Noodle's campaign [SPOILERS]

We did end up having a May session and finished up Skyseer. I didn't write up a recap afterwards, so this will be much shorter.

Team Six decided to trust Delft enough to go to him with what they had and try to get a warrant to search MacBannin's residence. He was glad they finally opened up to him a bit, but told them to keep it quiet from everyone else.

While Delft was off working the warrant angle, Team Six set up in and around the House Elf's shop and awaited the arrival of the dragonborn brothers. Ben bungled the element of surprise .. making a bit too much noise as the brothers got to work. The battle was mostly fought on stage with Slate firing down from the catwalks above. Valando teleported up to fight Slate 1:1 while Eberardo took on the rest, but Sam ran up just behind him. Just as the chain reaction of firedust traps started going off on the floor, Sam threw Valando down from above. Valando was burnt to a crisp. (Fitting end, no?) Eberardo was distraught and got a few more good licks in, but the combined might of Team Six soon brought him down. During transport back to HQ, Ash ensured that Eberardo 'died of his injuries' -- she had earlier gotten word from the execudoras that E & V were under sentence of death in Ber.

At Delft's suggestion, they spent the night at HQ, and headed to MacBannin's the next morning, warrant in hand. The confrontation with MacBannin went approximately according to script, with the interesting twist that Ash managed a high enough Stealth roll that I let her sneak into the house while the talking was going on. When the fighting started, she began taking out household staff minions from behind. Slate & one of the Kell-Guild guys fell into a pit together briefly, but they both managed to get out before any damage was done. Most of the time I was rolling coordinates down in the SE quadrant -- not only was there noone there, but worse, I was using up all my high d20 rolls on coordinates!

I ended up deciding that Creed is dead, but that his spirit still hangs around the construction project in the Bleak Gate, and can manifest in the world just enough to get orders from or carry messages to MacBannin. (In essence, he was around to talk to the PCs & once more plead with them not to blow the whole operation, but I wasn't going to make them defeat him all over again.) They ended up leading MacBannin around by the ear, making him fix his stuff. He was a smarmy git about it the whole time, so they had no difficulty turning him over to the police when they showed up. They weren't even too broken up about it when he offed himself in prison.

June recap: WHAT are those THINGS?!

On the 70th of Summer, Ash & Slate are invited guests at a state dinner for the Beran Ambassador, a goliath named Vimak Skywatcher. He normally is in Slate close to King Aodhan but is making a tour of the country. Most Flint government officials are in attendance with their families, as well as many of the nobles from North Shore.

Most of the conversation is inane talk about Risuri-Beran relations, differences in weather, architecture, culture, etc. During the discussion of cultural differences, someone mentions Rock Rackus – a docker who’s become very popular of late.
The Beran Ambassador loudly stated that Rackus “is una cucaracha. If these stories about his solid gold, diamond-encrusted gun – which fires solid gold bullets – are true, it’s incredible! Every time he fires it, he throws away enough money to feed a family for a month. Who but an unrepentant jackass would own such a thing? He should be killed! If not for his grave insults to all that is good and just, then for his terrible music!” Silence dropped over the room, punctuated only by polite coughs as the looks on the Risuri faces range from embarrassed to surprised to horrified. Not being at the head table, Slate & Ash didn’t have any way to try to help the Ambassador remove his foot from his mouth, but you recognized his statement as typical Berian black humor. Conversations resumed shortly thereafter at a much more subdued level.

Summer has come to a close with RHC Team Six still in Lady Saxby’s doghouse. She has to make sure that SHE can take credit for everything good the RHC does in Flint – and y’all have made the papers on your own one too many times. Asst. Inspector Delft is going to bat for you, though, and hopefully you’ll be back in her good graces before long. In the meantime, Saxby has assigned Team Seven (Carlao, Serena, Kaea, Dima, Josiah, and Gaethan) to continuing the investigation into what MacBannin was doing. They do so in a quiet, methodical manner, trying to avoid sticking their necks out.


The first day of Autumn is also the first day of the Kaybeau Arms & Technology Exposition. You were assigned to watch the expo for any signs of ill-doing of national import (smuggling, espionage, that sort of thing). The fair runs from 7 AM – 2 PM every day, at which point – this being the start of the rainy season in Flint – there’s almost always a summer thunderstorm that comes in off the sea.


