Well, you can always substitute your own effect! smile
I spent some time in my campaign placing the other six Words around the globe and planned that the effect would grow exponentially with each Word your character saw -  shame, that my god-touched adventurers were slain before they reached the others.

Funny enough, my players spent a long time debating whether they should make an army of themselves. Ultimately they decided that there wouldn't be enough room in the cube for mass production.

When I ran the adventure I rolled a random spell from Cleric spell list and assumed she had all of her 1st level slots filled with that spell. When PC's read the Word, they got to roll for their own random cleric spell.
Unfortunately, Turn Undead didn't help much, when my group of adventurer's and their amulet-clones decided to kill her and sacrifice her babies.

So, it has been a while since my last post. Life's been hectic, but the campaign is far from dead. Let me tell you good folk what's happened since my last post:

Our group of adventurers has made its way towards Venice for the last five sessions. Along the way they plundered most of the Tower of the Stargazer, where their paranoid playing style finally bore fruit. The lack of random encounters gave them ample time to shift through the place inch by inch and they sprung none of the traps (one of them was strangled by living intestines, but survived the ordeal) and found most of the treasure (though they elected to leave some pieces, such as Calcidius' scrying orb, be).
They returned from the Tower rich and suddenly the paltry sum promised by the Turkish merchants seemed trivial. Ultimately the players decided to stay under the turkish employ, because Ishaq the merchant promised to fence their treasure and pay them with reliable bank notes.
They did, however, renegotiate their route to go through any adventure locations they might learn of.

Lucifer's advice and consulting the locals lead the party to Valley of Mists in southern France, where they negotiated between an angry druid and an invading force of Nephilidian vampires. Before leaving the valley for good, they plundered its sacred oak, slew the druid (which had made stew of Bork) and spurned a vampiric dinner invitation.
Before they reached Venice they also took a contract to slay some bandits hiding in Mt Vormoosh, where they made a pact with a magic user called Yxor the Yellow (who had been fleeing the ire of Roxy the Red and Oxyr the Orange) to leave some bandits alive for his experiments.
Along the way a monk foolishly trusted an ancestral sword of Knights of Kite to Boris the Dwarf, so it could be delivered to a crypt nearby. The dwarf naturally kept the sword, but the party still chose to visit the crypt as there might be a matching shield for Boris. Unfortunately some bandits had got there first and disturbed its guardian: the Corrector of Sins. Our band was only saved by the fact that the villagers were slower and yummier.

They plundered the tomb of Histep-ratep with only one casualty: a carcosan sorcerer, who got sandwiched between the crypts stairs and a falling statue. There they received some dank prophesies and saved an alien (very, very ugly halfling), who spirited away and took Elaine the Elf with it. (The Elf would return six months later sporting a brand new powered battle armour.)

Upon reaching Venice the group held a big party, where they made an acquaintance of the local Doge Monteverdi. The posse had grown tired of living as a vagrant and set their sights to purchasing land. However, they were strangers and venetian real estate was absurdly expensive.
So, they were forced to shuffle through the discount bin:
The grateful Doge (who had always wanted to sleep with a dwarf and a pirate at the same time) put them in touch with some estate agents with offers more suitable for the group: idyllic villa Prem just a week from Venice, only 20 000 sp and venerable Villa Cavallo somewhat further away for 10 000 sp.
The catch? Both were haunted and the party was expected to make the land safe before the deal would be finalised.

The party couldn't choose which to pick so they decided to clean both and take the better. Last two sessions they have been destroying statues and plant life in Abelia Prem's old haunt and in my next post I'll share that adventure in detail.

In other words, we played Tower of the Stargazer, Tomb of Hishep Ratep, Secret of Cykranosh and A Single Small Cut during the journey. The party also visited Valley of Mists, an original adventure location scribbled by me. Now we're playing through Stygian Garden of Abelia Prem (a brilliant adventure!) and if they're not sick of old mansion's, we'll be playing Hell House Beckons after that.
The average level of our players (and their characters) has gone up quite a lot, so random death's have become somewhat rarer. Today's encounter with the Marble Knight and Stone Mother gave them quite a scare and I hope Villa Cavallo will make them fear death again.

My campaign started from level 1 and now, after ~ 4 months of play, the long term players have reached level 3 with one or two veterans closing into level 4.
The pace has been quite slow and its mostly because our group is pretty large and we've stuck to the core when it comes to XP (monsters give pitiable amounts, treasure gives lots). So far my players have been very, very careful and have rather kept their lives than risked venturing deep into the dungeons, where most of the treasure is hidden. Their paranoid playstyle was finally rewarded in the Tower of the Stargazer as there were no wandering monsters to drive them away and they didn't fiddle with the traps. Thus they eloped with most of Calcidius' treasure. Clever bastards.

Last session we houseruled that new characters started with as much XP as the party's weakest member, so they won't have to start all from the beginning next time they almost TPK. (Altought, weakest PC only has about 200 xp at the moment, so it's not much. Yet.)
I also let them use Zak's/Jeff's Carouse rules, when they reach big cities. But so far there hasn't been any other short cuts to high levels.
I wouldn't personally mind, if they'd level at faster pace, as I know they will stay clear of the fun stuff (by fun I mean Death Frost Doom), if they consider themselves underpowered. But I cannot force them to get the treasure, so I just have to make do.

Highest I ever reached was level 2 in Petroosh' game about a year ago. (I think someone might've reached level 3, but I was the most skilled PC for a long time.) Petroosh didn't much care about level restrictions and we mostly had to abandon the treasure and run away. My level 2 was a stroke of luck, when the rest of the party died in the chapel room of DFD letting me pilfer all the treasure we'd scrounged.

Today Dirk the Fighter, Boris the Dwarf, Wilbur the Specialist, Reggie the Magic User and Bork the Fighter finally, oh finally, finished their Business with Better than any Man.
Last time we left off with the party taking on a squad of Swedish soldiers. Before the two forces meet on the road, confused Dirk (who wasn't in the last couple of  sessions) wanders from the shrubbery ranting something about swamp children and folk poetry. He joins our heroes side and is gravely wounded in the ensuing struggle.
Nearing the end of the battle a horn signals Swedish reinforcements coming from Goblin Hill - five pikemen, five musketeers lead by their commander on horseback. However, when Reggie snipes the commanders head off with a well placed magic missile and pistol shot, the rest flee back to Goblin Hill and signal for help.
The party is not ready to give up the riches of Goblin Hill, so they decide against blowing up the entrance and venture inwards. (They leave wounded Dirk to guard their wagon that is now decorated with disemboweled Swedes.)

The inside of Goblin Hill is silent and dark and its corridors bear marks of slow and costly fighting. From three possibilities the party chooses the most silent corridor and explores the part of the dungeon that apparently housed the cultists. (Judging from the women, children and unarmed dead left to rot in vast halls.)
Eventually they discover a kitchen that has been thoroughly burned and a dining hall covered in old blood. They almost feel sorry for the Swedish.
But their pity doesn't last for long as when investigating a possible way outside, Wilbur fails his sneak roll and is ambushed by Swedish soldiers springing forth from two murderhole entrances. He's skewered and left to die between the doors.

Boris, Bork and Reggie hear Wilbur's cry of pain and engage the Swedes. After a couple of casualties Boris intimidates the soldiers to surrender, who relinquish their arms and tell about the week long siege, where the cultists fought tooth and nail for every inch the Swedes claimed. They also mention that the cults leader, a witch called "Mother", and her honour guard retreated into their Inner Sanctum and probably still lurk there as the Swedes barricaded the door instead of pursuit.

Alas, the party has little time to react to this information as their chat drew the other patrol out of their hiding place, who had now placed themselves in between the PCs and the exit and set up their muskets.
"Surrender immediately!" yelled their leader in Swedish ("Ägna nu!") and, of course, only Bork and Reggie understood him.
Neither side really wants to engage the other, so they engage in a strenuous negotiations, where the PC party appeal to their brutality while the soldiers remark that they only need to hold out for a few hours, before Karlstadt sends a platoon to aid them.

In the end the PCs agree to release the prisoners and as they do so, they make a mad rush through the Swedes and towards the entrance. Their rush doesn't go as well as planned: only Boris makes it to the other side, while Reggie and Bork get bogged down in the middle of the Swedes. They cannot get through without leaving Wilbur and the soldiers are organised enough to whittle down the player's HP one round at a time.
Boris reaches the entrance, but would prefer not to go on alone with Dirk in the hostile countryside. So he hoists up a barrel of gunpowder, mounts their horse and intimidates it to ride inside.
There he lights a torch holding it near the barrel. "You saw what we did to your comrades, so don't dare think I'm not prepared to take you all with me!" he bellows, which immediately brings halt to the fighting. EDIT: I was reminded by Boris that the actual threat was much better and went like this: "I have come here to drink vodka and kick Swedish ass. And I'm all out of vodka!"

The Swedish soldiers witness the blood caked dwarf for a moment, before breaking rank and fleeing towards the darkness.
Boris hauls his comrades to outside to safety and places them in their wagon. Not bothering to stop, he begins hauling the rest of the gunpowder to the entrance.
There those still on their feet spy Swedish banners drawing closer and closer. They leave just in a nick of time to avoid pursuit with the fast collapsing mountainside heralding their departure.

The party travels for a day and make a camp in the ruins of Gössenheim. They find out they're not the only refugees around, when a long barrel of a musket aims at them in the smoking ruin of a cellar that used to be a tavern.
Boris doesn't mind things resolting to violence, but the guard relents when he sees the party has wounded. Grudginly they are let inside, where a pair of merchants Miraj and Ishab ibn Zoohur have made their camp.
Two groups trade stories: It turns out that Miraj and Ishab are Ottoman traders, who were in Amsterdam when the war broke out. Now they have been trying to get to Venice, where they could purchase a passage home.
Wilbur remembers that Günther, the bandit they left alive, headed for Venice as well and the party decides Italy is as good destination as any. The merchants agree to hire them as bodyguards as long as they are allowed to store their remaining wares in the wagon.

Last, before they depart for Italy, the PCs dig up the old mirror they pilfered from the realm of the Pale Lady. The piece has miraculously remained intact through everything and, as always, Wilbur is greeted by the demonic visage of Lucifer.

Ah, long time no see, Wilbur.
"You fucking lied to us about the dagger, asshole!"
I have no idea what you are talking about. I always speak the truth.
"Oh really? Well, tell us where the Lover is!"
I am afraid I can only reveal the locations of specific objects. I cannot help you.
"Well then. We want easier treasure. Gems. Valuable, but not so big that they cannot be transported."
As you wish.
Your route has two such jewels along it: in southern france there is a valley engulfed by mists. In the middle of it is a monolith and on top of the monolith is a radiant gem the ancient druids call the Sunstone.
Further on, in the Duchy of Milan, you shall find the Tomb of Histep-Ratep. An ancient pharaoh, who sought to conquer all that was known. Tyrant was buried on the site of his death along with his crown. Embedded in the crown is the Gem of Setesh, the most valued jewel in ancient Egypt.

"Ha, this route sounds promising, we'll take it!"

And so our adventurers went on their way.
"Can we please get more XP in the next adventure? This one was a waste of time!"

