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SIDE NOTE: I own a copy of She Bleeds.
Several days before the session, I told the players that they could join a moon goddess cult and get special supernatural powers. there would be a price to pay but it's a mystery cult so they would only learn the price after initiation. No one took me up on the offer.
I'm very disappointed.
continuation of session 7
The party of two stalwart adventurers follow the worker-zombies. They all go into Room K. The party had 12 air bladders that had been filled with a bellows then tied tightly shot. They would carefully suck air from the bladders to avoid the effects of the bad air from the Machine. The party watches the workers dump the buckets into the funnel. I had decided that the door would remain open as long as there was some one in the room. The door would reappear when the last person left.
They watched the workers depart and looked carefully around the room. They made sure not to get too close to the funnel. The fighter took aim with his wheellock rifle at one of the crystals but made sure he and his comrade were on the other side of the room when he fired. He did 8 points of damage. I figured this would "break the circuit" of The Machine so that it was now non-functional. the door was open so it stayed open. The fighter picked up of the broken crystal and touched the silver wires. Nothing bad happened to him.
they go back to the flying saucer to rest. Later, Rutherford flies it up to the entrance with them on top, as before. This time, he will keep it hovering at the entrance. They go back in and go to Room K. They notice the air is no longer bad and skip use of the bladders. They detach the wires from the funnel and awkwardly carry it to the saucer. While trying to get it up and into the saucer's storage bay they both fail a dex roll and drop it. The glass is now fractured but the gold coating holds it all together.
They fly the saucer to the shoreline and get a good night's rest. In the morning, the cleric casts healing spells. the saucer goes back to the entrance. They take one of the barrels of gunpowder that they had brought with them and place it at the entrance to the Hollow Earth. They light the fuse and run. They go back to see that the tunnel is almost completely collapsed. Then, they go to Room K. They spend some hours getting the coils of silver wire and one of the intact crystals loaded on the saucer. They don't bother with the silver in the walls.
At one point, when they are carrying treasure to the spacecraft, they here noise from the Hollow Earth tunnel. They go and see two spider-things trying to clear a way through the rubble. they shoot and kill on and the other scrambles through and flees down to realms undreamt of by surface dwellers.
After getting the loot, they head back to a civilized place (a.k.a. London in the year AD 1602).
So, the the end of session 7 and the end of Thulian Echoes.
Next up, we will do Going Through Forbidden Otherworlds.
Session 8
Going Through Forbidden Otherworlds
Walter C. was playing his cleric again( the only PC to have been in all the adventures, so far).
Andrew M. was playing his fighter.
Jon S.-D. was playing his elf PC.
Anthony R. had a new PC and it's a halfling.
Sam M. was playing a dwarf.
It was December of AD 1602. The PCs were hired by Rupert Greene to transport a box from Green's house in London to a certain person in Lisbon. They completed assignment without any problems and were paid the 100 sp fee by the man who received the box (a Portuguese scholar). They spent two days in Lisbon waiting to find a ship that would be headed for London. On the second day They were contacted by the scholar. He indicated that he had a job for them and they should come to his house that evening.
When they arrived they noticed that there were some guardsmen at the house. The humans realized by their garb that they were servants of the local Bishop. The party went to the house and the scholar introduced them to the local Bishop. The Bishop wanted to hire them at 1,000 sp for each person. He told them about Father Luigi and how he had researched arcane matters and eventually become a wizard, himself. He told them that Luigi had gathered some allies and patrons to further his exploits. One of these allies had become frightened and had approached the Bishop about what was going on. The informant told the Bishop that Luigi wanted to establish a stronghold in Hell. Luigi thought it could be used as a waystation to travel to other universes that were much like the world to which Luigi was native. The informant indicated that no one had returned from the stronghold in two weeks. All of this information was relayed to the PCs by the Bishop.
He told them that their mission would be to go to this stronghold and put an end to it. If they were able to bring back Father Luigi or any other of the miscreants then they should do so. The bishop would provide them with magical scrolls. One would transport them to the stronghold and one would bring them back. They would have a few days to prepare and then go to a basement room at the cathedral to utilize the scroll.
More about session 8 later.
More about session 8:
When they got to the cathedral, they learned that four priests and six guardsmen would go with them.
