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

gideonpepys · Sep 29, 2012

Session 49

A short report because the majority of this session was devoted description of the Dreaming as the characters explored, and interaction between players.

Here's a breakdown of key events:

Session 49

Passing through the fey crossing, the unit struggled to the surface of a rushing river and clambered onto a mud-bank. Some of them had missing gear. Leon had lost his Rod of Corruption!
They fended off attacks from a pack of Eel hounds, before retreating from the river.
They found themselves overlooking a field of corn.
Uru shot a scarecrow when it moved. It turned out to be a dwarf, shaved and trussed up and hung out on a wooden stake. Unfortunately, he was now dead!
It was early morning in the feywild, though it had been almost dusk on Lanjyr.
They began to explore, despite the fact that the magical wooden compass Gale had given them did not appear to be working.
Wandering around, they stumbled into a swamp and head to deal with some goblin frog-riders.
They kept one of the goblins alive. He told them they served Jenny Greenteeth and were under orders to kill any outsiders they found. The goblins also carried a permit that allowed them to enter the Birch Queen's Fair.
With the goblin as guide, the adventurers set off again.
Dusk fell and they set about looking for a place to camp.

The opportunity to have the characters experience how closely Risur is linked to the fey (and how those links are breaking) was too good to pass up. The dead dwarf was a bit of improvization when Uru shot the scarecrow for no reason. Now he thinks he killed a key source of information for the party. Heh heh heh...

gideonpepys · Oct 1, 2012

Session 50

Session 50

As quickly as the sun set, it rose again. They barely had time to close their eyes, let alone sleep!
Following the goblin, they set off again, although all save Conquo were exhausted.
It soon became apparent that the goblin had no idea where he was going. He had played along with their assumption in hopes that they kept him alive. Feeling sorry for the creature, they let him go.
They were well and truly lost, and wandered hopelessly for several days, only very rarely catching just a few hours sleep.
The forests of the Dreaming were very strange. They kept experiencing deja vu and suddenly found themselves in new areas - especially after dawn.
There were many strange encounters: a talking lioness and her adult cubs tried to eat them; they only narrowly avoided falling victim to a night elf boar patrol; and they bandied words with a pair of cutting quicklings and their dire crow pets. The quicklings eventually left them alone, having inadvertently given away several important clues.
Their closest shave was with the terrible Nain Rouge, from whom they only barely escaped with their lives.
Eventually, they came across a party of eladrin courtiers on a day's hunt. Though these members of the unseen court treated them with disdain and amusement, they managed to convince them to help and got directions to the Birch Queen's Fair.
When they arrived, they found the entrance to be guarded by an ettin. Too weak to fight this creature, they variously bribed, sneaked and cajoled their way past it.
Once inside, Bernard went straight into hiding in the tent of an old acquaintance.
The rest explored and found a busy, disorienting and unsettling place, full of sprites, gnomes, elves and eladrin, and all manner of other creatures too.
To their dismay, they soon learned that the fair never ended, but that no one could leave until it did!
Many more days went by.
The group traded memories with Ambertain the Black Warlock, and learned how to travel on fey roads from Rhorlief the giant wolfman.
Ambertain also told them that the miller's wife Ellessandra had been taken captive by the Nain Rouge...
Matunaaga took part in an archery tournament and came a respectable second.
In the end, Bernard played his trump card and took the party to meet the Birch Queen.
Immediately, he was captured, beaten and bound: Many decades ago, he had been her consort, but he had escaped before his year was up. (Why, he did not say. And it was anybody's guess: the Birch Queen was pretty hot!)
Korrigan made use of their audience to win access to the briar barrier that surrounded his wife.
Uru brought a warning to the fey of the corrupting influence of industry.
Conquo (and Leon) learned that his 'mother', Lavanya, had visited the Fair too - buying memories from the merchants there. So she was alive after all!
The Birch Queen told them that a lot of trouble had been caused of late by Jenny Greenteeth, who was in fact her sister, and was also the debt collector for the fey. The River King was unhappy with broken promises made by the King and lords of Risur, and that is why he was closing the fey crossings.
The unit needed to reach the palace of the River King to deal with Jenny Greenteeth and speak to the River King himself. They also needed to track down the Nain Rouge and rescue Ellesandra.
In return for their courtesy, and for delivering Bernard of Glenwade to her, the Birch Queen gave them permission to travel on the fey road leading from her fair, and ordered one of her courtiers - Dantes (leader of the satyrs they had encountered in Riverbend) - to escort them.

Last but not least, the unit received a messenger wind, that was able to travel between planes thanks to Gale's fey magic:
"Marshall Korrigan. It's Rumdoom. Thought I'd let you know that I'm alive and heading back to Flint."

I tried something different this session. Wanting to suggest the passage of time, I turned the party's wandering through the Dreaming into an extended skill challenge, involving navigation, endurance and avoidance of danger.

The last part of the report came as a huge surprise to the players. If you remember, several sessions ago - on the return journey from the Sunken Ziggurat - Rumdoom sacrificed himself to save the party from a sea monster.

Well... that was all a set-up arranged by Rumdoom's player and me, as he was going to be taking an indefinite amount of time off for the birth of his third child.

