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

gideonpepys said:

Oddly, the players who were at the table just accepted it as part of the job. There were some raised eyebrows, but the teaser had primed them for how hard it would be to pierce the Ob's security (as I'm was the intention).

Uru's player wasn't there (which is how come he ended up sidelined in Quital's bespoke Uru cage). His reaction to the session report was as follows:

If I understand this correctly:

We are going to free an ancient evil from a glacier, get the soul swapping powers (def. EVIL) and body snatch a group of Ob members so we can infiltrate a secret meeting of a group we have been thwarted by at every turn and this has been suggested by one of the key architects of the Borne doomsday mecha. Plus, our actual bodies will be in an interdimensional portal given by the fey and on our person at the time.

Let’s get this done boys.


That's pretty much out of character and in character rolled into one.

I think the strength of this turn of events is that it is so outlandish it simply doesn't bear thinking about.

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Huh. I would've expected, bare minimum, Korrigan and Matunaaga to express some in character reservations, even if the players behind them are willing to just run with this particular plot twist. Heck, I'm not sure that, if I ever got this far in DMing Zeitgeist, I'd actually be wholly comfortable having to advocate for it in character as Grappa. :shrug:

(On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if Uru wants to keep both his original body and the cover identity's body even after the Convocation is all done with.)

SanjMerchant said:

Huh. I would've expected, bare minimum, Korrigan and Matunaaga to express some in character reservations, even if the players behind them are willing to just run with this particular plot twist. Heck, I'm not sure that, if I ever got this far in DMing Zeitgeist, I'd actually be wholly comfortable having to advocate for it in character as Grappa. :shrug:

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Don't forget, no one apart from Leone is going to die as a result of the ritual. Grappa and the players have justifications aplenty to decide to execute him. The Ob officers they intend to possess are guilty by association, are part of a hostile conspiracy, and will only relinquish their free will temporarily.

The PCs don't have an issue dealing with or releasing the lich because (like all players everywhere) they assume that if it's introduced to an adventure, they can defeat it (which is more than correct in this case).

As far as fearing the ritual is concerned, they are professional soldiers on a mission.

I must admit, I was expecting more resistance myself, but was pleased at their response, not troubled by it. It just goes to show the whole strength of roleplaying is that you aren't writing the story on your own and can never predict what the players will do. (Or not do, in this case.)

SanjMerchant said:

(On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if Uru wants to keep both his original body and the cover identity's body even after the Convocation is all done with.)

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Again, he won't actually have that body to keep!

Session 15 (138) Part One - Into the North

The journey into the Shawl Mountains promised to be an arduous one. The unit waited a day for endure elements scrolls to arrive from RHC HQ and in the meantime bought supplies, researched their destination, and hired dwarven porters to guide them north. When they learned where they were going, the porters warned about frost giants and agreed to take the group only just beyond the foothills.

Though the going was tough, their pace was good. Having forged some kind of link through his contact with the Skull of Cheshimox, Rumdoom was able to unerringly know the location of Knutpara (though not the path they would need to get there). Leon was able to open up dimension doors to traverse really difficult terrain, and take short-cuts that would otherwise have been impossible. Gupta had a knack for finding the nearest path and learning, almost as if from the mountains themselves, where hidden perils lay. (At her insistence, Rumdoom removed his tyrant’s teeth so as not to cause avalanches.) Uru ranged ahead with Rahu Ketu for company and kept a lookout for evident danger.

On the second day, a stroke of bad luck saw Leon badly injure his wrist and ankle in a rock slide. They were making such good time that the group decided to find a secluded, defensible spot and wait for him to recover. Two days later they were on the move again and halfway through day five they reached the glacier.

Soon they came across a cracked stone pillar carved with words in Infernal. Xambria set about trying to decipher them, while Leon took the easier option of casting the comprehend languages ritual. The words read, “Gaze ye upon Knutpara, eternal bastion of the Demonocracy, built to withstand any army’s siege”. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level snows stretched far away. (Ahem…)

They headed down the glacier, cautiously. (Xambria refused to allow Uru to use her as a sled.) Rahu Ketu took to the air and reported a deep rift about a mile away, carved by a river, and flanked by three icebound towers. Soon they were able to see them in the distance. There was a camp of gigantic tents on the other side of the river. Uru spotted that the intervening ice was dotted with small totems, spaced every few hundred feet: dwarf, human and animal skulls with frozen red entrails dribbling from their mouths.