---

Our last session was spent on the road. Our party stopped in the village of Sacre Fromage and there stumbled upon the Tower of the Stargazer. Tomorrow they shall move on towards the Valley and the Tomb. While there were some interesting happenings in the Tower (mainly the party finally found some treasure), it doesn't warrant its own post. So I'll write about it next time, among with the rest of the journey.

I'm still thinking, where to go from Venice. A friend of mine participated in Raggi's latest call for modules with an adventure situated in Venice (got rejected, I think), so I might flesh out that adventure. Bloodsworth Manor or the house from Hell House Beckons could also fit somewhere in the countryside. While there's always the option to put them on a ship towards Quelong or Yoon Suin, now that they have gone up a level it'd be fun to throw Deep Carbon Observatory or Death Frost Doom at them, if they only had a reason to go to either place. Perhaps they have raised enough ruckus for van Ooms to get interested?
If you have any ideas or suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Well, IF they even get to Venice as there is still a lot of road to cover and my Travel Encounter Chart has some of the shorter premades in it.

EDIT: Added a player comment.

Alrighty! This has been sitting almost completed for a week, but I've been too busy to post it.
It turned out that I was a tad too hasty saying we were done with BtAM as today my players were not ready to leave Karlstadt region after all.

Back at the abandoned farm the group debates their next course of action, all while hauling the dead Swedish soldiers to the barn. Then as they reach an agreement, they set the barn on fire to hide the evidence. Ultimately the party decided that they have travelled too far and long to leave empty handed and cannot leave before checking out the secret entrance to Goblin Hill. Bolstered by this they travel north avoiding roads and Swedish patrols.
The party is caught in a fierce thunderstorm, but following Gunther's instructions they find the backdoor entrance to Bürgerfriedensmilitz' headquarters with little hardship.
The amount of wasps, ants and other critters in the area makes them reasonably worried, but nevertheless clear away the bushes and descent to the dark cavern. (Rain keeps most of the bugs away!)
The party reaches a large cavern, when Wilbur, their tail lookout, hears a slow skittering noise approaching. Book urges the rest to go on (We could easily outrun the noise!), but Boris and Wilbur would rather deal with the threat behind them now than when they run into something equally dangerous on their other side. Prepare for a fight and effortlessly spot a gigantic beetle homing to them slowly, but oh so surely.
Their battle against the beetle doesn't fare as well as they hoped as Wilbur wasn't fully recuperated from their earlier fight with the Defender and the narrow passage allowed only two hit the creature at once. (First time the absence of spears was lamented.) As they had no Fighter, the beetle's carapace proved arduously difficult to pierce and the group only gained the upper hand, when the beetle broke Book's arm (-1hp) and had to divide its attention between dragging its meal to safety and warding off the crazy dwarf.

After dealing with the beetle the party maps out the cavern with Boris carrying the unconscious Book. They avoid the mold growing on the western side and as they head deeper they again hear the telltale skitterpatter of another random encounter: this time a pair of giant ants.
Neither party surprises the other and they are left in a stand off with about fifty feet in between them. Boris, tired with these crazy bugs, tries to intimidate the ants. Reggie and Wilbur say they'd rather not have another fight with their healbot out of order.
The party backs down and leaves the cavern complex.
The ants do not pursue.

Outside they spend an hour or two scouting the area and climbing atop the Goblin Hill. They spy lights on the northern face of the Hill, but rather than investigating they head towards Hammelburg to resupply and seek shelter.
When they find the town abandoned except for a mass grave, they hole up in the tavern and make a fire from driest furniture they can find. They spend a week in the tavern resting and waiting for Book and Wilbur to heal, while Boris and Reggie hunt for food and I roll for random encounters. ("Bah, humans are such weaklings!" Boris grumbles.)

They are not found by the Swedes or the militz and only have to drive away one insect creature (a flying, poisonous abomination between human and wasp). Twice.
On their fourth day of hiding, Wilbur hears panicked screams and sounds of battle coming from the outside. They almost ignore the racket, but Wilbur recognises one of the voices - it's Hugo!
The party rushes outside and spots Hugo, Morgan and Gordon, the three freemen they thought lost, riding the party's wagon and being chased by seven giant ants. The players run to the rescua as the wagon keels over, but not even they manage to turn the tide of battle: Hugo, Gordon and Morgan all succumb under the assault and one by one the player characters join them until only Boris is left standing as the ants begin to drag their prey away from the scene. He runs to free barely conscious Reggie ("His familiar will kill us all if he dies!") and then rushes after Wilbur and Book.
Wilbur is saved, but Boris is too late to save Book, who bleeds to death and becomes ant chowder.
Boris makes sure Wilbur and Reggie won't bleed out, lifts them on the wagon and hauls it back to the village. Their horse is dead, but at least their supplies (and the magic mirror) are intact.

During the next three days a Swedish deserter, 14 year old Bork Samson the Fighter sneaks into the town and quickly befriends the party. He turns out to be Book's new character. They also shelter and trade gossip with a group of refugees from Karlstadt, who had hoped to meet family in Hammelburg. They learn from the refugees that the Swedes are laying siege Würzburg and are combing through the area to wipe out any traces of witchcraft still present. The refugee group itself plans to head north and try to avoid the worst areas. They invite the party to join them, but the PC's decline.

After the refugees depart, the PC's decide to take one last look at Goblin Hill before abandoning the area for good. This time they sneak to the northern entrance. From a safe vantage point Reggie spies a troop of Swedes guarding barrels of gunpowder and a large pile of dead militz.
First they plan to snipe the gunpowder, but after Boris warns that the explosion could collapse the entrance, Bork is sent instead to gather intel.
The boy (who had abandoned all loyalty to Sweden after becoming an adventurer) quickly invents a lie about an ambush and injured soldiers just behind the corner.
The soldiers tell him that an evil witch lived in the mountain and that the spawn of satan is now dead thanks to the heroic Swedish forces and power of Christ. He also learns that half of the company is still inside the complex.
Bork lures one of the soldiers and a horse with him to "help the wounded". The Swede is fooled by the party's bloodstained swedish gear and promptly killed. It won't be long before the rest become suspicious.
First they only wanted to steal the horse and flee the area, but after hearing about the witch in Bork's account, greed again flashes in Boris' and Wilbur's eyes.
"They probably didn't know to look for a dagger, it might still be inside!" they speculate.
Meanwhile Reggie has put the horse in front of their wagon and the Swedes have sneaked closer. Before contact is made, Reggie spurs the horse to gallop and the party escapes to the road.
Or could have escaped, if Wilbur and Boris wouldn't have turned the wagon around. "We can face the Swedes! You remember how shit their morale was the last time!"

We ended the session just as the party was about to face the eight soldiers pursuing them.

Afterword:
It seems that random encounters make my players really, really jittery. It was those that drove the group away from Goblin Hill and during their stay at Hammelburg I received vile looks every time I rolled that d6. It was hard, almost impossible, to get them to believe that not every entry was out to kill them. If they ever get out of the area, I might prepare something with less randomness. How would Tower of the Stargazer or Stranger Storm sound?

But it's a big if, as I'm unsure they won't be massacred by the Swedes first thing in the next session. Sure, they already beat one patrol, but back then they had the element of surprise, more players and the Swedes made rotten morale checks. This time the odds are more even, except the Swedes have reinforcements incoming. Well, a good reason for last session's players to try recruit more people for the next session...
(We have a group of around six people and play when we get three to four players together. Missing and appearing players are hand waved using R&PL's table.)

Here's the second part of our tour about Karlstadt.

To my players reading this: I'd love see your commentary regarding these adventures. I make some things up every time I write these and it'd be interesting to read your side of the story. Or just how you've found the ride so far.
Also today's report contains some kinky and explicit scenes, but considering the source material this forum should be okay with them, shouldn't you?

Alright, thursday's player turnover wasn't as big as last time. We began our game with only Boris, Wilbur and Reggie with Book and Big Matt joining us halfway in.
So, the party has seen the Swedish army approaching and are making their way to Karlstadt. On the way they encounter a Jewish family being stoned to death by a misplaced parish. The players scare the Catholics away and free the family.
And then discover that the jews have a lot of money in their wagon and proceed to rob them.

Back at the refugee camp the party buries most of their silver and seek out alternative ways into city. They meet up with a group of smugglers, who agree to arrange for their weapons to appear somewhere in the city. Satisfied with the accord, Wilbur, Boris and Reggie cross the city gates next day leaving Hugo to guard their carriage. (They disregard the news that Gössenheim's been razed.)
Inside the city, the party tries talking with a couple of the Seven, but receive no information about the Lover or the dagger. Frustrated, they plan to wait until night and kill the Defender.

Big Matt and Book the Shepherd had stayed behind to bury Fast Bob and experienced a sudden epiphany from all the stress and violence that drove them temporarily insane. They wake up near the graveyard of Karlstadt sans weapons.
The two try to get into the church, but are turned away by the Bürgerfriedensmilitz, when they spot the Defiler in the graveyard.
They approach her for small talk, but she declines any conversations, before she can be sure that Book and Matt are both living. She casts her spell and Book detects as undead. The Defiler immediately springs into action and warns Matt that he might have been seduced by this foul vampir.
A battle ensues and both adventurers are eaten by Defiler's creature and placed into pocket dimension containing a copy of the creature. (Like someone else on this forum, I put both players into the same dimension for double the fun.)
They slay the beast and are vomited back up, but soon Matt is eaten again. Then a moment later Book kills the thing and Matt is annihilated along with the pocket dimension. Book is shocked.

Defiler runs to get the guards and Book flees the scene. He loses the guards just in time to meet up with the rest of the party, who are planning to kill the Defender. "The Joy wanted a lock of her hair. If we kill her, scalping her will be easy!"
They sneak through the back door and into Defenders bedroom, where her creature is waiting. Its ability is triggered and suddenly Reggie cannot move or cast spells and Boris loses his weapon, armour and HP.
The party resorts to having Wilbur and Book block the door, while shooting arrows and throwing bottles of oil in the bedroom. When Wilbur's HP gets too low, they slam the door shut and wait for the fire to finish the work.
A moment later they hear window open and a loud *SPLAT* from the outside. Wilbur rushes downstairs to see Defender scampering up on the pavement and limping away. Soon another SPLAT heralds Defenders familiar, who engages the PCs. It is quickly slain, but buys enough time for Defender to flee. (The party had a chance to pursue, but not without alerting the guards.)
Shortly after the attack, Big Matts new character Elaine the Elf teams up with the group.

The party flees the scene and waits until morning. They try to leave the city, but find the entrance blockaded. Apparently the Swedish forces slaughtered the refugee camp and began sieging Karlstadt. Apparently last night they sent demonic assassins to assassinate Defiler and Defender and would assault the gates, if the citizens didn't surrender the Seven by sundown.
The players consider it, but in the end decide that they've had enough of witch hunting and go see the Joy.

The Joy is disappointed that they didn't bring any hair from the Defender and sincerely hoped that they had nothing to do with the nightly attack. She offers a special offer for the apocalypse: they can ask about something other than Karlstadt and she'll give them another task. The party decides to ask, if she knows anything about an eight member of the Seven.
The Joy smiles coyly, she might have just something for them - if Reggie lets himself be tied on a table for an hour and let the patrons have their way with him. He agrees.

I asked each other player describe something done to Reggie with the most perverted act getting some bonus XP.

First, Reggie is fitted with a gag and the local men sing sea shanties while pouring good rum over Reggies back and three local hookers tease him relentlessly. Reggie cannot partake in singin, rum nor the girls. "Waste of rum. It was the worst."