First thing in the morning, you met with Sgt. Sara Lockhart of Central District PD. She explained that the police would be on the lookout for any petty crimes – y’all just have to worry about the big stuff. She also said that she didn’t expect too much petty stuff the first day .. the expo has a tiered price structure. The first day, it costs 3 GP to get in, which keeps attendance to mostly the wealthy and upper middle-class. The rest of the first week, it costs 3 SP, and the rest of the month, only 3 CP.


You spend the morning browsing the various tents & pavilions, seeing such wonders and oddities as:

• a badger gun made by the gnomes Fildi & Dilfi
• a 7-shooter (all at once) gun made by the goliath Nock
• an indoor steamboat in the Chamber of Industry pavilion
• the first portable toilets, presented by Dr. Louis J. Necessary
• the ‘daferotype’ portraits of tiefling Charles Da Fer
• all the different sorts of ammunition Slate could want at the tent of dwarf Alphonse Irongut (Al’s Ammo)
• the Liontamer Mechanical Orchestra
• the magical lighting of tiefling Luc de Besson.
• the steam elevators of Harry Webster, to be used in the Apex tower under construction

Ash managed to sneak in to the Pemberton Industries tent, which was roped off and guarded, but only found various industrial fat-cats and government officials enjoying a luncheon while discussing ways to enrich themselves on the backs of the poor. While distasteful, that’s entirely legal.


Ben went to the stage area to chat with Rock Rackus, who was headlining the entertainment at the festival. His road crew was setting up for his afternoon show. They didn’t get much farther than pleasantries when screams rang out from the area of the shooting range. Only Ben and Slate (who was purchasing ammo from Al) were onhand immediately; the rest of the team ran fast and joined the fray a few rounds in.


A large tentacled mouth and three odd flying things that looked like huge dragonflies with an elephant’s trunk ending in a beak had appeared out of nowhere. The mouth grabbed a bystander, who happened to be Al’s son, and energy visibly flowed from the unfortunate dwarf to the creature. The flying things converged on a man holding a golden staff on the shooting range and dropped him immediately.


Rock drew his diamond-encrusted handgun, while another nearby dwarf drew a sniper rifle and headed for the stage. Slate headed for the stage as well, while Ben charged at the mouth. Ben was grabbed by the mouth and had his thoughts drained, contracting Distant Madness. However, he was able to teleport out of the mouth’s grasp. This seemed to confuse and enrage the monster and set up a wash-rinse-repeat cycle that lasted the rest of the combat.
In the meanwhile, the mouth had also grabbed a young man. Rock was firing at the beast, and while his first shot was true, the second was errant and hit the man instead, killing him.


Finally, Pieter, Sam, and Ash arrived on the scene. In the confusion, the party had initially divided their attacks, but Sam soon led everyone in focus fire. Ash was the first to bring down one of the flying things. Pieter went and healed the man with the golden staff, who got up and shot a magic missle at another of the flying things. As soon as it hit, yet another beast appeared, and the flying things once again converged on the man and knocked him out. Pieter took a while longer to help him this time, and only stabilized him rather than healing him.


The battle was evenly matched for a while, as the monsters were mostly insubstantial, making it difficult to land a solid blow. Eventually, the police, led by Sgt. Lockhart, joined in as well and turned the tide.


In the aftermath, Rock Rackus was arrested for manslaughter based on the eyewitness account of the dwarf sniper Kvarti Gorbatiy. The well-heeled crowd (and a distraught Alphonse) were calling for him to be strung up then and there. RHC officers came and collected everything vaguely odd or magical in the area, which caused quite a bit of grumbling from the exhibitors. You talked with Simon Langfield – the man with the staff – after he recovered. He was confused as to where the monsters had come from, and why his staff was now gold. It had been wooden when he bought it, he claimed. Indeed, over the next several minutes, the staff returned to a wooden appearance. Ben recognized certain markings on the staff as being associated with the Ancients, or Pre-Kelland People. Ash took hold of the staff and communed with it for a minute, trying to tease out its secrets. She received a vision of a large golden plate, marked with the constellation of Alesia the Wayfarer (associated with Apet) and showing a group of orcs, minotaurs and goblins in battle.