Korrigan decided that they should hunker down and wait until nightfall before they approached any further. (Xambria was able to confirm that frost giants were not a race known to possess darkvision.) When it was dark, they followed Uru and Rahu Ketu through the field of totems. Uru misunderstood the purpose of the totems, and decided to leave an offering beside one. It was not long before he realised his mistake, as just a few minutes later, a pair of fast-moving frost giants strode across the river from the south. They were accompanied by a pair of large beasts that Uru could not make out at first. He hissed a warning to the others and they all hid. Leon created the illusion of a lone dwarf running back up the glacier. The giants and the beasts gave pursuit. As they surged past, Uru saw that the beasts were bloody and fleshless and wore polar-bear pelts (whether for warmth, camouflage or disguise he could not say). Leon felt sure they were demonic.

As the illusory dwarf ducked out of sight, Leon opened another dimension door and in an instant the unit was clustered up against the easternmost of the two north towers. Carved stone dragons adorned its walls. There was no way in here. Uru checked the snowbound roof to no avail. With the rangers returning in cautious confusion, Uru used the grim candle to hide the unit from distant observers while Leon cut a hole into the stonework with concentrated starfire (granted by his patron, the Thinker). Uru walked through shadow into the gloomy space beyond and found himself in an unoccupied giants’ bedchamber with broad stairs leading down. Uru lit a sunrod. Now that the room was visible, Leon created another dimension door and the group stepped inside. Xambria began a cursory search, and found broken dragon teeth and dragon egg shell fragments, as a well as a steel-bound book written in an ancient tongue. (It later turned out to be a book on dragon breeding and rearing.) Her study of this was interrupted by heavy footsteps from below: a frost giant guard investigating the sudden light in an otherwise empty room.

As soon as its head appeared, Leon cast a curse of mouthless muttering. The giant’s cries were muffled, its whistle useless, as the group rained down blows upon it. Gupta’s razorburst rapier cut off the tip of its finger (which the poor giant couldn't even suck), and Rumdoom knocked it back down the stairs where it lay dead. Uru followed it down into a chamber with several exits: a door to the south; a hole smashed into the northeast wall, with a passage carved into the ice beyond; and the further descent of the tower stairs. Footsteps could be heard from the ice passage and a rumbling female giant voice called out, “Karl, er du okay? Faldt du ned ad trappen igen?” With a nervous chuckle, Uru imitated the voice he now heard (with what he hoped was a more masculine timbre) to respond, “Ja, ja. Okay. Ho ho.” The other giant shook her head and went back to her post.

Session 15 (138) Part Two - Three Towers

Quietly, the group descended and Xambria marvelled at the layers of history here: clear signs of current occupation; ancient dwarven markings; original and even more ancient function as a dragon aerie! They found and disabled a magical trap on the south door and peeked out. A short tunnel led to an ice bridge over the gorge, then into another tunnel on the far side. The roar of a waterfall drowned out most other noise. Down below: the rift floor, lit by strange blue lanterns. To the south: another bridge, where the female giant guard now turned, took in the air and moved back to her original spot on their side of the bridge. The others could soon hear her footsteps approaching, as she called out the name of her fallen comrade. They ambushed the frost giant when she got close to the tower, and Xambria revealed a surprise: her fingers, hand and forearm peeled back to reveal ( and to form) the Clockwork Count’s latest experimental device, based on the blueprints and schematics of Tinker Oddcog: an aelectric cannon. Ignoring his safety warnings, she fired twice: cracking, noiseless arcs of energy that struck the giant just as Leon’s hex removed her mouth. The others joined in and the guard was dropped.

Uru followed the dead giant’s path through the ice passage. It continued on to another breach in the second north tower, with a branch to the south leading to the other ice bridge. An ice chute in the floor led to a lower chamber from whence the susurrations of several sleeping giants could be heard. Uru crept to the far tower. He saw stairs heading up and down, and investigated what turned out to be condoms made from elk intestines. Yuck! (Thankfully, the contents had frozen solid.)