The elf used the scroll and created the portal. A silvery disk formed in the air. The PCs and the NPCs went through it. As they entered Hell they were almost overwhelmed by a wave of heat. They found themselves in Room A. Within a few seconds they realized that the two fires at the other end of the chamber (which were both about the size of a normal campfire) were giving off much greater heat than they should have. They saw that there were markings on the floor and that there were two doors at that end of the room. They saw the door close at hand and decided to try that one. They found that it was not locked and went through. The chamber beyond was unlit so the ignited a lantern. They saw the nearby bookshelf with the books locked to the shelf. I had decided that the Sole Survivor would be leaning against the wall next to where the gunports are located. The SS attempted to sneak over to the "northwest" corner in the hopes that the party would just leave. He did not do a good job of sneaking. The PCs moved quickly to where they could see down the aisles. The SS had a light crossbow and shot at the fighter but missed completely ( I rolled a 1). The fighter fired his pistol into the dark and missed SS. The PCs charged forward and the fighter knocked the weapon out of SS's hands before he could reload. SS slumped against the wall in madness and despair and the PCs saw the horror of his condition. They tried to question him but none of them spoke Portuguese (I handle languages differently than the book). They checked with the priests and one that spoke Portuguese came up to translate. After being horrified at the man's situation, the priest talked with him. The priest reported that SS was insane and gibbering. The party examined the library a little, examined the gunports and then moved toward area D.
More about this session later.
Continuation of session 8
The party moved toward Room D. The door into the area was unlocked and some of them went through. Fortunately, they noticed that it would not open from the inside so they hammered spikes to keep the door open. They saw the clothing and the vials above the door to Room E. They speculated a little about the vials but did not figure out the true purpose.
They then went through the door to Room E and noticed that it could not be opened from the inside. So, they spiked it. They took a look at the contents of the room. The cleric mentioned that he had seen some of the Grey Ones when he had visited another planet. They left and went back to Room A.
They conferred with the priests and then went to the door leading into Room C. It was unlocked and they entered. They began looking at the nearby sleeping cubicles and moving down the room. When they saw the horror on the floor, they were aghast. The party backed away from it and approached the door to Room G. They heard the sounds of dogs and it seemed that they were now aware of the PCs presence. I can't remember exactly why but the PCs went back to Room A. Back at Room A they learned that the priests had sent one of the guardsmen to put the Sole Survivor out of his misery and it had been done. At this point, a demon leaped out the flames and attacked them. They dispatched it with relative ease.
They went back to the door to Room G. They made a plan to have everyone ready with either firearms or melee weapons. They would go through the door and immediately kill all the dogs. So, they executed their plan. The dogs were not aggressive and had hoped that these new humans would help them. They did not put up a fight but were exterminated quickly.
The party examined the room. They saw the hole in the door to Room H and the hole in the door to Room K. They figured out that a single phenomena had made both holes. This piqued their curiosity. The dwarf used his axe to bust a hole in the door to Room H so that he could see in. He saw parts of the room dissolving into the hellscape and the PCs decided to leave the room alone. Since they had not even entered it I decided that that would not be enough to summon one of the powerful demons.
The PC decided to go to Room K.
More on this session at a later point.
Continuing session 8
The party entered Room K and examined the body. Then, looted it.
They moved into Room I and looked around but did not trigger the 3 "survivors". They glanced at the moongate but did not approach.
They went past the curtain into Room J. They looked around a little and the "maggoted men" became active. The PCs told the priests to have the guardsman put all the maggot men out of their misery. They did so.
The PCs moved up to Room L. They closed the doors to the moongate and locked them.
They approached the door to Room M and listened. They heard a dog growling. They made a plan of entry involving musket balls and swords. The dog was soon dead.
The party listened to the door to Room N and heard nothing. If I remember correctly, the dwarf chopped his way through the door. They entered and collected items of value.
I had been making a map on graph paper for them as they explored each room. Despite having the map before them, they did not realize the existence of the two secret rooms.
The party carried the swivel gun back to the gate they had come through ( along with the other treasure they had collected). They then set 2 barrels of gunpowder with very long fuses at the Room L moongate and 2 at the Room A gate. The elf cast the gate spell, they lit the fuses and then hustled through the gate. I forgot about the environmental effect on fire so they got lucky.
