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

DM's Notes - Knutpara

This section of the adventure played out very differently to how I expected. When Matunaaga's player told us that he couldn't make the next two sessions (and Rumdoom's the first) I worried that the players would struggle against the giants without their main combat characters - to the extent that I allowed (almost for the first time in our campaign) for another player to run an absent PC. (Partly out of concern for a TPK; partly because Rumdoom needed to be there to join in with the next session.) I thought this would be a tough slog and would take three, maybe four sessions (with a plan to give Matunaaga's player Kvarti Gorbatiy on his return).

While this dungeon was very nicely 'Jaquayed', I was reasonably confident of the players' initial approach, and that they would encounter the rangers and their deathbears first. Then the deathbears would be likely to alert the rest of the giants to their presence when they regenerated and followed them into the rift.

But the party aced their stealth checks against the rangers and came up with a clever way of diverting them, then did that classic high-level player thing of finding an impossible solution you couldn't have predicted: burning a hole in the wall of the dragon tower and using a whole bunch of other powers to get themselves inside. They were extremely successful in dealing with lone guards, kept acing all their checks to find traps, overcome the lanterns, spot hidden runes, etc

All the while it was very tempting to use DM fiat (or GM Intrusion) to fudge things and throw them a curveball - decide that dead giants were discovered, or that the rangers were suspicious enough to come looking for them - but in the end I opted to reward them for their success rather than nerf it.

So by the time they reached the prison/mine and faced off against Odan Chuval they were in much better shape than could have anticipated. Add to this the fact that they released Kvarti and then got the drop on the giants, and what could have been a TPK turned into a cakewalk.

Suddenly I find myself in the position of having to run the convocation in just a few days' time. I didn't know for sure if we would get that far. My wife is due on 4th July, so it looks possible we might even finish the adventure. Either that, or end on a fabulous cliffhanger before our loooooong break. Fingers crossed.

I am sending the players an account of what happens in the 'Fitting Room' (which I will post here shortly) rather than play through a section of the adventure in which their actions won't (or can't be allowed to) count for too much. So we will begin next week with their conversation with Nicodemus. Exciting, but a little daunting: the climax of the campaign thus far; all those Ob officers; all those rooms!

There are also a couple of ideas I'd like to work in to the convocation that I haven't finalized in my mind:

First of all I don't need Erskine Haffkruger. I'd like to keep him maybe as a red herring, or an unlikely ally, but I'm toying with the idea of removing him completely. Unless anyone out there has any better ideas.

Secondly, and rather madly, I'd like to have Lavanya attend the convocation. For anyone who has been reading my journal long-term, she is the figure from Leon's past - an eladrin woman who rescued him on Axis Island during Yerasol IV. She built Conquo, returned Leon's Ob ring to him during adventure 5, and turned out to be working in the Cauldron Hill facility as an attempted substitute for Kasvarina. (Or was she? More recent events have suggested to Leon that she may be nothing more than a figment of his imagination.) So my question is: should I have her in attendance as an Ob officer? Visible only to Leon? Or - and this only just occurred to me while typing this - lurking inside Erskine Haffkruger, having used the Mortal Possession ritual herself?

Wow. Okay. I'm tempted not to post this now, and save this twist for later. But sod it! This is one of the reasons I keep this campaign journal, because it helps my ideas to come together. That one is too good to pass up. So now you know!

Heh. So there's me complaining about the complexity of the convocation, and now I'm going to ramp it up a notch!

gideonpepys said:

Secondly, and rather madly, I'd like to have Lavanya attend the convocation. For anyone who has been reading my journal long-term, she is the figure from Leon's past - an eladrin woman who rescued him on Axis Island during Yerasol IV. She built Conquo, returned Leon's Ob ring to him during adventure 5, and turned out to be working in the Cauldron Hill facility as an attempted substitute for Kasvarina. (Or was she? More recent events have suggested to Leon that she may be nothing more than a figment of his imagination.) So my question is: should I have her in attendance as an Ob officer? Visible only to Leon? Or - and this only just occurred to me while typing this - lurking inside Erskine Haffkruger, having used the Mortal Possession ritual herself?


