ZEITGEIST [Zeitgeist] Chronicles of Unit 42

Eh, a little death might be good for my group.

These are very helpful. I've used Delft similarly during Skyseer several times, so that should be a natural enough use for him. They trust him almost exclusively these days, so that's good. I'm glad to have someone they can trust completely, as they are a rather suspicious lot.

I've gotten a bit behind here...

So, we finished session two of Digging for Lies yesterday. About halfway through the session, things were still quite by-the-book, an then a few things happened that I want to share. Here are a few notes from the first two sessions.

- They enjoy the exposition a great deal. I think the new assignment is supposed to feel a bit like a chore, but for whatever reason, my group ran with it and really decided to make the best of being given this task, and have tried to really get to know a lot of the different tent operators and what their business is really all about. It's led to some really good role playing (maybe the best this group has had all campaign!). I'll mention a specific instance a bit later, I'm trying to kind of go chonologically here.

- They love Rock Rackus as well. Our wizard's player decided on the spot that his character has always been a huge Rock Rackus fan, and so he played the whole first combat like he was completely star-struck. It was pretty great.

- The first combat encounter was surprisingly difficult for my group, and it literally required an entire round of natural 20's for them to not get TPK'd. Like, two of them were unconscious and the remaining to were down to single digit HP when they scored two critical hits, a natural 20 on a death save and a natural 20 on an ongoing damage save (each of the four players rolled one, and each one ended up being a huge swing for the players) and the combat completely turned in their favor. It was pretty incredible, and they were still kind of running off the high from that encounter to start yesterday's session.

- When we left off last week, I was afraid I had given my players the wrong impression. They seemed to think that freeing Rock Rackus from jail would be their primary task for this part of the campaign. However, when they arrived yesterday they were all prepared to figure out where the staff came from. Whatever.

- First very interesting thing from yesterday. They decided to take a big interest in the pick-pockets. So, I let them. They set up a whole, complicated sting operation and when they captured one of the kids they set up a job for him with Heward Sechim (kind of a replacement for Nilasa, I guess), and then had a fun idea: they wanted to start a school for these orphans to teach them to use technology, but in a way that doesn't disrupt the natural world. Kind of a way to bridge the gap between the nations of Danor and Risur. I told them they'd have to find a very wealthy backer, but that it wouldn't be impossible. I'm thinking Governor Stanfield might volunteer, making adventure 5 rather awkward...

- The next thing that was interesting was that they decided they wanted to lower the hammer on Swords of Tomorrow for selling shoddy goods. One of my players is a swordmage, and he noticed instantly how poorly made their swords were. So, they decided to challenge the owner of the shop to a duel to "accidentally" out his wares. The shop owner was smarter than that, though, and he took the swordmage to the back room and offered him a magic weapon (at half price) if he promised to leave his store alone. The swordmage (very much to my surprise) took him up on the offer. So, when he grabbed the hilt of the sword for the first time (it was a +2 thundering rapier), he felt a shiver up his arm and a voice in his head that just said "...name me..." He thinks he's found something really special. It all kind of happened on the spur of the moment, so I'll have to give it some thought to see what's really up with this sword.

- We finished with them taking out Kaja and her crew. They very much tipped her off that they were looking for her, but the extra pistoleers didn't help any. My group easily overpowered her and she surrendered before she even got a chance to act...

d2OKC said:

I'm thinking Governor Stanfield might volunteer, making adventure 5 rather awkward...

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Not any more it won't. (He doesn't get outed til the end of paragon tier.) Even so, I think Heward Sechim would be an ideal candidate as patron. He's pretty forward-thinking and rich. He might encourage the players to try to win further patronage from Stanfield, though, if you want them to have extra dealings with the governator.

So.

Here are the highlights from yesterday.

After capturing Kaja Stewart and her mechanical bodyguard, the heroes of Unit 42 were requested to a crime scene by the agents who took over their old case. They found the body of an old man, whose head was bashed in and the remnants of some sort of mechanical creature. Through some extremely high skill checks (something that would become a theme for the evening) they determined that someone had moved human consciousness into the mechanical creature before it had been destroyed. Reginald Battersea, the artificer, remembered a ritual that would allow you to see the last moments of a creature, if you had access to its head. So, he cast the ritual on the mechanical head to see what he would see [his arcana check allowed him to see the two rounds before the creature was destroyed].

