ZEITGEIST [ZEITGEIST] The Continuing Adventures of Korrigan & Co.

The short answer to your first question is: Leon's theme is martial scientist. (He also pursues membership of the Vekeshi Mystics, who despite initial and understandable misgivings, have learned to trust him during the last few adventures. So he pursues that storyline, but gains no thematic benefits.)

The full explanation goes as follows:

His background is that he is really called Dax Corbeau, and was a ruthless general in the Danoran army - infamous among the Risuri rank-and-file for his methods, designed to strike fear into the enemy (crucifying captives, that kind of thing).

During the Yerasol campaign, one of his lieutenants (the real Leon Veilleux) attempted to assassinate him. He was able to fend of and kill his would-be assassin, but sustained terrible injuries in the process.

A fugitive eladrin woman rescued him and healed him - quite the opposite of what he had been taught to believe an eladrin 'sorceress' would do. When Danoran forces came for him, he escaped (not wishing to establish whether he was being rescued or if they had come to finish the job).

He does not know what became of the eladrin woman (although the unit rediscovered her hideout on Yerasol during adventure #1).

With his world view in tatters, he fled to Risur and hid out in the bayou, learning what he could about the fey, eventually settling down with a tiefling prostitute name Lilly.

When the Risuri authorities got wind of him (of a 'tiefling veteran of Yerasol', that is) they sent Marshal Korrigan and his unit to capture him. Leon surrendered, and told his story as if he were Leon Veilleux 'assassin of the feared General Dax Corbeau'.

In recognition of this - and of his unique talents - Korrigan had him pardoned and offered him the chance to join the unit.

By now, Leon has let all of his military training grow rusty, partly due to his injuries, and focussed on developing his fey pact. But gradually, as he sees more action, his old skills are coming back to him.

Since his arm was severed and reattached in the Laboratory at the end of Dying Skyseer, it has started to behave in very strange ways. I have decided that it is now possessed of some of General Dax's ruthlessness, and will almost physically embody the process of Leon's old skills returning - in particular, using Experimental Strike without Leon intending it to. (This will enable me to give the player a few hints and tips on how to use it, as he had been finding it difficult to improvise good ideas.)

*****

With regard to your second set of questions - I wish I had the time to put together as detailed a subplot as Cheezmo Miner (who kindly messaged me his ideas and just so happens to be using the same 1st edition adventures).

All I'm doing is adding some extra details and responding to player creativity: Rumdoom's player, when asked to delineate his contacts, provided information about his entire eschatological 'cell': Two zealous Drakran brothers; an avuncular priest/politician; and a driven industrialist named Khaled Valchek - all dwarves.

He also invented his own subplot - about a mythical item called 'the Stone of Not' which the eschatologists seek. I didn't know what to do with this at first, but then I came up with the idea that the Deep Ones have it and that 'Black Star Mining' (run by Valchek) know this. So Valchek sent the spy Silas Fennac to make contact with the Deep Ones, and secretly note their defences, etc. The idea is to concoct a story about a planned invasion, encourage Risur to mobilize against the Deep Ones, grab the Stone of Not and open up vital trade routes into the bargain.

Fennac used a stolen idol to affect his escape from the Deep Ones, but this idol has enabled the Deep Ones to tail him. When he crashed his dirigible over the marshes and fell into the hands of the lizardmen, the Deep Ones sent their sahuagin in to snatch him back.

This led to the displacement of the lizardmen, and their attempts to buy firearms to defend themselves - both of which drew the attention of the RHC (in previous adventures).

I hope that's reasonably clear. But to be honest, I'm not 100% sure where I'm going with it. I prefer not to attach any major storylines to individual players so early in the campaign, in case one of them leaves, and I don't want to distract from the AP proper.

Hildegaard was just set-dressing - a love interest to play off Rumdoom's background: he drinks heavily and is obsessed with the ending of all things, since his childhood sweetheart died giving birth to their stillborn son.

He tried to respond to her interest but got all tongue-tied.

Nice little nods to "The Scar," my favorite China Mieville book.