Then a candle is stuck in his butthole and surrounding men try to extinguish it with their bodily juices while wearing masks. At the same time the Joy rubs Reggie with her spoogy toes. After that Reggie has to jack off.

After he's done five blind monks from the fraternity of the Long Spear clean him up together using their tongues. They find their way everywhere and as monks their stamina is excellent.

Last, a dwarf covered in soot, puke and mud jams a beer stein up Reggie's arse. He kisses him using his black teeth and ends up vomiting down Reggie's throat. He wipes the vomit away with his beard and makes Reggie blow him. The dwarf passes out while cumming and ends up vomiting over Reggie one last time.

The shaken Reggie is let out of his bondage.

While Reggie is cleaning himself, the witch tells the rest about the Maker, the one who brought the Seven together and performed the spell that killed her and made the Seven rule the city. The party listens and decides they did not really care and this was a waste of an hour. In fact the whole week has been a waste of time, as they've learned nothing about the Lover and are no closer to claiming the Godsslayer's Dirge as their own.
Book asks the Joy if she knows any ways out of the city and Joy mentions knowing the smuggler's tunnel and that she might be able to slip its location, if the group brings Jutte to her. Apparently she'd prefer to die surrounded by the Provider's ample flesh.
One fetch quest later the party enters the secret tunnel, speeded by the sounds of a battering ram coming from the front gates. They emerge at the farm and see Karlstadt in flames and countryside crawling with Swedish patrols.
The group hatches a quick plan to steal themselves some uniforms: they trap the barn, the house and light a candle to attract the Swedes. Some hours later a patrol falls into their ambush and quickly routs with the party killing enough of them to clothe the whole group.
We end the session with the players planning their next move. "A dungeon full of treasure. And preferably no danger at all."


Thus ended our visit to Karlstadt and Better Than Any Man. I'm a little disappointed that the group turned away from all the adventuring locations except the Haunted Farmhouse. (They never discovered the Mound.)
It didn't help that they came to the module chasing a red herring, but still they seemed to regard Kalstadt as the main adventure location. (Sure, it's an interesting location full of intrigue and adventure, but also somewhat lacking in XP and treasure.) At least one player commented that he thought Karlstadt was the most important and lucrative place and the rest just side quest fodder.
Additionally, my players didn't seem to realise the urgency of the situation at first and they took their sweet time looking for clues until the Swedish were almost at their heels and when they heard about Goblin Hill, they decided they didn't have enough time to prepare for a dungeon run. In hindsight, I should've given them a couple of days more time to make up for the goose chase their original goal turned out to be. I'd also liked if the random encounters had been more frequent as many contained clues pointing towards adventure, but we only encountered a couple of them during the whole adventure.

The lack of XP is starting to get to the players and personally I'm a bit stumped on what to throw at them next. I'm considering giving the party a day or two to risk exploring Goblin Hill or the Wizard's Tower before the Swedes find them or placing some of the shorter location based adventures loaded with quest hooks in nearby regions. Or perhaps I should have Ooms, Vespero or some other kook hire them for a job.
I also have a couple of dungeons in my head. Perhaps I should test the tables in Seclusium and R&PL to flesh them out.

Back again with a tale!

Now I know atleast one of my players reads these. Hello!
No spoilers this time, so read with gusto.

Better than any man or the Curious Case of the Seven Witches of Karlstadt

Alright, so after deciding not to bother with the Island of Thule in our last session, my group of players began their journey towards Karlstadt in the heart of the Holy Roman Empire. They took a vessel from London to Copenhagen with little happening during their voyage. Only event happened in the port of Copenhagen, where they dismissed a black clad figure as Fast Bob (who was missing in the session) climbing from the water and disappearing to the crowd.
They were not able to find a guide with reasonable rates as no one was particularly willing to lead them after the Swedish army. In the end they had to settle for a crude map and a set of directions. They supply themselves and buy two horses and two wagon carts.
On the way the party bribes its way around swedish rear patrols and encounters a group of germanic deserters hiding in the woods. They slaughter a group of bandits and grumble how they didn't have any loot on them.
They enter the Karlstadt general area from the north and arrive to Frammersbach. There they lament how expensive everything is and hear news about a group of seven witches (called the Seven) that have taken over in Karlstadt and declared all warfare and violence illegal. The locals seem certain that the Swedes will go there to squash such heresy, take their women and bring all manner of demonic sin with them. "Haven't you seen them? White skin and hair? Ice blue eyes? That ain't natural! And how they speak, absolutely demonic!" Our party promtly decides to hurry up.

They head straight towards Lohr, passing Partenstein and only stop by the river to wash themselves and futilely trying to clean the bloody leather armours they took from the bandits. They also meet a skinless man, who they put out of his misery after he becomes creepily fixated with Book the Shepherd.
In Lohr they try to peddle their wares, but find few buyers. Eventually they blow most of their money on (horribly expensive) food supplies.
They follow the river Main to south and make their way towards Karlstadt through the swamps. Planning to stop in Steinfeld, they find the hamlet occupied by aggressive, dog sized gerridae. The party is reluctant to attack the pests at first (Wilbur: "There are witches afoot, maybe one of them hexed the folk of this poor village? Are we committing murder here?" Boris: "When did we begin worrying about killing humans? Lets get to it!" Everyone: "Oh, he has a point."), but when their horse is slain and eaten by the bugs such moralities fall away. In the struggle Book almost loses one of his freemen (now named Gordon and Morgan) and uses his only Cure Light Wounds spell to save the poor slave.

After the battle the party manages to divide the contents of their wagon among themselves, but refuse to leave the wagon in the town. "Somebody could steal it!" They proceed to drag it to the edge of the swamp and leave it there (where it'll be easier to steal).

The group arrives in the outskirts of Karlstadt by the evening and spends the night drinking watered beer and listening to rumours. They hear about a wizard's tower to the west and a mysterious lion creeping around the area. They also get the details on how to get inside the city and about the ban on weapons.
After some debate in the wee hours, the group decides that ornaments cannot count as weapons. So, they take their remaining wagon and hammer all of their weapons in its chassis. They dub their new vehicle Battlewagon and declare it totally metal.

Come the morning the party prepares to enter Karlstadt. Big Matt the Fighter, former fisherman and Equardo's new character, happens to be next to them in the line. He is impressed by the Battlewagon and decides to join their party. Bob also saunters from the woods and tells a confusing story about a court of Seelie fae and the awesome party they had. He even got a bottle of leftover wine take with him!
The guards who inspect every newcomer aren't all that convinced with the wagon, but after hearing the group's tall tales about the wagon they decide to "let the Watcher sort it out" and move to the next thing on the agenda: repossessing all the food and valuables to support the poor of Karlstadt. Hearing this the players are outraged. "On second thought, we don't want to come to the city after all!" they claim and make excuses before turning their wagon around.

Miffed about the greedy townsmen, Book decides to give away all the party's excess food to the needy, while Boris and Reggie take a skiff across the river and circle Karlstadt to inspect its battlements. Meanwhile Wilbur and Fast Bob stash their weapons and money. They wait a day (Boris and Reggie camp out on the lakeshore as they refuse to pay for a skiff back) and Wilbur and Bob get through the customs no problem.
They trade some gossip in the city and are soon directed towards the Joy as she knows everything about the city.
But the Joy isn't an easy pie and wants to toy with our heroes before divulging anything crucial: she sends Wilbur and Bob to the Defender's house with a quest. "Bring me a lock of her hair - shave it all, if you can. Then I'll tell you all you want to know."
Wilbur and Bob find the Defender in her home, but the witch isn't convinced by their amorous words and slams the door shut. And before the duo come up with another plan, they are distracted by the chatter around the Reminder's house - apparently the witch is teaching magic for free. They join her class, but Bob gets bored with the monotonous teaching in a second and seeks out the Provider in the Town Square.
Bob gets a hearthy meal and Wilbur fails to learn anything and neither of them gain much more than the names of the Seven: the Watcher, the Provider, the Defender, the Reminder, the Joy, the Mother and the Defiler. No one they ask has heard anything about a witch called the Lover, but Wilbur and Bob remain unconvinced. Maybe the Lover is behind all this, because something isn't right with seven women suddenly gaining magic and rulership in the city. The two decide to bide their time and meet more of the Seven.

Meanwhile Boris and Reggie have their own operation: As the night falls upon Karlstadt, Boris climbs its walls and begins hauling Reggie up as well. But their operation goes awry when they are interrupted by a double strength patrol of twelve guards.
Boris refuses to surrender and begins flailing his axe around, while holding Reggie up. With axe and magic missile they get a couple of lucky shots and even kill a guard, but eventually Boris is caught by a mancatcher and Reggie pulled up and arrested. The two are beat up and dragged to Bürgerfriedensmilitz' HQ in the old church for interrogation.
Wilbur and Bob witness the arrest on their way to Karlstadt cemetery to meet the Defiler or find a passage to the Ghoul Market, but their half-hearted attempt to save their companions fails, when Bob's elven wine gives him dreams of a little house in the prairie instead of superpowers. (We used the Purple lotus table.)
Wilbur explains that they are new in town and merely wished to see the heroic militz and the two are let go. The guards have their hands full with a pirate and a foul mouthed dwarf after all.

Bob doesn't waste a moment and goes to chat with the Defiler the instant she arrives at the graveyard. She insist on that Bob proves his status as a living and flies into rage, when Bob (apparently) registers as death-positive. Luckily Bob runs like a wind and easily loses the enraged ghoulhunter.
After waiting for the ruckus to calm down, Wilbur makes his try. The Defiler remains suspicious as "the night is rife with terrors" and Wilbur might as well be a vampire, but having expended her spell cannot be sure. Wilbur wonders why the Defiler has her gun, when all weapons are outlawed and gets a curt answer that the Seven are exempt from any laws. Satisfied, Wilbur leaves.

They stake out the HQ and follow as Boris and Reggie are transferred into the cart and brought to city gate. They leave city and begin tailing their captured comrades.
Meanwhile outside, Book and Big Matt are lording over the refugees they have fed, when a crying woman comes to them. She asks if they are the heroes giving out free food and pleads them for help. Apparently her eldest son has been kidnapped by ghosts that are demanding two thousand silver for his safe return. The woman says she has no such money and has struggled and shamed herself to collect mere 50 silver marks that she'll gladly give Book among with the few foodstuffs she still has left.
Book promises to help as much as he can and gets directions to the abandoned and haunted farmstead in the north. Shortly after he and Matt recognise Reggie and Boris being hauled north. Soon Bob runs to them and fills in the details. The pursuit is on! ... but first they have to fork over money to the greedy skiffman to get their wagon across the river.
They follow the militz convoy north for an hour. Then Bob runs over to the convoy, kills the horses and flees - thanks to his Curse of Double Time the militz have no time to react. Soon after the rest of the group begins to pepper militiamen with arrows. The small convoy is swiftly defeated with the few survivors fleeing towards Goblin Hill.
The battle, however, gained an audience from the remaining people of Gössenheim. The group tries to converse with the creepy, vacant eyed twins, but their sullen demeanour and field of dead pigs convince the adventurers to be on their way.
They decide against pursuing the militz to their mysterious re-education facility and head towards the abandoned farm.

