facility and soon find themselves against the amber and violet striated wall of a massive dusty dome, in a small ramp-top area surrounded by thick, tall purple hedge.
Roald Bloom sticks his head out through the shrub-wall...
Sabroz - scaly, three eyed Shereshi
Xerigil - Yellow-and-orange mottled Morheeg Man Thief
Gorlo - Black-and-white piebald Lhoyg Man Fighting-Man
Roald Bloom - Green-skinned Photosythetic Fighting-Mutant with melting eyes and leafy hair
The four companions sit at Tazahat's Tea Stand in the Xeno District of Agog City discussing how to refill their depleted purses. Xergil notices a metallic blue robe shrouded Agog man motioning at him and investigates while a loud, drunken orange-skinned, perfumed Zhaghri Man lout clad in gaudy, low-class ornamentation approaches the remaining three and regales them with tales of quick riches obtained by ambushing and killing adventurers in the depths of the Tenement Canyon.
Meanwhile the mysterious Agog Man conceals his visage within his blue cloak and makes an offer regarding the retrieval of an erotic Hepatizon idol, 'Ecstatic Writhing in Tentacles' from the Concubinatorium with the Autarch's Voluptutary, a long abandoned pleasure dome of the aforementioned world-emperor's in a forbidden sector sector with 100-foot tall walls topped by thickets of iron stakes bearing the impaled remains of trespassers. A secret entrance in the depths of the Tenement Canyon is mentioned.
Xerigil accepts the commission and makes arrangements to meet the Agog Man, 'Sapphire Vapour' at the tea stand in three hours. He returns to the party who are drinking gin-infused tea bought for them my the garrulous orange braggart and muderer, 'Hazak the Inhuman-Slayer' (the two adventurers that he brags of murdering for his wealth being a Shereshi and a Puulvi).
Hazak explains that he wishes to find companions for an expedition, as he wishes to retrace teh steps of the two adventurers that he murdered and find the source of the treasure that they bore, for surely they must be more!
The party agrees and they five of them set off, Hazak procuring lead canteens of gin to fortify them on their venture. The Zhaghri bravo leads them down through the depths of the Tenement Canyon to it's lowest, lightless reaches, where constructions ends and the rocky walls of the bottomless void plunge into darkness. He shows the party where the slain adventurers had attached a rope used to climb down and back up out of the stygian abyss below.
The vegetation-humanoid hybrid mutation Roald begins applying a garrote to the loudmouthed drunken killer and the orange skinned man is soon dead and looted before being thrown into the bottomless canyon. Against the protestations of Xergil, Garlo takes and wears the dead Hazak's distinctive, flashy mail coat of bright blue fine metal scales.
The party returns to the surface, meets with Sapphire Vapour who leads them to a different location at the lowest reaches of the tenement canyon and soon the party is crawling through a narrow ceramic pipe with a lumpy, gray chemical scum encrustation.
After a significant period of travel they emerge into an illuminated complex of metal alloy. Machinery is examined, a notice regarding a 'Critical Moisture Failure!' is read, a lever is pulled, cries are hear from behind a hatch which reveals a large pink region holding the descendants of those detained for appointments currently being flooded with feces ridden water. The hatch is soon reclosed.
Further explorations reveal a massive kitchen area with several planters containing dessicated fruit, vegetable and flesh bearing vegetation; sewage, yeasty nutrition, and strange silvery fluid flesh vats; a chamber full of robots with cut-open torsos and a technological circular-saw device.
Sabroz the Shereshi uses the saw to cut a square section in the metal allow walls and than uses a crowbar to pry out the cut section. He is rewarded by a shower of sparks and mild electrical burns, and an inches deep gap filled with severed crackling black cables in revealed.
Xergil is currently keeping watch on the illuminated corridors, having spotted three strange bronze and silvery fleshed guardians previously, and sees the lights in the hall go out and Sabroz yanks out the wall section.
The party proceeds through now dark halls and finds a chamber full of lush purple vegetation bearing ametheyst, lavender and gold blossoms in planters and trellises, and Sabroz collects a bouquet for his shirt.