Yes. Glad none of my players have read it!

• Session 28
  
  
  • The unit made their way through the Hool Marshes, and were ambushed by a bunch of bullywugs and their giant frog companions.
  • The bullywugs were being controlled somehow, behaving far more aggressively and recklessly than normal.
  • When the unit reached the island lair of the Sea Devils, they saw that it had been lowered. Only one level of the complex they were tasked to explore was now exposed.
  • Oolsholeel took minnow form
• and discovered lacedon munching on the corpses of sailors that had been lashed to the jagged causeway by lengths of chain. On the sea floor near the cliffs were many sunken ships.
• A cave had been carved into the rock - inaccessible except by a climb from the sea or across from the ancient stairs.
• Fearing ambush by the aquatic ghouls, the unit dashed along the causeway ignoring Leon's suggestion that they search for traps.
• Sure enough, they triggered a glyph of warding that immoblized many of the unit and their lizardfolk allies. The lacedon duly responded by clambering up to attack.
• After a hard fight, the strike force felled the last of the lacedon.
• A sahuagin appeared in the entrance cave, but Matunaaga took it out with a single shot. He then threw himself at the entrance, came up short and plunged into the choppy waters below the causeway...

Session 29

• Oolsholeel fished an unconscious Matunaaga out of the choppy waters below the causeway, while other members of the strike force (including Leon, Uru and a few marines and lizxardfolk) complained of nagging after-effects from the glyph of warding: aching muscles, heavy limbs.
• Korrigan ordered all those affected to withdraw to the clifftop before the remaining force checked out the entrance.
• Oolsholeel clambered up to check out the ledge.
• The dead Sea Devil shot by Matunaaga was a mutated aberation with vetsigial fingers in its armpit. It had left the entrance door ajar. While the unit fixed up a rope and began to rappel across to the ledge, Oolsholeel heard another sahuagin approaching. He dealt with it swiftly and silently.
  
• More curious sahuagin guards came towards the entrance. This time they spotted Oolsholeel, who charge in attempt to prevent them from alerting their fellows, but a warning going was struck.
• Korrigan ordered his men inside, though he was yet to rappel to the entrance himself. Some of the marines spotted more lacedon climbing up to attack from the rear.
  
• The unit burst into the opening chamber, with Krauss using a magical trick to convince the guards they had nothing to fear. (A very cool use of the arcane mutterings utility power.)
  
• This prevented them from setting off a trap and allowed the unit to deal with all but two of them, who fled in different directions.
• Krauss pursued one and felled it.
• Oolsholeel chased after the other, but ran into some enslaved 'merrow' (or aquatic ogres) the sahuagin were using as back-up. His quarry escaped.
• Meanwhile, Korrigan had managed to get inside and closed the entrance before the lacedon could follow. They began to pound on the doorway.
• The Marshal joined his team as they swiftly took out the two ogres, allowing Oosholeel to chase after the escaping sahuagin.
• At that moment, the lacedon burst into the complex, but the unit were able to spring the very trap they had avoided, and soon killed the ensnared ghouls.
• By this time, Oolsholeel had raced almost the entire length of the upper level, down a long corridor in pursuit of his prey. He found the sahuagin with four of his kin, and was able to slay them all before they escaped.
• The unit discovered that the sahuagin had made many modifications to the lizardman lair - joining up tunnels, widening rooms, and digging out floors to replace them with a shallow, silty layer.
• They also found a dying slave named Elmo, who told them about a secret door he and his fellow slaves had built. As he passed away he repeated, "remember metamorph".
• Sounds of construction could be heard from the furthest point of the upper level.
• Korrigan waited for back-up from the team who had been left outside, while Oolsholeel dropped back, having sustained serious injuries.