The ghostly wailing doesn't budge the party, but Fast Bob is badly startled by the zombies in the barn. The rest don't believe him, but none want to check the hayloft. Inside the main building they find the trapdoor to the cellar and are caught by the ambush prepared by Gunther's bandits. Thanks to Boris' and Matt's tanking only Bob is struck to the negatives, while Gunther's gang is reaped down. Gunther surrenders and is disarmed. "Scheisse, scheisse, scheisse! I told Fritz this was a horrible idea! This isn't worth it, take the boy and if you leave me alive, I'll share what I know about the Bürgerfriedensmilitz secret headquarters."
Before Gunther is interrogated further, a scream of horror is heard from the back room. "Alright, we found the boy," Boris says as the rest continue looting the place.
Confusion and horror on Gunther's face eventually convinces Wilbur and a couple of others to investigate the back room, where they encounter Old Man Braasch, a decayed insect-ridden corpse about to enjoy his first warm meal in years. The cadaver manages one bite from the boys face, before it's slain and hacked to pieces.
"Alright, lets kill that gangleader. They hang out with zombies!" someone declares (might've been Boris or Wilbur).
"Fuck please no, we knew nothing about that thing! God... we've been sleeping here... Fuck..."

In the end Book is the person to plead mercy and he escorts Gunther from the farm. "We only used this place to hide and stake the merchant convoys. Screw it all, I'm leaving this rotten place."
He gives Book a map with apparent backdoor to the Militz HQ and runs away.
The party spends their night in the cellar and in the morning decide to head back to Karlstadt. In the morning sun they witness hundreds of camp fires just north of Gössenheim. The Swedes are here.

We ended the session as they make their way back to Karlstadt. Only other notable thing happening on the way was when already pale Fast Bob toppled to the ground halfway there. Inspecting the body the party discovers that he apparently fell to his wounds last evening in the cellar, but nobody noticed, not even him. (In the session I remembered LotFP's death treshold wrong and this was retroactive causality catching up to him.)

Our next session will be on thursday, when we'll hopefully see, if our party finds the Lover before the Swedes arrive and meet Fast Bob's daughter Lisa-Marie Slow the Alice, who's followed her father because of a fancy mirror he found. The party is getting a bit frustrated with the amount of treasure they've ran into, but they have yet to stray to the more lucrative areas of the adventure. I do hope that the Godslayer's Dirge is worth the trouble...
Also, it has been great fun to roleplay the german and swedish NPCs in the adventure, as most of us can speak swedish and it happens that I and the only PC who knows german also speak it in real life.

Stay tuned for more!

59

(7 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

Our group is quite metagamey (and I hate too much book keeping) so I usually give the players some time to be paranoid about everything before announcing the effects. (For example, when I ran Death Frost Doom I let them leave the room before narrating "As you leave, you feel the Skull Altar's cold eyes upon you. It knows what you took. From now on throw 2d20 and choose worse.) That way my players know they bungled up somehow, but they still need to figure out what exactly went wrong.
For non-permanent effects and magic items I let them experiment, so the things would stay interesting. Only after using the item a lot (or having someone such as Vespero identify it), I'll tell my group how the item works.

My NPC merchants might also act OOC for a moment to say that they are giving a 10% discount to list price after a bout of haggling and in my table there's no OOC chatter - everything's heard by NPCs and cohorts.
Strangely this has lead to more roleplaying and IC chatter than my more immersive/narrative Dark Heresy game, where everyone only metagames.

I usually rewards XP for roleplaying, progression and things achieved, but in my LotFP game I've stuck to Treasure is Experience rules. We're trying to go for Cugel the Clever style campaign, meaning that there's no heroes, just greedy amoral adventurers.
I've experienced that denying them roleplaying XP and giving pitiful rewards from monsters actually drives my players to look for more places to plunder and take more risks while doing their best to avoid conflict.

After a few treasure poor sessions, a war torn Holy Roman Empire is beginning to look like an attractive destination.
However, I sometimes I throw them a bone, for example after relatively treasure free Dunnsmouth, I let my players make donations to the church and trade money for XP. After reading the journal from Thulian Echoes, I gave my players half the XP what the original adventure group would have gained.

This works for us and for the type of game we wanna play. I'm trying to learn not to coddle my players too much, but if our group didn't like the current model, I would probably change it.

So, last week we played through the first half (flashback) of the Thulian Echoes module.
If any of my players are reading this, mind that the end of this recap contains minor spoilers! Rouse not the metagods wrath!


Expedition to the Island of Thule

Our party finally got to London and deposited the promised tithes in Westminster. Some of them decided to make additional donations in the name of the Lord. (I allowed them to exchange money to XP.) Wilbur also made his way into the Royal Bank and invested most of his cash. Then they got themselves a room in a cozy little tavern near the docks and finally cracked open the journal Wilbur has been hoarding since our first session. The party is joined by Florence's and Magda's new characters Derk the Horse Whisperer (Fighter) and the fearsome pirate Reggie Harlock the Magic-User (who has Read Magic tattooed into his arms). Father Matthew's player was absent this session, so he didn't get yet.

At the docks they chat with a slave trader from Portugal, who's selling his product at a discount. He says that since Norwich is under quarantine, he has too many slaves everyone he cannot sell will be thrown overboard. So, everyone except Boris spend a great deal of money and buy out all of the slaver's surplus.
Book counts all his coin to buy ten slaves, which he immediately frees. Then he re-enslaves them, because none of them speak English nor have any useful skills. Fast Bob buys himself two slaves and names them Credit and Debit, while Wilbur christens his purchase Hugo and hires him as a servant.
(As they do their business in the city, Debit perishes in a misunderstanding with the guards, while Books flock gets lost one by one until only two remain.)

The journal triggers a flashback that notes how the adventure company consisting of the GLADIATOR, the ENGINEER, the EX-LEGIONNAIRE, the PICT, the RABBI and the SORCERER sail to the island of Thule in search of magus Xenophon's silver treasure. The group lands and the Sorcerer hauls their boat inland. (Funny note: the Sorcerer was the groups strongest character with a strength of 17 and also the groups dumbest character with his intelligence of 7. His player soon decided that he practiced the long forgotten art of muscle wizardry.)
The explorers spend some time arguing, if they can trust the fishermen guard the boat, but when they finally move inland they are quick to find the entrance. The Sorcerer burns the drawbridge away with greek fire, while Engineer and Ex-Legionnaire fashion a ladder from their oars.
They enter the complex and are immediately suspicious of the statues in the lobby. The Pict and the Engineer climb up the balcony while the rest go through the main doors and join them upstairs thus animating the statues. They have a tumble with a group of shadow satyrs and one of the statues from the lobby. When they hear that more are on the way, they flee deeper into the complex and find a tunnel filled with silver engraved granite slabs and glass shards. The lobby guardians are getting closer and closer, so the party has no choice, but to go in further.

They get through the corridor and into the portal room in one piece and attract the ire of the Atlas golems. After some battling the group decides that the golems are too tough, they abuse the fact that the group is faster than the golems and just run up the stairs. (Except the Sorcerer, who spider climbs his way through.)
They encounter Xenophon in his demesne, but as he doesn't seem to do anything they proceed to search and loot the place. However, they don't really find anything that'd interest them (except Xenophon's spellbook, which is taken by the Sorcerer) so they try chatting the smoke-wizard-thing up.
Mindless Xenophon doesn't understand their attempt at small talk, so he summons his undead servants and raises his hand to cast a spell. Seeing that and winning initiative, the group runs away through the portal, where the atlas golems are waiting.
The party makes a cunning plan of showing one golem down the stairs (it had tried to climb them to get to the players) and then running away. It works and after crossing the sharp corridor again they run into the lobby guardians.
They however prove to be easy pickings after the atlas golems and are demolished pronto.
Next the party finds the shadow shrine that keeps spawning satyrs, but they run away when the room begins to fill with the beasts. The Ex-Legionnaire manages to grab the Vril Dagger before they do so.
They barely make it past the lobby and out. There they spend two days healing and debating, if they had enough, but the Engineer persists: he wants to see some of the fabled silver.

The party spends a week making guerilla attacks to the lobby, sniping the statues one at a time and running away as the golems awaken. Then they venture in and pick right this time. They kill the undead guarding the gate to the underworld easily, but decide not to mess with the gate. Engineer pockets the key. Then they venture downward.

"Xenophon's treasure vault must be here somewhere" Engineer remarks.
The party picks randombly from the four options (two vertical corridors and two curving ones) and go forth until the Gladiator vomits his lungs out. (He survives the ordeal.)
Not appreciating the sight of a loose lung, they return to the staircase holding their breaths and examine the corridors from where the air is cleaner. They notice the silver engraved in the walls and the Engineer finally begins to believe that the so-called great magus really wasted all of the silver to line his walls. Everyone begins to get fed up with the island, but the Ex-Legionnaire and the Pict take shine to the crystal-like gems inset in the walls. As Engineer observes, they smile at each other and strike two gems with their picks - and are instantly electrocuted to death.

This uses up the last of the party's plot tokens, so the flashback ends. We return to the readers, who are sitting around the journal nursing their drinks. The mood is sullen. "So, the island is full of things trying to kill you, its basement makes you puke your lungs out and there's no treasure whatsoever in there. The whole place sucks, lets go somewhere else!" Wilbur sums up the party's thoughts.

Pondering their next move, Fast Bob digs up Huxley's old mirror and summons forth Lucifer. As last time, the demon demands a firstborn sacrifice.
"Does my remaining slave have any siblings?" asks Fast Bob.
Lets roll for it, the Referee says. Nah, he tells you he's the only child.
"Alright, it was getting expensive to feed him anyway."

Then he begins asking questions (and I begin improvising plot hooks):
"How can I cure myself from this curse of Haste or, preferably, gain control of it?"
- If the Old Man Time won't lift his curse, seek out the Red King of Isten Vak. He has long since conquered time and will be able to teach you. You may also seek the manse of the Laughing Magician, who has a cruel sense of humour and often dabbles with such magics.
"Hey, this thing works! Now tell me... Where can I find the most valuable gem on earth?"
- To find what you seek search the mountains north of the french hamlet of Chan'Elysees. The diamond you seek sits in a cavern guarded by the powerful Wiki Dot Pod.
"Alright, that sounds promising, but hey where is the magical dagger Ex-Legionnaire snatched from the shrine?"
- Ah, what you seek is the fabled Godslayers Dirge that has been prophesied to end the existence of one more god or godlike entity. The Dirge has found its way to Karlstadt and is currently held by a witch known as the Lover. You must tread with her to gain possession of this artefact.

"Godslaying dirge, eh? Think who we could threaten with a thing like that. Let us head to Karlstadt!" Boris declares. "Yay!" the rest concur.

I'm impressed how lucky Fast Bob was, as the mirror lied to him only once. Can you guess which answer wasn't quite true?

This week's session was full of travelling to Holy Roman Empire and we left the characters at the gates of Karlstadt. I suspect we'll spend atleast a couple of sessions in and around the city, and I'll be writing the next chapter after we are done with the adventure.

Thanks for reading!

---

Since today's recap was rather short, there's some room for me to write down what happened with the first LotFP module I ever ran. Last year I was feeling festive around Valentine's day and I decided to run DEATH LOVE DOOM for my university's gaming group.