Deeper in the chamber an unilluminated area full of dead, withered vegetation contains two gradening robots with cut open torsos, and a third, active gardening robot that the party bluffs. The robot solicits a cutting from Roald Bloom the plantman mutant leafy head and directions to the Concubinatory are provided.
The adventurers follow a wide, long, gently upward sloping ramp from the gardening facility and soon find themselves against the amber and violet striated wall of a massive dusty dome, in a small ramp-top area surrounded by thick, tall purple hedge.
Roald Bloom sticks his head out through the shrub-wall...
Friday, October 8, 2010
Planet Algol - Sunday Oct. 3rd
Sunday October 3rd
Corporal Breaker - Steel Soldier Android
Kalotar - Black-skinned Barshi Man Fighter
Medeez - Yellow-skinned Gresh Man Sorcerer and Teleporter
Robag Xul - Blue-green and purple striped Azgukh Man Thief
Rodan the Scrounger - Green-skinned Zermish Man Scavenger and Survivor
The party plots their next move in the aftermath of their previous, Nigel Nightbreaker-killing expedition through a teleporter gate to an asteroid. They resolve to return to Pit and seek working clearing out unexplored tunnels deep withing the eponymous massive, bottomless shaft for mining gangs.
Two oriniths are procured by Medeez and Rodan, as well as a pack scarab, and are loaded with food and water. The party next visits the local mercenaries guild and after paying a small fee a gang of fighting men (and women) gather to hear their pitch.
Rodan blusters with vague talk of easy work and quick riches. The apparent leader of the mercenaries, a tactless, brash Haasht Man with jade colored scales and a lizard-like crest of blue-green scales instead of hair, interrupts and requests specifics regarding their work.
Rodan attempts to browbeat the loudmouth with hot talk before Robag Xul interrupts with a comment about "You'll be getting paid to go underground and die!"
The mercenary replies "Ahah, so you are hiring us to go on adventures. We know your reputation Rodan, you've left a trail of dead companions on your expeditions!"
Rodan admits his motives and the two begin negotiations. Two months pay and shares in the treasure are offered and of the small crowd of twenty mercenaries, three accept the offer, including their leader. The mercenaries are outfitted and the party departs for Pit
and soon arrives at the rusty, smoky, dirty streets of the mining settlement. The tunnel-clearing work that Rodan was seeking is indeed available from the Black Pickax Mining Gang and the commission is accepted.
The next morning the party and the muttering mercenaries are lowered in an iron cage on a cable miles deep in the bottomless pit of Pit to scout out a tunnel entrance that their patrons have a claim upon.
A ruby is found in the winding labyrinth before Corporal Breaker is mauled by a massive iridescent green beetle with scything mandibles. The mega-arthropod is dispatched as it chews upon the combat robot, and its eggs are destroyed.
The party returns to the surface, taking in the head of the giant insect for a modest bounty, and proceeds to sell the ruby and split up the wealth. Some make incautious of their exploits in a seedy dive, the Brass Tines.
The next day the party returns to the tunnels. Waiting is a brash young bravo pointing a heavy dart rifle at the party. He brags of how his gang, the Red Chisels have jumped the Black Pickax's claim. Negotiations with the intoxicated young tough fail and the rifle is discharged before the Red Chisel shouts and alarm. Kalotar leaps upon the bravo and strangles him to death.
Further claim-jumpers are found, and in an ensuing ambush one of the party's hirelings, the loud mouthed Haasht Man, is shot dead. More rubies; the severed heads of five intoxicant-addled Red Chisel bravos; and a bound prisoner brought back to the surface, the latter two items exchanged for a more sizable sum of gold credits.
Corporal Breaker - Steel Soldier Android
Kalotar - Black-skinned Barshi Man Fighter
Medeez - Yellow-skinned Gresh Man Sorcerer and Teleporter
Robag Xul - Blue-green and purple striped Azgukh Man Thief
Rodan the Scrounger - Green-skinned Zermish Man Scavenger and Survivor
The party plots their next move in the aftermath of their previous, Nigel Nightbreaker-killing expedition through a teleporter gate to an asteroid. They resolve to return to Pit and seek working clearing out unexplored tunnels deep withing the eponymous massive, bottomless shaft for mining gangs.