Heh. So there's me complaining about the complexity of the convocation, and now I'm going to ramp it up a notch!

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Never mind the complexity. If the player responded well to the NPC, by all means involve that NPC. I like the idea of a NPC that only one player can see. If i were running your campaign i would play more on his doubts and keep him not knowing if she is only a product of his mind.

Tizbiz said:

Never mind the complexity. If the player responded well to the NPC, by all means involve that NPC. I like the idea of a NPC that only one player can see. If i were running your campaign i would play more on his doubts and keep him not knowing if she is only a product of his mind.

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Yeah, except I've been doing that for six years! Mainly because I never had a fixed idea about who she was. Now I do have a fairly firm idea developing and this kind of fits. But until I had that idea yesterday one of the beats I had planned was Leon suddenly seeing Lavanya in the audience while Nicodemus gave his opening speech. I liked that idea too. Maybe I could use both. (So Lavanya is in Erskine and broadcasting her presence so that Leon identifies himself...)

Session 16 Interim Account - The Fitting Room

Grappa returned to Mirsk and payed off the authorities. He reclaimed Quital’s train cars, reconnected with his Obscurati cell, and established that news of his capture anddisappearance had probably not gone much further than Drakr as yet. No matter – there was a lot of time between now and the convocation.

Meanwhile, in the Hidden Valley, Korrigan and Matunaaga enjoyed some unexpected downtime with their families. Rumdoom decided that this was the safest place for Hildegaard for the time being and, with her assent (and the consent of the gith), brought her and Thurgid to the Hidden Valley, along with the Skull of Cheshimox.

Uriel had been acting very strangely, they were told. Korrigan found him halfway up the steepest mountain, far above the treeline, fasting and gazing at the stars. “I yearn for transcendence. I yearn to leave this place. I cannot remain here, no matter what the dangers. My mind rebels at stagnation. I see my near future, but not what lies beyond. The wind woman will come soon. Take me with you.” Uriel looked haggard and pitiful.

Back in Mirsk, Grappa double-checked Quital’s correspondence and established that his meetings were due to take place in a hotel suite. The first officer would be Xavier Sangreal, a monster hunter from the Malice Lands. Despite slight nerves before this initial meeting, Grappa got the chisel-jawed Sangreal alone and gently worked some mind magic on him that sent him to sleep while they talked. Then he performed the mortal possession ritual on Leon, who waited in an adjoining room, transferring Leon’s spirit into Sangreal. Leon then tested out the effects of the ritual, learned to move about and speak as Sangreal, and – with close supervision from Grappa – attempted ‘gestalt’. It was a strange experience, having the memories and capabilities of another person fill your mind: Sangreal had worked for the Ob for almost thirty years (initially in the capacity of a bodyguard) and to Leon’s surprise, he also discovered that Sangreal was a martial scientist, with a thesis - Intentional Emotions as Sympathetic Invocation of Malice Mishaps – from which he hoped to learn a new technique. Gestalt went smoothly for Leon, and he was confident of maintaining control over his host.

Next was Uru’s intended host: Gran Guiscard – a flamboyant, dark-skinned Danoran opera singer, who turned out to be the head of the ‘Gorgeous Cell’ – a spy network of artists and entertainers operating out of Beaumont. Uru was pleased to be dressed is such colourful robes, as his form had been slowly fading for years now and he had not felt fully alive for some time. Fortunately, Guiscard proved to be easily influenced and despite Uru’s flighty fey mind, it was hoped gestalt could be achieved without mishap when necessary. One thing of note was that when Uru first attempted this shared state, he was flooded with sexual urges the like of which he had not experienced before. He immediately found himself drawn to the handsome Sangreal. For Uru this only served to augment his ‘full-blooded’ occupancy of a human host and he took pains to practice mimicking Guiscard, in order to do him justice.

