Topic: The God that Crawls

The stats on Page 7 don't have an alignment. What do you think it should be and why?

Re: The God that Crawls

Chaotic. Generally all magical or supernatural beings (including Magic-Users) are Chaotic.

In LotFP alignment is not indicative of how the character behaves like it might be in D&D, it has more to do with what type of creature or being it is. Humans, in general, are neutral. Magic-Users are chaotic b/c they engage with the forces of chaos.

A lawful being would be something on the opposite end of chaotic, perhaps a god or angel. Clerics if you use them.

Re: The God that Crawls

How big is it?

How much does it weigh?

How much volume does it take up? As much as two cows? three?


Yes, I know that I could just make up something of my own but I would be interested in hearing what the designer of the scenario had envisioned.

Re: The God that Crawls

It's big enough to engulf a person, but small enough for an adventurer to try and leap over.

There's also a picture of it, which makes it look a bit bigger than the above would imply.

There are also mini-gods in the chasm. I'd say they're the size of a dog? And the main one is the size of a bear?

Or if you assume 1HD is the standard size of a normal human, the minis are human sized and the main one is the size of five humans?

Re: The God that Crawls

I ran 5 sessions of this scenario at DragonCon last weekend. I pre-generated the PCs (one of each class, all of  them 1st level) and I pre-generated treasure for 20 of the wall vaults. Since some of the treasure included scrolls with the summon spell, I pre-generated some demons. I made 3 1HD demons in case the Magic save was made and 3 in case it was not made. I made 3 2HD demons in case the save was made and 3 in case it was not. For the 3 not-save, I rolled a 20 on the second one. The Abstract Form I rolled was the one called World Under Water.

I decided that as they walk on the way from London, the road would lead past the side door in the hillside before rounding the hill and each PC could roll Intelligence or less to spot it.

I'll post tomorrow with accounts of the 5 games.

Re: The God that Crawls

1st Game
The party saw the side door and investigated. They read the sign and ignored it. They went in and I had everyone roll on architecture. The dwarf made it and figured out the collapsing trap and that they did not have much time. They hustled outside, chopped down some young trees and made poles to brace the roof. I decided their efforts would stop the collapse. The looked at that first vault that was already open and found a scroll with the summon spell. The wizard had memorized read magic so he now cast it. The party explored a little and opened another vault. I had decided the God would appear after they had opened a vault on their own. He showed up, they fought him a little and the wizard cast summon. He decided to get a 2HD demon but he failed his magic save. I had a list of 3 options for 2HD non-save pre-generated. He rolled a d3 and got the Abstact Form called World Under Water. The cosmic reverberations of the casting stunned the God for a moment so they ran outside. I informed them about World Under water and that they (and millions of NPCs) would likely drown soon. As well as the ecological catastrophe and maybe water weight on tectonic plates causing apocalyptic earthquakes. We decided to call the game at that point.
2nd Game
They spotted the side door and went into tunnels a little bit. Then, went to the church. Their unsubtle talk about being hired to investigate the church caused bacon to surreptitiously summon the villagers. The party locked the doors of the church with Bacon and the boys inside. Half the villagers went to front door of church and the others went to side door of tunnels to wait for PCs. Villagers at the church using ladders to break through stained glass windows to get inside. At this point, I let them know they were in an untenable situation. There were too many zealous cultists for them to deal with. We agreed to assume that the party would be killed by the cult and quit the game there rather than play out the grueling combat.
3rd game
The party saw the side door and went in the tunnels. After dealing with that already-opened vault, they went to tunnel on the left and opened the vault in the hallway. When they were done I told them they heard something horrible approaching from the VII stairway. They decided to flee by going down the XII stairway. As they did, the left a torch on the floor of the hallway on the 2nd level. For some strange reason, rather than try to make a mad dash for the door to the outside, they chose to stay in the dead end and wait for the creature. As the God cam to the stairway, it rolled over and extinguished the torch. Now, they were in a dead-end and it was pitch dark with the God coming down the stairs. As the Fates would have it, the wizard had chosen to memorize Faerie fire. He cast it on the God and now they could see its full horror…for one round. I was generous and let one PC try to light a lantern and it worked. So now, they could see their doom for more than one round. The wizard was badly bludgeoned by the god and was at -3 HP. Seeing his boon companion was not long for this world, the dwarf threw the wizard atop the God in the hopes of distracting it. This seemed to work. The fighter decided now was the time to use the wizard’s back as a bridge before it got absorbed. But, she failed her dexterity roll badly and only managed to flop herself right into the God. The elf saw that the wizard and fighter would make an excellent bridge to safety and decided to try her luck. She too failed on dexterity miserably and flopped right into the God. Next, the cleric, specialist and dwarf tried the bridge stunt, succeeded and avoided the swats of the God as they escaped. They went outside and then up to the church. Their conversation with Bacon included an account of the monster in the basement so Bacon offered them wine. They woke up in room 1:01. I told them there was no hope as both entry ways were now guarded by many cultists. We called it quits with the assumption that none of the PCs would survive.

