SESSION 7 - A Change of Heart and a Cliff Hanger.

(The adventurers leave Denethix and return to Lugosi to take Dawn up on her offer.)

CAST

Nick:  Cybella - Magic User 1

Syam:  Brychan - Fighter 1.

Telfer:  Maredud - Thief 1.

Michael: Pelegost - Cleric 1  (Calina of the Twelve Annihilations)

Theresa:  Fokus – Cleric 1 (Frig of Gluttony and Rutting), Velegerd – Thief 1.

SESSION 7

As we join the PCs they have arrived in Denethix, done a bit of shopping and now the’re tired.  The majority go to a middle of the road inn, while Pelegost splashes 150gp at the Inn of Alabaster Surprise, as an act of annihilation to Calina and has the night of his life.  

In the morning the PCs want to go shopping again.  They’re sure that if they hang around the markets long enough I will give tem some special treasure.  Well I have just the thing actually,  Gus’ table of ‘magic items’ for adventurers to waste money on.  

The players were offered the Wasp Gun, Druag's Spine, and the Thunder Stick.  There was no way they could afford the thunder stick, but paid 300 for Druag’s Spine from beyond the Lanthanide Wastes and 110 for the freaky Wasp Gun from somewhere called the Psychonian Chaos Wilds. 

Druags Spine is the skull and spine of a humanoid with sharp canines.  For this necromantically powered weapon the skull and spine have been reinforced with metal rods.  It is still ‘alive’ and can be swung to bite foes.  It is mechanically the same as a flail.  As it says in the description on the table, ‘Very Metal’.

The Wasp Gun is a weird compact wasp hive of three inch wasps attached to a large pistol like frame with a power cell, that fly/shoot out and attack foes for damage when the rigger is pulled – mechanics as a light crossbow - awesome.

The Trader was initially friendly and told them he had heard ta the battles out on the lower Certopsian was The Fist fighting an army of normally non-expansionist tribesmen led by a hardcore of militaristic Snakemen! And that they had some dinosaurs.  Cybella weary of the Wasp Gun now that her player had guessed nothing on this table was a ‘super weapon’ quite aggressively warned the trader that she would be back if it didn't work as sold.  The trader had a fellow a marketeer witness his word bond that he would return some of the price if it was returned non-functional (he wanted the money) but he didn't seem as friendly anymore.

The players then decided that they wanted to leave Denethix and take up the offer to assist Dawn, the young lady back in Lugosi who wants her grandmother’s heirlooms back.  So they leave Denethix and head back to Lugosi.

In the middle of the day, when the sparse farms outside Denethix have given warn to the dead flat, a hex of dead flat land covered in shallow craters or pools.  The water therein is of a wide range of colours and can change with the clouds.  The edges of many of these pools and mini-lakes are often crusted small crystal deposits.  Leaving the dead hex they enter a forest, and rolling a ‘1’ for an encounter we consult the Good Clean Country Violence table and get:

A young Denethix/Lugosi woman in a torn dress stumbles out of the forest, a confused look on her face.  Seeing the PCs her face snarls into a muzzle and she runs in to attack.  She takes a bite at Pelegost but misses, and having rolled “50% in a ‘bite and run mood’” then takes off into the woods on the other side of the road, and jumps and yelps as Maredud puts a silver crossbow bolt into her back just before she disappears from view into the trees.

Relieved no one was bitten the finish the journey to Lugosi.

Meanwhile back in Lugosi, Fokus, Paragon of Frig, the Orbital God representing Gluttony and Rutting has finished his latest bender, but this time Vernon is annoyed, and we suspect the Fokus may not be able to remember just how far he went.  Valegerd, Fokus’s henchman is also seemingly unimpressed with his employer’s behavior and failing a morale role decides to quit. As Velegerd is leaving Dawn the well to do farmer’s daughter from session 6* comes in and approaches Fokus, and after buttering him up with the whole “Are you an Adventurer?” line then asks him for his help.  He has just agreed to help when the rest of the PCs arrive, and together they all agree to mount a journey to the Obelisk to retrieve Dawn’s grandmothers heirloom items.  

To convince the party a scroll of identify is bargained, which immediately gets their cooperation.  Vernon is pleased that the rest of the PCs are here and that they will be taking Fokus away for a while.

