Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

DOUBLE-TROUBLE TOIL AND RUBBLE
TOIL IN THE RUBBLE OF THE SAURID EMPIRE
the pc's are back
they stole the painting back
the magic painting that gets them to the maze
the reverse-side of it, the maze side
got stolen and hidden in the ship
the ship of the reptile-women
the chameleon ladies
well
they came through
and got attacked by snakes
I designed the inside of the ship to be one giant cage
one giant cage made of a series of cages
where you walk around on other cages
its pretty cool
the pcs fucked around in there
got attacked by some women
got lost
jumped back out
then the chameleon women took the painting and keelhauled it
like roped it under their moving ship
so when the pcs came back out they were floating in the ocean around Elatior
the pcs were mad about this
but the chameleon women's ships stop moving at night
because they use thermal energy to move, a ha ha
and so the pcs launched a stealth mission to get the painting back
they succeeded, swam up to the side of the boat
found the painting, retreated
one of them got bitten to death by chameleon women
so now they have the painting again
by the side of the beach
they met up with Bofur, who was B.D.'s old character
who they left on Elatior
Bofur's not gonna starve to death now
all and all, good roleplaying

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

•    chameleon women ships are made of ferroconcrete
•    wherein the internal wire mesh of the concrete extends to make an armature of cages within the boat
•    this armature of cages is where the chameleons store their snakes
•    because in this universe, snakes can be read as books
•    books that self-breed and generate new information
•    its like having the internet, but better and worse
•    anyway this is where the chameleon women store all their snakes, as mediated by Librarians
•    who are chameleons who mold the library using thermal rods which store and exude heat
•    the inside of the boat and outside all look like different genitalia
•    like, the top deck of the ship, when viewed from above, looks damn like a vulva with oversized clit
•    this clit is the "sun ball" that the chameleons bask on to control the thermal energies that power the ship and necessitate its movement
•    the vulva are the folds which the chameleon bask under as reptiles do -- its also where they sleep
•    the inner folds of the ship lead to the library which looks like tunnels made out of cages full of snakes
•    each snake cage has a little wire stoma built into it which can be coaxed open with heat, something reptiles cannot do (as they are cold-blooded)
•    this is the chameleon's dominance over other reptiles, their ability to transfer and store heat
•    the exact method of doing so I never really figured out besides thinking "they have little copper rods which do that"
•    the whole outer "concrete" shell of the ship absorbs sunlight and the interior wire armature redirects the heat such that the ship can move by creating a thermal difference which affects the water
•    this thermal redistributing is also how they keep the snakes docile, etc.a

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

I just spet a few days looking for some Blue Medusa play reports, and finaly found this thread. Great stuff.

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

another tpk
I'm seriously considering advancing everyone to fourth level
well it's kinda strange
half the players have this semi-interested stance to the game
that is, it's a character drama
D. and S. both play stilted characters who seem interested in things not moneygrabbing
and M. plays characters sort of disinterested in the drama
well lemme just say what happened


so players scramble for about two hours and we get to the painting
D. currently has a system where someone stands on the roof, holding the painting off the side of the building
while simultaneously holding a steel mirror so they can see thru the painting while holding it away from them
this so that anything coming thru the painting without approval will fall off the side of the building and take 2d6

anyway so the end up in Elatior
(an island connected to the maze)
they dick around in Elatior and M. plays a tribesman who attacks the party
the party: A Magic-User who makes sculptures out of bodies, a nonunderstandable 70-year old blunderbuss toting hillbilly, a soggy guy with a crossbow who got wet from the previous painting shenanigans, a drunk old woman with an ever-flowing wine bottle, and a bear
the bear is a literal bear that is mostly friendly
anyway the tribesman played by M. attacks the bear and then the hillbilly shoots the tribesman and the Magic-User pushes everyone-minus-tribseman back thru the painting
tribesman delivers painting to priestess, priestess takes painting back into maze to Lady Nine Bones

