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Fairmeadow Fair, session 18

← Session 17 | Campaign Summary | Session 19 →

Last time, our heroes escaped Saarland with their lives and some new information about who’s responsible for artifacts from Saarland ending up on the black market.  As they return to Sugar’s Crossing, they must decide what to do about it.

First, they return to the person who set them on this quest: Soren, the Elven storyteller who was there when the city fell.  They ask for her at the theater and have to wait a while because she’s with another client. Her expertise is in high demand.  She’s glad they returned safely and asks how Saarland is doing.  She readies pen and paper to record the information and add it to the historical record.  They report that Saarland is split between Ents trying to demolish buildings and return it to nature, and Spectres of dead residents who refuse to let go. The only people who go there are looters. Soren knew it would be bad, but hearing exactly how bad is still a blow.  She’s furious that people are desecrating her home. She picks up a second pen in her other hand and starts writing a vituperative diss track.

Gleador & Lucia ask Soren how the stolen artifacts might be moving around once brought back to civilization.  Traffic in such articles is illegal, but it’s not a crime that the garrison would notice, unless they were tipped off. Our heroes ask how to contact the underworld. Soren doesn’t get mixed up in such things, but the theater does employ some shady stagehands. They’re rough folks who probably know some rougher folks.  Lucia says that le Grind is the buyer for many of the artifacts.  Both of Soren’s pens stop suddenly.  The meeting room they are in is named after le Grind’s third son.  le Grind is a big financial sponsor of the theater.  Each year at the theater gala, he and Lady Evelynn try to outdo each other with lavish donations. If Soren performs a diss track against him, the theater would lose his funding and have trouble surviving. Gleador and Lucia say they’ll try to reveal le Grind so that the theater doesn’t take the fall. Soren thanks them for the information, even though it was upsetting.  Truth is good for history, and trauma is good for art.

Gleador & Lucia plan to gather information by touring the le Grind mill.  The original mill is preserved as a museum, while larger, more modern mills do the actual work of processing beets into sugar.

Plan view of the le Grind estate: 3 mills, a museum, mansion, and docks.

Lucia joins a tour group like a normal person. Gleador transforms into a wild cat with falcon eyes and allergenic dander.  The mill is built for Halflings (le Grind is a Halfling family) so even with larger hallways for moving loads and equipment about, it’s cramped for some guests.  Lucia is close to the ceiling at 5’0″. The  Elves in the group have to bend over, and one poor Naga has to spread most of his 11-foot length horizontally, taking up a lot of space.  The tour starts in the original mill and then turns to another room with drying racks and historical displays.  Finally, the tour group exits through the gift shop.  Gleador skips the tour and slips between bars of the fence around the le Grind estate. He infiltrates Mill A, which is bustling with Halflings bringing sacks of beats, loading them into the mill, and collecting the pulp and juice. The beets’ strong coloration stains the millstones, the floor, and the workers’ hands bright purple.  Gleador hops into a spot that he hopes is out of the way and surveys the scene but a bad roll of the dice means that his perch is right where the next heavy sack of beets goes. He leaps away at the last moment, out in the open, causing a commotion.  A wide-shouldered Halfing woman with very strong hands grabs him and tosses him out the window into the river.  Underwater he transforms into a catfish, avoids the churning waterwheel, and swims away as the woman starts itching and sneezing.

A sewer grate concealed under the docks of the le Grind estate.

From the river, he investigates the docks and sees drain large enough for a Halfling to walk through. It’s closed by a grate secured with a padlock. Inside, he sees that it’s fed by many smaller pipes, as expected, but there’s also a door. Most suspicious.  He swims away, returns to Elf form, and reconvenes with Lucia, whose authorized tour of the facility was uneventful.  They plan to sneak in through the grate, find what le Grind has stolen, and steal it from him. It’s not stealing if it’s already stolen.  They are not sure what to do with the artifacts once they recover them, but that’s a Gleador plan for you: Enthusiasm and optimism!

They wait for nightfall, and Lucia removes her heavy armor so that she can swim.  They approach the gate and wonder how to bypass the padlocked grate. The bars are six inches apart. Gleador could easily transform into something small enough to fit through, but Lucia can’t. Smashing the grate and picking the lock are suggested, but their planning is interrupted by the approach of a small rowboat. Two Halflings pilot it with muffled oars and a hooded lantern, so they’re probably up to no good.  Gleador and Lucia dive underwater to avoid notice.  The rowboat pulls up to the grate, and one Halfling unlocks the grate and goes inside. The other Halfing remains in the boat.  Lucia can’t hold her breath for that long and starts choking on water.  Gleador pushes Lucia downstream and floats to the surface, using his camouflage ability to remain unseen.  Lucia surfaces beyond the range of the Halfling’s lantern, but he’s aware of something out there and moves towards the drain.  Gleador transforms into a crocodile with the water jet power of a sea dragon.  He grabs the Halfling’s leg, but is shaken off.  Both Halflings in the drain run up towards the hidden door, leaving the grate unlocked.

Gleador does not pursue them. He examines the rowboat. It can hold six people, the oarlocks are wrapped in fabric to avoid noise, and there’s a false bottom that can conceal cargo.  He uses camouflage again to wait by the boat. Lucia goes to the bush just downstream of the docks where she left her armor and puts it back on.  Both heroes wait for the next move from the le Grind estate.

After about 15 minutes, three night watch come out to the docks. They are official. The have fancy hats, and lanterns on poles to light their way. They spot the boat. One climbs down under the docks to retrieve it while the other two hold their lanterns out to light his way.  Lucia takes this opportunity to slip away, but is noticed. She’s far away and it’s dark, so the guard only knows there was a tall person in armor lurking about.  One guard is holding two lanterns over the edge of the dock while a second fetches a boat hook to help the third pull in this mysterious rowboat.  As they are trying to secure the boat, Gleador grabs the boat and yanks it back into the water! One guards goes into the river with it. Another swings at the strange creature with his boat hook. The third blows the whistle around his next, raising a general alarm.  Gleador disengages from the fight and swims away underwater, eventually reconvening with Lucia.  They blew their chance to sneak into the estate, and they don’t know what those sneaky Halflings were doing in the drain, but they’ll try again another time!

← Session 17 | Campaign Summary | Session 19 →

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Chasing The Sunset & Platypalooza

Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.

Party: Fafnir the Dragon, Stella the Halfling, Buckle the Platyperson

The full moon will rise tonight, so it’s time for Platypalooza, the greatest celebration of Platyperson culture!  A party boat heading upriver spots Buckle and invites him and his companions to join.  They do, and the boat goes up the Mighty River and takes a tributary to the north to the Platyperson town of Bogden.  Paulie, the former mobster, is also on the boat, but there’s no reason to fight anymore.

From the river, all that’s visible is the great dam of Bogden, which creates a large, flat marsh suitable for Playtpeople living. the waterfall prevents the party boat from advancing further, so everyone has to disembark and walk up the switchbacks to the top of the dam.  Bogden is a village year-round, but Platypalooza temporarily makes it a vast city. Platypeople from all over the continent come here to celebrate, and people from other cultures also attend because it’s a great party. The permanent dwellings are off in the back. and most of the artificial marsh is a fairground, with booths, stages, games, and so on.

The leader of Bogden officially kicks off the festivities with an opening speech, but our crew realizes that he’s a tricky politician. Listening to his speech will damage their Sense, so they ignore him and explore the shops and stalls.  Fafnir loves food and Buckle points out traditional Platyperson food.  Lots of fried food. There are giant spider legs on skewers, competing hot sauce vendors shouting about the virtues of their special recipes, and so on.  One booth has a challenge: eat a spicy seed pod. Only a few seeds are needed for a whole pot of hot sauce.  Fafnir jumps at the chance, and since she’s immune to damage from fire and heat, she has no problem eating the spicy seeds!  She gladly receives the cheers of onlookers and a sampler platter from the impressed vendor.