They book a suite for the night, and talking to Vernon and Mary discover that a bunch of cultists following an Orbital God named Furter had booted out the other orbital god aspects from the grounds of the Obelisk which has traditionally been served by many.  The also inform the PCs about a place to stop, Southdeep, which though marked on the map is difficult to find without knowing the landmarks that mark the beginning of the road to Southdeep.    

Successfully locating the marker bluff for the not so obvious Southdeep path, they set off along the path though the woods. After a couple of hours the travelers are a little surprised  as the trees give way to the edge of massive shallow sinkhole, two hundred metres across.  A road winds down, and at the bottom is a fissure.  Caves dot the road down, and in many instances buildings are built into the face of the earth.  There is some light industry or small mining operations, and there is some evidence of mining spoil off to one less used sides of the crater.

They visit the Subterraininn and find a nice nook near a bunch of happy/angry Halfling miner/bikers decked out in well worn working leathers, straps and buckles (Effectively all studded leather).   The Halflings are friendly and relate to the characters that refugee pilgrims have fled the Obelisk and had passed through here.  The Halflings are drinking and arguing and having an ambiguously good/bad dysfunctional sort of time.

Not so much 'leather, straps and buckles' but you get the idea.

Half the characters get rooms at the Inn. Pelegost and Cybella decide to stay in one of the public domain caves down below.

When they have chosen their cave, well away from the fissure, Pelegost, Cybella, Jon-O-Tan receive a vist from a number of men and women at arms.  Corporal Xavar of the Fist is here on secondment and Sherrif Irena and her ‘friends here’ are the law around Southdeep.  They let the PCs know that they are welcome to stay the night, but if anything comes out of the fissure they must raise the alarm, and that if they do stay down here they must move on in the morning. The PCs agree and an uneventful night is passed, with Pelegost performing his usual midnight prayer of annihilation for the annihilation of the day.

Moving on the next day the path south takes them back to the road, and they journey until they can just see the top of a structure above the woods far far in the distance that they arrive at the junction where the path to the grounds of the Obelisk begin.  The area is wooded in old twisty trees and has very low hills, through which the path winds.  The woods are dense and dark by the time the come to a small clearing, and there, stretching up high above the trees is te Obelisk.  To the side of the path are statues of Bezonaught, Furter and Delphina (download this module if you want to see the picture).

A little further on the come to the entrance.  They decide to wait and listen at the edge of the woods, at the low escarpment to the right.  Maredud hears something, and the agree that he should sneak off into the dark woods and see what it was.  Maredud hears muttering, and sees a figure. 

He also hears Jon-O-Tan moving into the woods behind him, and as he sights the back of a figue in a hooded green cloak wearing armour underneath and sneaks up behind with his crossbow.  He decides to shoot it in the back for the first backstab attempt of the campaign and rolls a ‘2’ or something.

The quarrel wizzes past the figure’s ear and thuds into a tree right in front of it.  Starteled realisation turns into action, and the copper scale mail clad figure turns, it is gaunt, pale, has blackened bones for fingers where the flesh has rotted and the face has been partially chewed away around the mouth which is also black with decay.

It fixes it’s full malevolence on Maredud and it hisses “Well well, what ‘ave we got ‘ere then?”

...with it getting late I played Maredud’s encounter for full effect and ended the session, with the first level thief facing down a scary ass thing, solo!

*This was a recent edit to Session-6.

LOSSES:  Valegerd the Thief, ahem, ‘resigns’.

GAINS:      Some cool gear.

THE (DIS)HONOUR ROLL 
Here we list those brave adventurers who have been tested and found wanting (more hit points).

Dode Enemy-Breaker, Dwarf-1,  Session2,  Fell into a pit trap.

Fighter guy,  F1,  Session3,  Throat torn out by Pretender.

Mike’s Wizard,  MU1,  Session4,  Shot in back with laser while carrying 8 flasks of oil in his backpack.

Syam’s Elf, E1,  Session4,     Face burned off by energy bolt from nano-poo-monster in water recycling plant.

MAGIC ITEMS AND TREASURE FROM THAT STRANGE DUNGEON ‘ALPHA COMPLEX’.