the party then has a protracted conversation with Lady Nine Bones, who
a) decides that they are probably Loa, because they are so strange
b) gives them helpful tips and advice about the maze semi-cryptically
c) reacts passively, although not without tension, to both romantic overtures as well as violent ones
__these romantic overtures coming from Magic-User who brings her corpse flowers (flowers made out of a corpse)
__violent overture coming from Hillbilly who puts his gun and eventually grabs her wrists although without effect
Polypore Squamoses, the Lady Nine Bone's zombie servant, is recruited to follow around the party, but he's too depressed to provide directions and after a kidnap attempt (they push him thru the painting, he comes back out) he returns to Lady Nine Bones's side

The party wanders over to the "eye" room, and while shooting at and fishing for jade eyes they are ambushed by a party of about 8 Chameleon Ladies
the chameleons spit a Web and a Stinking Cloud at 3/5 of the party and kill them quickly
The drunk old woman and bear are unharmed, but are pursued by a Woman each

The session ends with the old woman escaping and hiding behind a gallery installation, while the bear's pursuer is scared off by a small statue of an orange goblin shouting "GIMME THE THING!"

Actually, in retrospect, I don't think the level of the characters involved would have really made too much difference
After all, the Chameleon Women scale 1 HD/group the players defeat
I just think disorganized parties generally get eaten by the maze, go figurre
Really the issue is that 1/3 of the game time is spent inside the maze
Not sure if this is a full "issue"

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

misc. stuff that happened outside the maze:

>the Magic-User has a basement full of body-sculptures and -furniture and this is where he put the talking Charity Torn portrait
>the PCs flooded the countryside by opening the painting while the reverse side was keelhauled under a ship
>they also have a Cannon which they drag around and have rigged a pulley system to get it on top of the roof
>they keep threatening to try and shoot the cannon through the picture which I think will send the painting shooting off into the countryside
>it's a thing that the local population of demi-homeless people know about this painting and it's why they keep coming into the maze

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

THIS SESSION OF THE MAZE WE GIVE THEM FOURTH LEVEL CHARACTERS

attempting to steal back the painting from the saurid chameleons, they fire a *cannon* at the painting
this cannon blast wakes up half the local population outside the painting and summons the watch
(anachronistic for 1600's england, so...)
the pc's are held up dealing with a sargent, who they manage to push into and out of the maze
he is convinced there is devilry afoot

the pcs escape on the back of a well-laid plan to fake their own arrest
they arrive at a tavern, owned by a respectable thief
apparently a den of rogues has been tracking the movement of the painting across the city
thus, the 4th level characters

the cannon blast indeed scared off the saurids
proceeding apace the new 4th-levels wander through the maze
come across the arboretum of zamia
(failed to be entranced by her body, this being my fault for omitting)
are accosted by orchardmen
these they lead in a chase that ends in Ngu-maga, the golem-snail
the golem snail becomes locked in combat with the orchardmen, who defeat and ingest it
meanwhile the pcs make their escape, into the gallery

they've found out by now that the gallery spoils their rations
they're ostensibly looking for a "base"
within the gallery they encounter a handful of problematic artworks
one which explodes and covers them in a vile gas
this which nearly kills them, disfigures them horribly
one pc has no nose any longer, just a hole
another one's arm's exposed muscles
one's side of the face is divots of ruined skin
you know

another artwork's the exploding statue which spits out gas
kindof a subtheme of this part of the maze
anyway this statue causes people to do improv
that was a thing, they ended up smashing it

finally we get to the ruinous globes
these globes ended our session
none were able to evade them
well, they evaded them, but could not stop their approach
they fled back through the painting
not before getting the "gimme the thing" statue to kill itself
in the antimatter painting causing a massive explosion
which incidentally killed a bunch of oku


conclusions:
maze is fun, people are having fun
having roleplayers who take a leadership role is good, too
I need a better understanding for how "the oku" work
like, do they have scouting parties? how do they travel through the maze?
normally I have them all clumped up, which is stupid.
Should put together a design doc

also keep a list of ppl previously lost in the maze, and have some of them show back up (dead?)