Langfield revealed that he’d acquired the staff from a mysterious dark-haired woman in an alley behind a nearby furniture store. He told you how he set up the meeting through the jewelry table at the Trinket Stand tent.

Pieter, after cleansing Ben of his Madness, decided to take the staff to Pardwright University to ask about it.



Sam returned to RHC HQ to pick up a Potion of Mimicry – he didn’t want anyone to recognize him at the Trinket Stand when he sets up the appointment to meet this mysterious woman.



Ash, Ben, and Slate stay on their post at the Expo and continue to circulate – though a lot of the excitement has gone out of the crowd.

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There have been a few further developments over email since this session happened..

• Pieter is getting into an argument with Dr. Weber over who gets the staff, the museum or the RHC Evidence Closet. That's going to last until about 2 microseconds after Lady Saxby hears about it.
• Ben was approached by an agent of Morgan Cippiano. When Ben met Cippiano, the Family man mentioned the large shipment of fey pepper coming in, and promised him a month's supply if he can keep the Customs agents off of it.
• Sam went back to HQ to pick up the potion. Delft let him know that the Lord Viscount was in town and that Lady Saxby wanted the team in her office at 4 PM. Back at the Expo, his getting into and out of disguise involved a couple of trips to the 'porta-Lou'.. err, Necessary.

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Comments on the encounter:

Dang! That looked to be a tough one for the PCs. I wussed out and didn't bring the full might of the maw to bear on poor Ben. He had the Inconstant Stance ability that let him continually teleport out of the worm maw's grab, but he was still getting hammered by the grab all the time. Other than the first time, I didn't use the Drain Thoughts power. The rest of the team was consumed with the Flying Things. It didn't help that the one turn the entire encounter that Simon was conscious, he fired off a magic missile.. and rolled a 1 on his d6, summoning another Flying Thing! Finally on about round 8 or 9, I had the police show up and start unloading into the things. That added damage quickly turned the tide.

Risuri Jones and the Ziggurat of DOOM (Jul recap)

As always, spoilers abound.

Wrapping up the separate party threads:
Pieter withheld the staff from Prof. Weber; Weber vowed to go over his head
Sam successfully arranged a meeting with Kaja Stewart at the Lanternwood Subrail Station
Ben turned down Cippiano, even after Cippiano sweetened the offer to a two month supply of fey pepper and information that ‘could be of interest to the RHC’.

At 4 PM, the team met in Lady Saxby’s office in response to her summons. She kept you waiting about 10 minutes before ushering in Lord Viscount Inspector Nigel Price-Hill and introducing him. The Lord Inspector seemed very enthused to meet you, especially Sam & Ben as fellow veterans. Lady Saxby sped the interview along and admonished you to get back to work, but not before ordering Pieter to hand over the Ancient staff to the University – as they were an important political player in the city and she did not want to antagonize them.

The meeting with Kaja was set for 6 PM. At 5, Ash & Slate started casing the Lanternwood construction site. They found it deserted. Slate clambered up to an overwatch position on some scaffolding ~40 feet above the pit. Ash continued to poke around ground level, until Slate spotted a woman approaching, accompanied by a hulking 7-foot figure in a black coat. At Slate’s signal, Ash dropped and hung beneath the wooden bridge. The pair of shifters managed to stay hidden while the construct went around dropping a few piles of tubes in various locations around the site. Ash snuck over and examined one of the piles, but saw only metal tubes.