He went back to the dragon tower and reported his findings. The decision was made to cross the trapped ice bridge, but not before they had checked out the lowest floor of the dragon tower properly. Uru had popped his head down there earlier and discovered a carefully laid-out ritual chamber, with symbols on the walls that meant nothing to him (but he had grown accustomed to reporting such things to the others). Xambria investigated and discovered that the runes were very old, but far less old than the tower itself. They were dwarven in origin, and told the tale of a great discovery made near this place, hundreds of years ago, following a meteor shower: Dwarven loremasters had followed the brightest of these falling stars and recovered an enormously heavy, deep black stone. Though no larger than a man’s head, the dwarves had to summon an earth titan to carry it out of the mountains. They found that the stone had the ability to negate energy, matter and being, and used it to seal the secrets of their magical towers. They called the stone the Kum Ruk Nazar, or the Stone of Not. Some said it was a fragment of a dead sun. Both Xambria and Rumdoom were incredibly excited about this, but Korrigan insisted that they move on.

Over the eastern ice bridge they stole, lit from below by that strange, blue light. The tunnel branched left and right. To the right was another breached tower. To the left, a second fork north and a chamber with an ice chute that led to the surface (presumably close to the large camp they had seen). Another ice giant guard crouched here and signs of heavy traffic passed from the bottom of the chute, along the passage and into the tower. They decided to avoid conflict within earshot of the camp and headed towards the tower:

The middle level of the tower stood empty. It was breached on the opposite side too, and the heavy tracks continued across into the ice tunnel beyond. A door to the north led onto the second ice bridge and featured an inscription in infernal, welcoming the reader to ‘enjoy the finest food and parties of the north’. While a careful watch was kept on both tunnels and bridge, a quick look into the upper level revealed this to be the only tower with an opening on the surface; a breach covered in bearskins. The walls here were covered in graffiti and the snowy ground was stained with blood. Perhaps those skinless demons were kept in here? Rather than tempt fate by investigating further, the lowest level was investigated instead. Here they found the giant’s ‘treasure hoard’: mostly worthless bits of brass – doorknobs, sconces and the like – there were some items of real value (a 10-foot diameter solid gold chandelier and a ruby encrusted mahogany headboard). They also found a very familiar rifle – expertly crafted, with a stock made from the femur of a demon. This was Reason, and it belonged to Kvarti Gorbatiy! (Rumdoom wondered if he perhaps should have attempted to contact Kvarti after Kithilrak’s treachery had been revealed. He dimly remembered that Kvarti said something about travelling north when he left Flint, to investigate the machinations of the witch Grandis Kamanov...) Gupta took the rifle for now, once its power to halt hostilities was identified by Leon.

Uru tiptoed along the western ice passage. A fork led south, while the main tunnel came to a windy overlook, over a hundred feet above the valley at the very edge of the glacier. There appeared to be an igloo situated there! Before he could approach, footsteps from the south caused Uru to freeze as a frost giant stomped towards him, but it turned west towards the outlook. There it stopped, rooted about beneath its furs, whipped out its gigantic blue member, and urinated messily over the edge into the darkness, cursing at the copious splash-back.

Now that’s what I call a cliff-hanger. End of session.

gideonpepys said:

Uru tiptoed along the western ice passage. A fork led south, while the main tunnel came to a windy overlook, over a hundred feet above the valley at the very edge of the glacier. There appeared to be an igloo situated there! Before he could approach, footsteps from the south caused Uru to freeze as a frost giant stomped towards him, but it turned west towards the outlook. There it stopped, rooted about beneath its furs, whipped out its gigantic blue member, and urinated messily over the edge into the darkness, cursing at the copious splash-back.

Now that’s what I call a cliff-hanger. End of session.

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Now Uru, don't get cocky.

*groan*

Session 16 (139) - Part One: THE GLACIAL RIFT OF THE FROST GIANT KHANGITCHE

The rest of the unit stole forward from the tower and crept within sight and sound of giant, preparing to strike at him while he stood by the precipice. Before they did so, the giant sniffed the air and spoke in Drakren:

“Fee, fie, fo, fum, I smell the sweat of a Drakren woman!”