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

another interesting thing about the maze that playing 4th-level characters shows is the many massive amounts of mobs

like 11 oku: a large amount of oku to come up against
16 orchidmen: probably unbeatable by conventional means

there was a time that they killed like 32 cannibals by luring them out of the painting

so, large crowds means: osr finick-y solution problem solving

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

chaos session

started out the players in "the cells"
just some rando 1st level pc's
these guys caused the death of the medusa
by resurrecting her dad. rescued him from the puzzle box
2 or 3 of them died to Desdronothal's 'riddle blast'
the rest ended up running around the cells after the medusa died
so there was a bunch of strange characters  they dealt with
ended up not escaping, as "exofirskosten" doesn't get them out of the maze\
.

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

post-holiday session

about 50% different people
they go into the maze
crawl through the eye-hole in the gallery
end up destroying the nyctocaust memorial (go figure)
anger a bunch of needlebirds
leave through the painting

they then, in london, gather a bunch of cats
shove them through the painting in the hopes that they'll defeat the needlebirds
they go back through the painting after an hour's wait
they encounter a dead mummified librarian lizard
eventually, Henry angers it, and it almost kills him with a magic missle
they leave through the painting again

the "ruinous globes" from two sessions ago show up in london
they floated across the globe to get them
they spend some time trying to avoid the globes
eventually they submit to it, and realize it's just paint

they go back in the painting
the librarian took the painting to the lizard king
the lizard king converses with them pleasantly
Henry tries to steal a reptile arm and gets destroyed

they go back the other way and encounter the sphinx Fortuna
Fortuna asks them to tell her riddles
this happens a bunch, there's a few murder attempts by Fortuna, and she tells them of her essential missing memory
eventually Henry's new character (who came through the painting) says that maybe the Reptile Archive can fill in her memory
The session ends with the PCs confronting the Lizard King with Fortuna

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

feelings about the motbm this far in:

1) overly lethal? def. the vibe that, with any system, the encounters would be fairly difficult. there's many really powerful npcs that can kill the pc's easily. this is all counteracted/exacerbated by the painting they have. this painting allows for quick escapes and many, many five minute adventuring days

2) too much stuff-- persistent problem with my maze excursions are the one room/one thing situ. Like I'm just tired of running an adventure that way.

3) overt strangeness is starting to wear down on me, even. I feel like taking a break, but who knows? I think the players themselves are more invested at this point. smile

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

NEW DESPAIR REPORT
*PC's on edge... rebelling against despair
*Caught in a trap between Fortuna and Kinxys... Developing...
*Forced by Mummy to gobble own vomit... Cleric demands bribe to "Remove Curse"...
*Sphinx tells "mammal" to shut up... relations between Sphinx and Monkeys debated...

MORE OR LESS WE'RE ON THE EDGE OF GIVING UP THE GHOST. THE GAME IS TOO HARD. THE PCS DIE TO EVERYTHING. These players r feelin' the more-or-less correct vibe that OSR techniques to win are "more or less" relegated to: run away or cheat. That is, they are following that OSR flowchart:

Am I safe?-->If no, run away. If yes, be aware that YOU ARE NOT SAFE as monsters are hunting you down. WDYD??

MORE OR LESS, THESE 4th LEVEL PC's aren't up to the challenge of SACKING AND ROBBING THE MAZE. The more I play this the more it becomes clear that THE MAZE IS PRETTY GOOD AT NOT BEING ROBBED. Everyone who lives here gobbles adventurers and I DON'T EXACTLY REFEREE WITH A SOFT GRIP.