[Noodle note: I had Ash make about 4 Stealth rolls over the course of this encounter, and she rolled a 19 or 20 on each. ]

At 6, Sam showed up, flanked by Pieter and Ben. Kaja had the construct carry a chest across the pit to Sam, and show off her wares. Sam’s eye was caught by two carved wooden objects (a sword & amulet) similar in nature to the staff they had recovered earlier in the day. Also in the chest were some Gauntlets of Ogre Power – items Sam had tried to find at the Expo or requisition from the RHC without luck. Negotiation ensued, and a price was agreed of 8000 gold for all 3 items. When Sam couldn’t immediately produce that much money, Kaja had the construct close the box and walk back. Ash snuck across the scaffolding in order to drop behind them and keep them from leaving. When she got near the construct, though, it noticed her and started to attack. Kaja materialized a pair of pistols and the fight was on. Team Six quickly brought down her construct, and pinned Kaja against the construction fence. After even a summoned cannon failed to deter our intrepid heroes, Kaja surrendered – amid imprecations that ‘you RHC types keep ruining my life’. Sam was able to draw out of her that she had worked as a researcher for MacBannin, and swiped most of her goods from the manor. To her great surprise, Sam offered to try to get her a job with the RHC instead. The team confiscated the Ancient artifacts, but Sam still paid for the Gauntlets.

[Noodle note: OK, this one took me by surprise. The team went off to the ziggurat with Kaja still alive.. I think I'm going to have her already working for the RHC when the assassin team hits.]

The full team then headed back to the University to meet once more with Professor Weber. With two more artifacts in pocket (and unmentioned to the Professor), Pieter reluctantly handed over the staff. Professor Weber mentioned it would be held under strict guard, and investigated by PU and ROA (the Royal Office of Antiquities) mages, but that he planned to make it the prime exhibit in an upcoming ‘Gala of the Ancients’ slated to open on the 31st of the season.

The professor wrapped the staff in gold thread, then bundled it in a cloth. He escorted the team to a townhouse in PU’s Faculty Housing area, and introduced you to Dr. Xambria Meredith.

Dr. Meredith was very excited to see the staff, and provided you with her story and the location of the dig. She occasionally went off on odd tangents, or seemingly spoke to someone who wasn’t there. She denied anything was wrong with her, though. She also provided the name of her benefactor – one Caius Bergeron, a tiefling from Danor. She knew he had been staying in Risur, but had lost contact with him.

Following Dr. Meredith’s directions, on Autumn 2, you all boarded a train to the city of Bole (50GP each). From there, you traveled overland to the city of Agate on the edge of the High Bayou, arriving the evening of Autumn 3. The locals told you of the Voice of Rot, the fey titan said to inhabit the Bayou. They also said there’d been another group heading out to the dig site before you – and they came back carrying something big & rectangular. You decided to buy the tailings from the local butcher (20 GP each) and wait around another day for it to begin to rot. On the morning of the 5th, you set out across the bayou for the dig site, rotting meat in tow.

Nothing much happened until you got there, where you found the remains of the camp left by Dr. Meredith’s team, along with a few of her compatriots still laying in the rain where they fell – almost. It’s clear that the site has been disturbed since the calamity happened.

Entering the Ancient ziggurat, you all began to be affected by a mild form of Distant Madness, and some of you received visions – or maybe hallucinations. Ash saw the deaths of the archaeologists, and something disturbing enough she didn’t share it with the team. Pieter received a vision of himself back on the docks, being kicked and brutalized by the Flint PD.

[Noodle note: I have a set of 'good' and 'bad' hallucinations for each of the party that I will reveal as they explore the temple. Essentially, they see themselves alternately reaching the pinnacle of their profession, or something terrible happening which shows they have labored in vain.]

You started exploring the ziggurat to the left, and came upon a ‘rainbow room’ – with colored bridges and veils of light. In the midst of solving the puzzle of how to cross the room, you were set upon by several more of the ‘thoughtform’ beasts you’d encountered at the Expo, as well as apparently normal centipedes that had been mutated by exposure to the magical energies of the ziggurat.

After dispatching the beasts, and completing the puzzle, Sam reached the other side of the room and pressed the final stone. He received a vision of the Sealing of Apet (see wiki) and the ability to speak and understand the Ancient tongue.

----

The puzzle went well, but I'm very glad we hashed it out on this forum beforehand. I didn't trigger the combat until Pieter pressed the purple stone .. meaning the party was spread-out and it was hard to focus-fire. Ash's player was a bit put out since she was trapped on the initial platform and couldn't contribute much (as a monk, she specializes in multi-target melee damage - for the most part the combat was at range from her). She ended up being a button pusher to drop/raise walls/bridges at key points in the encounter.