Stella finds Clara, a fellow Halfling running a booth.  Clara sells pastries, which are a staple in Halfling culture, but an exotic treat to Platypeople.  Clara is one of many Halflings who fled the Halfling homeland during the Giant War, a war against Giants. Part of the reason that Stella explores this continent is to find scattered Halflings and tell them the good news: It’s safe to return home. The war is over! The Halflings won by surrendering! Instead of fighting the physically superior Giants, Halflings let them settle in Halfing towns, then relentlessly pranked them until the giants got so annoyed that they fled!  Clara is delighted to hear the news ,and starts a batch of celebratory peace cookies.  Stella asks if Clara knows where other Halflings are. There’s usually one in every city.  Clara mentions Sam, living in a walled city to the north. Stella and Clara say farewell with the old Halfling saying, “You always have a home.”

As the crew is moving through the crowd, looking for more fun, a large Platyperson roughly shoulders past Fafnir.  Fafnir won’t stand for such ill-treatment.  “I’m not stairs! You can’t just stomp over me!” The large Platyperson is The Champ! He says “I’m on my way to win the Fluming championship again. There’s still time for you to sign up. Meet me on the field and see how easily I can stomp over you!”  It’s on now!  Fafnir, Stella, and Buckle rush to sign up for the tournament.  Fortunately, Buckle can explain the rules of the traditional Platyperson game to the Dragon and the Halfling.  Silk, Gus, and Rose will cheer from the stands.

Each team has to take a log from the log pile, stand it upright at their base, and climb it.  One point for reaching the top. One bonus point for flipping the log during the dismount, but failing the dismount costs one point.  It’s a foul to clearly hit with another player, so don’t get caught! The field is flooded, since Platypeople are amphibious.

The first team that the crew faces in the preliminary round is three lumberjacks. The referee slaps his tail to begin the match, and everyone rushes for the log pile!  Stella keeps the lumberjacks busy while Fafnir and Buckle grab a log.  Fafnir is ready to climb the log, but Buckle can’t raise it himself. Fafnir switches with Stella so she can help raise the log. Once it’s up, Fafnir runs from the lumberjacks, spreads her wings, and flies to the top of the log! One point!  A flippy dismount for a bonus point and it’s 2-0.  Fafnir goes in to get another log, but the lumberjacks block her path out. She’s super-strong, so she picks up the log and flies over them, dropping the log to her teammates and continuing into the stands.  Stella and Buckle raise the log, and Stella flies in to land on top. Foul! It’s illegal to score from out of bounds! The crew loses a point instead of gaining it. Next, Fafnir interferes with the lumberjacks and gets caught. She has to wear a penalty vest, restricting her movement. The vest is designed for Platypeople, so it’s especially awkward on her. She’s around the same size, but has more limbs, and in different positions.  The field is reset, and when the refereee slaps his tail, Fafnir and all three lumberjacks rush for a log. Fafnir draws their attention by running in a figure-8. With all three focused on her, there’s no one left to score or prevent Stella and Buckle from scoring. Buckle is barely able to lift the log by himself, and Stella struggling upwards, barely slapping one hand on top. It counts!  The crew wins and goes to the next round of the tournament!

Now that they have the hang of this, the crew is able to beat other opponents and reach the finals, against The Champ and his dangerous team!  The match begins at sunset, and the stands are packed as most other events have wrapped up, and everyone wants to see the final showdown!  Big lenses on towers around the arena catch the last light of sunset and focus a spotlight on the referee, as he announces the two teams and hypes up the crowd.

The Champ’s team is mean and effective. In addition to the Champ, widely known as the greatest individual player the game has ever know, there’s a Brawler, tough and strong; and a Hunter, who disappears under the shallow water to reappear at an inconvenient time. The crew huddles to discuss strategy before charging into battle.

At the tail slap, Stella and Fafnir rush for a log.  Champ and Brawler get in their way, and Hunter silently slips under the water, disappearing.  Stella insults Brawler’s mother as she tries to slip by, and he angrily slams her into the stack of logs. Obvious foul!  The field is reset.  At the tail slap, Champ heads right for Fafnir. Stella moves to intercept, but Champ dodges to the side and kicks her leg as he passes. Stella falls into the water and is face to face with Hunter, who strikes her again.  No call from the ref.  Meanwhile, Fafnir and Buckle try to keep Brawler away from the logs, but he wrestles one away from them.  Stella gets in Champ’s face to keep him busy, and snatches something from his pockets while he’s distracting.  It’s blackmail material on the referee! No wonder our crew aren’t getting the calls they deserve! Fafnir and Buckle steal Brawler’s log back. While the three are tussling near the stack of logs, Fafnir breathes fire, setting fire to the whole stack! Flaunting her immunity, she climbs on top of the flaming pyre and lies down.  Brawler and Buckle fall into the fire and catch a light!  Fafnir grabs Buckle and hurls him out to their goal, where the shallow water extinguishes his flames.  She follows that up by hurling a flaming caber out to Buckle.  Stella tries to set the log up for Buckle to climb, but Brawler is coming for her!

During this exciting match, the sun has set, and the full moon has risen.  The cheers from the massed spectators turn into screams! People start running, and three large figures emerge. Three werewolves: one of the left, one of the right, one near Stella’s companions! Buckle looks closely and realizes that the bite of these monsters can turn its victims into more werewolves! He yells at the crwod to run!  A werewolf slashes at Silk, knocking it out of the stands into the flooded playing field.  This clears space around the werewolf, so Fafnir seizes the opportunity, hefting a flaming log, and throws it like a mighty javelin! It strikes the  werewolf and carries it through the stands! Nothing left but a pile of flaming debris!  Buckle assists Silk, and Stella engages one of the remaining werewolves to keep it away from civilians. It still has clothes and pockets, and she swipes a slingshot.  Fafnir’s about to leap into battle, but the Champ is upon her.  He yells, “You’ve ruined the game, and you’ve stolen my spotlight!” and throws a mighty punch.  Fafnir catches the Champ’s fist in her claws and her face shines with the power of her conviction. She says, “You say you’re the hero of these people?  Prove it! Save them from these creatures!” The Champ is stirred by her impassioned speech. He agrees, but after they beat these monsters, he wants to finish the game and beat Fafnir. the Champ strides towards the werewolf by Stella. The werewolf swings down with his massive paw. The Champ dodges the paw, which crashes into the benches.  The champ steps on the paw, pinning the werewolf, and winds up a powerful blow to the jaw. These things don’t look so scary after that humiliation.  Stella finishes that werewolf with its own slingshot. As the werewolf crumples to hte ground, it transforms back into the Platyperson that it used to be.

Was that all of them?  Some people are hiding under benches. Other have fled the stadium and cowering in tents around the fairground. There’s a third werewolf that no one engaged! It left the stadium and is running for a tent full of helpless civilians!  Fafnir flings herself into the air and hastily attacks form the air! This will be an awkward landing that leaves her in a bad position in front of rampaging, but she’ll land a mighty blow first.  The blow is enough! They both crash to the ground, but only Fafnir gets back up. The werewolf also shrinks back into a human form as it dies.