Last edited by Solon (2022-09-13 03:13:03)

Re: The God that Crawls

4th Game
They got to the back door and decided not to go in. They went to the church and talked to bacon. They were acting kind of suspicious and so Bacon was suspicious of them. I think they let drop that someone hired them to investigate the church. They left the church and went to the back door. As they were doing that, Bacon was rousing the villagers. They noticed the doorway problem and spent a turn making poles to brace the ceiling. The part went in and shut the door behind them. The villagers took up position outside door to prevent party from leaving. I assumed that a couple of the villagers had wheellock muskets and the others had farm implements. The party looked at the already opened vault and found a scroll with summon spell. Luckily/unluckily, the wizard had memorized read magic. So, he read magic. They went to the right and opened the next vault. They found a bag of coins and the god showed up. There was a round of combat and then wizard summoned a demon. It had a dog-like form and could cast chaos spell at will. There was a test of wills betwixt wizard and demon and the demon won handily(Great Margin). Rather then use the Dominating Creature table, I decided the wizard would be demon’s slave for a year. The demon used chaos on the god and the god meandered aimlessly away into the tunnels. The demon told his disciple to follow and he went to the exit door. The villagers started to freak out so demon-dog used chaos spell. Some began to fight each other and some meandered away. The demon-dog and slave left for the village. The rest of the party followed to help their comrade. The demon-dog (and slave) ran into woods and the party lost them. We all decided the game had run its course and called it quits.

5th Game
They went to back door. They noticed door problem, made poles for bracing and then went in. After the already opened vault they went to the right and opened the next vault. They saw the god come into view from the West and decided to run East to stairway IX. After going up stairs, they went East and so wound up at the collapsed tunnel. They examined it for awhile. This gave the god a chance to trap them in that tunnel. A fight ensued. The god had many, many bad attack rolls. It took many rounds but they hacked it down to 0 hit points. As they made their way past the remains, they noticed it was reforming so they ran out of the tunnels through the back door. They then went to church and told Bacon about the demon in the tunnels below his church. He seemed very concerned and promised to contact the royal government. He also told them that they were in luck since it was the anniversary of the founding of the village and there would be a feast that night. He invited the party to attend and they accepted. Two of them did not make saving throw for wine and had to be carried to a barn by the others to sleep it off. They all stated suspicion about being drugged but did nothing about it. In the morning, they visited bacon to see artwork. Bacon had arranged for the villagers to wait until they were in the church then charge in, dog pile them and wrestle them into restraints. They put the party in the pit. I explained that there were villagers at all exits and it was essentially hopeless. We decided to call it quits rather than play out more dungeon crawling. We assumed the party would die.

Re: The God that Crawls

I was kind of lenient in that I had anyone entering the back door make an architecture roll to notice the ceiling trap. Most sessions had 6 players with one being a dwarf so it's not surprising that all the groups found the trap. Since I had described the hill's lower slopes as woodsy, they all came to the idea of cutting down some young trees and bracing the roof. An obvious fix.

I was maybe harsh with use of the god since I had the god appear right after they opened their first vault. Each time he showed up they heard a strange sound before he got there. I described it as something heavy and wet hitting stone repeatedly since I envisioned the god's movement as a kind of rolling of its mass. Despite the weird sound approaching, none of them immediately left the dungeon.