To summarize, the PC's are more or less trapped in that little segment of the maze between Xanthoceras's closet and the Reptile Archives. Boxed in on one end by Fortuna, who they keep triggering violent manipulation/rage outta, and Kinxiys Ziteki, the Reptile King, who is reluctant to let Mammals into The Archive. At one point there's even a fight between the Sphinx and The King which the King wins, leaving the Sphinx vulnerable to attack by the PC's (the PC's don't realize this). The Sphinx then tries to get the PC's to find this alternate entrance to The Archive for her but that doesn't work out. Session ends with PC's sprinting past Kinixys (he kills their mule) and then having shenanigans with one of the mummys who makes them eat their own vomit. At the end everyone is pretty demoralized and I have a discussion about whether or not LOTFP/MOTBM is really the right thing to do.

WE END UP DECIDING that next session (monday) we're gonna run 8th? level clerics thru the maze, as a last ditch death-cult kinda thing. I fully expect these ppl to die. But maybe not???

One new technique which I really liked was that Fortuna at one point just took the painting from the pc's, so their escape hatch got stolen. Good source of tension/development although my players are too hopeless to think "oh shit, we gotta do something to survive" and are more like "we're gonna die, there's no hope". Really at this point there's this thing called Learned Helplessness that psychologically has been shown that animals etc. can feel where they just learn to accept pain instead of finding ways to overcome it. sad

IS THE LOTFP EXPERIMENT BROKEN? IS IT NOT MEANT TO SIMULATE DEEP DUNGEON EXPERIENCE/GROWTH PATTERNS? IS EVERYONE DOOMED, LIKE THE SOURCE MATERIAL SUGGESTS? IS THIS THE END OF LAMENTATIONS OF THE FLAME PRINCESS???

Tbqh I think I have succeeded in simulating that "confederacy of fools" environment which I think is pervasive of a real-life violence. That is, human life isn't sacred, isn't splashpage-y like those Dungeons & Dragons 5e character portraits are. Trauma makes people small and scared.

More to the point, several players are hoping that their non-canon 1st level one-shot-characters-that-killed-the-medusa are still around the environment, gonna knock holes in the walls, although I have already decided at this point that Chronia has swallowed Some of Her Own Tears and Undone the death of the Medusa. So this is another nasty shock coming their way; the canon that they thought was canon (the medusa's death) is still Canon but due to Time Travel has been undone. It's an interesting narrative technique that's gonna be frustrating and confusing for the people I hang out with on a weekly basis. At this point I do not feel guilty.

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

peterwebb wrote:

NEW DESPAIR REPORT
(...)

More to the point, several players are hoping that their non-canon 1st level one-shot-characters-that-killed-the-medusa are still around the environment, gonna knock holes in the walls, although I have already decided at this point that Chronia has swallowed Some of Her Own Tears and Undone the death of the Medusa. So this is another nasty shock coming their way; the canon that they thought was canon (the medusa's death) is still Canon but due to Time Travel has been undone. It's an interesting narrative technique that's gonna be frustrating and confusing for the people I hang out with on a weekly basis. At this point I do not feel guilty.

First and foremost, what is the full name of the module you are currently running? I start to wonder how my players might react to that.

Second... do I get the following right? Your -players- are frustated as a player can be and you want to frustrate them a little more by this little trick I quoted above?

Are you sure you want to do this?  smile

With kind regards
Gregorius21778
__________________
My blog

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

Gregorius21778 wrote:
peterwebb wrote:

NEW DESPAIR REPORT
(...)

More to the point, several players are hoping that their non-canon 1st level one-shot-characters-that-killed-the-medusa are still around the environment, gonna knock holes in the walls, although I have already decided at this point that Chronia has swallowed Some of Her Own Tears and Undone the death of the Medusa. So this is another nasty shock coming their way; the canon that they thought was canon (the medusa's death) is still Canon but due to Time Travel has been undone. It's an interesting narrative technique that's gonna be frustrating and confusing for the people I hang out with on a weekly basis. At this point I do not feel guilty.