All the stands and booths have hastily closed. Shopkeepers and partiers alike are fleeing the area.  The Champ wants to continue the game, but Hunter disappeared in the chaos and hasn’t re-emerged. The referee declares that hte Champ’s team can’t continue and must forfeit! The Champ is going to tell the referee something, but notices that he no longer has the blackmail material!  He’s lost the game, lost his leverage, and Fafnir outshone him in combat. His defeat is thorough!  He stomps away, but his little webbed feet make funny slapping noises.  The Mayor of Bogden hails out crew as heroes! they receive the prize money, and for saving the town, he tells them a secret:  There’s a legendary magical site under extinct volcanoes to the south.  The crew examines the blackmail material. Platypeople don’t use paper, since it would dissolve in water, so documents are written on wax tablets. These documents prove that the referee is actually a beaver with a false bill, not a Platyperson at all!

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Fairmeadow Fair, Session 17

← Session 16 | Campaign Summary | Session 18 →

Last time, our heroes traveled to a ghost town and were trapped in an attic by actual ghosts! On the top floor of a forge/mint, Lucia found an entrance to a secret room, but was paralyzed by a trap. Gleador pushed her inside and guarded the door with his flaming body, since the Spectres fear fire. He looks around for a way out of this mess. There are chimneys from the forge in the center of the building that exit through the roof. The windows in the exterior walls are slits, because the building is fortified against attack from outside. Not an easy place to escape from.

A plan view of the Saarland Mint: forge in the center, storerooms on the side, surrounded by a fence.

Gleador tries a bold tactic: friendship! He asks if he can help the Spectres build something.  They are surprised and delighted.  Most living people who come to this building want to steal, not help. The Spectres can drag objects around like poltergeists, but can’t operate precision machinery like they did in life.  While the paralysis poison works its way out of Lucia’s system, the Spectres pantomime instructions to Gleador: how to restart a forge, melt some metal, and cast some silverware.

When Lucia is back in action, she casts Speak With Dead on one of the now-friendly Spectres and asks three questions:

  1. What do you know about money from Saarland showing up elsewhere?  As far as the Spectre knows, Saarland coins are still accepted in other towns. Recently, coins are carried off by thieves. Sometimes, coins go missing even when the Spectres don’t detect any living intruders.
  2. Is there anything magical about the coins or other items? The Spectre gestures to a weapon rack and says that the magical weapons on it are magical, but coins are not.
  3. What have you learned about the attack, how to prevent another? Fiercely defending the forge from all intruders has prevented another attack so far, so the Spectres will keep doing that.  One slain enemy came back as a Spectre, but the Saarland Spectres drove it away.

Gleador asks permission to examine the storeroom that Lucia hid in one more time, offering to conceal the entrance once more.  It’s a storeroom. It contains many items that our heroes won’t steal, and has no exits besides the one door.

Lucia and Gleador leave the forge and Gleador transforms into a Chinese flying dragon with eagle eyes. Lucia rides him and they circle Saarland to look for interesting things. One side of the ruined town is controlled by Ents, the other by Spectres. Rose, a Halfling they met a few days ago, enters Saarland on the Spectre side. She sees the dragon flying above and hides from it. Gleador wants to pursue her, but Lucia’s not feeling so well. Gleador drops her off outside the city. She casts Sanctuary around herself and communes.

Gleador turns into a bee with poison frog contact venom, and the toughness of a rock.  A reconnaissance form that can’t be instas-killed by a flyswatter.  He flies back into the town and finds Rose entering a Spectre-filled house. The Spectres don’t react to her, which is weird since they usually attack anything living.  Gleador flies in to watch her and the Spectres attack him. They seem out to get anything living!  Rose sees the commotion, but figures Gleador is a normal bug and moves on. She finds a silver serving dish and puts it in one of her sacks.  Gleador retreats from the Spectres but gets hit again. He’s almost dead!  He keeps his distance and watches Rose go from house to house, looting them while undisturbed by their Spectre occupants.  After an hour he flies dow nad stings her with paralyzing venom. She slumps against a gate and won’t be able to move for a while.

Gleador flies away to retrieve Lucia and get healed. He comes back as a dragon, carrying Lucia.  As they approach, an Ent has noticed Rose and is moving in to menace her.  Lucia dismounts and charges the Ent, which knocks her across the street with a powerful branch.  Gleador starts a fire with his dragon breath and blows a smoke ring at the Ent to let it know how dangerous he is. The Ent retreats to get fire-fighting equipment. Lucia pulls Rose onto Gleador and the three of them fly off.

Lucia’s quest gives her an unfailing sense of direction to Saarland, but not to anywhere else. Now that they want to leave Saarland, how will they find their way back to Sugar’s Crossing?  They know they went north-east to reach Saarland, so they head south until they find the road from Fairmeadow to Sugar’s Crossing, then take that west. As they fly they question Rose, whom they have once again incapacitated. They take her amulet and ask where she got it. She found it on the body of a looter who wandered into Ent territory. It makes the wearer appear to be undead, which placates Spectres, but not Ents.  She started looting Saarland about 8 months ago. She got a tip from another adventurer that le Grind was paying well for artifacts from Saarland. She doesn’t care what he does with them. She had steady work that wasn’t too risky and paid well. Of course, they’ve taken her only defense, so no the job is much riskier.  They set her down in the woods once the paralysis wears off. She’s happy to be rid of them and can find her own way back.

A regional route showing our heroes’ route back from Saarland to Sugar’s Crossing.

The trip back to Sugar’s Crossing takes several days, even though Gleador flies quite fast. They aren’t taking a direct route. The first night they camp in the woods. On the second day they hit the road and turn west. They camp along the road on the second night. While our heroes sit around the campfire, an Elk approaches. Gleador recognizes this animal as a fellow Druid.  The Elk walks its back legs forward under its forelegs, which push out to the side as the Elk takes humanoid form. Yasha, a 6-foot-plus grey-haired Orc woman formally greets Gleador as a fellow Druid.  Gleador returns the traditional wave, bow, and vocalization and introduces himself.  Yasha has heard of him, and his exile from the Sapphire Islands.  The Druid leaders deep in the forest to the north, aren’t happy with Gleador.

Yasha is a sentry for Sugar’s Crossing. Instead of waiting for people to get to edge of town, then discover if they are troublemakers, Yasha watches travellers as they take the road past the forest, and intercepts undesirables far from town.  Our heroes ask if she knows Rose. Yasha has seen her coming and going. It’s odd that she goes into the woods instead of staying on the road, but she’s not violent and doesn’t get in trouble, so Yasha lets her go.  They ask about Oolite, the family that supposedly built the living statue that has given them so much trouble, but Yasha doesn’t know anything about them. Finally, Gleador says he’s ready to do pennace and be re-instated in the Druid community.  Yasha thinks that’s a good idea. There’s a messenger Druid named Hughes who can carry that message from Gleador to the higher-ups.  He comes and goes, so there’s no specific time to expect him, but Yasha will tell him to look for Gleador.

← Session 16 | Campaign Summary | Session 18 →

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Chasing The Sunset & Thaumatown

Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.

Party: Agnes the Harbinger, Lumen the Lantern, Melvin the Rain, Rook the Remnant

GM note: In the original West Marches, it was easy to have new characters team up, because everyone went back to a single home base. In Chasing the Sunset, characters can be in different places, and we players must contrive ways for them to meet in a single place.

Lumen (last seen on a racing yacht docked at Port Fennrick) has a problem projecting herself into reality and uses Melvin as a beacon to pull herself back into this dimension.  Melvin, fresh from busting up mafia headquarters, still wears the form of one of the gangsters, and Wallace, Agnes’ new dog, recognizes him and runs back to him. Agnes and Rook run in after Wallace a short time after. Lumen asks Agnes “Do you know this dog?” Agnes asks Wallace, “Do you know this being?” But they make introductions and realize that they are follow adventurers and should go on adventures together.  Melvin tries to shake Rook’s hand, but the shapeshifter and the ghost can’t touch each other.  But what adventure should they seek? Lumen swore to protect Jensen from the shady people that she was smuggling contraband for, but the mafia is already destroyed. Agnes and Melvin saw to that. They decide to head upriver, and try to get a ride from Jensen. She would help, since she owes them for saving her from the mafia, but her boat is wrecked, so she can’t.