Two oriniths are procured by Medeez and Rodan, as well as a pack scarab, and are loaded with food and water. The party next visits the local mercenaries guild and after paying a small fee a gang of fighting men (and women) gather to hear their pitch.
Rodan blusters with vague talk of easy work and quick riches. The apparent leader of the mercenaries, a tactless, brash Haasht Man with jade colored scales and a lizard-like crest of blue-green scales instead of hair, interrupts and requests specifics regarding their work.
Rodan attempts to browbeat the loudmouth with hot talk before Robag Xul interrupts with a comment about "You'll be getting paid to go underground and die!"
The mercenary replies "Ahah, so you are hiring us to go on adventures. We know your reputation Rodan, you've left a trail of dead companions on your expeditions!"
Rodan admits his motives and the two begin negotiations. Two months pay and shares in the treasure are offered and of the small crowd of twenty mercenaries, three accept the offer, including their leader. The mercenaries are outfitted and the party departs for Pit
and soon arrives at the rusty, smoky, dirty streets of the mining settlement. The tunnel-clearing work that Rodan was seeking is indeed available from the Black Pickax Mining Gang and the commission is accepted.
The next morning the party and the muttering mercenaries are lowered in an iron cage on a cable miles deep in the bottomless pit of Pit to scout out a tunnel entrance that their patrons have a claim upon.
A ruby is found in the winding labyrinth before Corporal Breaker is mauled by a massive iridescent green beetle with scything mandibles. The mega-arthropod is dispatched as it chews upon the combat robot, and its eggs are destroyed.
The party returns to the surface, taking in the head of the giant insect for a modest bounty, and proceeds to sell the ruby and split up the wealth. Some make incautious of their exploits in a seedy dive, the Brass Tines.
The next day the party returns to the tunnels. Waiting is a brash young bravo pointing a heavy dart rifle at the party. He brags of how his gang, the Red Chisels have jumped the Black Pickax's claim. Negotiations with the intoxicated young tough fail and the rifle is discharged before the Red Chisel shouts and alarm. Kalotar leaps upon the bravo and strangles him to death.
Further claim-jumpers are found, and in an ensuing ambush one of the party's hirelings, the loud mouthed Haasht Man, is shot dead. More rubies; the severed heads of five intoxicant-addled Red Chisel bravos; and a bound prisoner brought back to the surface, the latter two items exchanged for a more sizable sum of gold credits.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Playing D&D in Public with Strangers
Last night was the scheduled bi-weekly Planet Algol game in association with Red Box Vancouver, during the previous week a new guy showed up on the RBV forums:
Anyways, Monday night rolls around and I head down to the RBV hangout...a hive of scum and villainy (actually a nice coffee shop that kindly puts up with our shenanigans). I try getting there early and don't see any of the RBV regulars when I get there but soon a stranger comes up and asks if I'm Blair and the new guy and I get down to business.
We start up generating a character and he's taking to this stuff like a fish to water. He rolls 3d6 down the line and end's up with a character with a 3 intelligence! We're using the LOTFPWFRPG which states that if a character has a sum ability score modifier of less than zero than they can reroll their statistics. To his credit new guy actually almost went with the 3 intelligence character, he seemed almost enamored with the idea! The next set of ability scores included an 18 wisdom...this guy runs HOT and COLD!
At this point nobody else has showed up. One of the regular Planet Algol players from the original campaign who made it to the previous RBV PA game "had made plans"; the RBV guy who instigated my involvement had to go see some boring lawyer dude go "Blah Blah Blah"; and the other RBV guys who played at the last RBV-PA game had their characters iced, so now I was wondering if it was just going to be us two?
I momentarily considered just chatting a bit, showing him how to make a character and talking about the game; but than I slapped myself in my imagination "Pull yourself together! If JB Blackrazor can play with one guy in A FREAKING BAR I can certainly DM-up and give 110% for this stranger who's interested in playing oldschool D&D; think of the future generations Blair...do it in the memory of TARGA!"