First and foremost, what is the full name of the module you are currently running? I start to wonder how my players might react to that.

Second... do I get the following right? Your -players- are frustated as a player can be and you want to frustrate them a little more by this little trick I quoted above?

Are you sure you want to do this?  smile


This module is Maze of the Blue Medusa!

Also, idk, I think my relationship to player frustration is pretty odd. First off, there's the plausible deniability that the text gives me. It's a thing that Chronia's Tears of Time can reverse past events. Chronia is also in love with the Medusa. Thus if she sees that the maze is falling apart, draws the logical conclusion that the Medusa has been killed, it follows that she might use the Tears to reverse the Blue Medusa's death.

Using this logic behind the curtain where the players can't see it has the advantage that, when the players do realize that the Medusa isn't dead, and after I reassure them that the time when they killed the Medusa is still canon, they will be curious about why the Medusa is still alive.

The other advantage is that I'm deepening the story between the Medusa and Chronia, should that ever come to light, wherein it's probably the case that Chronia has kept The Medusa alive unnaturally long using this technique. This is probably why Chronia is so valuable, because she can keep empires alive.

THE DISADVANTAGE is that because the players don't have a credible means to negotiate the maze (combat ability) they're never gonna find out about any of this so it's just gonna seem like a dumb trick. But against this logic is player ingenuity itself.

I'd also say keeping a lot if information in your back pocket is o.k., because it gives you something to reveal to the players; a hidden drama in the folds of the dungeon. They'll have something to explore! And in any case, I'm hoping that giving everyone like 8th level PC's will solve the combat ability issue.

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

TRIPLE REPORT

3X SESSIONS, ONE REPORT

LOST DWEOMER CAST...DEVELOPING...
8TH LEVEL NEWBIES KILL SPHINX, SET SIGHTS ON LAMPEN PROLITERAIAT
MASS INVISIBILITY CAST... CLAUSE IN TEXT ALLOWS FOR VIOLENCE
ANGRY PLAYERS? HAPPY PLAYERS? I WAS HIGH SO IDK

ok
so 3 sessions
first session:
it's just two people so we roll up some 8th level clerics for next time
discuss "having higher leveled players in the maze" just to fuck shit up
because they're so frustrated with low-level deaths

so second session: they fuck shit up
with their 8th level clerics
this mostly means wandering around the archives casting Summon
one of the creatures they Summon can cast Lost Dweomer
ding ding ding
what does Lost Dweomer do? I rule it crosses out some rules text
randomly determined so like we're erasing paragraphs from LOTFP WEIRD FANTASY ROLE-PLAYING RULES & MAGIC BOOK
this includes the second clause of Invisibility as well as the rules for Libraries and Laboratories
this should show how much a fuck I don't give

next up we're killing folks in the Reptile Archive
more like Webbing them and then murdering them
jk before hits the fan we stopped
so there's an angry history golem on the loose, etc. (I didn't prep enough)

at this point it is becoming clear, what with the windy bits of the Archive, that the mapping schema (verbal descriptions) I have isn't enough

I promise to build something better

CUT TO: next week, where I've taken Zak's suggestion for mapping
I CUT UP LITTLE INDEX CARDS, DRAW THE ROOM ON THEM, HAND THEM TO THE PLAYER
this method works *fantastic*

in this third session they're back to playing 1st level pc's
one of them quickly & hilariously gets mauled by the Lion in Lapis Lazuli
the others, including a bear who is a pc, escape
they wander thru the Gallery before coming across the Fishtank Full of Fish Which Curse You
they fuck around there until some Oku come
**side note: the pcs picked all the Orbs of Dangerous Spells from the Grenade Tree**
they throw a few Orbs at the Oku, starting a chain reaction
a few minutes later, the bear's dead from eating poison fish, and there's a howling unapproachable Sphere of Prismatics on top of a green-fire spurting sculpture
all the Oku are totally dead