Our crew heads for the mouth of the river to look for a boat that could give them passage. There’s a raft piloted by a giant, and a longboat with a crew of humans. Agnes gets a doomy sense from the longboat, so they choose that one, and exchange work for passage. Melvin uses his Rain powers to clean the boat, while Rook floats above and keeps watch.

Agnes checks in on Johnny, the mobster who has been fleeing upriver for some time. There’s interference in her vision, like the interference when two Harbingers are close to each other. Through the interference, she sees a crowded city with narrow streets.  That’s Thaumatown, and the longboat is headed there.  Agnes doesn’t want to go to a town with another Harbinger, but she’ll go anyways. Anything could happen.

Thaumatown is a crowded, bustling city. There are clockwork robots everywhere. Automatic cranes load and unload boats at the docks. Flying surveillance drones watch everywhere, and police robots expertly direct traffic to keep the crowded streets moving. The streets are narrow and the buildings loom over them, so they sky is barely visible.  Two towers are visible over the roofs of the other buildings: a large clock tower on the civic center, and a wizard’s tower on the far side of town.

Melvin drops into the water to look around while the rest of the crew disembarks like normal people. The police robots direct them like they direct everyone, but it seems the robots are taking a special interesting the crew. Melvin finds some big pipes taking in water from the river, and dumping water into the river, He swims up the pipes into a water treatment center. His formless body can squeeze through the filters, but it will take some time. As he’s squeezing through, he sets of water quality alarms, and someone is coming to investigate, so he abandons his search of the water treatment plant and flows through other pipes under the city.

Some police robots approach Agnes and tell her to follow them. They clear crowds out of their path, quickly leading Agnes, and Lumen to the civic center. In the central chamber of the civic center, there’s a piston rising all the way up the clock tower. This piston retracts, and on the end is a fancy chair, and in that chair, Brainiac, who controls all of the robots, and thus the entire town, from this central location.

GM note: Not the comic book character. A very smart man.

Brainiac explains that he works for a wizard, an amazing man who can see the future! He foresaw that one day another Harbinger might come and threaten his rule, so Brainiac devised a plan to ensure the stability of the town.  Brainiac gestures, and a police robot brings a weird hinged cage, like a tea strainer, but two feet long, up to Agnes. It’s like a Faraday cage for magical powers, and will block the interference that Anges is causing the wizard, and vice versa.  Brainiac demands that Agnes wear the helmet!

The crew decides to go loud instead of accepting captivity! Lumen’s light flashes ,temporarily blinding the police robots and surveillance drones, but Brainiac was prepared and sends the surveillance drones crashing into Lumen’s last known location. She didn’t move, so she’s hit.  Melvin arrives at the civic center and lets Rook in.  Rook floats in and whispers spookily in Brainiac’s ear.  Lumen starts fighting the police robots with her knife and light. In the melee she drops her knife and smashes her bare hand into the unyielding armor of a police robot.  Brianiac raises his chair to escape to the clock tower, and Rook floats up after him, but Brainiac is prepared and activates an electric grid beneath his chair, zapping Rook & stopping his advance. Brainiac arrives at the top of the tower, where huge control panels and screens are arrayed before him, letting him control everything in the city. He’s sure to call in reinforcements.  Agnes uses the ley lines to reach out from Brainiac’s position, flipping switches and yanking wires. Traffic goes haywire as the police bots malfunction and direct people into impossible patterns.

At this point, the wizard decides to step in. A beam of energy from the top of his tower cuts across the twon and into the side of the civic center, burning a spiral pattern through the wall and into the floor, widening and widening until Agnes is hit! The harbingers interfere with each other’s vision, so Allan a Zham had to fire blindly towards the densest static in his vision.

The tactical situation changes in an instant. The crew needs to close the distance since they can’t match Allan’s power at range. Lumen’s light moves to shield Agnes. Melvin causes a fog to appear, hampering Allan’s vision. Agnes puts on the Faraday cage helmet, so she disappears from Allan’s view.  Lumen, Melvin, Rook, and Agnes all fly, float, or clamber over rooftops and across alleyways towards the wizard’s tower and Allan continues to fire on them.

Rook is floating straight in, confident in his incorporeality, when a flask of holy water teleports right on top of him and bursts! Agnes is flying on Snek, Allan’s attacks force them down below the roofline, towards police droids!  Melvin and Lumen are running over rooftops together and a fireball explodes under them just as they leap from a barbershop!  Barbers are thrown through the air with a perfect four-part harmony of screams! Clients stagger out of the rubble, haircuts burned away.  Melvin and Lumen are singed, but escape further fire and confront Allan a Zham in his sanctum at the top of his tower!  Windows look out over the city. Screens show camera feeds from surveillance droids. Maps, scrolls, and books are stuffed into shelves and piled on tables all over the room.  Allan is furious! HE knew that someday someone would come to overthrow him, and now these adventurers have come even to his inner sanctum. He will tolerate no threat to his power!  Melvin causes rain inside, soaking reams of irreplaceable magical research. Allan is momentarily distracted by the destruction, and Lumen seizes her chance!  She uses her survival knife as a focus for her Light, and fires it with laser precision into Allan’s head, killing him instantly!

Down on the streets, Anges is receiving conflicting instructions from two malfunctioning police robots. One orders her to take a path blocked by the second, which tells her to turn around. They will get rough if she doesn’t obey, so she stalls for time and starts a fire inside the second robot. When it is too damaged to insist, she obeys the first robot and just walks away.

The whole drew assembles in the wizard’s upper room. Most of the papers are ruined, but there is one note about twin volcanoes. Sure enough ,the two peaks are visible to the south.  Rook speaks with the spirit of the slain wizard, asking why he attacked them. Allan wanted order above all, and proactively removed anything that could cause upheaval or disruption.

Melvin shape-shifts into the exact likeness of the wizard and leads the crew back to the Civic Center. Allan a Zham had a “I can do what I want” badge, and flashing that to the police robots allows Melvin to ignore their senseless, contradictory orders. The citizens of Thaumatown are not so lucky.  One group is being sent in a never-ending circle by a few police robots, and an automated crane on the docks just shoved and entire shipment off the deck of a boat and into the water.  Brainiac has put the Civic Center in panic mode. Big metal shutters cover all the doors and windows, and a Stone Sentry has been activated inside to eject any trespassers.  The crew gets onto the roof and climbs up catwalks to the outside of the clock tower.

The clock faces are transparent, and they can see Brainiac desperately trying to regain control of the city.  Brainiac is suprised to see the wizard with some of the troublemakers, but Melvin assures him that it’s fine. Brainiac opens the window and lets them in. He gives a situation report to Melvin, who he thinks is his boss.  The damage is severe, but in another six hours he cna have the robots back to 65% efficiency. Brainiac requests that Allan a Zham lend his magical aid, since the situation is so dire.  Melvin says, “Are you implying you’re not up to the task?” Brainiac is cowed and promises to work even harder. Lumen whispers “You should fire him” to Melvin. Melvin agrees and tells Brainiac he’s be reassigned because he’s handling this crisis so badly.  Melvin hands over the paper with the twin volcanoes on it and tells Brainiac to go take care of it.  Brainiac pushes back a little. It’s such a long and dangerous journey that he’s going to take a surveillance drone. That way, he can call for help if he needs it. Melvin agrees to these terms, having no intention of actually helping if Brainiac gets in trouble.