They made it back, the Bishop confiscated the new found gate scrolls and paid them. The PCs went on there way and traveled back to England.
End of session 8
NOTE: There was another demon that popped out of the fire. I think it was as they were getting ready to leave.
The first one was like a giant puffball that spewed poison spores. The second one was like a heap of rotting vegetation but with thorny teats.
Session 9
The Idea from Space
Anthony R. played his halfing
Jon S.-D. played his elf
Walter played his cleric
Andy R. participated by telepresence and played his old elf character
Sam M. had car trouble. Andrew M. had COVID. Thus, they were not there.
Evan B. was a new player who was supposed to be there but he got sick.
It was April of AD 1603. They were contacted by Charles Rutherford. He had found some information about an ancient civilization near the bottom of South America. He would transport them in his flying saucer to a small island that he had learned about. They would make sure it was safe for him to explore and study.
The flight down took 2 1/2 hours. Rutherford circled the island to get a look at the various features and then landed near the wrecked ship.
More about session 9 at a later point.
Here is a little more about session 9:
The party decided to first take a look at the wrecked ship. They saw the name and they saw that the hole in the bottom of the hull was in a location such that the hole was only partly underwater. They would be able to wade to the hole and duck inside the ship. The other option would be to climb onto the deck but they decided the hole would be best. So, they made their way into the cargo hold. There were only a few crates or barrels still there and the party quickly saw that the remaining stuff had been ruined by sea water. After some clumsy climbing they made their way to the deck above the cargo hold. Here they found only sleeping areas with no valuables left behind. They then used the hatchway to get to the deck. The only thing they saw of note were the cannons at the gunwales. Someone made a comment about scavenging those after the exploration had been completed. Having seemed to have exhausted the possibilities of "La Juliana", they decided to explore the interior of the island.
More later...
Last edited by Solon (2023-08-06 19:07:37)
More of session 9
The party began to explore the island after Rutherford told them to go explore and make sure it was safe for him to leave the flying saucer.
During the flyover they saw the general features of the island but not details. They headed first for the Bone Chasm. They looked in and saw it was filled with human looking bones. They did notice that some of the skulls and bones were of larger than normal human size. The party decided not to climb down into the chasm but rather head for the two towers. As they approached, they got a better look at the bridge connecting the towers. It seemed to them that it had 'metal ropes" and some planks laid on the bottom ropes for walking. They walked all around the West tower and saw no entrance at ground level. The party walked all the way around the East tower and saw the the old doorway on the South side. They approached the entrance.
As the first PC stepped to the door several gulls flew out of the door and startled the adventurers. They all went into the room and looked around. The saw the bas-relief depicting majestic visitors from the stars setting foot upon the earth. They saw the gull droppings. They went through the door to room 2.
They went in and looked at the big statues. The PC in the lead saw the bas-relief face at the Northern end of the room. They made their saving throw and thus only had suffered a feeling of being turned to stone but then it passed. They ordered their comrades not to look and to get back into Room 1.
The party then made a plan to move through the room but only look at the floor until they got to the next room. So, they made their way into Room 4. They looked at the dead vines that filled a substantial part of this room and saw that there were skeletons embedded in the vine growth.
They then went back to Room 1 so that they could check out the door that lead to the East. After a little bit of "elbow grease" they were able to get the door open. They moved into the narrow room and looked at the small statues. One of them took a statue with them.
The adventurers then descended the stairs that lead to Room 30. When a couple of them got to the bottom of the stairs, the gigantic stone head turned towards them and began shouting in an alien language. The voice was loud enough to be heard across the entire island (but it is a rather small island). They ran up the steps and ran back outside of the tower.
They were discussing what to do when one of them noticed some people walking towards them from the West. There were 3 normal looking men with a variety of weapons and one very huge and very naked man carrying a very large club. His bulging muscles rippled with every step he took. The other group stopped about 50 feet from the party and engaged them in a parley. Only one of the sailors spoke English so he acted as translator. During the conversation, the party learned that the men had been sailors on the wrecked ship. The sailors were eager to recruit the party and told them about Manakata the Strong and the worship of said deity. The sailors let slip that not everyone survives the rituals and the party indicated that they would not join. Some of the party noticed that the Fanatics of Manakata had been trying to inch their way forward surreptitiously. One of the party decided to start a fight and so made use of a missile weapon. Two arrows and two lead balls struck the "enhanced" Fanatic since no one had chosen to target the normal Fanatics. The muscle bound and divinely improved behemoth fell dead to the ground. The other three Fanatics failed their Morale roll and fled.