Long story short, Specialist, Elf and Another Specialist found themselves in London and in a desperate need of money. And like manna from heaven, their neighbouring table seemed to host a bunch of loudmouthed criminals talking about Bloodworth Manor and how its inhabitants hadn't been seen in days. They claim that the mansion must surely be full of riches and that they were going to rob the place first thing tomorrow night.
And of course, our industrious players decided to be there first.

Our brave burglars made their way to the countryside and staked the manor. When there was no movement, Another Specialist sneaked in through the servant's gate. As he saw and heard nothing, and nothing whatsoever happened, rest of the group followed in. They decided to search the stables first as it might provide some clue on Foxglove family's whereabouts. The decapitated horses creeped them somewhat, but not enough to drive them out, so they move forward to investigate the noises coming from the back room.

Inside they meet Erasmus Foxglove, who's suffling awkwardly around, controlled by the puppet-thing on his back.
"Help please... Get help," he pleads as his blackened member ejaculates black, sticky acid that engulfs the Elf.
He fails his save and perishes in agony in a couple of rounds as the acidic spooge burns its way through him. As the Elf withers and screams, Specialist and Another Specialist try to take down Erasmus, who never stops pleading "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please forgive me, I didn't mean it."
The Specialist falls under Erasmus' assault in a couple of rounds, and convinces Another Specialist that perhaps a life of adventure isn't for him. He books it, leaves town and never comes back.
The End.

Both specialists were familiar with LotFP and were mostly impressed by boldness of Death Love Doom, but Elf's player has refused to play since. He seems to think that everything in Lamentations contains black acidic jizz and genitalia monsters out to get him. (Though I think that by now he's quite fond of the memory. He brings it up every time we discuss LotFP!)

Alright, last week we played the second and the last session my group spent in Dunnsmouth and boy do I have a tale to tell about it.

A tour in the Scenic Dunnsmouth

Here's the next chapter in the tale of our group. To reiterate, the party consists of Huxley, an elf harbouring delusions of godhood; Boris the Dwarf, ex-member of the dwarven KGB; Wilbur, Specialist who's in it for the money; and Florence the Fighter, man with the best armour, most HP and only ranged weapons. They are joined by Father Matthew (a Cleric), who thinks that the best way to appease THE LORD is a good whip and a bloody back.

After the dealing with the Pale Lady our group headed north to a small port town of Lincoln, where they spent a couple of days restocking and playing a local tavern game Sting. (It involved the local gentry bribing outsiders and other fools to lie down in a box full of scorpions. Got it from Vornheim, love that book.)
When a dutch trading vessel stops by, Florence spends some time haggling for passage. After trying to get a passage to "North", "Edinburgh", "Liverpool", "Somewhere", the Captain politely asks, if they have any idea where they're going (and how big a bounty are they fleeing): Florence lets the name Dunnsmouth past his lips. "Why didn't you say so? We can leave you crazy people there and pick you up a month later."

Uneventful voyage later the sailors leave the party on an old decrepit pier. Soon they are greeted by Herman Van Kaus, who grudgingly draws a crude map to get the outsiders off his back. Florence leaves his horse and pavilion tent (which are soon eaten and stolen by Herman) by the pier.

The party goes to meet the local clergyman, Father Iwanopoulos and soon decide that he's a lazy sod who gets nothing done. They spend a day touring the swamp and squeezing money out of the poor townsfolk. Some highlights include:

They drink moonshine with Obediah Duncaster, and later his wife Jezebel seduces Florence the Fighter, while the rest of the party ('cept Huxley, who tried to match Obediah's drinking) visit Obediah's aunt Ester. Jezebel tells Florence about great hiking paths in the mountains and how they could have a picnic there. The two agree on a date next day.

The party is thoroughly creeped out by Jimbo Samson and fail to get him to put his pants on. In their haste to get away they ignore the telltale glow of the Time Cube. Jimbo just enjoys the rays of his blue sun. That's why he built his house there.

They debate with Magda whether the witch needs to pay the tax as she is just visiting. Both sides try to Charm and Command each other with little success. Magda warns the party about Uncle Ivanovich, a mad hermit who's been after her for a long time, and provides the first cryptic clues about the Time Cube. The party strikes a deal with Magda that they help her get rid of the Uncle and she aids them in whatever endeavours they have in the town.

Huxley the Elf spends an hour diving around Klaudia Van Kaus' submerged first floor looking for a locket that doesn't exist. Almost drowns.

Boris the Dwarf and Father Matthew get too agitated when giving downtrodden Millard Dunlop financial (and relationship) advice.
They try to buy one of his sons to totally become a monk, but settle on the lacquered heirloom armour.

Herman Van Kaus, who had eaten Florens' horse and stolen his pavilion tent, claims to know nothing about either and insists that his new tent is merely a coincidental purchase. The party decides against killing the thief when he begins pelting them with furniture and coins, as they prefer not to agitate the locals too much. (And because they saw Klaudia's crossbow and collection of poisons)

Noticing gorgeous Billy Sue's interest, the party abandons Boris in her care so he would 'get some'. Spends next few hours avoiding her advances.

The party also learned that Klaudia van Kaus and Uncle Ivanovich are related somehow. As we ended the first session the party was preparing a visit to the Uncle. Interestingly, my players were really interested in the locals and in every house they bombarded the residents with trivia questions like "How are you related to the other people in this town?", "What's your wife's maiden name? Where is she from?", "What do you do for a living here?", "When was the last time you paid tax? How much do YOU think you should be
paying?".
This took me by surprise as I was expecting more greedy of the indifference I had seen before.
They also spent a lot of time inquiring the locals about a path through the mountains. This made me stat out a small mountain village (where many locals claimed to be from) and the hike across the mountains. I should have known that by the second session, the players had lost all the interest in the locals and the mountains and ultimately left Dunnsmouth by the sea.

---

We had some time between sessions one and two, and by the next time we played our group had been joined by two new players. Fast Bob the Fighter, a former master assassin and cat burglar (with a Dex of 4!), who came to Dunnsmouth escaping his latest (failed) mark and looking for new work as a bodyguard (the job seems really easy by comparison!) He meets Jimbo Samson, who "hires" him to "deal" with the rich outsiders that harass the outsiders and are a general nuisance. The other player decides to play Magda as she's level 2, has Summon and is already in the village. (In my game players can either roll a fresh PC at level 1 or possess an eligible NPC who's positively inclined towards the party.)
Both make their way to the church. Fast Bob sneaks through the bog, but is spotted by Florence, who woke up early to take the lovely Jezebel camping in the mountains and steals the party's only boat to do so). Luckily he took Bob for a particularly big leech and the two passed each other unawares.

At the church Fast Bob performs his penultimate triple-vault-crash-to-the-floor manouver and is simultaneously outnumbered and surrounded. He and the party soon become friends.
They head out to Uncle Ivanovich's dwelling, a half-complete brick cottage in northern Dunnsmouth. Father Matthew (who's acting as the party face and the team leader at the moment) ignores Magda's pleas for subterfuge. They are on the church's business and thus have nothing to fear. They come ashore and knock on the door. "It's the church! Open the door NOW!" Matthew shouts and hears only barking in answer. "No use pretending to be a dog, Ivanovich! We know you're there!"
Frustrated at the hermit's deception, Matthew orders Bob to investigate, who promptly jumps in via an unbuilt window. A large warhound greets him and Bob jumps right back out. The party circles the cottage and digs around the refuse pit fishing out some human bones. "Quite the digestion the guy has," Boris comments.
"Oh well, he's not in. We should come back later." Matthew decides. "Eff that, lets just loot the place" Huxley the Elf rebuts. "Fast Bob, come to the door and deal with the mutt when it comes out."
Huxley kicks the door in and is squished by a cartload of bricks that had been balanced over the door. And before anyone has a chance to be shocked, Ivanovich' rottweiler springs from the door and lunges for Bob's throat. Bob and the dog trade blows and ultimately Bob emerges victorious. He and Boris venture inside the cabin, while the rest remain to loot Huxley's corpse.
The house's interior proves to be quite sparse and the duo refuses to touch the only remotely valuable thing (dozen golden teeth on the table, parts of jaw still hanging from it). They do discover a partially exposed cellar hidden under a tarp and descend to investigate it.
Meanwhile outside, Magda, Matthew and Wilbur are arguing, who gets to keep Huxley's spellbook (formerly the Pale Ladys). When their backs are turned, something rises from the bog. "Whasyadoinimmahowze?" Ivanovich mumbles and stumbles towards Magda with his cleaver raised.
He gets one good hit in before Magda runs inside. She doesn't see the exposed pit and falls. Luckily Fast Bob, who was trying to come back up, breaks her fall and the two tumble down with minimal damage.
So, currently Wilbur and Father Matthew are alone with the mad hermit Ivanovich ("Whassadoinwifmewife,yebasterd?I'ssgunnastabyewifmehatchetansprinklespiceinyerprettehface").
Uncle proves to be almost too much for the two, especially when Bob, Boris and Magda deem it better to hide in the cellar. (Granted, only after Bob almost broke his neck trying to climb up and Boris almost hitting Wilbur with his grapnel as he wildly tried to drag Uncle Ivanovich down.)
With some solid blows they do manage to bring Ivanovich to half health and the geezer decides to make for it and flee. ("I'llgetyenexttime,yesonsoffrondarses.I'llgetmehsparkliesanskeweryewifmebricks!"
Matthew pursues and forces Ivanovich to confront him, but the encounter ends badly: 6th level Ivanovich still had almost 30hp left, while the 1st level Matthew had just ten. The cleric is decapitated by the murderous hermit, who hoots in triumph and disappears with Matthew's head.
The remaining quartet leave after fishing the rest from the cellar and checking that it contains only jars of pickled man.
They make note to bring the corpses back with them for a proper burial.

Meanwhile in the mountains, Florence has been led to a pictoresque ruin by Jezebel. He fails to see the charm of the cave that is barely visible under all the cobwebs, but in the promise of pie and a great view he agrees to set their towel on the rocks before it.
Time passes and food is eaten and Florence begins to feel a bit drowsy. He doesn't notice the three men emerging from the cave, but finds the resolve to struggle weakly, when they grab him. "I'm sorry, honey, but you'll understand. I promise no harm will come to you," Jezebel says. Florence is taken to the cave and bitten. And then he understands, why it had to be done and that he loves the spider with all his heart.

Some hours later the party is united back at the church. Huxley's replacement, Book the Shepherd (the Cleric), joined the party soon after they arrived. He had drifted along Dunn river in search of adventure. Their stew (frog legs, Father Iwanopoulos' favourite) attracted Matthew's new character Ecuador the Halfling. As they feast, Florence regales everyone with tales of the cave in the mountains and the friendly shepherds living there. He says they should all go together to tax them. "Without any weapons and armour preferably. They can get very nervous."
The rest get very suspicious, but eventually agree to go there first thing in the morning. Magda shoots Florence a knowing look and they covertly figure out that they're both in the cult.
The local clergyman and their host, Father Iwanopoulos, also politely inquires on how the tax effort goes. When Wilbur laments how pisspoor the locals are, Iwanopoulos tells that apparently there's another village, Dunnbank, northward along the river. He has never seen any people from there and the locals seem to avoid the subject, but if it exists, it surely would also pay the tax. He also passes along a rumour that Klaudia Van Kaus has hidden most of her riches in the Van Kaus mausoleum.
Hearing that Book declares that graverobbery is a sin, but using a tomb as a bank is even greater one.