Session 30

• The unit investigated the 'secret room' and found a storeroom full of salvaged tools and building materials.
• On closer inspection, there was indeed a secret door which led to a teleportation chamber.
• Leon discovered that the portal had an open link to two others (one in Flint harbour; the other in the bay near Saltmarsh).
• They sent a message to Malthusius telling him about their discovery, fearing that if they failed to escape there would be no one to warn the authorities of this discovery.
• Construction sounds led to a chamber where captives undertook final alterations to this level prior to submersion. They were guarded by full-blooded sahuagin warriors riding giant scorpions.
• Following a hard-fought battle, the unit freed the slaves, though some were willing to accompany them and gain revenge against the Sea Devils.
• Pausing only to cast seagoing rituals on their new allies, the unit heade down to the lower levels.
• Uru scouted out a very large area, and discovered seaweed beds where many sahuagin slept.
• The presence of guards indicated an important chamber, which the unit elected to assault.

Session 31

• The unit used a pincer movement to quickly take out the sahuagin guards and swept into the large, dimly lit chamber beyond.
• This was a temple to Sekolah. At the far end of the room four sahuagin priestesses were engaged in a grisly ritual, sacrificing sahuagin hatchlings on a white marble altar. Above, circled an enormous dire shark.
• The unit and their allies made short work of the inhabitants of this room, then made a clean sweep of adjoining chambers, finding a necklace of healing pearls, and dealing with other, isolated occupants.
• They then chased a wandering sahuagin through the deeper areas of the complex, heading towards the stairs to the lowest level.
• However, the chase led them to a 'mess hall' where the sahuagin feasted on floating hunks of meat, and eventually into a throne room, where they entered combat with a sahuagin baron, the high priestess and their guards.
• The combat was going well, when more sahuagin arrived to attack them from the rear...

I've been keeping these sessions really simple. An old-school dungeon crawl modified by the overarching mission and the presence of three allied minions per player (one marine, one lizardman, one freed slave). I figured some mindless hack-and-slash would make a change from the more cerebral adventure path. The fun has come from watching how the group now creates its own dynamic, with witty asides and characterful moments aplenty: The benny and keyword system I introduced at the start of the campaign has paid dividends, with even the more reluctant players working for the reward by making sure they enact their individual 'schtick' at the table.


Funnily enough, most of them now do so without even troubling to claim a benny.

Session 32

Okay - even by our standards, this session was packed:

• The battle with the sahuagin baron and his retinue took a rapid turn for the worse: in quick succession, the baron thrust his trident through Korrigan's shoulder, in a powerful blow that almost killed the Marshal outright, while the high priestess used a suffocating power to to take Leon out of the fight too.
  
• Things went from bad to worse, with brave members of the strike force, lizardmen, slaves and marines alike, falling to the blows of the sahuagin. Even poor Will Stoutly succumbed to a fatal blow.
• Matunaga was dropped too, and Krauss fell soon after.
• The turning point came when Oolsholeel slew both the baron and the high priestess, and Krauss managed to get himself back on his feet, using a healing suppository to assist Matunaga.
• Shortly before he died, the baron used a magical conch to send a warning signal throughout the lair: Soon the sleeping hordes of sea devils the unit had seen earlier would be upon them.
• Guided by Krauss, and bearing their fallen allies, they descended to the lowest level, where the water pressure was unaccountably high, and the waters cold and dark - magically recreatingthe conditions of the deep ocean.
• Krauss said he would find the swiftest exit, but instead led them into a huge ritual combat arena.
• Here, they found themselves surrounded by sahuagin and sharks, while Krauss (clearly mind-controlled) heralded the arrival of one of the Deep Ones.
• The creature (an aboleth) seemed to emerge out of a spiral of twisted space, nestled in a bubble of slime and flanked by thralls. It greeted the adventurers and told them it knew why they had come. It greeted Krauss in particular, as a master might greet a pet.
• It told them that the Deep Ones and their Sea Devil allies were here in pursuit of one thing only: Silas Fennac and 'what he stole from us'.
• Immediately, the group thought of the Jade Idol, but the Deep One read their thoughts: "We would not travel half the world for a mere toy." If the idol was had been their objective, the matter could be settled very quickly, it said, as the idol was secreted on the unconscious form of Leon. (Uru checked, and sure enough, there it was.) But the idol would be useful in helping them achieve a settlement with the Deep Ones:
• In return for their freedom and the Deep One's departure, the unit was to track down Silas Fennac and bring him and his journal (containing details of the Deep One's defences) back to the sahuagin lair. The idol granted incredible powers to sneak and spy unobserved, and thus would be invaluable in getting hold of the journal.
  