The main issue I had with the encounter was the design of the 'headcrabs' as we called them. They're minions, who need to land two attacks at melee range to really do their thing. I actually managed to get one character affected by Distant Madness with this attack based on some lucky rolls. If I were running this again, I might have 3-4 implanters with goon-level HP.

Risuri Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Tablet (Aug recap)

Trying something new.. I'm having my players rotate the duty of writing up the session recap (since it was taking up way too big a chunk of my limited prep time). This one is done by Sam's player.

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Beyond the Rainbow Room, we found the Map Room. It was dominated by a brass fixture in the ceiling, with a white crystal in it that appeared to represent the sun, which (were it active) would shine through holes in the fixture onto a map of what we presume was proto-Lanjyr engraved in the floor. Using a sunrod to approximate the crystal, we found that there were two areas highlighted; one corresponded to our current location, the other to someplace on or off the coast of Ber, northwest of the capital. On the wall was a concentric ring icon, with now-empty nooks.

Beyond this room was the Mavisha Room. In the floor was a concentric ring icon with the planet Mavisha (associated with water) marked. Murals on the wall depicted orcs performing rituals beneath a sun and seven planets, and attention was drawn to an empty rectangular nook the size of the golden plate of Ash’s vision. Also, there more other empty nooks in the wall, possibly containing other ceremonial weapons.

Down a corridor was a Jiese (fire) Trap Area; outside of it was a concentric ring icon with the fire planet Jiese marked, next to a charred ten-foot-pole and fire-creating instruments. The Jiese Trap Area itself was a room with a large, blackened pillar in the center; we later found that had we not deactivated the fire trap by touching it with fire, we would have been charred ourselves.

Beyond the Jiese Trap Area was a corridor with a concentric ring icon of Avalona (air) in the ceiling, beyond which was a corridor with pinholes in carvings of orcs, minotaurs, and goblins fighting horned humans with golden swords, as well as a pair of chest-high two-inch holes on either side of the corridor and what appeared to be a pit trap. The pinholes turned out to be dart traps, while the chest-high holes were spear traps that we assumed were mechanical, but we eventually found to be mummy-operated! We couldn’t seem to find a good way to deactivate the traps — blowing on the icon seemed to have no effect — but we found that Ash could easily climb along the walls to bypass them. However, it seemed that we could avoid the corridor altogether, so we went back the way we came.

[Noodle note: I read the description of the hallway wrong at first. We ended up having 3 sections of floor that would 'give way' - which I interpreted as a pit trap - with pressure plates to activate the needle trap on either side of the pits. I actually allowed their blowing on the Avilona icon to work, but they spent long enough trying to disable the pressure plates that the trap reset. Also, none of the party has much in the way of Arcana, so no one was able to sense whether or not the defensive magic had been dispelled in this area.]

Next we found the Nem Room, which had apparently been sealed off, but now had iron poles propping open the door, with an ironic welcome mat covering a concentric ring icon of Nem (ruin). The room contained many dead bodies — 4 human, 3 tiefling — with extra appendages and other mutations. Also, there was a large, golden tablet at the far end and two immense statues of coiled feathered serpents, as well as a mural of the constellation Alesia, the Wayfarer, said to affect Apet, the mysterious planet associated with (among other things) distance and time. That combined with the gold led us to wonder just what was on the other side of the tablet — but not so much as to convince us to approach. Inscribed around the floor near the tablet was a protective circle, which seemed to serve the double purpose of warding and cancelling an abjuration effect — or it would, were it not broken. We decided not to investigate further at the time.

[Noodle note: Perhaps it had been too long between sessions, but at about this point, my players started wondering 'why are we even here again?' I was worried that they were just going to leave at this point, but they were good sports and continued the exploration.]

Beyond was the Av Room, claimed by thoughtform beasts — two eye beasts and eight spider beasts. When we crossed the seal of Av (dreams) in the center of the floor, the floor began to open along a seam, revealing a seemingly bottomless pit! We delayed it with thievery and arcana, until Slate had the presence of mind to shoot at the gap — only to hear it ricochet as if the floor were still there! It didn’t take us long to realize that the sliding floor was an illusion, a “dream”, though apparently the thoughtform beasts were not so bright — they never broke the illusion, even as we slew them.