Next day they venture into the mountains and easily find the site Florence spoke so much about. They snoop around the area and clear some webbing away from four obelisks to discover four insectoid carvings. (Ant, centipede, cockroach and a mosquito.) But when Florence urges them to venture inside an argument breaks out. Wilbur accuses him of being too suspicious, while Book wonders how a flock of shepherds could ever support themselves in such a dank cave. No cajoling from Florence manage to convince either them and the group turns tail and returns to Dunnsmouth. The three cultists hiding in the cave breathe in relief as the scary adventurers leave them and their cuddly spider god be.
(And thus my meticulously planned site of Van Kaus' shame went unexplored and the ties to Goblin Hill unfound.)

Next the party decides to try their luck with the Van Kaus mausoleum. When their finest lockpicks fail to open the its locked door, Wilbur declares the building cursed and the party begins searching the graveyard for another way in.
"Mausoleum's totally have backdoors, they're much like malls, but for the dead," Ecuador shares his wisdom.
They find no backdoors, but Magda recognises a peculiar ankh that signifies an entrance to the ominous Ghoul Market (from Vacant Ritual Assembly #1) scrawled on one grave. Book is also familiar with the sign and reminds Magda that ghouls are hungry and always demand tribute.
Father Iwanopoulos arrives to the scene and greets the group joyously as he's never had much attendants in a funeral, but he is quickly pestered away. "No need to strain yourself, friend! Book's a priest and we can handle the proceedings for you!" The party quickly empty the coffins and drag the corpses to the ankh.
They dig themselves a hole and crawl to the ghoul market. Denizens eye them hungrily, but are satisfied by the two (almost) fresh corpses. "Cleric flesh, how exquisite! But next time bring the head too."

The group is mostly creeped out by most of the shopkeepers, but take a liking to Vespero, who offers to sell them magical items and accepts coin and lifeforce. We have a short shopping montage and in the end of it the whole party is somewhat dumber, uglier, and clumsier, but Bob is the proud owner of a pickchicken egg (claimed to open any lock), Ecuardo got himself a basket that never runs out of (cursed) food while Wilbur now has a Candle of Ill lumination (the holder is the only living thing it gives light). Florence also got something for himself: a key with heart shaped handle. This "Key of Love" apparently leads a pure soul to the fair princess of Duvan'Ku, who lies in enchanted sleep waiting for a knight to marry her and reclaim the riches of her kingdom.
The party also browses some of the hexmarks (tattooed spells), but eventually they leave the way they came. (They don't dwell on the fact that if they hadn't used Huxley's and Matthew's carcasses to buy their passage, skinsmith could have stitched both of them back together.)

Bob takes the pickchicken to the mausoleum's doors and the impossible lock is open! (Really, Wilbur just had horrible luck with Tinkering.)
Now able to enter, the party takes care not to repeat same the sloppy mistakes they did at Ivanovich's house. They stay close to the wall and use an oar to prod the floor and walls ahead of them. They spend some time trying to appease the Reaper statue that watches over the mausoleum (and Fast Bob accidentally gets cursed). Soon they accidentally trigger a secret switch when trying to appease the statue and are let into the flooded crypts. Wilbur and Bob dive for valuables ("That nefarious hag Klaudia! She has hidden all her valuables in her ancestors' corpses!") and Bob almost drowns, when one of the dead objects to his graverobbing.
Bob decides he's had enough and as the others aren't willing to go into the water anymore, the party departs.


The players are slowly getting fed up with the village and elect not to risk visiting Dunnbank (and thus, never encounter the Potemkiman residing there). They get ready to leave Dunnsmouth, but Magda insists upon studying the Time Cube first. The group makes their way towards the blue glow (they had confirmed the Cube's location by asking their Lucifer in the mirror about it). They decide not to visit Buck Samson on the way.
Magda is the first one to approach the Cube and the rest have a gay old time throwing rocks at her, hitting her with sticks and laughing at her slow-mo reactions as the time slows logarithmically around her.
Getting tired of waiting for hours, Florence and Ecuardo eventually join her to see what the fuzz is all about. They read the inscription on the cube and lose the ability to gauge the track of time. They discuss for "some time" before coming back where the rest have already set up camp.
Magda makes the claim that she might be able to summon the entity in the cube, but to succeed she needs sacrifice. Human sacrifice.
Florence immediately volunteers Jezebel. Father Iwanopoulos and Jezebel's husband Obediah are also considered. Their final choice is Uncle Ivanovich as he's the highest level person in town and easier to carry than three 0th level nobodies.
They lay a trap: Magda goes alone to Ivanovich's cottage, while the others hide in the swamp. The Uncle cannot resist the lure for long and when he comes to claim his 'wife' everyone rushes to grapple him. He makes for a mighty struggle, but gets tied and taken to the Time Cube. Book, Wilbur and Boris don't want to be anywhere near a summon spell, so they return to the church, where they hear that Iwanopoulos had taken them for dead as they'd been gone for weeks. 

At the Cube Magda performs the ritual and succeeds beautifully (first non-botch summon I've seen). Old Man Time emerges from the Cube, under the thrall of Magda. Surprised that she hasn't been killed, possessed nor dragged into an alien dimension, she begins to demand all kinds of services from the Old Man.
"Make my friend faster!" she yells and points at Fast Bob. Old Man Time has no choice but to obey, so he conjures a timekeeper and winds it up. Bob is now under a permanent haste spell (also causing him to age twice as fast and perceiving everyone as if under Slow).
"It works!" Magda exclaims and decides to be even more generous. "Make me and my two friends immortal," she orders and indicates Florence and Ecuador.
"I can ensure you will outlast all currently known civilisations. Does that satisfy you?" Old Man Time asks.
"So, like a stasis of some kind?" Magda asks.
"Can we continue our lives normally?" Florence and Ecuador ask.
"Yes," Old Man Time answers.
"Well, that's good enough for me! Do so and you may leave," Magda promises. Obeying, Old Man lifts his cloak and hurls it over Magda, Florence and Ecuador. He vanishes and Bob is alone in the swamp with his friends frozen in time and the Time Cube lifelessly sinking into the bog.

Bob makes his way back to the church to tell the news to Wilbur, Book and Boris. On the way he notices that Dunn's current is slowly but surely picking up. At the church he can almost see the sun peeking through the fog.
"You sure took your time, where are the rest?" Boris asks Bob.
"It'scomplicatedandpleacewhymustyoutalksoslowly?" Bob replies and brings the remaining party to the Cube. (It's worth noting even if Bob's and Ivanovich's lines are both written all together, Bob's talking superfast while Ivanovich jsut slurrs and mumbles heavily.)
After making sure Magda and co are immovable, the party fashions crude signs to warn possible intruders ("Our friends. Do Not Touch."), they also decide to leave the Time Cube there as none of them knows anything about it and they doubt it'd sell for much. After two weeks of vigil, they spot a passing ship and barter for passage. It's getting cold as their brief visit inside lasted four months outside.

We ended our adventure in Dunnsmouth here with half of the party dead, the rest on their way to London, where Wilbur finally intends to crack the spine on his travelogue to the island of Thule. We played (the first part of) Thulian Echoes this week, but that's a tale for another time!

TL;DR version: Our party of murderhobos accidentally performs mostly good deeds and save the day during their stay in Dunnsmouth. Half of the party manages to escape relatively wealthy, while the rest must first wait for 4000 years to pass.

I couldn't schelude a game for this week, so to pass the time and to keep my mind focused, I'm posting an older play report of the module Idea from Space. I ran this adventure in Maracon (a small local convention) for a random group. The game was back in May, so I've made some educated guesses to fill in the blanks in my memory.

Our party consisted of Specialist, Halfling, Cleric, Magic-User and another Magic-User. They were on a voyage towards the New world aboard the ship Mary Celeste and, being adventurers, had bonded over the long voyage. They all knew Duke Ferdinand by reputation and had heard the rumours that his vessel La Juliana had disappeared somewhere in the region. Additionally, the Magic Users knew tales about a powerful wizard Xaxus that once had a kingdom somewhere in Tierra del Fuego.

The play begins with their ship Mary Celeste caught in a storm and by the time it clears they find themselves drifting near the shore of an unmapped island. Another wreck can be seen by the shore. The ship's captain gathers the PCs together and asks them to search the wreck and the island for supplies. He reasons that as adventurers the PCs can face any threats they might encounter and furthermore he doesn't trust his crew enough to
leave the ship to their hands.
After negotiating an extra portion of grog for the rest of the voyage, our party heads ashore.
They spend some time looting the wreck and discover it is, in fact, the vanished La Juliana. However, the tide returns while the Specialist is still inside and he almost drowns on the way back. After the Cleric saves the day, they head inland and decide leave the wreck's disassembling for later.

While exploring the coast, the party encounters a group of Manakata worshippers. After favourable reaction rolls and friendly banter, the players decide they like these strangely buff sailors and decide to follow and ask them about their gym membership.
They are escorted to the temple and left to wait for the night and the ritual. Naturally they decide to explore around: the party takes a bath in the heated pools and fools around in the oversized breastplates in the storage. They take no interest in the back of the tunnel nor find any secret doors, as they didn't want their swole hosts to get suspicious.
Come the night everyone gathers around the statue of Manakata and the players are given choice to try and lift the thing. Specialist, who fancied himself a strongman couldn't budge the idol, but the weedy (low con, strength just high enough) Magic User manages a squat and is blessed by a quest: Eat one of the other worshippers and gain Manakata's favour.
The evening turns ugly, when one of the worshippers takes interest in eating/killing/fucking some of the player characters. The group tries to leave politely, but soon has to draw swords. The Magic-User tries to eat their aggressor, but is punched into coma by the Manakatan and dragged away by the Specialist and the Cleric, while the other Magic User casts his strongest spell to act as a distraction: Summon.
Oo boy, things are going to get interesting.
He summons a silvery ball of antimatter, but fails the control roll and is attacked by his creation. Luckily, the backlash and resulting light show scared the Manakatans enough that they don't pursue. The Halfling, who had been largely ignored during the hustle, sneaks away and drags one of the fallen Manakatans with him.

Safe distance away at the steam vent Cleric heals the fallen Magic User, who then tries his luck and nibbles some meat off the carcass dragged in by the Halfling. Manakata is pleased and instantly the mage gets ripped. They also spend some time lowering the Halfling through the vent, but he backs away after spotting the sleeping captain. The group sleeps until morning, letting their casters regain spells.

Based on the chatter they heard at the Temple of Manakata, the party decides to explore the towers and look for the duke and his entourage. They make their way on top of the Gull tower and are noticed by the part of Xaxus standing on guard. The part runs to gather a welcoming party.

Meeting goes surprisingly well and the players don't seem much budged by the fact that the duke has become part of an alien hivemind. With little effort Xaxus persuades the party's Magic User (the one that did not become buff) to join them. The player's glee can be tasted in the air, when he takes control of the other parts.
Xaxus and the Buff Magic User spend several minutes in debate, because they feel that they should have a rivalry now that the one is Xaxus and the other has been blessed with more muscles than he can handle. Xaxus, however, proves to be too persuasive and soon convinces the buff Magic User to join him in the collective.
Naturally Xaxus cannot handle two egos that large and the entity is fractured into Xaxus and Xuxas. The two decide to make a truce and vanquish the Manakatans together.