The first round he was actually looking through the eyes of the dead man, not the golem. Someone was above the man, pouring a vial of witchoil into his mouth while he used all of his concentration to cast some sort of spell. The second round, he was suddenly in the head of the golem, which moved over to the other two and bashed in the head of the victim before the other man turned around, revealed himself to be Leone Quital, reached out to the golem, and suddenly his vision ended.

This was pretty terrifying to the players, and their characters. I knew I was giving away a bit more than I should at this point, but the effect was good (and, the player's rolls were great), so I let it all happen. I like to say yes to my players whenever possible... what can I say?

After the vision, they found the scrap of eladrin dress, and immediately decided to go visit their friend Morgan Cippiano, which is great. They are starting to really enjoy talking with him, and it will be really interesting to hear them explain their relationship with him to the Viscount.

He explained how rare this fabric was, and asked if he could keep it, which they allowed. He also explained that Quital's family was famous mostly for their vineyards, but at this point I wasn't sure exactly how much information Morgan would have of Quital, so I left it there. He hinted he'd be asking for a favor from the constables in the near future, and they made it clear they wouldn't break the law for him, and he suggested he might be able to find out some of their friend Lorcan Kell's dealings, which was definitely something they'd be interested in stopping.

Finally, they made their way to the museum to speak with Prof Hans Weber. They had already turned over the artifacts to the university, so he was more than willing to speak with them. He told them of Xambria, and something about her benefactor, and set up a meeting with the archaeologist.

They made their way to her place, and she was eager to speak with them. She told her side of the story, and asked if they would please visit the ziggurat and learn what happened to her team. They were hesitant to make any promises, but said they would speak with their supervisor. They asked very few questions from her, so they did not receive a lot of information before heading out - they still don't quite have the hang of this whole investigation thing, and I suppose they never quite will.

The trek through the High Bayou was taxing on them, but they made it eventually, and without any real incident, though Victor Bays, the wizard, lost four healing surges during the trip. They quickly surveyed the campsite outside the Ziggurat, and decided quicker was better than thorough, especially when the Ziggurat affected Reginald and Gareth Carter, the swordmage, with Distant Madness.

Once inside, they investigated the initial room a bit, but never decided to really look over the mummies. They chose to turn left, instead of right, which was disappointing for me, because I knew that meant they would be missing the Rainbow Room puzzle, which I spent a bit of time preparing for. I may have the Voice of Rot send them back in so they can solve it and learn how to defeat the thoughtform creatures...

Xambria's warnings of traps had a definite effect on them, however, and they proceeded extremely cautiously. Casimiro del Garra, the monk/shaman, has a passive perception of 22, which means he spotted the spear traps without even trying, and they were able to bypass those rather quickly. They also devised a system to break the spears when they shot out so they wouldn't have to worry about them anymore. So, that was interesting.

They quickly figured out how to deactivate the fire traps, but the earth trap was trickier, and they decided to bypass that passageway completely. Instead, they made their way into the larger room with the symbol of the moon. Gareth approached slowly (I decided the monsters wouldn't attack until the floor started to open - which was probably a mistake, but oh well). He never made it halfway across the room, so he never triggered the trap. In fact, Victor rolled a 30(!) on his religion check, and specifically asked what kinds of things were associated with the moon that they might place on the symbol, and with such a roll and such a good question, I have them several things to try, and they went so far as to search the swamps outside for flowers. I gave it to them, for the lucky rolls alone. So far they hadn't triggered any traps!

They made their way around to the room with the welcome mat. They had grabbed the ten-foot pole earlier and were carrying it around with them, which turned out to be a godsend for them. Reginald used it to drag one of the corpses from the room back into the hallway, which meant it was pulled right over the welcome mat, exposing the symbol of Nen underneath. They couldn't, however, figure out what to do with this one, and finally made their way into the room to inspect it.

Here they put most of the pieces together. The tieflings had tried to move this seal, and something had gotten loose. They were a bit flummoxed about their next step, and so they decided to head on to the next room. When they stepped outside, Casimiro's good ears heard the sound of water running and a torrent poured forth from a room down the hall. The body Reginald had dragged out a few minutes earlier snapped to life, and they knew they needed to get out, quick.

That's where we ended things for the night.