[Noodle note: This went over really well with my players. They were spending serious resources keeping the trap from advancing, and trying to push the beasts into the 'pit'. They were all pumped when Slate decided to shoot into the pit to try to determine its depth, and he realized there was an immediate ricochet.]

Next, we found Urim (earth) Trap Areas — rolling a large stone over the symbol deactivated what otherwise would have been a nasty gravity trap. This led us back to the ziggurat’s entrance, however, so we decided to go back and re-investigate the water room. It seemed that the tablet had been dragged through the northern corridor. Also, noting our methods of deactivating the previous traps, we decided to have Slate freeze some water to place on the icon there, Just In Case.

Finally, we decided to brave the Nem Room’s secrets. We approached the gold tablet, to find the stone serpents’ eyes following us as we entered the room. We noticed that the gold on the tablet was flaking off, and also that there were drag marks similar to those in the Mavisha Room. So…perhaps the tablet here was taken, and then replaced by the one in the Mavisha Room? But why? What went wrong?

Not finding much in the way of additional clues, we turned to leave, at which point we triggered the ziggurat’s full defenses! As a voice thundered “Interloper” in the Ancient tongue, the bodies at our feet began to rise, and the mummies manning the spear traps throughout the ziggurat began to burst forth from behind the walls. Also, all of the concentric ring icons began to glow; it seemed clear that, had we not deactivated e.g. the Mavisha Room’s trap, our escape from the temple would have been much more interesting! We fought a running battle to the entrance, only to be blocked by the three guardians there — the original wielders of the sword, staff, and amulet. After a pitched battle in which Slate and Ash made great use of their area-damaging abilities [Noodle note: thanks to the press of mummies, Slate was able to hit 8 enemies with an area burst 1!], we defeated the ziggurat’s forces and fled into the swamp…only to discover that every dead thing for miles had also risen from the grave. As we prepared to attempt a suicidal push, we heard a deep, slithering voice — the Voice of Rot? — urging us to climb.

What choice did we have? We climbed.

Props to the player for the write-up.

How often do you game, and do you have a site like Obsidian Portal to help the players keep track (and discuss and stay involved) between sessions?

Generally once each calendar month when we can find a Saturday afternoon that we all have free (so anywhere from 1-7 weeks between sessions). We do have an OP site set up. This helps during the investigative, non-combat times. In this case, we were in the midst of exploring the ziggurat during the break, so we didn't do much of anything on OP between the July & August sessions.

Recap later, but just wanted to note we went another 6+ hour session today without a combat roll. (We basically covered exiting the Ziggurat of Apet through to arrival at the Sunken Dig Site.) Lots of dead people found - Grappa, Kaja, Caius, and the setup from Kell - but none caused by the party. I'm still amazed at the depth of this AP that this is possible.

Amusing notes -- they disliked Rock enough that they left his a** rotting in jail. And they'd all be quite happy never to talk to Lady Saxby again. I think they'll also jump at the first chance they see to bring Kell down hard, too.

Well, I guess I never did get around to posting that last recap, huh?

Just an update to let you know our campaign is still going, although we did take about a couple of long breaks to playtest 5e and then to play SW:EoE.

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

We finished up DfL last year and have started through AoT. Team Six is aboard the Avery Coast Railway, but they've just gone (figuratively) off the rails a bit. In Trekhom, Sam trailed Bree who was trailing Boone out of the Korol Morya. Sam witnessed the ritual murder, and the gun absorbing the blood.

The next day on the train, Boone was trying to chat up Ash. She invited him back to their compartment. There, things got tense. She accused him of murder; he accused her of being a Risuri agent (and she failed her Bluff check). However, during the discussion, she was able to pull off a great pickpocket roll and actually steal the gun from him. Boone immediately attacked her with his knife. The rest of the team had gathered in the hallway in case of such an eventuality and rushed in in support. Malia and Grason rushed to the scene to try to quell the disturbance, and Damata came out into the hall to remonstrate with Slate for firing a weapon near his family.