Finally, Melvin appears to all the people on the docks. He says that the people are strong and capable. They no longer need rulers over them. He tells them to elect representatives, then walks out onto the water and sinks in. The rest of the crew also slip out of town, which has no king, no overseer, and whose overcrowded streets are jammed with malfunctioning police robots.

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Chasing The Sunset & depression

Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.

Party: Fafnir the Dragon, Stella the Halfling, Agnes the Harbinger, Buckle the Platyperson, and Rook the Remnant.

Fafnir spent the night sleeping under a porch after chasing a lanky black cat. The next morning, she happens upon the rest of the party as they are walking through the streets.  “Good to see you, Dad,” she says to Buckle.  She doesn’t know anything about the trouble last night, and just wants breakfast.  The black cat is walking along with them and Agnes has a vision that this cat will save the world. A magenta Pomeranian appears and chases the black cat.  As the party chases the two animals, a mobster named Billy appears to grab the Pomeranian.  That’s not OK! These are our pets now! Agnes tries to wrest the dog away from Billy and he tosses her aside.  Fafnir flies past at high speed and grabs the dog, but Billy punches her as she passes.  Billy sees that it’s five against one and flees.  Rook floats silently after him, hoping that he’ll go somewhere dark. If he does, Rook will make sure he never emerges.  Since it’s morning, even the narrow alleys aren’t dark. Billy returns to the aquarium and goes inside. It’s dark in there, but Rook can’t enter without an invitation, so they returns to the rest of the party.

The magenta Pomeranian that the mobster was after is named Wallace.  Agnes wants to know who owns this brightly colored pooch, so she holds its collar aloft.  She sees through the eyes of the owner, swimming over kelp fields towards and underwater city, holding a large bag.

GM note: We had a lengthy discussion about the definition of ownership. Is Wallace a possession of its owner? What happens if Agnes holds a mobster aloft? Do pets own their toys and collars? We decided that living creatures are not possessions, but objects given to pets belong to their owners.

Agnes holds Wallace up to Buckle, who can speak to any beast and asks questions through her interpreter.  Wallace lives in a house with other animals. He can’t read and is colorblind, so he can’t give an address or describe the place satisfactorily. Agnes asks if she is his favorite, and Wallace heartily agrees, licking her hands for emphasis.  Agnes tries to overcome her grim demeanor and smile, but it’s hard. Wallace does remember the way home, so he leads the group there: an aquarium

Agnes uses sight beyond sight to look through the wall of the building and sees two figures: a human and a Platyperson. The team prepares to breach the building. Fafnir and Stella are on the roof, reaching it through flight and wall-crawling spider mount, respectively.  Agnes, Buckle, and Wallace the magenta Pomeranian form up at the back door.  Stella’s companions, Gus and Rose, cover the front door. Rook is ready to float to whichever area needs help.

Paulie, the Platyperson, bursts out of the back door.  Fafnir leaps from the roof, grabs Paulie’s head on the way down, and smashes it into the boardwalk with all her weight behind it. Paulie’s still conscious. She gathers herself and lifts her head despite Fafnir’s efforts to keep her down. Paulie draws a nasty weapon, the limb bone of some large creature, with one end snapped off into splinters. She flails about, endangering everyone nearby. Rook approaches and uses his hypnotic voice to calm her so Buckle and Fafnir can get clear. Stella puts a pit trap in the boardwalk between Paulie and her friends.

Billy, the human mobster that fought the crew earlier today, makes a break for the front door. Gus and Rose try to hold him back. Gus is a cook, and forcibly Cinnamon Challenges Billy. While Billy is busy sputtering and coughing, Stella runs over to talk him down. Billy went after Wallace so aggressively because his whole life had been disrupted when the mob was betrayed by one of their own, their leader exiled, and their prized animals scattered. Billy was trying to reclaim the animals (like Wallace) to reclaim a semblance of the order his life used to have. Stella is sympathetic, but says that holding onto the past doesn’t work, and that Billy needs to act on what’s happening now, not what he wishes was still happening. Billy is really encouraged by these wise words.

Paulie is still mad and goes after Buckle, but falls into the pit trap, which drops her into the river. This just lets her escape, since Platypeople are excellent swimmers. Buckle dives in to pursue her, and has a heart to heart talk with her.  She and Billy were trying to hold on to the mobster way of life after their headquarters was smashed up and their people scattered. Paulie (mechanically a “Beast Loner”) realizes that she doesn’t need to cling to this structure that doesn’t even exist anymore. She’s capable on her own. She swims off to make her own way in the world.

Things seem handled here in Port Fennrick, so the crew decides to head up the Mighty River. As they walk upriver, they meet a boat coming down river. It was attacked and is on river. Buckle uses Tail Slap to splash water over the burning boat and put it out.  They ask how the boat caught fire, and the captain says that it certainly wasn’t a fire-breathing lizard. Those have been extinct for a hundred years!  Fafnir fumes, literally.  Agnes tells her to behave, or she’ll withhold Fafnir’s snacks. Fafnir’s Kobold companion Coco will feed Fafnir, so Agnes’ threat is blunted.

Further upriver, Stella’s riding spider (named Silk) bolts off the path after a bird. It’s the chrome songbird that Ori and Melvin released a while back. The chrome bird, (a Crow-m, perhaps?) sings a piercing note that resonates at the frequency of reality itself, and manifests a coiled spring underneath Silk, sending Silk flying into the air. Silk and Stella decide not to mess with this bird and return to the path. Rook is happy, because Songbirds were considered extinct. Nice to know a few are still around.

Further upriver, mysterious music floats through the air. “Do you hear that?” Agnes retorts, “I’m blind, not deaf!”  Fafnir flies ahead to investigate and finds Slick (ex-pirate) playing a harmonica next to a campfire, with a traveller’s bindle nearby.  This is what people do when they are sad and they have nowhere to go, right?  Fafnir likes his music and asks to hear more. Slick is pleased and plays very fast.  Fafnir is impressed. People would like to hear this music. You could be in show business.  Slick is encouraged to hear this. He’s got a goal to aim for now.  He thanks Fafnir and runs towards Port Fennrick at incredible speed to start a new life as an entertainer!

Further upriver, Agnes notices something sparkling on the riverbed. Fafnir hates water and won’t investigate. Agnes sends Wallace, but Wallace is unable to dislodge it from the riverbed. Agnes cuddles him and tells him he’s a good boy and tried his best.  Agnes sends Snek down to investigate and discovers that it’s a hatch, mostly buried under mud. Snek has no hands and can’t open it.  Agnes tells Buckle to go open it, but he puts his foot down and demands that he use his proper name. In the last day she’s called him “Beagle”, “Bickley”, and “Buckley”. His name is Buckle!  With that settled, Buckle swims down to grab the valve. With remote assistance from Agnes, he pulls the valve open, revealing a tunnel beneath the river! Rook floats down into it and finds a hidden tunnel network. There’s a station nearby with a stairway concealed by a false rock. Fafnir pushes the rock aside from the top, and the crew heads down into the mysterious depths.

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Chasing The Sunset & aquarium

Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.

Party: Orichalcum the Construct, Melvin the Rain

Looking west at Port Fennrick on the delta of the Mighty River.