• Leon, Korrigan, and the marines, slaves and lizardmen would remain behind as collateral to this bargain.
• The unit agreed and Krauss was freed from domination.
• Appalled by the ease with which the Deep One had controlled him, Krauss took a pistol and shot himself in the head!
• There was no time to mourn this desperate act. Oolsholeel, Matunaaga, Rumdoom and Uru headed through a portal the Deep One created and found themselves in Flint harbour.
• Malthusius met them on North Shore beach.
• They headed straight for the manse of Khaled Valchek, where Silas Fennac was holed up, concocting a plan as they went: Uru would steal inside, using the power of the Idol to gain near-invisibility, insubstantial and phasing, and a climb speed. Meanwhile, Rumdoom would enter and distract Valchek and Fennac, while Malthusius and Matunaga arranged delivery of a note demanding Silas Fennac meet them at North Shore beach, if he ever wanted to see the idol or his note book again. They made it seem as if the note came from the Kell Guild (signing off with their warning symbol of three crossed daggers).
• Uru stole the notebook from Fennac's safe.
• Rumdoom learned that Valchek had left for Saltmarsh shortly after they did, in command of two mercenary vessels.
• Rumdoom was present when Fennac received the fake note and ran back to check his empty safe. Fennac, in a panic, promised Rumdoom 'immense riches' if he helped him deal with these 'criminals'.
• On the beach, the unit tricked Fennac into the water, where Oolsholeel (in octopus form) grabbed him. They then returned through the reopened portal leaving Malthusius behind.
• No sooner had they arrived and handed the screaming Fennac and his stolen notes over to the Deep One, but a dull thud and shudder presaged a bombardment of the island that could only be the work of Valchek and his mercenaries.
• And so the unit and their allies fled in one direction, while the Deep One and the sahuagin fled in another.
• Once they had escaped the lair, they paused only to bury Crazy Krauss. To their surprise, it turned out he was still very much alive, despite the sizable hole in his head! The gunshot had been a form of emergency surgery to remove the mind control device which the Deep Ones had implanted in him during his captivity. Krauss was very cross about that and grumbled about it all the way home.
  
• Unwilling to trust Black Star Mining any further, the unit decided against rejoining the Rostinante, and headed through the Hool Marshes on foot, on a five-day march.
  
• Smoke rose from the lizardman lair. They approached cautiously and found Risuri military and Black Star mercenaries rounding up and hog-tying any lizardmen they had not killed. There were many dead.
• The unit's lizardman allies, fearing treachery, struck out at their erstwhile comrades and had to be subdued.
• Lord Blackthorn turned out to be the leader of the mercenaries. He gloated and told the unit that their 'rising star with the Unseen Court had fallen'. Blackthorn had returned to avenge his wounded pride at the service of Khaled Valchek.
• Valchek had sent his mercenaries in pursuit of the Jade Idol, thought to be in possession of the Lizardman Minister. However, the minister had escaped.
• The lizardman chief was dying. Although badly injured himself, Korrigan rose and healed the chief.
• Krauss used his arcane powers to deliver a rousing political speech which all of the mercenaries and Risuri soldiers could hear. The stopped treating the lizardmen so harshly after that and eventually left empty-handed.
  
• Crestfallen and ambivalent, the unit struggled back to Saltmarsh, where Will Stoutly was laid to rest. From there, they returned to Flint - by road, at Rumdoom's insistence.
• In all the confusion, it turned out they had been left in possession of the Jade Idol!