Boone was killed in the scuffle. I ruled that the curse didn't affect Ash (as there was still a living wielder), but it DID affect Slate - to whom Ash passed the weapon during the combat - as soon as Boone was killed.

That's where we broke for this month. Due to Easter and various events, we don't have another session until the first week of May, so I have time to decide what the consequences are going to be.
Up to this point, Sam has been working himself in Luc/Ottavia's good graces - going so far as to ask Ottavia to teach him the rudiments of her sign language. I'm guessing that L/O are actually pleased that Boone has been taken care of for them, but that they're now pretty sure our team are in fact the Risuri agents. Not sure how the train staff is going to react, though.

Starting Cauldron Born

Hey y'all. We took another break from 4e and my DM role to try out Descent. (frustrating on the player side, as our Overlord/GM - Sam's player in Zeitgeist - won all the encounters )

We had some time after wrapping up Descent in last month's play session, so we started on Cauldron Born. Here's the recap I wrote up afterwards (combat told not in strict turn order, but in more narrative-style):

Session 1 (Mar 2015)

We begin in Spring 501 with the constables preparing for the imminent peace conference in Flint between Risur & Danor. Leaders of both nations will be in town, causing all sorts of headaches for security personnel such as the RHC. Constable Ash has been dispatched to Ber to locate Dr. von Recklinghausen, in hopes of providing Constable Bendaren with a replacement arm. [Ben lost an arm in the encounter with Lya Jierre at the end of ZG4]

Sample newspaper from the first week of Spring

The king and his ministers arrive in town, and set up court on the 11th floor, west side of the newly constructed Hotel Aurum, now the tallest building in Flint.

On the afternoon of the 8th, a royal carriage arrives at RHC HQ. The driver, Hadsworth Hudgins, informs you that your boss, Chief Inspector Stover Delft, has sent for you and that you are to meet personally with King Aodhan. He asks that you ‘look presentable’.

On the way to the hotel, you are ambushed by two carriages carrying what would later prove to be thugs belonging to Lorcan Kell’s guild. The front carriage blocks the road, and four muskets unload into Hudgins and the royal horses. The tough-bred horses survive; Hudgins slumps to the ground, dead.

Driverless, but possessed of some native sense, the horses accelerate out of the trap and continue to head for the hotel and their stable. Soon, you were rocketing down the street at tweny miles an hour with the Kell Guild carriages in pursuit and gaining fast. Each carriage carried a man with a gun similar to Constable Slate’s alchemical launcher. The nearer one fired a drill-round into the back of the carriage, which started to drill into the interior where it would release its cargo of poison gas.

Before it could penetrate the cab, Ben managed to climb onto the roof of the cab (one-armed!) and break the glass vial containing the poison with one blow from his hammer. He wobbled and fell off the roof, but his boots saved him - teleporting him back to the roof safely.

A murder of ghoulish crows flew in the carriage door while it was open, clawing at the party’s eyes and blinding them. Pieter tried valiantly to smite their undead carcasses, but the wings and claws assailing his eyes prevented him from getting a good swipe in. Instead, he also managed to climb to the roof and then into the driver’s seat. Eventually, he brought the horses under control and to a stop.

Before that happened, though, Slate shooed the birds out of the cab, and then traded potshots with the pursuing musketeers. His cover-piercing electrified rounds made short work of them.

The Kell technologist reloaded with a time-bomb round, firing that onto the back of your cab. Ben reached down to pluck it off, but in yanking it out, managed to fall off the cab again. His boots could not save him a second time and he went tumbling on the ground. Standing up, he casually tossed the time bomb in the driver seat of the front carriage as it passed by. The technologist tried to scramble up and get it, but failed to be as athletic as our heroic constables, tumbling to the street next to Ben.

Unfortunately, by the time the bomb went off, Pieter had slowed the carriage, and the pursuing carriage caught up, so the bomb exploded right next to the royal cart. The explosion killed the remaining Guild thug in the first pursuit carriage as well as the horses pulling it, but the royal horses survived even that. Pieter, Slate, and Sam were singed and bloodied, but kept on.