All this time Cleric, Halfling and the Specialist have been following the discussion without any idea what is going on. They decline all offers to join any collective and perk up only, when the entities declare that they can help to repair Mary Celeste after the cult of Manakata has been put down. Gleefully, the party prepares for combat while Xaxus/Xuxas send some parts to fetch their weapons.

First however , they should inform the captain of Mary Celeste, declares the Cleric. They head for their boat, but uh oh! It has been found by a group of Manakatans! Party moves to attack with surprise and numbers aiding them.
The Manakatans fight back and manage to knock down three parts of Xaxus (or Xuxas, can't remember), the Halfling and the Specialist, while suffering only three losses on their side. The winner is uncertain, so Xaxus decides to even the battlefield and casts Summon.
He puts in all hit dice he can and almost summons something horrible, but his terrible luck at Domination rolls continues. He fails by a great margin and rolls 6 on the table. I tell him that the creature demands one of his compatriots as tribute, for it has been greatly offended by this pathetic attempt at summoning.
Xaxus feels a pang of guilt in his heart and chooses himself, so the others would be spared.
But the creature is not amused as the caster himself was not on the menu. Greatly offended, the thing retreats back to its dimension and drags every PC with it... except the Magic User. He is left alone, surrounded by four angry Manakatans.

They contemplate for two rounds where everyone went before pummeling the lone Magic User to paste.

So, the ending was a bit anticlimactic for the players and greatly hilarious for me. Still, the players had liked the adventure, especially the Magic Users commented that they had had great fun playing Xaxus/Xuxas. They didn't spend much time exploring the dungeons (most of my exposition fell on deaf ears) and were more interested in interacting with the two factions. Some of this may be because most of the group was new to OSR, but I agree with them that the factions had the best quirks and interesting leads, while the Gull Tower did not have much in it to warrant exploring. (They never went to the Tower of Xaxus.) Most of them liked the system and were interested in playing other modules.
I had a hangover during most of the session, so personally I'm just surprised and glad that the game went over as well as it did.

Hehe, my players are becoming paranoid about Summon - every time its been cast, it has killed at least one party member (and more often, everyone)!
Unfortunately, they promised to make the next MU with a familiar regret their decision, so I don't know if we'll see much more accidental death summons...

Anyhoo, the next part of the adventure is ready to be served! This one became much too long, I have to cut back on prose in the next one.

Note: Again I've fiddled a bit with the adventure. Having the entrance ritual work only on equinox was too problematic for our calendar so in my game the wizard's ritual works every full moon. I guessed that being trapped for a month is as deadly as being trapped for six months. Presumably the rabbit men have a lesser ritual as they only raid during the spring.

The Case of the Pale Lady

The last Tuesday our adventurers escaped Norwich among the last, before the city was put under quarantine and by chance Huxley (or Hugsley) the Elf, Boris Kalashnikov the Dwarf, Wilbur the Specialist and a newcomer Flavio the Fighter, an italian frustrated that he had been driven away only a day after arrival, were pushed into a group by the masses of evacuees. Recognising the strength that lies in numbers (and the wrath of a Referee that has to manage three separate parties) they decide to stick together until further notice and promptly begin searching for a place to wet their throats and plan their next course.

To their ill luck, nearest roadside tavern has  noticed the sudden surge of travelers and hired two thugs to enforce a steep entrance fee - five silvers per customer, eight for dirty elves and italians. Most of the party is willing to pay, but Flavion is infuriated by the bigotry and Boris refuses out of principle. They deduce that the only logical reason for this greed is that the inn has been commandeered by brigands and thieves and decide that street justice must be meted out.
But before they have a chance to commit to their wild plans, Huxley and Wilbur point out that even together they couldn't take everyone in the inn.
Undaunted, Boris and Flavion are out for blood and won't back down until they've inflicted at least some harm to the bouncers: Flavion acts humble and pays the toll, but when inside immediately turns and shoots one bouncer with a bow while the next-in-line Boris draws his blade and decapitates the other. Mass of escapees panics in horror and the party has just enough time to steal some horses from the stable and escape as the furious patrons storm out of the inn.
During the chase Boris laments that he has never met a warrior armed only with a bow and Flavion protests that he also has a shank.

After fleeing to a safer distance the party stops to think their next move: the mysterious journal Wilbur pilfered from the Tenebrous hand turns out to be written in ancient Latin, a language only Huxley can understand. Wilbur is reluctant to part with the journal, but allows Huxley to take a look at it and discover it's an ancient travelogue with directions to a remote island rumoured to contain the treasure of a Greek magus Xenophon.
Old forgotten treasure immediately rouses the party's interest, but Wilbur urges they first seek out abbess Ruth Ford and complete his debt to the church as he doesn't want to spent his eternity in the fires of hell. He reminds that the journal is still his property and the island is far, while the abbey is only a few days ride away.

Nothing interesting happened during the ride to the abbey. On the way the PC's encountered a nun named Titania, who was apparently headed to the same direction, but as she had no horse and considered riding with a man improper they left her in the dust.
Late in the evening they reach the abbey gates and are greeted by the sour sister Purity who reluctantly lets the PC's in when they show Father Glascoine's letter. Abbess Ruth Ford declines to talk business until the next morning and so the PCs spent a cold night on the abbey floor (except Flavion who had been banished outside because of his blasphemous mouth, he slept nice and warm inside his tent).

Next morning the party is joined by Titania and Abbess Ford tells the party about her shaken guest and his ramblings of the forest witch. She shares her suspicion about the witch having the possession of the fabled Word of Creation and promises to lend the holy Blade of Prester John, if the PC's retrieve the Word and deal with the witch.
Party is not convinced that the risk is worth some rusty sword, no matter how holy. After they speak their reluctance Titania adds that she has been tasked to collect the church tithe from the remote town of Dunnsmouth. She'd rather not make the journey, so she promises that the PC's may collect the tithe of 12 000 silver in her stead, if they help Abbess Ford. Dunnsmouth has an ill reputation, so her denomination would be satisfied with mere thousand pieces allowing the adventurers to keep the rest.
Our heroes are far more interested in the promise of easy wealth, so they readily agree to smoke the witch out.

Ford's guest proves to be quite insane, but the party never questions his tale and with interrogation learns the important bits: how to access the realm of the forest witch and that there's a mysterious cube somewhere in her palace.
As the PC's had no star charts we let a d30 (gotta get some use out of them) decide when was the next full moon and it turns out to be the very next night! This chimes in perfectly with the party's plans as they felt no particular preparations were in order.

After sunset the party marched into the nearby woods and found a convenient hole. They all crawled through and entered the flower field, except Flavion who forgot to say the magic words.
Seeing his comrades gone, he got the words right on the way back and thus entered the fields on the opposite side.

In the darkness the party saw little, but Huxley managed to spy two humanoid figures guarding the briar palace's front doors with his keen elf eyes. Thinking that stealth's for cowards, Boris and Flavion moved to combat the two guards. Their swords and arrows struck true, which was good because they had to immediately rush to keep the front doors shut and the reinforcements out. (I think every palace should have two double doors that open outward for dramatic entrances. Except if it's a haunted house, then doors open inwards.)
They use rope, a crowbar and iron spikes to jam the door. They try to find a climbable hole from the briar, but are not willing to climb higher so find nothing. Then Boris' eyes light up: "Briar is a plant! So it burns!" And then he proceeds to pour lamp oil and throw his torch in an attempt to set the place ablaze. Now I know for certain I have a bunch of unrepentant pyromaniacs for my players.
Unfortunately the damp briar does not light easily and during the time it took to bar the door and light the fire, the rabbit-reinforcements have circled from the back door. Not wanting an open confrontation and exhibiting base cunning, they prefer throwing rocks at Boris and others lit by their torches.
When the first rock hits, Flavion goes solo and goes round the other way while the rest are pelted by stones. Alas, he's as stealthy as an ox and has to turn around, when the rabbit men guarding the reed huts begin pursuit.
On his way back he meets the rest of the party that has followed behind him and the group finds itself pincered between two patrols of rabbit men. For a moment they debate if they should set wiretraps with their garrottes, but it's too late! The rabbits charge!
Due to the Referee's dice being cursed, they manage to take out quite a few of their attackers, before Huxley and Wilbur fall down and Boris and Flavion flee in to the woods.
The guards decline pursuit in favour of wondering what to do with their two captives.
As one of them is an elf, both are tied up and carried to the Pale Lady.

Boris and Flavion spend their night in the woods, lamenting their fallen comrades and waiting for an attack that never comes. Before sunrise they sneak into the reed camp and try to rouse the slaves into rebellion, but find the poor beings too afraid and too submissive to rise against their mistress. They hide when the slaves are herded into the fields and spot that the back door has only two guards. They plan an ambush.

Meanwhile Huxley wakes amidst silk to a white hand caressing her face. He opens his eyes and sees the Pale Lady, inches away from his face. "You didn't need to make such a show in your entrance, you could have knocked, handsome", she whispers.
"W-what?" says Huxley.
"Surely you've come to trade, yes? I'm sorry for your pets. One is resting, but the rest... my children are simple and become aggressive, when afraid. I can give you new ones later."
"Trade? Trade what?" says Huxley.
"Spend the rest of the night with me and I'll grant you a boon."
Huxley decides that, as his friends are most likely dead (they weren't much of friends anyway), playing nookie with this crazy lady doesn't sound like a bad fate at all.
Eagerly he melts into a passionate kiss as...

AT THE SAME TIME, Flavion and Boris attack from the woods! Flavion's arrows skewer one rabbit-monster, while Boris decapitates the other furry abomination.
They proceed to give no fucks about magic doors and bash it down. They are inside.
Our duo inspects the room full of flowers, but they didn't come all the way here for some flowers, did they? No, into the hallway it is.
After hearing the moans of passion coming from the Lady's quarters, the duo plan that they can take her unaware. They slam open he door, ready to charge through the silken curtains, but they falter when from the curtains emerges - not the horrid witch - but their equally horrifying compatriot Huxley, who Lady sent to find out what all the racket was about.
After a short chat to get everyone up to date, the trio heads to the guest room, where Wilbur was being tended to. Together they decide that some new plans need to be drafted as apparently the witch now owes Huxley a favour.
The elf wanted to use it for personal gain and power, but eventually relents and admits that asking about the Word of Creation is a better idea. He also puts his clothes on.

After a meal of seeds, flowers and honey, the party joins the Pale Lady in her throne room and plead their case. The now visibly pregnant Lady recommends that Huxley rethinks his favour as accessing the Word is highly unpleasant.
Flavio begins to plan for the moment things will go sour and unbars the main doors.

When it becomes apparent that Huxley won't change his mind, the amulet is fetched and party escorted to the Cube. Lady leaves and with a snap of the amulet, the party is inside. It is glorious. I can see the gleam in my players eyes, when they hear about the free level and XP bonus.
They also mistake the skeleton for a guardian, but when it refuses to guard even after having rocks thrown at it, the party gives up. Huxley begins to realise what is happening and goes pale (but not as pale as the Lady, hur hur hur hur).