So I proceed at RAMMING SPEED! (which really only meant that I got him to roll up what kind of funny-colored Algol Man he was and helped him buy equipment...the poor guy only rolled 50 gp for starting money...what an introduction!)
Than RBV stalwart DM & owner of a wardrobe full of Converge shirts Johnstone shows up; he's sick, with a nasty flu/cold that I just kicked, but he's here to game...he even did his awesomefunny voicesrole playing, even though you could tell it was hell on his throat!
As Johnstone's character had been rendered unconscious by the guardians of the Autarch's Voluptuary during the previous adventure, and I had written up content for exactly that kind of situation, we played for a bit to resolve what happens with his captured character. Although the dude didn't get anywhere, it seemed to serve as a great demonstration of play for the New Guy (who is named Cam; I'll just call him Cam from here on).
Johnstone rolls up a new character, and makes him a three eyed, scaly, creepy Shereshi; Cam goes with a Cleric (I relented on my NO CLERICS! policy on order to give Raggi's game a good test drive; at least in LOTFPWFRPG they aren't better fighters than fighters, and there's no weird "priests of the god of swords who can't use swords" phenomenon, although those rules are probably just a legacy of attempts to keep OD&D magic swords in the hands of Fighters...) and had chosen to randomly roll his race...a fire newt/toad pigmented Shuzakh Man.
The game starts and I dangle two solicitous NPCS...one who leads to the Autarch's Voluptuary (the site of Johnstone's previous unfortunate adventure), and the other who leads to THE ASTEROID!
The party takes the bait of THE ASTEROID! adventure and off they go.
Like I said Cam was a natural, although I'm not a "ROLE-PLAY or you're PLAYING IT WRONG!" guy in the least, he immediately was thinking and acting "in character," while Johnstone is an awesome ham...shredding his poor sick throat for the sake of the show!
At this point I'm going through the poorly organized sheafs of papers, maps and booklets in my "grief-case" and I realize...I had forgotten the map I made for THE ASTEROID! adventure!
I had ran the same adventure with the original Planet Algol group the previous day, and I had the map key and notes, so I decided TO FREAKING GO FOR IT and try and replicate the map from memory while acting like nothing was wrong.
Fortunately Johnstone had a coughing fit or something, and said that he had to run home and back, which would only take 10 minutes. I live in the neighborhood as well, so I explained my predicament to Cam; dashed home; grabbed the map; got suckered into taking my dog out for a quick potty break (she hadn't pooped all day so I was worried about her dropping a bomb!), and dashed back to the coffee shop.
The party explores THE ASTEROID! and survives "splitting the party" (new guy is new and Johnstone is a man of sterling integrity playing a character with a 7 intelligence), finds the strange ruins, and eventually find some loot...some sort of fancy silvery rifle. Cam shows his steel and immediately grabs the rifle!
Like I keep stating, this guy is a natural: the NPC that instigated THE ASTEROID! adventure came along (he needed some muscle for his exploration) and soon Cam was planning on how to ice the NPC for the sake of a better loot split.
Alas, shortly afterward the party has a Random Encounter! with the randomly rolled Maximum Number! of savage degenerates. Cam's character calmly shoot one of the degenerate creeps down with his fancy new rifle; unfortunately he doesn't use his memorized Sanctuary spell before the party is mobbed by the savages and his cleric is rendered unconscious by the repeated application of human thigh bone clubs to his person.
The two survivors flee to a safe distance and see that the creeps are hunched around their prone companion, so they start plinking at them. The creeps fail a morale roll and split the scene...while dragging the unconscious cleric with them, and get away. However, the surviving PC is gratified to see the fancy new rifle lying on the ground and snatches it up before the two survivors split and attempt to make it back to civilization.
I gotta say Cam was a great sort about his fallen PC; first time playing a pen and paper rpg, first character, and he totally isn't fazed and takes it in stride. He even makes some (accurate) cannibal comments/jokes!
At this point things are looking pretty grim for my NPC...Johnstone's character has the rifle and some fancy hepatizon and ruby jewelry looted from the ruins; the NPC offered to lead the party to THE ASTEROID! in order for a share of the profits, and you can just tell he's scheming on when to ice the NPC.