(I haven't got the next session report ready yet so here) HAVE SOME LOOT

Protein Power Pills (red ones).  An Alpha Complex staple; you can only get by on recycled food and soylent red (what is your security clearance?!) for so long.  Come in (red) boxes of ten.  Rog-R-ger and Ram-R-Jet swear by them.  Game effect:  Heal 1hp of damage (and maybe +1 to save verses disease).

Radios.  Two old valve radios similar to the one that used to sit on your grandparent’s mantle piece.  A PC with knowledge of design might be able to tell that these do not fit with the design approach exhibited by the other items from down the hole. The right person could rig these up for point to point communications.  

Belt Buckle - Personal Shield:  Provides a protective force field which also scrambles ‘field effects’.  Game effect:  As a Ring of Protection +2 (+2 AC and Saves).

Red Laser Pistol.  A very basic red coloured frame with a detachable red barrel.  The barrel has six bands on it, one of which becomes a darker shade each time it is fired.  Six shots.  Game effect:  1d6 damage, as ASE laser pistol. Attached barrel has three shots left, spare barrel has six.

Totally borrowed this from this paranoia play by post.

White laser pistol.  As for red but coloured white.  This white version is higher power and only available to ‘High Programmers’.  Game effect:  1d6 damage.  Reduces armour by three.  Attached barrel has four shots left.

Three syringes (potions):  three hi-tech looking syringes with orange coloured bands on them.  All have pictograms.  A happy face (Hypnotism), a skull (Control Undead) and a dotted human outline (Invisibility).

Stun Baton.  A large orange rubber ‘baton’ with metal inlay at the business end.  Game effect: 1d4 damage (non lethal) and if the activation button is pressed save verses paralysation or be stunned for 1d4+1 rounds.  Could have up to 20 charges, but this one has only d4+1.

Armour Tunics.  All wear as leather armour but have the following armour classes:

• Red - AC8
• Orange or Yellow - AC7
• White - AC6*

*As tempting as it was to make the white even better, and the orange worse to accommodate green, blue, indigo, and violet, I wasn't ready to give the first level party what would effectively be a suit of leather +3.  So AC6 it is.  Besides, it's just daywear right.

SESSION 6: A Farmboy, a Moktar, and a Moustache.

(The adventurers go to Denethix for a look around)

CAST

Nick:  Cybella - Magic User 1

Syam:  Brychan - Fighter 1.

Telfer:  Maredud - Thief 1.

Michael: Pelegost - Cleric 1  (Calina of the Twelve Annihilations)

Theresa:  Fokus – Cleric 1 (Frig of Gluttony and Rutting), Velegerd – Theif 1.

Ha ha, a whole crew of all five players, and yet a shrinking character cast.  

SESSION 6

Having a bit of time on their hands before the Slavers leave for Denethix the characters kill time in Lugosi for a day or two. 

The PCs are approached at Bella's by Dawn, an attractive well spoken young woman, the daughter of a well to do farmer and less publicly an heiress to a line of female familial witches.  Her inheritance, her grandmother's 'tools', had been interred against her will along with her corpse at the Obelisk of Forgotten Memory and she needs the PC's help to retreive the items because she heard it was dangerous down there now.  Amazingly the players didn't go for this, thinking she was too nice to be genuine.   

Oh please brave adventurer's, please go and get my loot inheritance for me.

Rolling for a random encounter the next morning produces six angry farmers’ sons wanting to know why their sisters have returned home so upset.  A demand for compensation or satisfaction accopanies a challenge being made to determine how much the PCs will pay.

A strapping bruiser of a farmer’s son squares off against Brychan for fisticuffs.  Brychan loses initiative and farmer boy rolls a natural twenty for the grapple followed by a one in a roll under your strength contest to put the clinch on and humiliate Brychan.  Laughing, the farmers sons take their spoils and head off.  Mutterings are made about how this is all Fokus’ doing (who is notably absent). The PCs maintain a low profile around town afterwards until the next morning when the slavers they have hired on with leave for Denethix.

Helping guard the slave caravan for the trip to Denethix proves largely uneventful, with the slave bosses making it clear that they did not talk to the help, and the guard leader having little in conversational ability beyond ‘if shit happens, you all fight’.