It would take someone strong-willed to possess the next officer: Ken Don was the head research inquisitor of the Clergy’s Jenevah Library in Alais Primos. Korrigan was nominated by Grappa. Caution was well-founded: Don recognised Grappa’s mind-trick and balked. Leon (on hand in the guise of Sangreal) used the curse of mouthless muttering and the priest was quickly subdued. Korrigan was taken from the absurdist web and implanted in Don. Gestalt was difficult, but Korrigan was up to the task. He discovered that Don used his positon to delve into forbidden topics without raising suspicion, and had previous dealings with both Caius Bergeron and Ottavia Sacerdote. Though very stern and serious, the man was also slightly macabre and had an obsession with necromancy.

After the close call with Ken Don, Grappa backed up his soporific mind magic with a drugged drink.

Xambria had called dibs on the only female in the group, as she wanted to be as comfortable as possible in her real body. (Gupta would only live to regret this later; for now she didn’t much mind.) Livia Hatfield was a half-elf from Risur, who worked as a fey liaison at Torfeld Palace. Two things emerged from gestalt: Livia had been asked to research the Rites of Rulership and had agreed out of sheer boredom. (A common problem for half-elves – Livia was over two-hundred years old!) Her contact by was an Ob agent who had been killed during the crack-down following the Golem Incident in Flint. Before this happened, she had wormed her way through several layers of the conspiracy and had eventually spoken with Lya Jierre herself. At this point she decided that the Ob’s goals were certainly not for her, and decided to get as close to the heart of the conspiracy as possible before revealing what she knew to the authorities. If she did not return within a month of this convocation, she had arranged for a package to be delivered to Harkover Lee, explaining what she had done. When she discovered that she was no longer alone in her mission, Livia exclaimed, “Thank the titans!” It was agreed that Xambria and Livia could remain in full gestalt (much to Xambria’s annoyance…)

“Put me in a dwarf,” was Rumdoom’s main contribution to the decision-making process, so he took possession of Kiov Hetman: a specialist in dwarven tower magic tasked with bringing down ancient dwarven defences. Hetman worked as part of the Lantern Cell and reported directly to its eerie leader, the cadaverous ghost Vicemi Terio. He now led groups of adventurers tasked with negating defensive enchantments on the many ancient towers that dot the Drakren landscape. Unbeknownst to them, REID operatives Orum Dwist and Throgmorton had been used on a number of these missions!

It was decided that Matunaaga would be the best fit to occupy the privateer and explorer Bruce McDruid. McDruid travelled the world making contact with and befriending isolated indigenous tribes. Recently he had been distributing wayfarer lanterns to these people, ostensibly as a means of calming dangerous seas.

Finally, Gupta was left with the runt of the litter: a Family snitch named Oscan Ligurio, tasked with creating shell personalities and businesses for international smuggling and money laundering. Possessing him was easy enough. It was only when Gupta attempted gestalt that her face grew pale and she let slip a cry of horror – perhaps the only time Ligurio would evince any guilt at his crimes…

I probably should remember this, but what's the story behind Xambria being with the party? Is she played by a character? What's the short version of her and Conquo?

Also, yes, Oscan is maybe the only really evil NPC in the whole campaign. Well, the ghost council (and Vicemi in particular) are heartless, but don't quite enjoy doing vile things the way Oscan does.

RangerWickett said:

Also, yes, Oscan is maybe the only really evil NPC in the whole campaign. Well, the ghost council (and Vicemi in particular) are heartless, but don't quite enjoy doing vile things the way Oscan does.

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No one robs like Oscan!
Or stabs snobs like Oscan!
No lies, cheats, or commits fraud like Oscan!

RangerWickett said:

I probably should remember this, but what's the story behind Xambria being with the party? Is she played by a character? What's the short version of her and Conquo?