Eventually the amulet is snapped again and the party meets their dublicates. ("I knew!" Huxley cries.)
A lot of existential agony later the players choose their destinies: everybody but one chooses the enlightened, level 2 XP-boosted clones, but Boris' player, who needs no stinking XP to kick ass and take names. Enlightened Flavio declares that he is the fake one and so has lost the right to be called 'Flavio'. Then he rechristens himself Florence.
As the situation dawns, the parties realise that they now have twice as much manpower to kill the Lady.
(Only Huxleys speak against the plan: "She's not such a bad person." "She enslaves children and sacrifices them to who knows what." "But she's not a bad person! They're only human children!" * death glares *)
They almost decide to build up more clones for an army, but in the end choose not to because no one was willing to take the initiative (and they surmised that it would soon get really claustrophobic inside the cube).

They crowd into the throne room to "show their thanks" and charge the Lady. (Except Flavio, who runs away and accidentally alerts the rabbit men outside.)
The Lady, who hadn't any that useful combat spells prepared, casts Hold Person, but fails to get the two murderous dwarves she really wanted to hold. After another round of pummeling she tries to flee, but is cut down by a lucky knife throw by Wilbur. The rabbit men break morale and flee and as luck would give, the only PC casualties are among the now-NPC originals. Rest of the originals decide that the new party has changed too much and there is only one Dunnsmouth and leaves the rest bleeding on the ground. They gather under the enlightened Boris and leave. The original Boris curses after them "THAT'S NOT WHAT I WOULD DOOO!".
(HP-wise the battle was a very close one and the Lady fell just before the PC's chose to cut their losses and flee. To my shame, I forgot about the confusion effect that Huxley contracted from sleeping with the Lady as it would probably have spelled doom for the whole party.)

After stabilising the wounded, the party investigates and loots the briar palace. Huxley saves the two children from the pit and is greeted by the magic mirror: "Hello, I am Lucifer. Please sacrifice a firstborn to gain answers."
"What kind of answers?" asks Huxley.
"Anykind", the demon replies.
"... Is my child inside the Lady still alive?"
He sacrifices his unborn rabbit-son and Lucifer is so impressed by the sheer cruelty demonstrated that he promises to maybe answer more than one question.
"I... don't really have anything I want to ask. A raincheck?" Huxley ponders and takes the mirror with him.

Then the party declares that the slaves are free and wisely return to reality through the exact same spot they entered. (The NPC party did not bother to look for it.)
They return to the abbey and notice that their horses are present and the nuns still have their sacred blade. Their counterparts did not want them? Funny.
Ruth Ford is a little annoyed that she has to feed several dozens of former slaves but still thanks the party for getting rid of an evil witch. They, however, refuse to describe the Word of Creation to her. "Go have a look yourself."
Frustrated with the adventurers, Ford agrees.

We ended the session as the party prepared their voyage to Dunnsmouth, where the real reward awaited them. On the road Huxley revealed that he has kept the magic amulet.
"The Lady said there is more than one Word. I am going to see them all. And I am going to be God."

Incidentally nothing really interesting happened last Saturday, when the party reached Dunnsmouth. They almost left after collecting what was in the church (4000sp), but decided otherwise and spent most of the session guilting money out of the poor villagers. There was some seduction going on however, but I'll save the montage until after the next time we play. (I hope that the party will encounter the more interesting stuff in the village. We ended the game just as they were going to visit Uncle Ivanovich.)

Here's a story from my LotFP summer campaign Tales of Greed. We're two sessions in and next time we play is on saturday. Couple of weeks ago I asked here for advice on how to begin this campaign and in the end I decided to use the slightly modified Forgive Us.

Before getting into the meat of things, I state that I made the module somewhat less lethal, because I didn't want to alienate the newer players in my group. First, I made the disease less virulent and increased the number of saves to fail before one fully succumbs to the corruption. (When the infection is slower, the PCs have more time to ponder their horrible fate). Second, I decided that Aggraval's party was tasked only with the retrieval of the urn and would prefer negotiation over violence. I planned that together they would prevent a TPK. (Oh, how wrong I was...)

Second thing to note is that we tested two houserules nabbed from Ten Foot Polemic -blog. First, I had everyone roll a failed adventurer career that gave them two skill point to a "profession skill". Second, I gave Magic-users the option to have a familiar that stores an extra level 1 spell slot (and explodes as per a Summon spell on the master's death). We agreed that together they would give the PCs nice extra options.

Our party consists of Pablo Gonzales the Dwarf, William Blitwart the another Dwarf, Thorn Blödrosen the Elf and Medina the Magic-user and Puppet, her beloved familiar.

---

So, the PC's travel to Norwich and have little difficulty in locating Tenebrous Hand's hideout. When their attempt to infiltrate Dog and Bastard tavern fails (no one answers the door), they decide that a diversion is in order - one of them circles around and sets sets the carpenter's door on fire, while the rest wait for the thieves to put out the fire. To their befuddlement, no thieves come out. "Greedy bastards! They must be too busy counting their loot!" Pablo declares and the party scampers to find the local fire brigade.

Some time later the front wall of the carpenters shop is nicely ablaze and the leader of the neighbourhood watch organises a bucket line while thanking the Thorn and the rest of their vigilance.
Then the PCs break in. "There are people inside! We must save them!" Pablo and Thorn declare together.
The party is quick to find the incoherent William Hyde, who refuses to let them into the cellar. His incompliance provokes Medina's wrath, who expends her mightiest spell Faerie fire is - after some unlucky rolls - slain by the hysteric William. This makes the bindings on her familiar dissolve.

Before going into the summoning effects, it's relevant to note that Aggraval's party had entered the complex a bit earlier through the Scribe's house after the sudden fire forced them to hurry up their scouting routine. They managed to evade the dogs on the inner yard with meat and then moved to investigate the noice of violence coming from the tavern. They arrived to the scene just in time to witness the familiar erupt as a summon spell.

Now I have to say that Summon is one of our groups favourite spells and its sudden appearance was greeted with delight and anticipation. My more veteran players were eager to roll the dice and hear the results. "What the fuck Ref! None of us had Summon!"
This was the first time we got to experience one of the Abstract Forms: Memories of the pre-conception.
Next moment everyone in the premises was enslaved under the party elf's cruel will for several weeks. Yes, even Aggraval and his posse (except Ferguson, he has no soul).
After playing around with his newfound power over others, Thorn begins a frantic strip search of the complex - though for some reason he merely casually inspects the cellar and doesn't find the secret door. It doesn't take long for him to get frustrated with micromanaging his minions and after two get infected from the doggie in the butcher's shop, Thorn selects two of the sturdiest (Aggraval and Blitwart) and orders the rest to die in a fire. Then he decides he has enough loot and wants to retire for the night.

All this time the other players have been making new characters: Wilbur the Specialist and Boris Kalashnikov the Dwarf arrive to the premises. Wilbur has heard of the riches hidden by the Tenebrous hand and sees his chance in the midst of the confusion. Boris, on the other hand, hears noises inside and decides that whatever's in shouldn't be getting out. He sets fire to the Dog and the Bastard and tries to trap Thorn inside. (He also berates the bourgeoise western regime that made this possible.) Setting things on fire stays as their favourite solution to all problems in the following sessions.
The fire spreads slowly and Thorn manages to get free, but not before a bunch of firemen spot his hexed minions. Boris manages to rouse some population for a witch hunt.

In the tavern Thorn chose as his hideout, he meets the third new PC: Huxley the Elf. The two become short lived allies when Boris' mob lays siege to the inn forcing Thorn to flee and leave his minions to buy him time.
Seeing the size of the mob and realising that humans cannot tell elves apart from each other Huxley defects to aid the witch hunt. The mob is torn into two as the sides argue whether they should burn the elf regardless or believe him. After some debate, Boris solves the situation by sending half of the mob to build a pyre while the elf could help the rest until they had enough firewood.

Meanwhile Wilbur has found the gangs hideout and through a bit of metagaming gained access to their treasure vault. He nabs some trinkets from the hoard and by chance also takes James Blake's stolen journal. But not before getting infected by one of the things inside. He manages to flee, but forgets to lock the door. (The firemen, who had almost bested the fire, soon had a very nasty surprise on their laps.)

Thorn manages to evade the witch hunt, but cannot find a boat to cross the river. He decides that as elves are witches they are made of wood and thus float. So, he starts swimming carrying most of the gathered treasure.
Unfortunately, he was wrong and sinks to the bottom of the river dragging all the loot with him. Cue the collective groan from the players.

Come the morning, Wilbur has managed to resist the disease with some lucky rolls (two twenties in a row!) and is seeking a clergyman capable of healing him. Boris, Huxley and their mob begin a pogrom against all the elves in the city. They manage to collect a handful and Boris begins construct his own personal gulag on one of the city's plazas.

Doing so he arouses the attention of the city watch and Boris is driven away. Wilbur finds a cleric, one Father Glascoine, who agrees to cure the infection on the condition Wilbur performs one service for the church: an abbess from a remote abbey has been pestering Glascoine for a year about some forest witch and he wants someone else to deal with it. At the same time the city is slowly waking to the strange plague spreading from Tenebrous Hand's old hideout.
This is where we ended the first session.

---

Yesterday the group broke into the realm of the Pale lady and struck a deal with a wandering nun for the tithes of Dunnsmouth. I'll post the continuation of the story later this week, when I have the time to write it out.

I've also run some oneshots in cons and over roll20. If there's enough interest, I can post play reports from these games too.

65

(8 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

Same symbol shows up a couple of times in the DFD remake, so it's a safe bet to say it is the Dead Sign.

66

(8 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

If I remember right, Scenic Dunnsmouth has one potential NPC with some minor ties to Duvan'Ku. Fuck for Satan also has a reference. Not sure if there are any other modules with them.

I have to say, I'm also eager for more Duvan'Ku hijinks, lets hope the Referee book has more tidbits for us.

67

(6 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

I've got a bit of a problem about what scenario should I use to kickstart my summer campaign and don't wanna clutter the forums so I'll ask here.

My plan is that the PC's are hired to fetch an old journal which would then lead to Thulian Echoes. But I don't have anything for the first session, where they fetch the journal.
I considered the Bloodworth Manor from Death Love Doom and the realm of the Pale Lady, but then I decided that a more "normal" adventure works better to make the later weirdness all the more horrifying.

Three of my players have already stumbled their way through God That Crawls, so unfortunately that's out. What other good, contained adventure locations there are, where I could send my players?

68

(218 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

Hi everybody!
I'm a 24 year old Referee from Finland. I got introduced to LotFP last year when I joined Petroosh's summer campaign on a hunch. I got smitten with the system and the scenarios and now I'm planning my own summer game to drag more innocent souls into the fold.

I've been GM'ing different games for the past five years, but LotFP is the first DnD-like I've played (if you don't count three sessions of Pathfinder, where all that minmaxing drove me away from the game).
I've found LotFP's impartial and objective approach to refereeing really refreshing after games where the players are coddled and put on a pedestal. (And on the same note GM is expected to craft epic campaigns while at the same time making sure not to railroad anyone into them.) And personally, I enjoy the lethality of the system even as a player, because I'd get bored with just one PC - and it makes the situations, where the suicidal under-average-statted Specialist just refuses to die all the more special. Having most of my NPCs getting slaughtered by players does that.
As a literature student, the idea that campaign can be born from random tables, dice and player activity makes me tremble with anticipation (and various other feelings too). Currently my favourite night time reading is either Red and Pleasant Land or Fire on the Velvet Horizon.