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

part II

all the Oku are totally dead
while the Sphere buzzes the last surviving PC skins the bear and wears it as a coat
more PC renewals later and they're setting off giant Chalcedony balls which roll thru the Archive
destroying important artifacts and walls as they go
at this stage we're at full Time Paradox
b.c as you see in Session Two a later group of PCs investigates the Archive *after* the earlier Session Three group destroys much of it
annnyywayyy b.c. of the third Orb of Dangerous Spells they're all invisible and can do whatever they want
they destroy some needlebirds and set things on fire
they get to look at the Nyctocaust Memorial using a clever turn of the rules
because light held by Invisible people doesn't show up for noninvisible folks their light source does not destroy the Memorial
I give them the 'ol razzle dazzle re: destroyed lizard empires
that's it

conclusions:
>Third Session 1st level pc's, although experiencing like four or five deaths, made it out with a lot of treasure
>8th Level PCs are perhaps too powerful
>Mapping using index cards as per Zak's method works really well, I can quickly jot down
>LOTFP manages to be fun! The maze manages to be fun!

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

important to all above is to note that the Session Three 1st level pcs are chronologically exploring the maze *before* the 8th levelers in our little canon and thus the time paradox

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

BACK TO THE FUTURE: A 8TH LEVEL MOTBM REPORT***
>LICH ENCOUNTERED... DEFEATED???
>CHAMELEONS STOMPED, TEAPOTS SUBDUED
>CHASED OFF BY MAGIC-RESISTANT MUMMIES... UNFAIR??
>TERRIBLE JOKES... A "LAVA DOG"

So back to the 8th level PCs... they're stomping around the archive, which due to the (now retconned) actions of the 1st levelers, is full of ANGRY mummies who are all coming off a "sleeping chime" high.
The thing is mummies are resistant to all but magical attacks & so this's a general issue for our fighter who doesn't feel physically enabled, they get chomped by some bites
The chameleon ladies/man don't stand a chance though... many teapots are destroyed.

THEN COMES THE GOOD PART: DRACO SCABRIUS, THE LAUGHING LICH intervenes when the PC's try & pull up the "Emperor Rose"... summons floor marbles which give everyone reflex saves (vs. paralysis) or u fall _everytime you move_... many laughs...

The thing is with Draco that I can't rip out good puns so I do an anti-humor thing which is neatly counteracted by the ACTUAL puns that Our Players can do, thus Draco is beaten to a pulp with nary a PC slain... much action occurs around the EMPEROR ROSE which enables some strange mid-battle fighting over a Charmed PC.

Suffice to say Draco teleports out of there with 3hp left and they consider it a victory. Lava Dog, aka A Crack Beast, latches on to the fighter in a way that is perfect and adorable and also sinister! Good touch by me, Patrick Stuart for writing this, i.e. the crack cocaine reference. Makes me wonder who smokes crack in the lives of the author.

8TH LEVEL PCS CONTINUE TO "STOMP", EVEN OVERCOMING A LICH... HOWYAVER, PERSISTENT DIFFICULTIES I.E. WITH "IMMUNE TO NORMAL WEAPONS" MONSTERS TENDS TO BE AN ISSUE... POSSIBLY ONE OF THEM WILL DIE, I SURE HOPE SO?? 'KILLLER DM' MODE ON, COME AT ME HATERS!!!