All that in just over three hours! I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

Session 33** SPOILERS **

Session 33

• Mayor Reed Macbannin committed suicide on the first day of his own trial, by dashing his head against the truth crystal designed to dispel his geas. Malthusius discovered that his spirit had left his body, and that Macbannin had seemed sick and was talking to himself shortly before he left his jail cell.
• Macbannin's death triggered a riot in Parity Lake. Matunaaga witnessed the aftermath as he walked through the worst parts of the city of Flint, having first taken to the high ground of Cauldron Hill to get a good view of his new home. He retired to the banks of Stray River and began to build himself a secluded home at the edge of the Cloudwood.
• Malthusius then found himself offered the post of Mayor of the Nettles, on the basis of a petition whipped up by Thames Grimsley and the Dockers. He suggested that he might share the post with Isaac dan der Grimnebulin.
  
• Korrigan awoke from sleep to find a tearful Elizabeth watching over him. She told him that she feared that his duties meant that he "would not be able to protect us". The Marshal took some well-earned leave to spend time with his heavily pregnant wife, but still found it impossible to get to the bottom of what was troubling her.
• Leon made attempts to contact the lizardman minister, and levelled with Korrigan about the deep idol. He also began to prepare a lecture for the Battalion.
• Uru dealt with his yearning for the idol by developing a fey pepper addiction. Out of the frying pan into the fire...
  
• Rumdoom refused to help an irate Valchek deal with the Kell Guild, and left Valchek's manor, disgusted with their treatment of the lizardmen and their reckless bombardment of the sea devil lair. He learned that some eschatologists distrusted the group he was part of, as they sought to actively bring about the end of the world (or hasten it). A fter a fortnight of hard drinking, the pretty dwarf maiden Hildegaard was sent to bring him in, but Rumdoom still refused.
• Malthusius broke up a fey pepper smuggling ring, and arrested the family bravura Bendick (again). Bendick persuaded him to go and talk with Morgan Cippiano.
  
• The unit was given fresh marching orders: to provide security at the Kaybeau Arms Fair - a month-long technology expo in Central Flint.
• With Malthusius in tow (as honorary unit member) the group engaged in training at the Battalion, with a hard-fought game of Capture the Flag. Korrigan, Matunaaga and Uru took on Leon, Rumdoom and Malthusius. The game was a tie.

Tying up loose ends this session. I had saved the trial and suicide of Macbannin to get the party refocused after their long buffer episodes. I wanted it to be more melodramatic, but took RangerWickett's point that if you were running a conspiracy, you wouldn't want to do anything 'showy'. I decided on the following internal logic (which no one but me or the readers of this thread will ever learn!): Nicodemus wouldn't bother to take out Macbannin without good reason. My reason was that elite diviners were about to break his geas in open court (using the aforementioned truth crystal). Fortunately, the crystal provided Old Nick with the perfect way to kill himself in a single blow. (Any other means being liable to knock him out rather than kill him.) Anyway - that's my excuse.

Krauss' player was absent. Perfect, since he's not yet an official member of the unit (and can play souped up versions of Kvarti & Rackus next week too). So Krauss retired to his compound to nurse his self-inflicted lobotomy scars...

Most of the session was taken up with roleplaying, but to justify the free expertise feats I always hand out at 6th level (maths fix; yawn) I had the unit take part in a session of Capture the Flag for the last hour.

This was a blast - perfectly suited to 4E (but fun with other systems no doubt). I didn't have to do anything but sit back and watch the fun. It helped the players to learn about one another's powers too, as having a power used against you is much more memorable!

The players enjoyed it so much they made me promise to run it after each level up. (Not sure if we'll go that far though.)

New Party Line-up

We now have seven players in total, and two new permanent characters. One new guy had been playing cameos for a while to add verisimilitude to the recruitment process (and because it was fun). Here is the line-up of the unit moving forward, with notes on the development of long-term members:

Marshal Korrigan - The unit's stalwart leader. The rest of the crew defer to him without question. His player is sensible, thoughtful and restrained and the others know they need him to curb their excesses. It helps that he is a tactical warlord, as the roleplaying element is strongly supported by the fact that he is often shouting orders at his men in combat. Korrigan has now gained some mastery of the strange condition that has afflicted him since Yerasol IV, and under certain conditions can now alter his form from earthen to aquatic. Korrigan has begun to realise that he can't defend Risur without political clout, and has shown a genuine interest in thwarting the machinations of Lady Saxby.