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Heh heh. 'Short'. I can take a hint! This is as short as I can make it: She was accommodated by Malthusius, initially. When the unit encountered Conquo (and Lavanya) in the Bleak Gate facility, she jumped out of Malthusius (who discorporated voluntarily rather than be used as a hostage) and took over Conquo, turning him against the Ob. When Conquo died in the Magma Emporium, she leapt into one of the empty duplicants, and since then the Clockwork King has made her a bespoke duplicant that actually looks like her. She is played by Malthusius' (and Conquo's) player.

RangerWickett said:

Also, yes, Oscan is maybe the only really evil NPC in the whole campaign. Well, the ghost council (and Vicemi in particular) are heartless, but don't quite enjoy doing vile things the way Oscan does.

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I suppose it depends on how you define 'evil'. I think Quital is pretty despicable. Look at the way he killed Grappa. And Lorcan Kell - good grief! There are probably a couple of other contenders too. (Morgan Cippiano? Ashima Shimtu? The demons of Egal's host?)

But I take your general point that the campaign is very nicely nuanced and the principal bad guys are doing what they think is right. Which is why I like the campaign so much - or one of the main reasons anyway.

Ob Conclave - DM's Preamble

This was always going to be a challenging session to run. On one hand there is the sheer thrill of penetrating the Obscurati after all these years; the excitement of finally getting to know what they are up to. On the other, the massive information dump and the constriction of playing dutiful Ob officers could conspire to confound that excitement with a lot of reading and listening. (Turns out that, even in the Bleak Gate and surrounded by ghosts, a conference is still a conference!)

I love this. To me it isn't a weakness but a huge strength, confounding players' expectations. A total one-off for a group of fantasy roleplayers, but a challenge to run nonetheless.

I had already dealt with the 'fitting room' via email last week, to avoid another lengthy session in which player choice is limited (both by necessity and causality...) Before this session I sent a reminder of the teaser, so we could begin straight away with Nicodemus' fireside chat. Now the players could roleplay their part in the circle of introductions and get the session off to an interactive start.

The subsequent social montage was more typical of a normal non-combat encounter, albeit a fairly complex one, but from here on out things got a bit read-aloud heavy. This is how I dealt with it:

I had another player - a Texan who used to be an actor - read Nicodemus' opening statement. (So folks didn't get sick of the sound of my voice.) Leon's surprise encounter broke the monotony here.

Then I handed out the Grand Design Handout in the form of a booklet and we read through each page in turn, as the party moved from speaker to speaker. Each player read a different faction.

The first murder and their investigation closed the session - save for the announcement that Nicodemus would begin to interview each officer in turn (which I thought might ratchet up the tension).

We'll handle the preliminary vote on-line, and I plan to send out a heavily edited text taken from the ‘Villainous Conspiracy’ thread all the DM’s contributed to a few years ago, so the players can read how the debate rages to and fro without playing it out at the table. They will of course be free to contribute should they choose to do so.

Session report to follow.

Session 17 (140) - Part One: Getting Comfortable

I don’t want to reproduce huge chunks of text from the adventure, and as the session ran pretty much as written, with a couple of exceptions and alterations, readers will need to refer to the text of the adventure at certain points.

Nicodemus encourages the group to introduce themselves and discuss their role within the organisation. (See notes from interim account.)

Here the players took turns to flesh out their relationship with their Obscurati hosts. They introduced themselves as they would have to Nicodemus, then moved on to talk about how gestalt attempts had worked out for them, and how they felt about the officer they were assigned to.

Gran Guiscard is played to a tee by Uru (who described the sensation of residing in a human host as “the closest I have ever got to being a real boy”). Uru has practiced mimicking Guiscard during their gestalt prep on the boat and is enjoying bringing the flamboyant opera singer to life.

Patre Hevny thanks Ken Don for his help (and later mentions more details about the star map they discovered in the ‘fire temple’). ‘Ken Don’ responds briefly and then introduces himself. Korrigan is fascinated by Ken Don, and intrigued by the fact that here is yet another Obscurati operative who believes he is doing the right thing.