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

ok this whole session was about a giant horse

I’ll explain: Titaklak, the Were-Titan, takes forms under many moons
Under the many moons of the mile of many moons, he is continuously under the constraint to transform into many different forms at once
So were-elephant, were-rat, were-porpoise all at once (this is how he is trapped)
Under Luna, our moon, I determined that Tiklaklak would transform into a Horse
(thanks to random animal generator .com)
So, last session, the PC’s left their portal-painting in a spot where an evil lich could find it
this lich, The Laughing Lich, has a bad sense of humor as I play him
so he left the painting in Tikalak’s cage
thus when the PC’s activated the painting (by exposing the painting to moonlight) they summoned Tiklaklak into their world
Tiklaklak, responding to the moonlight, turned into a Horse, and they thus had a giant 18’ high horse in their base, a wooden church

during the ensuring battle:
*three 8th level pcs were killed
*lava dog crushed to death by burning church with "owner"
*Tiklaklak was sneak-attack fireballed for 18d6 damage from a Specialist wielding a Rod of Wonder
*the entire church was destroyed, along with the party’s henchmen, one of which whom leaped from the burning roof to their death
*Tiklaklak was Enlarged by 30%
*Tiklaklak was resummoned to the Maze, where he got stuck in a pit because he was Enlarged

We didn’t do much beyond that, but at the end of the session the players were concocting some plan to use a brothel or a nunnery as a new bad-faith base of operations

I’m pretty sure Tiklaklak managed to climb out of the pit and is now going to find Trouble
...also the Medusa isn’t happy I’m pretty sure (she actually isn’t dead)

ok case closed

Last edited by peterwebb (2017-02-14 08:36:29)

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

Everyone freaked out this session and killed a lot of clergy (Not inside the maze)

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

I'm enjoying these- terse but evocative and useful. (just the way a good module should be written!).

Keep it up!

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

ok so followup from the clergy-killing
they raided a magical library (outside the maze)
recieved the wizard's library from whom the church originally discovered the Triarchy
it seems some ancient death-cult held enormous sway over the whole world
.....and this particular wizard linked that *the triarchy* to: The False Chanterelle, this the magic painting that leads to The Maze of The Blue Medusa

...

and so , the PC's are digging thru this wizard's texts
mostly they come across cognitohazards that I wrote
i.e. the name of a demon which inflicts The Carrion Curse
or a verbal description of a place called Thot which is either a real place, or isn;t, those who failed a save thought it was
annnyyway after The Carrion Curse hits and people lose fingers and intestines everyone decides to rest up in this church they're in
it's in the middle of the night when The Vampires arrive


see during the last session while the PC's were robbing the bishop's documents they found out that the Church was being controlled/infiltrated by vampires apparently

...and yeah so there's some AR&PL vampires here, Pawns & Knights of the Pale House
they fuck around with this vamps, the wizard almost gets bitten, but that Rod of Wonder they found ends up killing all the Pawns and scorching the grappled wizard too

long story short they're back in the Maze
they decide to track down Tiktalaak the Were-Titan after a positive Augury
TikTallak is hiding in the Halls of The Fearful Drone
they find him, he turns into a Giant Beetle and crashes through the wall into The Medusa's Room
so the Medusa turns the Giant Beetle into Stone
.

at this point it becomes a social occasion w/r/t The Medusa, who invites them to sit and drink tea
also a wiard of the party's casts esp from behind a wall
thus they are able to read the Medusa's thoughts....


alll this to be continued next week... in our exciting conclusion...


etc. moments: the pawns when zapped turn into literal chess pawns, so the wizard scooped these up, and then they transformed from pawns back into vampires in his pockets

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

ALSO the wizard killed the Three Vampire Knights by casting "hallucinatory terrain" to create a landscape with a rising sun which Ihad no choice but to rule as Daylight

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

final blue medusa sesh

ok: so the party made friends with the blue medusa
they were chilling in her room
they got Tiktalaak, who was frozen into stone, back into his prison, and unfroze him smile

The medusa kinda wanted to have control over the painting, so after a bunch of threats they all decided to go out into the human world through the painting, e.g. London, and see some art

The PCs really want the Medusa to clear their name to the Church, so they decide to see art in Canterbury

Things go south and one PC ends up impersonating a Bishop to the Archbishop, this Archbishop who explains his master plan to take over the Triarchy and thus the World

Long story short the PCs kill the Archbishop, burn down and loot the Cathedral, with the Medusa stealing some of the Church's paintings for her maze

They then go on adventure to Venice, so Psytharella can see  more art

Happy End.