Fate intercedes when the duo reach the fringes of civilization...a Random Encounter! with a three cheap thugs who look to be aiming to get that fancy hepatizon and ruby harness. This actually is kind of a blessing in disguise, as when combat ensues it allows Cam to play the NPC during the fight.
Alas, Johnstone's scaly freak is stabbed into unconsciousness and the Cam-piloted NPC (which was a hobbit sized Pulvi) is picked up and cast into a bottomless pit...although his head is dashed into paste by a collision with a ledge 100' below.
Death #2 for Cam...and again he isn't fazed; in fact again he seems amused by the circumstances of his death...as any red-blooded D&D player should be!
And Johnstone's Shereshi? He comes to with his wrists bound and wearing a slave collar in a slave pen while a slaver is paying several gold credits to two cheap thugs, one wearing a hepatizon and ruby harness and the other carrying a fancy silver rifle....
"I have never played any sort of tabletop rpg but have always been curious about it. The extent of my dnd knowledge is rooted primarily in Neverwinter Nights and the sequel for PC. Is there a place around town to welcome strangers such as myself? I would also mention that I'm 29, hopefully that isn't too old to start…"The next RBV game was the aforementioned Planet Algol game, so I invited him to come down and attempted to hook him up with an intro to the setting and a list of influences, his reply?
"...I'll read up on my Heavy Metal on sunday and fast forward through Flash Gordon to any part where Queen is singing the theme song."Dude owns a copy of the Flash Gordon movie?!?! He sounds like a natural for this campaign!
Anyways, Monday night rolls around and I head down to the RBV hangout...a hive of scum and villainy (actually a nice coffee shop that kindly puts up with our shenanigans). I try getting there early and don't see any of the RBV regulars when I get there but soon a stranger comes up and asks if I'm Blair and the new guy and I get down to business.
We start up generating a character and he's taking to this stuff like a fish to water. He rolls 3d6 down the line and end's up with a character with a 3 intelligence! We're using the LOTFPWFRPG which states that if a character has a sum ability score modifier of less than zero than they can reroll their statistics. To his credit new guy actually almost went with the 3 intelligence character, he seemed almost enamored with the idea! The next set of ability scores included an 18 wisdom...this guy runs HOT and COLD!
At this point nobody else has showed up. One of the regular Planet Algol players from the original campaign who made it to the previous RBV PA game "had made plans"; the RBV guy who instigated my involvement had to go see some boring lawyer dude go "Blah Blah Blah"; and the other RBV guys who played at the last RBV-PA game had their characters iced, so now I was wondering if it was just going to be us two?
I momentarily considered just chatting a bit, showing him how to make a character and talking about the game; but than I slapped myself in my imagination "Pull yourself together! If JB Blackrazor can play with one guy in A FREAKING BAR I can certainly DM-up and give 110% for this stranger who's interested in playing oldschool D&D; think of the future generations Blair...do it in the memory of TARGA!"
So I proceed at RAMMING SPEED! (which really only meant that I got him to roll up what kind of funny-colored Algol Man he was and helped him buy equipment...the poor guy only rolled 50 gp for starting money...what an introduction!)
Than RBV stalwart DM & owner of a wardrobe full of Converge shirts Johnstone shows up; he's sick, with a nasty flu/cold that I just kicked, but he's here to game...he even did his awesome
As Johnstone's character had been rendered unconscious by the guardians of the Autarch's Voluptuary during the previous adventure, and I had written up content for exactly that kind of situation, we played for a bit to resolve what happens with his captured character. Although the dude didn't get anywhere, it seemed to serve as a great demonstration of play for the New Guy (who is named Cam; I'll just call him Cam from here on).
Johnstone rolls up a new character, and makes him a three eyed, scaly, creepy Shereshi; Cam goes with a Cleric (I relented on my NO CLERICS! policy on order to give Raggi's game a good test drive; at least in LOTFPWFRPG they aren't better fighters than fighters, and there's no weird "priests of the god of swords who can't use swords" phenomenon, although those rules are probably just a legacy of attempts to keep OD&D magic swords in the hands of Fighters...) and had chosen to randomly roll his race...a fire newt/toad pigmented Shuzakh Man.