Melvin just arrived in Port Fennrick on de Rolo’s one-of-a-kind racing yacht. de Rolo rescued him and his crew when they were shipwrecked. They jettisoned some cargo that their captain, Jensen, agreed to deliver to some shady people here in Port Fennrick, and promised to keep her safe from their retaliation.  They pull up to the dock where Jensen agreed to deliver the cargo, but no one is there to meet them.  Sebastina, the navigator who did not know about Jensen’s illicit cargo, is very unhappy.  She says, “Jensen, you paid me half upfront, and you usually pay me the rest of my fee after you get paid for delivering your cargo. That’s not going to happen, so how about you give me all the cash you have on you, and I never see you again?” Jensen has to agree, since she dragged Sebastina through a shipwreck and got her in trouble with the mob. After receiving the cash, Sebastina (a mermaid) makes a rude gesture, falls backwards off the yacht, and swims away.

Melvin inspects the dock where Jensen was supposed to deliver her contraband to her underworld contacts.  Strange that there’s no one here.  He digs through some crates and finds disguise kits, and a ring that indicates membership in the mafia.

Orichalcum (Ori for short) appears! Ori is an artificial life form made of aether and energy. Most of his vaguely humanoid form is a shifting purple energy. His hands, shoulder pauldrons, and faceplate are made of golden metal.

He approaches Melvin a bit sheepishly, because he has an odd request.  He wants Melvin to be his master.  Melvin is dedicated to the freedom of all things, so he hates that idea.  “You should be your own master!” he says. Ori explains that he’s been sent out into the world by his creators to find someone.  His creators weren’t exactly clear on who he was supposed to find, but based on how they made him, he thinks that he’s supposed to find a great leader, and he can do that by following various leaders so he knows what good leadership is. Melvin still thinks that’s weird and dumb.

Ori and Melvin have been hanging about on an empty dock for a long time now, long enough to draw the attention of Bork, the Ogre who keeps order on the busy docks. She approaches and demands to know what they are doing.  She’s dressed like a bouncer, but is clearly uncomfortable in the role. She says that if he’s going to be on the docks, he should board a boat, because that’s what people do on docks.  She picks Melvin up and takes him to the nearest ship and deposits him on board. The ship’s first mate is very confused by this, but he doesn’t want to cross Bork, so he thanks her for her good work.  Bork is very pleased and leaves convinced that she’s made the world a better place.  Melvin & Ori apologize to the boat’s crew and quickly leave the docks.

Melvin wants to see the river, so Ori demonstrates his usefulness by taking him there. Ori’s shoulder pauldrons move in to grab Melvin’s shoulders and pick him up, and Ori flies to the checkpoint at the back of the town. There’s a line of complaining boats and carts being inspected before they are allowed to enter or leave the city.  They notice Johnny, a mafia member who had a very bad night last night, in line to leave the city. Ori chats him up.  Johnny says that he used to work for Louie. He checks the time and adds that Louie is sleeping with the fishes now.  Johnny’s responsibilities used to include smuggling things and snatching people, but that’s all over and he’s leaving now.  Ori is still curious, but Johnny wants a favor for more information.  Ori flies Johnny past the checkpoint, so the officials don’t ask him any inconvenient questions. Ori asks who killed Louie, and Johnny is confused. Louie is a merman . He’s sleeping with the fishes in the fancy aquarium back at base. He always takes a nap at this time. Ori is flabbergasted by his misunderstanding.  Melvin sinks into the river delta in town and emerges on the riverbank next to Johnny and Ori. He urges Johnny to make good choices and not to enslave creatures anymore.  Johnny has heard several encouraging yet threatening speeches recently. He hastily agrees and rushes off, heading upriver towards a new life.

Ori flies Melvin back into Port Fennrick. What should they do now? Melvin wonders how to get an audience with the Baron, head of the legitimate government of Port Fennrick. Ori doesn’t think that established leaders are fruitful inquiry for his quest. Ori asks Melvin about his dedication to freedom for all living things.  Melvin wants to free the creatures and people held by the mafia.  Ori wil help, if Melvin will be Ori’s master.  Since it’s not permanent, and it would be nice to have some help, Melvin agrees to be Ori’s master, just for now.  Ori hands over a repair kit and a talisman of calling, which can instantly teleport Ori to Melvin’s side. Melvin absorbs them into his body, like the collection of knives he already has inside.

They go to the location Johnny told them about. It appears to be an aquarium, but there are secret back rooms inaccessible to the public where shady deals go down, and prize animals are kept.  They do the ol’ Chewbacca routine. Melvin shapeshifts into Johnny and says that he’s captured Ori, who is a rare and valuable lifeform. Joey, the mobster on duty, leads them to a secret hall with cells along one side. The cells contain a variety of creatures: a chrome songbird, a little light like the Lanterns have, two animated skeletons, exotic pets including a magenta Pomeranian, and a Halfling. Joey goes back to his post and Ori and Melvin wonder how to unlock all the cells. Melvin can ooze between the door and the frame, and Ori can teleport in, but how can they get everyone out?

GM note: We decided that spending a Rain point was a sufficient expense for the effect of unlocking a door, although that’s not on the list of things that Rain points can be spent for.

Melvin blast the Halfling’s cell open with a burst of water.  The Halfling starts opening the other cells.  When the chrome songbird is released, it uses Power Word Spring to create a large metal spring that knocks the door to the hallway open.  The loud noise attracts attention.  A few more cell doors are opened before two mobsters arrive and block the hall. Our party will have to fight their way out of this.  Ori asks if lethal force is authorized. Melvin says no, and Ori’s eyes switch to glowing blue.  The two mobsters are keeping the animals from getting down the hall. The skeletal boar charges, pushing the mobsters back.  The Halfling herds the animals further down the hall, running over Melvin. His amorphous fluid body is not damaged by being trampled.  Louie, the boss, arrives to help his underlings hold the line right where the secret hall opens to the room with his apartment-sized fishtank.  Louie’s a merman, so to move on land he straps his tail into something that looks like a mechanical Segway.  Melvin blasts the assistive device out from under Louie with a jet of water, sending Louie flopping to the ground. Ori rushes forward, grabs Louie by the shoulders, slams him into the wall of the fishtank and slides him up, until Louie’s tail is entirely off the ground.  Terrified by this show of power, Louie grabs the top edge of the fishtank and scrambles out of Ori’s grip, flipping over into the relative safety of the fishtank.

The two remaining mobsters can’t hold back the animals alone. As the animals rush out of the aquarium, Melvin, who still looks like their co-worker Johnny, tries to rally the mobsters under his leadership. They are frightened by Johnny’s sudden change in personality and his violent take-over, so they flee.

Ori and Melvin are mostly alone in the building now, and eye all the fancy fish in the giant fishtank with Louie.  Ori wonders if they should free the fish as well by smashing the bottom and letting them swim into the river delta.  Melvin isn’t sure if they would survive outside. Do they need salt water or fresh? Freedom isn’t more important than life, so Melvin leaves the fish where they are safe.

The mafia is in shambles, and Ori and Melvin leave the aquarium. Ori asks why Melvin seeks freedom so strongly. Melvin says that the Rain were contained in the past and they hated it. He doesn’t want that to happen to anyone else.  Ori asks if Melvin thinks he is a fool for seeking a master. Melvin says, “If that’s your way, that’s what you have to do.”

GM note: There’s a great line in my notes, but I can’t remember the context, so here it is without context: “Sometimes it is necessary to be someone else in order to learn who you are.”

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PROCJAM 2019, Day 1

Background

PROCJAM is a fun, relaxed game jam with the goal to “make something that makes something.” It doesn’t even have to be a game.  (itch.io jam page) (twitter hashtag)  This will be my third year participating.