More about the session later...
Last edited by Solon (2023-08-10 03:14:17)
A little bit more about session 9...
After the skirmish with the Manakata fanatics, the party started to walk back to the flying saucer. A few moments later someone noticed that a group containing many Manakata disciples was approaching from the West. The party began running and so did the Manakata fanatics. The adventurers got to the craft and in the entryway a few minutes before the fanatics arrived. The fanatical sailors began throwing rocks at the saucer. Rutherford used the craft's loudspeakers to warn off the fanatics and he levitated the craft 20 foot in the air. This frightened them and they retreated back to their temple.
I'll try to make another session 9 update tomorrow
Continuation of session 9:
The party told Rutherford what they had seen in the tower and he decided to go with the party to take a look. He maneuvered the saucer into the air and towards the towers. As they got near the towers, three people came out onto the bridge and waved to the saucer. Rutherford moved close to the bridge to get a better look. It was two men and a woman. They motioned for him to set down at the base of the West tower and he did so. A few minutes later the three people came out of the secret door.
Rutherford and the party left the craft in order to parley with these people. Rutherford asked who they were and, in unison, they said:
We are Xaxus
Thus began a long conversation wherein the party learned something about Xaxus and a bit about the Fanatics of Manakata. Xaxus asked to be transported to the mainland of South America and Rutherford kind of avoided answering the request directly. He did offer to bring supplies to them in exchange for knowledge and they agreed. Xaxus also asked Rutherford to deal with the problem of the aggressive god-worshipers and he agreed.
Rutherford flew his craft over to the temple. He ruthlessly used the plasma cannon of the flying saucer to exterminate all the Manakata disciples. He landed the craft and the party checked the ruins and took the Manakata statue.
Then, they all fly back to Merry Olde England.
That is the end of session 9.
Session 10
Fuck for Satan
The players/PCs were as follows:
Walter C./ Cleric (Henry of Oxford)
Anthony R./ Halfling (Cosmo Puddifoot)
Jon S.-D./ elf (Erioarlis)
Andrew M./fighter (Jeremy Blake)
Sam M./ dwarf (Verigan Hammerfist)
August of AD 1603
The set up for this scenario is that the party had been wandering through mainland Europe looking for opportunities after the last scenario. They were in a town in Switzerland and saw a flyer posted to the wall of a tavern. It indicated that mercenaries were needed in a village called Schwarzburg and it was an urgent matter. In my description of the flyer I did not mention money and the players never thought to ask. They headed for the village the next morning.
They arrived in the village near dusk. they found that it was not much of a village with only about 12 or so buildings and some farms on the outskirts. Apparently, some travelers do travel the road through the settlement since the place does boast a small inn. At the inn, they discovered that it had only a common bed chamber with 10 cots. The cleric paid for the cots that the PCs would not be using so that the party would not have to share the room with anyone else. They had dinner in the small attached tavern and chatted up the innkeeper and the barmaid (his daughter). They learned that some some children and some animals had gone missing. The barmaid speculated that it had something to do with the old stories about a coven of witches at the Old Haunted Hill that is Northwest of the village. Her father seemed to think it had to do with the falling star that had landed to the East of of the village. The PCs decided that they needed more sources of information.
More about session 10 soon.
Last edited by Solon (2023-08-26 03:33:26)
More of session 10
One of the PCs mentioned talking to the Burgomeister of the place so they asked the Innkeeper where to find him then set off. His house was only a block from the inn. The Burgomeister talked to them and made it plain that he was not the one who posted the flyer so the village was not liable for paying any fee for finding the children. He gave the same info about the old coven at Haunted Hill and about the recently fallen star. He had no further info but suggested talking to the minister at the church.