So once the party get out of the Dreaming, Rumdoom will be back in the fold.

Ajar · Oct 5, 2012

Awesome.

We've slowed down enough that I'm not adding anything to the campaign, but I read your results and interludes with great interest all the same.

gideonpepys · Oct 6, 2012

Ajar said:
Awesome. We've slowed down enough that I'm not adding anything to the campaign, but I read your results and interludes with great interest all the same.

That's good to know. I did wonder if session reports on the buffer adventures were of interest to anyone, and was including them only so the ongoing campaign report makes sense.

I'm really looking forward to starting Always on Time now: running the Wrath of the River King (albeit with major alterations) reminds me how a lot of 4E adventures - even one written by the esteemed Wolfgang Baur - amount to little more than a series of fights strung together with a bit of a narrative. And the River King module is better than most!

It's more compelling for my players because their leader is on a personal quest to rescue his own wife, but I can see their eyes glazing over at times. (My attempt to speed things up by turning the wanderings in the Dreaming into a skill challenge was entirely unsuccessful, by the way: we all agreed that it caused the group to disengage to varying degrees.)

So roll on the release of Cauldron Born. I really don't want to start adventure 4 without it.

rangda · Oct 7, 2012

gideonpepys said:
running the Wrath of the River King (albeit with major alterations) reminds me how a lot of 4E adventures - even one written by the esteemed Wolfgang Baur - amount to little more than a series of fights strung together with a bit of a narrative. And the River King module is better than most!

Well these are exactly the sort of module my group likes.

Minimal RP and lots of rear ends to kick.

I'm really hoping I don't need to run filler modules as there really haven't been any PC driven threads to use for them, so I'd be literally grabbing some module at random and throwing it at them.

gideonpepys · Oct 7, 2012

rangda said:
Well these are exactly the sort of module my group likes. Minimal RP and lots of rear ends to kick.

My group like a good fight too, but the fights are all the more compelling with a decent storyline, don't you agree? One that really makes the players want to beat the bad guys. A la Zeitgeist.

rangda said:
I'm really hoping I don't need to run filler modules as there really haven't been any PC driven threads to use for them, so I'd be literally grabbing some module at random and throwing it at them.

Given that you're still midway through Dying Skyseer, it seems you're likely to be able to avoid doing so, unless the EN Publishing crew suffer further setbacks in the next year.

Two suggestions for quickly and easily bulking things out without going to the lengths of introducing a whole module (or weaving in a character arc): Short missions designed to illustrate the kind of things RHC constables normally get up to when they're not uncovering global conspiracies - bug-hunts and busting criminals. Good excuse to bust out some of your standard WotC monster minis (if you use them), because you don't often get the chance in Zeitgeist!

I've also instituted a game of Capture the Flag every time we level, when the unit splits into two teams and fights itself. The players love it, and they learn more about each others' powers and capabilities. (Funny how having a power used on you tends to register more firmly!) It also means I don't have to prep a session! The rationale is that this is a training ground set up at the Battalion.

gideonpepys · Oct 15, 2012

Session 51

Just as the unit was about to take the fey road, revealed to them by the Birch Queen, a band of recruiters arrived at the fair.
They were lead by Lord Flax, a half-fey, who claimed to be the rightful ruler of Riverbend and its environs. He began to drum up support for an incursion into Lanjyr. Ambertain the Black was one of the many fey who signed up.
They left while the recruitment drive was still going on, taking the road in search of the Nain Rouge, who was said to hold the miller's wife captive.
While the Nain Rouge had already proved himself to be very dangerous, the unit had taken the precaution of protecting themselves with a ritual that would ward of the worst of his lightning powers.
Conquo proved his worth in this battle: as soon as Leon blasted the prancing fey into his grasp, he held on with a vice-like grip. The unit then beat him into submission, while their satyr ally Dantes described all manner of unspeakable things he had been doing to the Nain Rouge's mother.
The furious fey sorcerer cursed the name of Ellessandra: she had tricked him into thinking she loved him and then escaped to who knows where. He also claimed that Ambertain the Black had sold her to him (an element of the story that Ambertain had omitted...)
The unit pledged a truce with the Rouge and set off towards the River Palace.
Along the way their path was barred by Lord Peppick - a strange, winged fey and master of necrotic butterfly swarms. Alongside Ashbark, his deranged treant ally, he demanded tribute from the group in the form of healing energy.
They refused, but the fight went against them. Lord Peppick was a powerful foe and Ashbark was truly terrifying!
They withdrew and sought another route to the River Palace.

RangerWickett · Oct 15, 2012

Necromantic butterfly swarms? What is this adventure again? Is it available for purchase and download?

gideonpepys · Oct 15, 2012

It is called Wrath of the River King, and it is from Open Design. Very good in parts, particularly when evoking the otherwordliness of the Feywild and the capricious nature of the fey.

I have made the Dreaming even more strange: much like being in a dream. The party sometimes finds itself in a new location without being conscious of having traveled there, and events occur out of chronological order.

Ajar · Oct 15, 2012

I must spread XP around before I can XP you again, but I love the idea of running stuff out of chronological order at the table. Now I'm thinking of ways to incorporate that into my games...