Goal

This year, I’m making a tool to assist Chasing The Sunset, a sprawling, persistent exploration-based TTRPG based on West Marches and Fellowship. Explorers need locations to explore, and Fellowship has lists and instructions for creating new locations with pencil and paper. My goals for the online, procgen implementation of this tool are:

  • Automatically generate legal, well-formed locations
  • Teach the generator that some combinations make more sense than others.
  • Allow the user to adjust any choice the generator makes
  • Compress the output into a “random seed” that can be plugged back into the generator to reliably create the same output.
  • be slick, non-hacky, and user-friendly. (I want to take a level in Artificer)

Progress

I’ve been fiddling with project setup and workflow for a few days. I’m using react.js and it requires a different mindset than jQuery, or component-based systems I might use in a game engine. I think I have the hang of sending data down the heirarchy through properties & automatic render() updates, and sending data back up through callback functions.

Here’s a screenshot of the current state of the project.

  • Multiple lists that have the same code, but different data sources.
  • Lists can toggled between read-only and editable modes.
  • It displays checkboxes if multiple options can be chosen, or radio buttons if only one option can be chosen.
  • List items have optional descriptions
  • “Affinities” are a first pass at creating cohesive locations. Asterisks on options indicate how much they match with what’s already selected.
  • The each list creates a number that uniquely represents its options, and the top-level generator concatenates them into a single seed, which is displayed a emoji because emoji are fun!

What’s next?

  • Lots of data entry. Lists and lists of creatures, terrain descriptions, location moves, and relationships.
    • Low priority because code may require changes in data format, and I want to minimize re-work.
  • Random seed needs more thought. There are plenty of edge cases where the current system fails.
  • Randomly select from a list, but with influence from other lists
  • Affinities need more work. Right now I only have positive affinity: like attracts like, not negative affinity, where opposites repel.
  • Export as text file.
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Chasing The Sunset & mobsters

Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.

The party: Buckle the Platyperson, Agnes Nutter the Harbinger, Stella the Halfling, Rook the Remnant.

Looking west at Port Fennrick on the delta of the Mighty River.

Buckle, Agnes, and Rook have just limped into Port Fennrick on a damaged fairy-ferry that was attacked by a Kraken.  Fafnir the Dragon was also onboard, but is nowhere to be found now.

GM Note: Fafnir’s player wasn’t here for this session. One of the concepts for West Marches is being able to mix and match characters into different groups, so I didn’t want to make a big deal of a character’s absence, but that’s what the players wanted to role-play, so we did it.

Rook is especially worried by Fafnir’s absence, since they was dedicated to caring for dragons in their former life.  Agnes magically senses that Fafnir is fine, and says not to worry.  Rook isn’t happy about this and drags their feet as they floats down the road after her. The party doesn’t know what’s going on in town and looks around for excitement. There’s a commotion at the back of town, where the Mighty River enters. They get closer and see a Giant yelling about pirates upriver.  As people listen to the Giant’s story, a damaged longboat arrives with its own story about a battle with pirates.  People waiting at the checkpoint to go upriver start complaining to the inspectors.  “You say these inspections and regulations are for our safety, but you can’t keep us safe from these pirates! Why are you even here? Get out of our way!” The party decides not to get involved.

It’s evening, so they go to a tavern for food and a room for the night.  Stella, the newest player character, has some space at her table in an otherwise crowded tavern and invites the party over.  Rook sort of floating through a chair, but can’t really sit in it.  Introductions all around. Stella is a halfling. She’s traveling with two friends and a giant riding spider which is out back in the stables.  At another table, Sebastina (navigator of an ill-fated charter boat) tells of her brush with the Kraken.  She never saw the beast, but our party knows exactly what she’s talking about, because they fought and killed it. Buckle interrupts to tell his story, but he’s not good at public speaking, and the crowd shouts him down.  He buys a round of milk, which also does not endear him to the hard-drinking crowd.  He does get a big reaction when he says he was traveling with a dragon, since dragons have been extinct for about 100 years.  The rest of the party decides that Buckle shouldn’t talk anymore and drags him away.  They pile into Stella’s crowded room upstairs for the night.

In the middle of the night, two figures slide open the window and creep into the room where everyone is sleeping. Rook isn’t sleeping, because Rook doesn’t sleep. They screams, waking everyone up.  Stella is near the window and grabs one of the figures clambering through. She pulls him into the room, but he rolls with the movement and throws her to the ground.  Agnes shoves the second figure out of the window. He stumbles off the roof of the porch and falls to the street below.  The one still in the room grabs Stella, but Buckle makes him drop her with a tail-swipe.  The invader turns his attention to Buckle and jams a canvas sack over his head.  The invader is human-sized, and Platypeople are only four feet tall, so the invader has a big weight advantage. As he struggles to fit Buckle completely in the bag, Rook floats through the window after the second figure. Rook is alone in the dark with an enemy, and, using their terrifying ghostly powers, silently rips the life out the would-be kidnapper. Back in the room, the kidnapper has Buckle in the bag and tries to toss the bag out the open window. Agnes steps in a blasts the kidnapper’s leg, wrenching it into a very unnatural position. Snek (Agnes’ pet flying snake) enlarges and coils around the disabled kidnapper, flicking its tongue in his ear.  The kidnapper is unmasked and must explain himself.  Outside, Rook casts Speak With Dead on the other kidnapper ot gather mostly the same information.

the kidnappers were sent to grab Buckle and bring him to the boss, because Buckle knew about a dragon, a rare and valuable prize. The boss is Louie, and he runs the underworld here in Fennrick. Anything that’s not above-board belongs to Louie. The live kidnapper that’s being constricted by Snek is Johnny. The other one that fell out fo the window is Jimmy. Agnes takes Johnny’s ring that marks him as a member of Louie’s gang.  She says that if Johnny crosses them again, she’ll find him, and she won’t be so kind.  She heals his leg. The ruined flesh grows back brand new, pale as a Seattlite, soft as a baby, and hairless.  Snek releases him and they send him out the window. Rook returns at the same time and passes through Johnny, an unpleasant cold sensation.  Johnny finds Jimmy’s dead body, and, keeping to secret gang traditions, disposes of the body. Only Johnny and Rook know that Rook killed Jimmy. No one else saw anything.  Stella’s friends keep watch for the rest of the night, but there are no further disturbances.

In the morning, Stella shares her Halfling food with her new friends. Buckle wants fresh game, so he swims under the city to catch some fish. Port Fennrick is built on a river delta, so most buildings are built on stilts over water.  As he pursues fish, he realizes he is being pursued by a Mermaid with a trident and net. A mermaid mermydon. A mermaidon! he outswims the Mermaid and reaches land, where the mermaid can’t follow. He rejoins the party without fish.  Agnes holds Johnny’s ring aloft to see through is eyes. He’s on a road, holding a bag. He looks over his shoulder, and Port Fennrick is receding in the distance. Johnny skipped town.  Agnes wants a possession from every party member so she can see through their eyes. Buckle doesn’t have many possessions. He won’t give up his hat, and doens’t like the idea of cutting off a lock of fur. He offers a treasure that he took from the Kraken, but Agnes just whips out her runeblade and takes a tuft of fur. Stella refuses to give her a possession.  (These new friends of hers are a lot!)  They linger and ponder their next step until the innkeeper knocks on the door. The inn is busy and need to either pay for another night or make way, because other people want the room.  They leave, and decide to track down the mob boss that keeps sending goon after them.

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Lasers & Feelings Hack for fantasy dungeon-crawling

Characters in Lasers & Feelings (a free, one-page RPG. It’s so good!) are defined by contrast & tension. It’s right there in the name: Lasers oppose Feelings. They pull characters apart instead of leading them to a single point.  It’s quite a paradigm shift for me, because I usually build characters around a central theme, with each detail re-enforcing the others.  Can I define the stock characters of fantasy dungeon-delving in terms of contrast?  Let’s try!