As the second cart pulled close, with the Guild’s lieutenant in charge of this operation on board, the second technologist fired off a time bomb of his own. With Ben MIA, Sam took care of this one, pulling it off and hefting it as the second carriage pulled even. “Surrender!” Sam cried. Meanwhile, Slate took the opportunity to teleport one of the enemy’s horses away from the cart. With his forces greatly reduced in number, lacking a means of escape, and confronted by an apparently crazy man holding a bomb, the Kell lieutenant put up his hands. Sam chucked the bomb into the middle of the road, where it exploded harmlessly (well, to people, anyway. The City Works Department is going to have a hell of a time filling in that pothole.)

The lieutenant, one Rufus Hammerton, claimed that they were given the time and location to ambush you by “the other guys” - “the guys that Lorcan Kell’s been working with lately”. They apparently have a facility of some sort “in the Bleak Gate” but Hammerton had never been there.

As the Central District PD arrives, you asked them to take Hammerton, the remaining technologist (the first was able to flee from Ben), and his gun into custody, and asked that they be delivered to RHC HQ. (You earn 3 Task Force Tokens for capturing Hammerton.. to be explained later)

Arriving at the Hotel at last, you are greeted by Chief Inspector Delft, who is shocked to see your condition. After making sure you’re OK, he guides you to a newfangled ‘elevator’ to take you to the 11th floor and your meeting with the King.

In a conference room on the 11th floor, you are greeted by a functionary who announces your presence. King Aodhan walks towards you. Sam starts to genuflect, but is stopped by the King - “Oh, get up, Constable Worthington! How is your Auntie, these days?” [Sam did not take a ZG theme, but rather the Noble theme from vanilla 4e .. his aunt now lives in North Shore but used to be part of the court in Slate]

The King comes up and shakes each of your hands. “It’s good to see you again, constables. I heard about your trouble on the way over, and what happened to Hadsworth, your driver.” He shakes his head. “I wish I could give this more time, but I’ve got a hundred other things to do before tomorrow, so let us get on to business.
“I’m not trying to make you feel important by saying this, but I’m about to give you probably the most important mission I’ve had to send anyone on in my whole reign. The woman I’m supposed to be marrying might be trying to destroy my kingdom, and apparently there are people who want to make sure we don’t find out what she’s up to. We have five days until she gets here.
“Harkover?”

Principal Minister Harkover Lee is there, and gestures at Chief Inspector Delft, who hands you a packet of documents.

Minister Lee says, “Despite a variety of encounters with the Obscurati, we only have a sense of their actions, not their goal, nor the organization or extent of the group. We don’t know who they are, but we do know where they are.
“The Ob maintain some manner of industrial complex in the Bleak Gate, in a location analogous to Cauldron Hill in this world. They have the ability to pass between the two worlds with relative ease. We do not have the same ability.
“When you have time, review the material in these folders.” Minister Lee grimaces at Inspector Delft. “Please ignore Inspector Delft’s ‘wit’—the official titles he’s given to certain entries. Their inclusion will make sense in a moment.”
Inspector Delft smiles in reply.



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I'll also note that this month, I tried something new - suspending a pico projector from the chandelier over the table, and using Maptool combined with physical minis. It worked reasonably well, but the lights had to be kept fairly dim in the room, making it difficult to read the hard copy of the adventure I had open while running the map on the laptop. The projector image is about 36" diagonal, roughly the same size as the 24x30" battlemat I used to use, but is limited to 720p. It's also difficult to get the focus just right. Fry's has a deal on a 1080p 40" TV with VGA & HDMI input this week, so I may return the projector and get the TV instead. (The Bombs Away encounter is what's driving me in this direction - as given, the map is HUGE. Even if I just limited it to the portion between buildings 4 & 13, it would be bigger than my dining room table at scale. MapTool will let me pan around as necessary.)

Amusing end to golem encounter in the Bleak Gate facility

Party was facing off against Linus, Hunting, and Colin. They had dispatched Linus & Hunting, but were having trouble doing much to Colin (partially because Asrabey is not, shall we say, a team player). All of a sudden, Slate (who took the Mad Shootist PP) fires up his new blaster and hits Colin with a shrink ray, making him Tiny. Grappa then picks Colin up, shakes his finger in his face, and clicks out "Stop hurting these nice people".