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

DEATH FROST DOOM
(original edition)

Specialist kills Zeke, decides they're gonna use his body as rations. Drag his body up the mountain. Have the insight to sleep below the freeze line, suffer no ill nightmares.

Go up to summit, find dead climber. Specialist begins pushing over grave markers. Go inside cabin, find painting, harpsichord, climber's stuff, lotus powder. Specialist snorts lotus powder, begins thinking everyone else is lying. They find the book, open up the trapdoor. End of session.

Next session, Cleric drops down only torch down trapdoor, it goes out. He climbs down to get it. In the dark he touches his hand to the ground, immediate screaming begins. He get spooked climbs back up. Specialist is still drug-hazy so they go back down the mountain to camp (3 hours to below freeze line).

At base camp Specialist eats part of Zeke's body, which has gone bad. Loses 5 Con & 1 Dex temporarily. They decide to go back down the mountain to buy more rations + recover. At nearest town, a day's travel away, they buy rations. Specialist decides to steal rations.

Specialist decides to kill town guards and rob town landlord. First guard sees him sneak up, Guard raises alarm, starts combat. Specialist heavily damaged by guard, manages to scare Guard away with crossbow bolt wound, chases guard and kills with a crossbow bolt. Steals + hides Guard's things.

Town in alarm, Specialist turns self in, essentially, trying to trick the Landlord into consuming the locust powder. This plan doesn't work. Specialist is executed the following morning, other party members flee, go to next town over (Carrowmore, dumb of me to put it here considering potential future zombie spread).

At next town over they buy more rations, I have to explain encumbrance system. They recruit a new party member, a Magic-User, the sister of the dead Specialist. End of session.

NOTES:
Keeping track of time + Making people use rations --> limited adventure days--> making people keep track of encumbrance (because they want  to bring a bunch of rations) ---->> ??

Keeping NPC interactions simple and deadly: pretty good.

Should teach players the encumbrance system so they can keep track of it.

A lot of nickle and diming this session... seems sorta like I'm being an asshole, but there's good reasons for it...

Re: Play reports for 5+ modules

THE TOWER (by j. raggi, from The original DFD publication)

One shot with a man named D.

D. plays a pregenerated specialist, who has received the map + key to the Tower. D goes to the vale, sees the weary guardian, attempts to sing lullabies and make a bed for this guardian to go to sleep. Reaction roll says this does not work. Eventually, D. sets up a grappling hook, swings it up to the window at the top of the tower.

However, the guardian takes notice of this, plods over to the rope. D. flees, eventually is able to sneak back to the tower and climb up the rope into the window. Note this is a case where I'm giving the player the "benefit" of the doubt, bcuz I'm assuming the window isn't within sight of the guardian.

At the top of the tower, the magical darkness prevents D. from seeing inside, even with a torch and sunlight reflected from a mirror. D. goes inside, puts his whole weight in, takes damage from the sharp stuff on the floor, falls in, takes more damage, goes unconscious, presumably dies.

D. next plays a Magic-User who subsequently finds the same key + map. This time, D. uses unseen servant to distract the guardian, gets inside. He listens to the statues, leaves all his weapons, puts on the robes, gets past the guardians, goes up to the fourth floor. He clears the glass from the floor, checks behind the curtain, finds the bones, finds the bone dust, examines the carvings on the sarcophagus, then opens the sarcophagus, gets killed by the wight inside who wins surprise + initiative. THE END.


THOUGHTS: I didn't plan to run this, D. was just sleeping over so we ran it. Took about 30-40 mins and I served breadsticks. The impromptu nature and one-shot made the essential fuckery aspect of this adventure not so bad. Plus D. is a man of good humor.