They froze. Was he talking to them?

“Are you in there, little lady? Come out and see the surprise I have for you.”

A smaller voice, all but inaudible from this distance, issued from the igloo: “Oh, go away. Must you time your visits to catch me in here every night? My robes are stained with yellow snow.”

The giant laughed, turned and aimed his last few splashes of piss right in front of the igloo entrance.

“It is good for you. Make it into a sorbet and use it in one of your experiments. The prisoners will find it invigorating!”

“Be off with you,” said the woman in the igloo. “Or I will inform Odan Chuval.”

“I have no fear of the Khangitche. He is my uncle on my mother’s side and favours me.”

“I have no interest in your family tree. Begone.”

The giant laughed again and turned back towards the crossroads, but by now the unit had withdrawn just out of sight. The moment he rounded the bend they struck, using the tried and tested formula that had already felled two giants: Leon led with curse of mouthless muttering and the others felled the guard in relative silence.

They watched as the occupant of the igloo picked her way across the yellow ice, filthy furs raised about her shins. She then waddled towards them, an unsavoury figure, and more concerned about her footing than what lay ahead of her. When Leon greeted her from the darkness she cried out in alarm. The unit revealed themselves.

A halting conversation ensued in which the woman tried to establish who they were, and if they were ‘one of us’. Leon was tempted to use his Ob ring to maintain a pretence, but decided against it. Instead, when she asked them more questions (Who are you? What do you want?), he showed her the giant’s dead body and said that they would ask the questions from now on. Xambria flashed her RHC badge, but the woman stared at it blankly.

The woman told them that she and her partner were the last two of a group of arcanoscientists who had been working here for ‘an organisation based in Trekhom’. At the behest of this organisation, they had been studying, inter alia, the effects of various planar oils extracted from meteors mined by the giants and their slaves. She admitted that she was fed up of her posting and hoped to be released soon. Xambria offered to help her escape, but she did not seem eager to follow complete strangers.

What about the lich?

She said it lay ‘beneath the mines behind the waterfall’. When asked what they wanted with the lich she answered that they wanted nothing to do with it and avoided it, though she admitted that she had gone to look at the creature when it was first revealed. It was fearsome enough, but its condition was pathetic: How powerful could it be if it couldn’t escape the ice?

They conferred quickly about what to do with this woman. Speed was of the essence and Uru was tired of talking so he bound the woman with a web and they shoved her unceremoniously into the absurdist web.

They headed south and found a large chamber that contained a snowman and a sled. On the sled were four large clay vessels. Stones shoved into the icy walls spelled out ‘METEOR STORAGE’ in Drakren. Inside the pots they found a collection of tiny meteors. Korrigan felt an instant connection to them, and Leon was able to identify them as extraplanar in origin. They pocketed a few and moved on, following the tracks of the sled down a steeply curving slope that brought them out onto the floor of the rift, where the roar of two waterfalls suppressed all other noise.

A number of pumpkin-sized lamps hung from sconces that had been driven into the walls of the rift, and it was from these lamps that the blue glow emanated. At once, Leon realised that they were wayfarer lanterns and that they also radiated a pacifying enchantment. He issues a sharp warning to the others, some of whom were already succumbing to the effect. Thus fortified, they were able to resist it, and quickly made their way towards the waterfall, lest more giants appear. (A tunnel opposite led to the sleeping chamber Uru had discovered previously, and the two ice bridges above them gave a commanding view of the entire rift floor.)

Before the waterfall there was a deep, wide pool of very cold water. They were wet with spray before they even began to discuss how to cross it. Uru took a close look for any danger and spotted faint runes carved into the ice around the pool. It was discovered that they would strip cold resistance from anyone who entered the pool. They quickly defaced and erased them, then plunged into the water, protected by endure elements. Uru walked through shadow to arrive behind the waterfall ahead of the others, but there were no immediate threats.