Uru Scathaig Ciotog – Creepy unit mascot. Looks like a little black kid (who could easily be Korrigan’s son), but is in fact a deep faen assassin. (Deep fey, we decided, inhabit the border between the Bleak Gate and the Dreaming.) Uru has developed into a strange amalgam of tribal fey and technologist, obsessed with what makes things live (and die) – or in the case of his contraptions, tick. He's currently gathering corpses to create a garden of the dead in the Nettles where his spirit companions can feel at home: Uru's ghostly contact Little Jack now lives in his clockwork contraption, and two other friendly spirits orbit invisibly around him (helping out occasionally like a mage hand). Uru loves using his hat of hats to dress the part for all occasions.

Leon Veilleux – Korrigan’s second-in-command. He was the last recruit for the original five-man unit (and the unit’s first target before his official pardon). Leon is a military mastermind, part of a cadre of Danorans trained outside the Dead Magic Zone to fight their foes with arcane energies. By way of redressing his crimes against the fey (with whom he is now wholly enchanted) he has formed a fey pact, and joined the Vekeshi Mystics – the first tiefling ever to do so. Great roleplaying has seen him develop from a potential antagonist to Korrigan into a wholly trusted right hand man. Fantastic example of a player suprising the DM. We changed his keyword from 'antagonistic' to 'resourceful/reliable' when it turned out this is where the character was headed.

Rumdoom Kagan – a drunken dwarf fighter. I was not overly inspired when the player first suggested this to me, so I insisted he play an eschatologist to add a different dimension to the character. Worked a treat, especially when we decided that his theme power was both unique and accidental. What has raised this otherwise hackneyed character concept above the norm is the level of pathos injected by the player. Lauded by the eschatologists of Flint for his manifestation of the Icy End, Rumdoom seeks nothing but a good ending for himself, following the tragic death of his childhood sweetheart. He really does want to die a glorious death and is equally terrified of a pathetic or ignoble one. He is afraid of water, doesn’t like getting on boats (kind of like a dwarven Mr T), and his favourite possession is his magical floating shield.

Matunaaga – New character. (Reskinned githzerai hunter-ranger. Homebrew caji theme; keyword - graceful.) Recruited as a replacement for El Perro. A maustin caji whose people live in the Anthras mountains: an ancient civilisation (who may or may not be native to this world) once hostile to Risur, whose proud warrior caste – the caji – swore an oath of fealty to the Kings of Risur many hundreds of years ago. This oath was renounced following the carnage of Yerasol IV and the pursuit of technological warfare. When his people returned to their mountain homes, Matunaaga settled near Flint. He had fallen in love with a buxom Risuri healer, with whom he since has adopted many children. Initially reluctant to join the unit until his wife had a vision that Korrigan was a man worth following. Finds it hard to cope with Flint: the pollution and the overcrowding. Matunaaga is a meditative and contemplative soul (whose player has developed an entire culture around the initial ideas we sketched out).

That is the official five-man unit. Also in the party:

Malthusius – Korrigan’s confidante and advisor. Still ‘riding the boat’ since the events of Dying Skyseer this octogenarian deva is a detective in the RHC, although he was once a Professor of Philosophy at Pardwright University. Although an immortal, he behaves like he has really aged, wearing a long white beard, comfortable robes, and complaining about his knees. Recently discovered that his previous incarnation was the clergy godhand who helped defeat the witches of Cauldron Hill. Malthusius is both a skyseer and a spirit medium, having had a long enough life to master both skills. Brings the evidence he finds to the unit and helps them get into more trouble: The Gale case was his case; he also found out about the fence selling ancient artifacts at the Kaybeau Arms Fair. Trouble is, the unit won’t listen to him when Korrigan isn’t around.