Rogue: cowardice & greed
Heists, reconnaissance, and assassinations are tense activities, so it’s easy to see how a Rogue is torn between making the score and avoiding a fair fight.

Wizard: knowledge & destruction
Wizards are nerds that love books, research, and high-quality paper. Wizards will also turn you into a newt, strike you with lightning, and drop you through a portal to Hell.

Bard: sex & puns
This is the cultural consensus on proper Bard activities, although not many systems provide official support for them.

Fighter: combat
The Fighter only has one stat, because Fighters are one-dimensional and boring. A fighter who tries to do something that doesn’t fall under “combat” fails without rolling.

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Chasing The Sunset & tunnels

Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.

We pick up immediately after the affair with the pirates, with Rod the Exile & Sapphira the Spider discovering an entrance to a mysterious underground facility.  Before they head down the spiral staircase into the ground, they notice a thin, white spire in the distance.  It’s a giant, magical taper candle, a signpost where travelers leave notes.

GM note: This is a diagetic way for players to share information about the area with other players. There’s one in every location.

They don’t have much to say to other travelers, so they head down into the darkness, lit by the shimmering of Sapphira’s electric field. At the bottom of the staircase, they find a tunnel running perpendicular to the river above. It’s about 4m across, and half full of water. There are posts in the middle of the tunnel at regular intervals along its length. there are signs that other structures used to be attached to these posts, but they’ve disappeared from decay and neglect.  A narrow pipe runs along the top of the tunnel, with periodic vents.

A cross-section of the underground tunnel.

Again, our heroes want to travel by water, but don’t have a boat. They return to the surface and find some logs and branches along the river bank. They carefully carry them down the spiral staircase and Sapphira lashes them into a raft. They have been traveling west, against the eastward current of the river.  This tunnel stretches north and south, with the water flowing south.  They decide to float with the current and head south.  After some time, a tunnel splits from their tunnel, heading west. They take the side tunnel and soon find metal spikes hammered into the stone and brick tunnel walls, like punji sticks keeping something from coming east towards the main tunnel.

The raft encounters punji sticks pointing the other way.

The raft can’t fit between the spikes, so Sapphira picks up Rod & Tobit and climbs over the spikes.  Just past the spikes are two alcoves set into the wall of the tunnel, right next to each other. Each alcove is the size of a modest room, about 3m on a side. They are set above the waterline of the tunnel and have dry floors.

Two alcoves, separated by a barrier.

As Sapphira approaches the first alcove, her electric shimmer reaches out and dances over a vertical plane across the tunnel. It’s an invisible magical barrier, blocking their path.  The water in the tunnel flows unimpeded. There are some weapons lying on the floor of the near alcove: 2 daggers and a flare gun (ranged, burning, 2 ammo).  It’s common knowledge that magical barriers have a power source, and a condition that allows or denies passage. Rod wonders if this is a Dwarven badge-reader.  He attempts to swim through the barrier, but is stopped harmlessly.

They enter the near alcove and claim the weapons. Rod takes the daggers and Sapphira takes the flare gun. There’s a door at the back of the alcove that leads up a spiral staircase to another concealed entrance.  They emerge on a hill. Below them, to the east, the mighty river crashes over impressive rapids. To the west, high white mountains rise like a wall. The river drops hundreds of feet in a powerful waterfall. If there is a pass through the mountains, it’s not obvious from this position. They check for a hidden entrance nearby that hopefully leads to the far alcove, but no luck.

They return to the tunnel and ponder the mystery of the magical barrier.  They talk to the barrier, but if there’s a verbal password, they don’t guess it.  Rod wonders if living material is blocked and tries to push a dagger through.  The dagger’s point touches the barrier and stops. The barrier flares with energy and Rod tries unsuccessfully to push the dagger through. Since aggression didn’t work, Rod tries relaxing and just floating through.  It works for the water, but not for him. He bumps into the barrier and stops.  Next, they throw rocks, which also bounce off the barrier. Throwing rocks all across the face of the barrier reveals that is has no gaps.  Frustrated, Rod charges up and blasts the barrier with electricity. The barrier flares brighter and brighter, matching Rod’s escalating power until the entire barrier is opaque. Rod can’t overpower it. Tobit barks, and the bark echoes down the tunnel, so air as well as water can pass through.

Rod is right up next to the barrier, so he has an angle to look into the far alcove, the one blocked by the barrier.  He sees some glowing equipment set into the back wall. This is probably the barrier’s power source.  Sapphira notices that the wall between the two alcoves is in disrepair and dispatches her spiderlings through the cracks with instructions to disable the equipment.  the spiderlings wriggle through, there’s some creaking and straining, then a crash.  The glow from the far alcove fades, and the barrier is gone.  Sapphira and Rod enter the far alcove and see that the Spiderlings dislodged some kind of power crystal, which fell to the floor and shattered. It’s no good now.  They rest and heal.  Rod scoots closer to Sapphira.

Rod: Have any feelings you want to talk about?

Saphhira: That’s the first time you’ve asked me that.

They continue down the tunnel. It’s better preserved than the exterior sections.  The central poles hold conveyor belts powered by paddlewheels that could carry things against the current. There are larger platforms on the sides of the tunnels that look like tram stations, but everything seems to be long-abandoned.  There are burned and melted trails across some of the platforms, probably caused by lava.

Elevated conveyor to travel against the current.

There’s a glow and a hiss ahead. As they approach, they see that the tunnel has been breached by a lava flow. The water is flowing into the lava and evaporating, causing the hissing sounds and a cloud of steam. Our party exits the tunnel at the last platform. The far wall of that platform is gone. There’s a big chamber carved out of the mountain, cutting right through the Dwarven ruins. Only the bottom is filled with lava.

GM note: One player wanted to discuss contingencies without me overhearing, because she knew that I could literally make her worst fears come true. I assured her that I had already decide what awaited them, and it turned out to be exactly what she feared.

Fearing an ambush by some sort of lava creature, Sapphira attempts to rig the platform with webs, but she’s interrupted as a lava monster does indeed emerge from the lake of lava in front of them! Rod fires his slingshot at the lava monster, attracting its ire. As it approaches, Sapphira interposes herself to keep Rod safe. Rod tries again to knock the creature unconscious with his sling bullets.  The creature takes a swing, splattering lava over Sapphira, who uses fast healing to soak the damage.  Sapphira deploys a pit trap right at her feet and the lava monster falls in right before it grabs her. The heat radiating from the lava monster’s body sears Sapphira’s armor.  While the lava monster tries to get out of the pit, Sapphira deploys webs around the platform, and Rod runs to get some water to pour on it.  As Rod returns to the pit, the lava monster climbs up and swats him away with a burning arm. Rod retreats towards the watery tunnel, pulling at Sapphira. She’s not quite ready to flee and uses her webs to fling loose rocks at the lava monster.  It pauses and flares with extra heat to melt the rocks embedded in its gooey body.

Rod and Sapphira retreat back into the tunnel, sure that the water will harm the lava monster if it pursues them.  Sapphira prepares more webs in the tunnel and Rod is ready with a bucket of water to throw at the creature.  They are right, the lava monster does hate water. It does not follow them into the tunnel, but moves back into the lava lake and stares down the broken end of the tunnel at them.  Rod pins it down with sling bullets, allowing Sapphira to slip back out onto the platform and fire acupuncture needles form her mouth The monster’s chakras are not in the expected locations, but she finds them and paralyzes the monster. It freezes in place and tips over, sinking partly into the lava lake.

Victorious, Sapphira leaves her mark at the end of the tunnel, then carries Rod over the roof of the chamber and to the exit.  The emerge on the other side of the mountain into an ancient forest, and that’s where the session ends.