Beyond the waterfall, steps in the ice led to a high gallery that looked down on a huge chamber where the Khangitche, Odan Chuval, sat with his retinue: a shaman and three guards. Sounds of hard labour could be heard echoing from a mine shaft; a deep pool took up the central portion of the chamber. Uru saw all this from a shadowy vantage point on the gallery, while keeping out of sight of the guard who dozed against a pillar of ice on this level, keeping ‘watch’ on five cells where many dwarf and human prisoners reclined. The whole chamber was lit by wayfarer lanterns, which here issued an invigorating, pink light.

Leon opened a dimension door out of sight of the main chamber. Uru stepped through, behind the ice pillar and silently assassinated the giant. They took a risk here, but the giant simply slumped where he stood. So far so good. The movement had attracted the attention of some of the prisoners, though they could not make out exactly what had happened. Before their excitement could draw unwanted attention, Gupta stepped through the portal and silenced them with an urgent gesture. Then they realised that one of the prisoners was none other than Kvarti Gorbatiy, who was very pleased to see them.

Leon teleported him out of his cell and Gupta reunited him with Reason. The dwarf seemed strangely sceptical of the gesture, then gripped the rifle with renewed determination.

Together they took on Odan Chuval and his guards – an exhausting fight that, thanks to the element of surprise, went well for the unit. Despite Odan Chuval’s magical armour – which allowed him to cover himself in plates of ice and grow to an even greater size – and the arrival of reinforcements from the mines below (another shaman driving prisoners ahead of him - prisoners the ruthless Khangitche used as doomed missiles), the unit nonetheless prevailed. When Odan Chuval fell, he toppled backwards on to Rumdoom and Korrigan. Korrigan was able to step calmly to one side, but Rumdoom was crushed beneath his foe. The others helped him out and Rumdoom claimed the giant’s magical armor. Kvarti then handed Reason back to Gupta! The dwarf explained that he had had enough of this place, and the runes carved in to the demon bone stock of his old rifle were too terrible a reminder of his two-year imprisonment. He would make a new gun, and call it Freedom!

Kvarti said he had travelled north pursuing Grandis Kamanov and her cult. The trail had led him here, where some of her followers (and perhaps even Kamanov herself) had come in search of the Khum-Ruk Nazar. Kvarti learned this from a captured cultist shortly before he was captured himself. The giants had nothing to do with Kamanov, but that didn’t make his imprisonment any easier.

Session 16 (139) - Part Two: Leone, the Lich and the Snowglobe

While they discussed what to do next they rested up. Uru proved not to be quite so adept at fixing Xambria as he had been with Conquo. The fine mechanisms created by the Clockwork Count were too advanced even for him, and in his attempt to brazen it out, he screwed up Xambria’s workings. They fell to bickering and issuing threats, while the others listened in amusement.

During this time they released the rest of the prisoners. They told them to hide in the mines while they investigated the lich. Some of the dwarves who had been here the longest warned them that the lich had been diverting the flow of the drainage pool in order to free itself from the ice, and they had formed part of detail whose task it was to carve a second pool in front of the lich, to keep the water away from it. Sometimes it talked to them when they slept and promised them riches if they found a way to free it. They tried to dissuade their rescuers from approaching it, but obeyed their injunction to hide when their words fell on deaf ears. Kvarti went back to the waterfall to keep watch on the rift for any approaching giants.

And so they picked their way down a steeply sloping passage into the tall, gloomy chamber that housed the towering frost giant lich. There it was, embedded in a foot of clear ice, like a hideous, grinning specimen.

At this point they summoned Grappa from the absurdist web. Grappa was still in control of Quital, having been placed in stasis at just the right moment. He suggested that one of the others touch the ice, the better to commune with the lich. (He did not want to do it for fear of waking Quital.) Korrigan placed his hand on the ice. At once, the lich’s eyes began to glow brightly. Its rasping voice echoed throughout the chamber, demanding to know what they had come for.

Grappa haltingly reminded the lich of their bargain, and the lich told them to press the victim’s head against the ice and say his name. He said they would need a crystal to hold the torn soul, but a piece of ice would do. They followed the creature’s instructions, and the whole chamber began to shake. The frosty touch of the wet wall of ice caused Quital to come to his senses at the very last second. He began to scream in bewilderment and panic, lashing out with his magnetic powers despite the damage inflicted by the mage cuffs. But the lich worked quickly, Quital slumped to the ground and the shaking ceased. The lump of ice Rumdoom had pressed to Leone’s head had turned jet black.