The game starts and I dangle two solicitous NPCS...one who leads to the Autarch's Voluptuary (the site of Johnstone's previous unfortunate adventure), and the other who leads to THE ASTEROID!
The party takes the bait of THE ASTEROID! adventure and off they go.
Like I said Cam was a natural, although I'm not a "ROLE-PLAY or you're PLAYING IT WRONG!" guy in the least, he immediately was thinking and acting "in character," while Johnstone is an awesome ham...shredding his poor sick throat for the sake of the show!
At this point I'm going through the poorly organized sheafs of papers, maps and booklets in my "grief-case" and I realize...I had forgotten the map I made for THE ASTEROID! adventure!
I had ran the same adventure with the original Planet Algol group the previous day, and I had the map key and notes, so I decided TO FREAKING GO FOR IT and try and replicate the map from memory while acting like nothing was wrong.
Fortunately Johnstone had a coughing fit or something, and said that he had to run home and back, which would only take 10 minutes. I live in the neighborhood as well, so I explained my predicament to Cam; dashed home; grabbed the map; got suckered into taking my dog out for a quick potty break (she hadn't pooped all day so I was worried about her dropping a bomb!), and dashed back to the coffee shop.
The party explores THE ASTEROID! and survives "splitting the party" (new guy is new and Johnstone is a man of sterling integrity playing a character with a 7 intelligence), finds the strange ruins, and eventually find some loot...some sort of fancy silvery rifle. Cam shows his steel and immediately grabs the rifle!
Like I keep stating, this guy is a natural: the NPC that instigated THE ASTEROID! adventure came along (he needed some muscle for his exploration) and soon Cam was planning on how to ice the NPC for the sake of a better loot split.
Alas, shortly afterward the party has a Random Encounter! with the randomly rolled Maximum Number! of savage degenerates. Cam's character calmly shoot one of the degenerate creeps down with his fancy new rifle; unfortunately he doesn't use his memorized Sanctuary spell before the party is mobbed by the savages and his cleric is rendered unconscious by the repeated application of human thigh bone clubs to his person.
The two survivors flee to a safe distance and see that the creeps are hunched around their prone companion, so they start plinking at them. The creeps fail a morale roll and split the scene...while dragging the unconscious cleric with them, and get away. However, the surviving PC is gratified to see the fancy new rifle lying on the ground and snatches it up before the two survivors split and attempt to make it back to civilization.
I gotta say Cam was a great sort about his fallen PC; first time playing a pen and paper rpg, first character, and he totally isn't fazed and takes it in stride. He even makes some (accurate) cannibal comments/jokes!
At this point things are looking pretty grim for my NPC...Johnstone's character has the rifle and some fancy hepatizon and ruby jewelry looted from the ruins; the NPC offered to lead the party to THE ASTEROID! in order for a share of the profits, and you can just tell he's scheming on when to ice the NPC.
Fate intercedes when the duo reach the fringes of civilization...a Random Encounter! with a three cheap thugs who look to be aiming to get that fancy hepatizon and ruby harness. This actually is kind of a blessing in disguise, as when combat ensues it allows Cam to play the NPC during the fight.
Alas, Johnstone's scaly freak is stabbed into unconsciousness and the Cam-piloted NPC (which was a hobbit sized Pulvi) is picked up and cast into a bottomless pit...although his head is dashed into paste by a collision with a ledge 100' below.
Death #2 for Cam...and again he isn't fazed; in fact again he seems amused by the circumstances of his death...as any red-blooded D&D player should be!
And Johnstone's Shereshi? He comes to with his wrists bound and wearing a slave collar in a slave pen while a slaver is paying several gold credits to two cheap thugs, one wearing a hepatizon and ruby harness and the other carrying a fancy silver rifle....