They went to the church and talked to the the Good Reverend. He had been in the village about three years and he had been keeping a detailed journal of all events in the place. Thus, the entire chronology from page 39 of Adventure Anthology: Death was laid out before them.
They party decided to look for the fallen star as a first course of action.
More on session 10 later...
And now more about session 10...
The party got directions from the good reverend about where the falling star had landed. They made their way to the East and found the crater. Two of the party went into the crater to look at the object. They saw that it was hollow and the interior had strange straight lines with some 90 degree angles. Some of the lines seem to have knobs embedded in them. They were not sure what to make of it. They did not ask about anything else concerning the area. The party decided to go back to the village.
The reverend had told them that the blacksmith had posted the flyer in the other town so the party went to talk to him. He told them that one of the missing kids is his son and was eager for the party to recover all the children. He told them that the village does not have much in the way of coinage but he would talk to the villagers about coming up with a reward. He also mentioned that if they wanted to settle down then there are village girls of marriageable age. The party left and headed for Old Haunted Hill.
The walked to the hill and made their way up to the ledge. The saw the book on the altar and took a look at it. They found the note from Iri-Khan and the cleric read it out loud. The players made some jokes about how their foolish characters would, of course, ignore the warning and go into the dungeon since there was mention of treasure. The players then had their characters enter the dungeon.
More about session 10 later...
Here is more about session 10...
So, they walked into Room 2. The stuff about the bugs in the chamber seemed a bit goofy so I ignored it. They looked around and saw the statue against the back wall. As they walked up to it, it was obvious that the eyes were holes and there was no top to the head. They looked in the back of the head and saw a flat area with a small depression and a burnt out wick in the depression. They put oil in the depression and light it. The two beams of light shone forth. A couple of folks searched the wall on the East side and found a secret door. A couple of folks looked at the west wall and found nothing. They played around with the East door and got it open. The party went in and saw the well. They lowered a lantern on a rope to the bottom and saw it had debris. The halfling climbed down the rope to the floor of the well and nothing happened. He saw the small rough tunnel to the East. He set something on the floor( either a shield or backpack) and a trap activated on it. The halfling climbed back up the rope. The fighter decided to go down the well. He took off all encumbering items before he went down. No trap was activated when he got to the bottom. He took the lantern and went through the small tunnel. He found himself in the room with the levers.
The fighter began moving the levers into various configurations and he saw no effects. He climbed back up the rope to his comrades-in-arms. They told him that while he was down there they had heard a loud click sound from Room 2.
They all went to Room 2. This time they indicated that they would do a thorough search of the statue. They had not made such a statement previously; they only looked at the lamp/hole in the head area. They saw that there was a hinge at the bottom of it. It looked like the statue could be tipped over by the hinge and lain on the floor. They also noticed that there was some kind of clamp on the other side of the base that looked like it would prevent the statue from being tipped over.
They gave up on the statue and decided to look at the West wall again. Two different PCs searched it and found the secret door. The party went through and found a room shaped just like the one on the other side and it, too, had a well. They lowered a lantern and saw that there was no debris; just a stone floor. I think it was the dwarf that climbed down this time. He saw the small tunnel that looked much like the other small tunnel. He took off all his gear, took the lantern and crawled through on his hands and knees. He saw the chamber with the sandy floor and the sarcophagus. He went back to the bottom of the well to inform his colleagues. They took off their gear and climbed down the rope except for the halfling. He kept watch up above.
They made their way, on their hands and knees, into the sandy room and with a team effort lifted off the lid of the sarcophagus. They saw the skeleton and the crown on its head. They saw the obvious pressure plate under the skull. Someone stated that they were leery of the sand floor. The party contrived to carefully tie some string to the end of a rope, tie the string to the crown, play out the rope back to the narrow tunnel and one person in the narrow tunnel yank the crown off and pull it back to them. They had everyone except the rope puller go back up to the top of the well. I think the rope puller was the dwarf. He yanked the rope, the chamber rumbled and the sandy floor became loose. The crown had been securely tied so he was able to pull it up from the sand. The dwarf took it back up to his party members. They rejoiced that they had acquired something of value even though they had not found any missing kids.
That was where we ended session 10. It seems likely that we will finish Fuck for Satan at the next session.
Last edited by Solon (2023-10-11 03:18:54)
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