Bored by the constant talking, Rumdoom is distractedly picking out the stuffing from a hole in his armchair when Nicodemus’ gaze falls on him. “Oh… um, sorry,” he says. “I was thinking about science.” Rumdoom doesn’t like Kiov Hetman. He is disappointed to find a dwarf with no real philosophical or ideological bent.

With Grappa on hand, Matunaaga enters gestalt with Bruce McDruid. McDruid is unhappy that he was asked not to bring his pet monkey to the convocation. Matunaaga uses McDruids ability to suss out the lay of the land, getting an idea of how the mansion is laid out.

When all of the newcomers have introduced themselves, Nicodemus takes out a notebook and discusses accommodation (two to a room; steer clear of the West Wing). He says that they’ll rotate through speakers in this group, to which he is adding another who came in late: a dwarf called Erskine Haffkruger.

Grappa’s body language is tense when he is asked by Nicodemus to remain behind, while the others leave to test their ability to maintain gestalt without his calming influence.

They find themselves in the portrait gallery with other Ob officers. The ‘portraits’ are guarded and each is covered with a heavy curtain. Leon (as Xavier Sangria) asks the guards why, but the guards don’t know. They only say that they’ve been told not to let anyone touch them for now, which probably means you’ll get to see them later…

Gupta, channelling Oscan, rudely grabs a drink from a tray, knocking and ‘accidentally’ spilling some of the others. He notices a halfling Ob officer staring at him. The Halfling makes notes in a notebook.

Korrigan risks gestalt in Grappa’s absence, concerned to find out who he knows, and how well he knows them. He almost loses it, but succeeds with Xambria’s help. (She is very, very good at gestalt by now…)

The group head downstairs to get a drink. Han Jierre is concerned to ensure everyone is comfortable before he leaves ‘to prepare’. On the way down the stairs, Xambria passes Catherine Romana, a high-ranking Risuri noble, who in turn recognises her host, Livia Hatfield and purrs, “Small world”. A ginger cat pads up the stairs after her.

Bruce (Matunaaga) is accosted by a friendly minotaur, who is keen to share information about their respective roles. The minotaur is very proud of the good he’s been doing. He suggests that Bruce introduce technology to the rebel tribes of Ber.

Erskine Haffkruger is brought into the room by a senior ghost councillor. Together, Korrigan and Xambria tease what information they can from the shy, reluctant Erskine when he arrives. Turns out he’s a botanist who works on the survival of flora and fauna in extra-planar fields.

The vivacious ghost Amielle Latimer does the rounds with a case of cigars. Xambria knows her name from historical accounts of King Lorcan’s assault on the witches of Cauldron Hill.

For the best part of an hour, the unit circulates throughout both lounges and learn the following:

• There was an earlier failed attempt to penetrate Ob security. A metal ‘duplicant’ containing a bomb! It was spotted by Vicemi Terio (something about a ‘trailing soul’) and dealt with before it could explode…
• Other officers are keen to hear their accounts of the shadowlisk dealing with the Godhand spy.
• They hear a lot of villainous boasting. Gupta reckons some of it is bravado; some relief and being able to talk about acts that still haunt the officers; but a lot is pure enjoyment and excitement.
• No one is talking about them. (The real them.) Uru drops a few hints but nothing is mentioned.

After a while, they are summoned to the main hall. Tables are laid out, with place names. Grappa is on another table. His body language is subdued.

gideonpepys said:

“I was thinking about science.” Rumdoom doesn’t like Kiov Hetman. He is disappointed to find a dwarf with no real philosophical or ideological bent.

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And he's still alive.

Gupta, channelling Oscan, rudely grabs a drink from a tray, knocking and spilling some of the others. (Funny how players always play sociopaths as randomly destructive. I doubt Oscan would have survived as long as he has if he went around being a malicious twat at every opportunity.)

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If you hadn't said otherwise with your aside, I would've assumed that Gupta was specifically not gestalting with Oscan (because blurring your psyche with even a well-behaved sociopath has got to be unnerving to say the least), and just trying, on her own, to answer "What would literally the worst person do in this situation?" and perhaps somewhat overshooting the mark.