Saturday, August 28, 2010
My Master/Meta Wilderness Encounter Table
This below is the "master" wilderness encounter table I use to determine which edition/game's wilderness encounter table I use to generate wilderness encounters in my Planet Algol game (it's usually just rudely wrote down on a piece of scrap):
1. Expert D&D
2. AD&D Fiend Folio
3. Empire of the Petal Throne
4. Arduin
5. Gamma World
6. Mutant Future
7. Carcosan Grimoire
8. Savage Swords of Athanor
I usually reroll or "re-skin" inappropriate results; for some reason my dice LOVE the Arduin result, which can have ....unfortunate... results.
1. Expert D&D
2. AD&D Fiend Folio
3. Empire of the Petal Throne
4. Arduin
5. Gamma World
6. Mutant Future
7. Carcosan Grimoire
8. Savage Swords of Athanor
I usually reroll or "re-skin" inappropriate results; for some reason my dice LOVE the Arduin result, which can have ....unfortunate... results.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
"Cursed" Treasure Emerging From Play
No, this isn't about that -2 cursed backbiting hayfork or transgendering girdle, but about treasure that acquires a "cursed" nature due to the greed, betrayal, misfortune and death that it engenders. There have been a couple of such items in my current Planet Algol game...
Gan-Ron's Silver Needle Sword
One of the first adventures in the Planet Algol Campaign involved the party being commissioned by intoxicant distributors to retrieve a synthetic prostitute that had run away with a "Hero," Gan-Ron the Silver Man, a dim witted but good hearted crusader. The party sorcerers befriend, ensorcel and than murder Gan-Ron and take his magic, silvery, needle-bladed long sword as loot.
The party members were excited to acquire their first magic weapon...and than every character that wielded the sword died. Every character. It was random happenstance, but it was ....appropriate.
Eventually Kalervo, the folksy, stoic cactus man bore it, and even though he died a few times always managed to come back...until the "Eye of Restoring Life" ran out of charges while Kalervo lay there, a mass of pulpy green shreds and splintered wooden bones...with Gan-Ron's Silver Needle Sword lying broken next to him (failed save vs. crushing blow from the BIG monster that slew him). The curse ended with the shattering of the blade and the loss of beloved, useful member of the party.
The Magic Helmet
In their adventures the party came across a friendly, good-natured gossip that told them all sorts of tales of treasure and adventure scattered across the hexmap. One of his tales involved a cache of loot including a magic helmet.
An expedition set forth to fid this treasure. They defeated the guardians, but were slain by nocturnal emissions from poisonous blossoms before they found the treasure.
Another expedition set out, on a R&R (recovery and resurrection) mission. The dead characters are found, and Kalervo is resurrected (leaving only one charge in the party's Eye of Restoring Life). The treasure is found...several thousand gp worth of jewelry and a magic helmet. Identify is cast upon the helmet and it is revealed to be a Helm of Teleportation...a real top-shelf magic item.
The party sets out on their long, grueling return journey and during the next night a roll on the "Which Wilderness Encounter Table Do I Use" table results in the Arduin Wandering Monster Table. Which results in a crazy badass wandering monster, which results in the wholesale slaughter of every party member that can't outrun said monster (Dave Hargrave...he was a maniac!).
Kalervo...dead. Buzz Brazelhach...dead. Sleestakuras...dead.
One of the survivors, a new 1st level character that also managed to nab the jewels and Helm of Teleportation by virtue of finding them in a tank of slimy alagae water, returns to the scene of the carnage, loots Buzz Brazelhach's corpse for all of his valuables (Buzz had been rude and pushy with him), and uses the last charge of the Eye of Restoring Life to bring back Rodan the Scrounger...who sees his rescuer wearing the Magic Helmet and carrying his dead companion Buzz's magic sword reacts by reaching for his laser pistol to blast the 1st level character to atoms for his impudent greed.
The bearer of the Helm reacts by using it's power of Teleportation to escape back to "safety" before the laser pistol clears leather and Rodan is left in the wilderness, sans companions or supplies (ruined by the monster) and with much of his gear ruined by the same monster (including all of his radiation crystals...power cells for his energy weapons).