Grappa groaned, bonked his head a few times to clear it, then smiled at the party and thanked them. He suggested they dispose of Quital’s soul by breaking the ice crystal, but Leon decided to keep it in the absurdist web just in case. Grappa was critical of this decision but accepted it.

Next they needed to bargain with the lich to gain knowledge of the mortal possession ritual. The lich wanted their solemn vow to release it once the ritual was theirs. Last-minute jitters led to a hasty conference. Korrigan asked the lich what it planned to do when it was released. Somewhat taken aback by this direct question, the lich admitted, “I have all these hideous plans to march into the frozen wastes and awaken the Lost Riders who will sweep across the land carving out a new domain for me to rule over, etc. etc.” They decided it would be prudent to lie, and Leon made the solemn ‘vow’ on their behalf. The lich was convinced and said that whoever wanted to learn the ritual should lay their hands on the ice as Korrigan had done to begin their communion. No one apart from Grappa was willing to do so – Leon said he wanted nothing to do with such a ritual, and so Grappa stood forth alone and was granted the knowledge they sought.

The lich then demanded to be released. They ignored him. The creature issued forth threats and caused the ice to shudder and groan and crack. But at length it subsided and its eyes grew dim and its fading energy was spent.

At once they began to discuss what to do next. Grappa was concerned to ensure that the Ob bought into ‘Quital’s’ story that he had escaped from the unit. They decided to use the captured Ob operative to collaborate their version of events, should the Ob leadership choose to investigate. Before they could do so, Kvarti returned and said that some giants were heading towards the waterfall. They needed to move fast. Keeping the slaves out of sight, they played dead, and augmented this with an illusion from Leon, creating bleeding wounds and severed limbs. Then Grappa released the Ob researcher from the absurdist web. She was bewildered and terrified, still bound in Uru’s webs too. Grappa freed her, told her who he was, and that he had succeeded in escaping from and killing the Risuri foes who lay before her. They had already freed the giants’ slaves and sent them through a portal ‘who knows where’. Then Grappa – who turned out to be a dab hand at mind magic – filled her with fear and sent her to greet the approaching giants with the news that their Khangitche was dead. “Tell them to stay away from this place for now. I bought my freedom with the help of the lich, and he will consume these bodies.”

The researcher scurried away, and the unit jumped to their feet. Then they used Leon’s quick portal to return to the RNS Impossible along with the freed slaves and Kvarti Gorbatiy. They told Captain Smith to take Grappa, Leon and Uru, the slaves and Kvarti ashore, and sent two sendings – one to Matunaaga who awaited them in Mirsk; one to Stover Delft. Matunaaga was told to travel south and meet the Impossible. On the way he would visit Hildegaard in Trekhom, and tell her the truth in case she heard any upsetting rumours. (Hildegaard bore this with her usual stoicism, and volunteered to wear mourning weeds for Rumdoom ‘yet again’…) Stover Delft was told to leak the rumour that the unit had been killed in action. The rest of the unit teleported at once to the Hidden Valley, where no divination could reach them. (Matunaaga made his way there too, once the Impossible had taken him to Flint.) Meanwhile, Leon and Uru – whose association with the Unseen Court protected them no matter where they were – followed Grappa in disguise to support his attempt to pass himself off as Quital, and pick up operations where Quital left off.

All being well, in a few weeks’ time, ‘Quital’ would begin meeting the Ob officers as he originally planned. Then they would bring the others from the Hidden Valley using the absurdist web…

"Leone, the Lich and the Snowglobe"

I stand by this being the best section title of the whole campaign. Followed closely by "Rock Is Dead. No, Seriously This Time."

RangerWickett said:

"Leone, the Lich and the Snowglobe"

I stand by this being the best section title of the whole campaign. Followed closely by "Rock Is Dead. No, Seriously This Time."

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I dunno, I'm still partial to all the cat puns in Diaspora.