Karl Krauss – or Sour Krauss, or Crazy Krauss, or the Grumbler (in his political pamphlets). Brought in to help the unit deal with an infestation of sea devils (during a buffer adventure), Krauss is a paranoid conspiracy theorist who believes the upper echelons of Risur are mind controlled by the deep ones. He is an authority on Distant Madness (or at least he claimed to be throughout the last adventure...), which will see him recruited for a second time once the unit has dealt with the Incident at the beginning of adventure #3. His theories about the condition are total , but he does at least know how to cure it. (New character. Krauss is a hybrid artificer/swordmage, with all of his powers reskinned as aelectrical, emanating from his bayonet/carbine. He is human, but experiments conducted by the Deep Ones have granted him all the traits of a warforged. Keyword - paranoid. Gunsmith theme.)

Session 34 - We begin Digging for Lies

• The unit's new marching orders: provide security for the Kaybeau Technology and Arms Exposition and try to stay out of the papers!
• The first day passed uneventfully (apart from a case of petty larceny). The unit checked out the various pavillions and tents, liaising with their police contact, Sergeant Sara Lockhart.
• Back at HQ the arrival of RHC leader Viscount Nigel Price Hill was reported: He had come to root out suspected corruption in the organisation and conduct an audit of officers.
• On the second day of the expo, a strange incident occurred: weird, tentacled horrors were accidentally summoned into being by an amateur magician wielding a golden staff.
• Fortunately, the unit was on hand to deal with these hideous creatures, assisted by Malthusius, who was at the fair to meet with Morgan Cippiano. Two more bystanders - hero of the Dockers movement Rock Rackus, and Drakran dwarf Kvarti Gorbartiy - also chipped in. Uru jumped into a steam powered suit and gave it a much-needed test run.
  
• The creatures were insubtsantial, unreal and nightmarish - assaulting the minds of their victims. Both Rumdoom and Korrigan felt the dizzying aftereffects of their attacks, even after the monsters had been felled.
• Strangely, they did not vanish as summoned monsters should. Junior RHC officers arrived to remove the corpses and impound everything that was nearby or involved in the incident.
• An innocent bystander had been shot through the head by a golden bullet: Kvarty had seen the shot come from Rackus, and a golden bullet proved his guilt. The singer was arrested.
• Malthusius communed with the spirit of the sadly deceased culprit, Simon Langfield. While loudly bemoaning his own fate, he said he had bought the golden staff from a woman at the fair. She didn't have a proper stall, he said, but had been introduced through a contact named Isaac Randall.

The rundown doesn't reflect the amount of session time spent bringing the Fair to life. The group explored every tent and pavillion and really enjoyed interacting with the NPCs. Korrigan took issue with the inaccurate historical representation of some of the battles in the Military Tent and hung around redressing the balance for a while. Rumdoom drank alot of Nevard Sechim's Acid. Uru got so excited when he heard about the badger gun that he ran all the way to Gun Alley (and was distraught when everything got impounded).

I strung out their presence at the fair for a couple of days to get them nice and bored (and keen to get out of the fair).

Couple of minor hiccups from the players: Uru let 'Mama' off with a warning, so the group may have lost that lead. Then they allowed poor Simon to die of his injuries. When Malthusius raised him, I played him as distressed and melodramatic in death (a bit like Withnail might behave if he found himself unexpectedly killed). The information he gave the party was garbled and peppered with solipsistic rants, so that's two leads down.

One of the players ran Kvarty Gorbartiy and Rock Rackus (as full companion characters), which meant I got to insert the flavour text for Rock's gun as the read-out-loud description for his power. Glad to have found a means to ensure the party heard that choice bit of writing, as they are unlikely to obtain the gun. "Unrepentant jackass..." Nice.

EDIT: I forgot to note how long the PCs spent trying to gain access to the Pemberton Industries tent. 'Forbidden Fruit' and all that. I must make sure to have a Pemberton Industries stamp or kitemark on a crate later in the campaign (as they are now convinced the whole AP revolves around this mystery tent).