To me, that is an epic pulp adventure tale of greed and death. Sure, an expedition ended disastrously, characters died, but The Curse of Fucking Greed In Effect!! ...just fucking harrowing, the stuff of legends...How Many Men Died Seeking That Helmet and How Many More Will Yet Die? As Kalervo died and Gan-Ron's sword was broken in this misadventure, did the curse transfer to the helmet? I know not...but I am eager to see what ensues.
Also, now we have a PC with a serious murderous vendetta against another PC that possesses the power of teleportation...crikey, the drama that may unfold!
Also, here's some sublimely transcendent Krautrock I've been listening to a lot lately, perfect tunes for psychedelic space deaths...
Gan-Ron's Silver Needle Sword
One of the first adventures in the Planet Algol Campaign involved the party being commissioned by intoxicant distributors to retrieve a synthetic prostitute that had run away with a "Hero," Gan-Ron the Silver Man, a dim witted but good hearted crusader. The party sorcerers befriend, ensorcel and than murder Gan-Ron and take his magic, silvery, needle-bladed long sword as loot.
The party members were excited to acquire their first magic weapon...and than every character that wielded the sword died. Every character. It was random happenstance, but it was ....appropriate.
Eventually Kalervo, the folksy, stoic cactus man bore it, and even though he died a few times always managed to come back...until the "Eye of Restoring Life" ran out of charges while Kalervo lay there, a mass of pulpy green shreds and splintered wooden bones...with Gan-Ron's Silver Needle Sword lying broken next to him (failed save vs. crushing blow from the BIG monster that slew him). The curse ended with the shattering of the blade and the loss of beloved, useful member of the party.
The Magic Helmet
In their adventures the party came across a friendly, good-natured gossip that told them all sorts of tales of treasure and adventure scattered across the hexmap. One of his tales involved a cache of loot including a magic helmet.
An expedition set forth to fid this treasure. They defeated the guardians, but were slain by nocturnal emissions from poisonous blossoms before they found the treasure.
Another expedition set out, on a R&R (recovery and resurrection) mission. The dead characters are found, and Kalervo is resurrected (leaving only one charge in the party's Eye of Restoring Life). The treasure is found...several thousand gp worth of jewelry and a magic helmet. Identify is cast upon the helmet and it is revealed to be a Helm of Teleportation...a real top-shelf magic item.
The party sets out on their long, grueling return journey and during the next night a roll on the "Which Wilderness Encounter Table Do I Use" table results in the Arduin Wandering Monster Table. Which results in a crazy badass wandering monster, which results in the wholesale slaughter of every party member that can't outrun said monster (Dave Hargrave...he was a maniac!).
Kalervo...dead. Buzz Brazelhach...dead. Sleestakuras...dead.
One of the survivors, a new 1st level character that also managed to nab the jewels and Helm of Teleportation by virtue of finding them in a tank of slimy alagae water, returns to the scene of the carnage, loots Buzz Brazelhach's corpse for all of his valuables (Buzz had been rude and pushy with him), and uses the last charge of the Eye of Restoring Life to bring back Rodan the Scrounger...who sees his rescuer wearing the Magic Helmet and carrying his dead companion Buzz's magic sword reacts by reaching for his laser pistol to blast the 1st level character to atoms for his impudent greed.
The bearer of the Helm reacts by using it's power of Teleportation to escape back to "safety" before the laser pistol clears leather and Rodan is left in the wilderness, sans companions or supplies (ruined by the monster) and with much of his gear ruined by the same monster (including all of his radiation crystals...power cells for his energy weapons).
To me, that is an epic pulp adventure tale of greed and death. Sure, an expedition ended disastrously, characters died, but The Curse of Fucking Greed In Effect!! ...just fucking harrowing, the stuff of legends...How Many Men Died Seeking That Helmet and How Many More Will Yet Die? As Kalervo died and Gan-Ron's sword was broken in this misadventure, did the curse transfer to the helmet? I know not...but I am eager to see what ensues.
Also, now we have a PC with a serious murderous vendetta against another PC that possesses the power of teleportation...crikey, the drama that may unfold!
Also, here's some sublimely transcendent Krautrock I've been listening to a lot lately, perfect tunes for psychedelic space deaths...
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