Approaching Denethix the characters find an unwalled city, a mish-mash of architechtural styles with some large structures at the centre.  They approach through the factory part of town through the coal smoke.  An old woman hawks the PCs a map at the gate for ten gold pieces, and seems surprised when they accept, quickly handing over a scribble and departing with their cash.

I'm sure she would hate me for this, buy hey, this is D&D okay, it's important and all that.

They make their way up the the Street of Industrious Efforts which features factories, warehouses, the stink of pollution and chemical run-off, and turn along the Street of Lesser Men.  Here they encounter wooden tenements with tin roofs, often a few stories high, obviously the home to many of the city’s poor; sitting in doorways, leaning on posts, and collecting in alleys are the disadvantaged, down on their luck and downright shady.

Making their way to their destinations, the Street of Tormented Flesh, a collection of tenements tucked between slave warehouses, flesh markets, auction courtyards, hospitials, and brothels.  The slavers order the guardmaster to pay the PCs and they set off to explore Denethix.

What it would look like if this was a movie (Image:  Slave Market by UdonCrew)

What it probably looked like.

As they head up the Street of Worthy Servitude, the main raod in Denethix they pass the palaces and tower of Feretha.  The Palais Immaculate, a ten story marble edifice which serves as the palace of the Vizier, head of the Council, Feretha’s tower, a 200’ white sphere atop a 1000’ tower, and the Palais Indomitable, a massive heavy looking fortress of dark stone with turreted towers which houses Feretha’s army, the Unyielding Fist.

The PCs decide a trip to the Bazaar Incomparable is in order.  On the way the pass a formation of Fist equipped with chainmail, spears, swords, and rifles accompanied by an armoured, tracked and turreted Steel Leviathan.  The troops are forming up and looking serious so the dventurers waste no time in moving on

Passing the Bank Inviolable, they cannot resist a look inside.  They are greeted by a dapper floor manager who explains the banks terms and relates that he hopes the PCs will return to open an account.  The characters are all amazed at the bank’s two guardians, twin 20’ tall armoured humanoid constructs which both look every bit as powerful as the manager implies. 

They keep going and a bit further down the road come to a demonstration.  They are told the demonstration was started by some ‘students’ and the players turn off the road to head through the built up area to avoid the trouble.  A short time later the clanking of treads can be heard behind them followed by heavy machine gun fire and screams.

It’s early evening as the PCs get off the main thoroughfare and the PCs are keen to hit the bazaar.  A random encounter (ASE Denethix Table) turns up street urchins, who are friendly and helpful, only too happy to tell the characters the best way to get to the bazaar through the back streets and by the time the PCs realise their mistake, the smaller less obvious urchins have made off with about 10gp.

Wandering through the bazaar another random encounter (ASE Denethix Table) sees two drunk moktars test their muscle against the PC’s resolve.  Brychan quickly cuts one down, severing the hand from the arm, and the other flees.

Moktar!  Feel my furry... err... fury.

Into the markets and the character look for weapons merchants (a theme).  They find a caravan (like an old combi wagon rigged to be towed by donkeys or horses) displaying weapons for sale attended by a man who calls himself The Scouser.  The Scouser is dressed in a black string singlet, leather trousers and black leather suspender/harness and sports permed black hair, a large and moustache, two nunchuckas tucked into his belt and various throwing stars on his person. (Think Napoleon Dynamite meets the drummer from Frankie Goes to Hollywood).

"You know, like nunchuku skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills... Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills." (Napoleon Dynamite)

It was getting late at this point so we called it a night having not really got much done.

LOSSES:  Nil

GAINS:  A few gold.

THE (DIS)HONOUR ROLL 
Here we list those brave adventurers who have been tested and found wanting (more hit points).

Dode Enemy-Breaker, Dwarf-1,  Session2,  Fell into a pit trap.

Fighter guy,  F1,  Session3,  Throat torn out by Pretender.

Mike’s Wizard,  MU1,  Session4,  Shot in back with laser while carrying 8 flasks of oil in his backpack.

Syam’s Elf, E1,  Session4,     Face burned off by energy bolt from nano-poo-monster in water recycling plant.