A few things:

- What does Morgan know about Quital?

- They chose to go to the Ziggurat before approaching Caius, hoping more information would help their case against him... oops.

- They really, really, really want to take it to Lorcan. They discussed for almost 30 minutes whether they were strong enough to do so, before deciding they were not. If he gives them any provocation at all, I'm afraid they're going to run into a buzzsaw.

- They had both extraordinary luck, and a lot of caution, and got through the east side of the Ziggurat pretty much unscathed. They were pretty clever, actually, and lashed everburning torches to the Jierre symbols so they never reset. However, they're about to have to make their way back out. How does that work for the traps? What if they get stuck in the sliding floor room while they run out? Does it still trigger?

- I'm pretty sure they won't make it back out of the Ziggurat alive. But, I'm pretty excited to see how it goes!

That map looks great.

According to adventure 5, all Morgan's able to find out about Leone is:

"Word has gotten around of the man making an appearance in The Nettles a few months ago, and he’s distinctive enough that Morgan was able to find out who he is.

"Morgan says that Leone is supposed to be able to control metal with his mind, to bend, break, or levitate it with ease. He doesn’t know if it will be of much help in the current mission, but he can also give the party the location of the Quital family estate, northeast of Vendricce."

So really just background info, but anything incredibly pertinent.

Thanks. I had a lot of fun drawing up the map and making the walls and bridges for the rainbow room. I might have the Voice of Rot suggest to them that there is still something in the Ziggurat that they will need to "defeat his enemies" or something along those lines. They'll definitely appreciate knowing the thoughtform trick.

It is pretty fun running an old-fashioned dungeon crawl with this group.

d2OKC said:

Eh, a little death might be good for my group.

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Welp.

Just a reminder of my group:

Gareth Carter - Human male swordmage, Yerasol War Veteran
Reginald Battersea - Human male artificer
Victor Bays - Human male wizard
Casimiro del Garra - Longtooth Shifter male Monk/ shaman

So, we left off last time with the characters triggering the final two traps. They saw the undead around them come back to life, and the waters start roaring toward them from the fake seal room. They realized almost immediately how dangerous this was - but they still took their sweet time trying to get out.

They spent almost three rounds fighting off undead before they decided to run, by which point the water was already knee deep around them - which made running even more difficult. They ran back the way they had come, through the room with the illusory floor, which they had deactivated, so instead I threw a few of the floating orbs at them in this room, along with the mummies. Again, they fought instead of running, and since they were terrified of the crushing earth trap, they tried to run around the other way, and ended up trapped between the floating orbs and the three ancient orc mummies.

Only through a crafty use of a daily did Gareth Carter survive, and he was only able to carry one teammate out - and Reginald Battersea was in his path to escape. He had to leave the other two behind. Casimiro del Garra and Victor Bays were killed inside the Ziggurat of Apet.

So, Carter hustled out of the Ziggurat, and found himself surrounded by undead, and immediately began climbing up the Ziggurat. Once he got to the top, he fed a potion to his wounded ally, and they began preparing for the worst. This is when the Voice of Rot showed up, fought off the undead, and gave the two remaining members of Unit 42 his charge.

After he was finished, the flood washed the bodies of their companions out of the Ziggurat, and they slowly came back to life, feeling a little bit "slimy", as Victor's player put it.

The Voice of Rot told them finally that they had more to learn from the Ziggurat, and slunk back into the swamp. They decided to try and take an extended rest outside the Ziggurat - which I let them do, before heading back in. The insubstantial stuff is very frustrating for them, so I wanted to make sure they learned how to fight against the thoughtform, if nothing else - plus, I spent a bit of time preparing the puzzle in that room, and wanted them to try it out.

Carter led the way to the rainbow puzzle room, and they stepped inside to get a good view of it, which is when we called the session for the night. Next time, they will start right there.

- Interestingly, I think the players of the characters who died were a little disappointed when they were risen from the dead. They both described it as feeling a bit "slimy", which I told them was appropriate, given the circumstances of their resurrections, and the entity who had granted them new life. They are servants of the Voice of Rot now, and they'll have to deal with that for the time being.

- During the fight out of the Ziggurat, they were extremely frustrated. It was good for them, though. They were challenged a lot more in this sequence than they are used to, and it forced them to think through their actions differently.

- Afterward, however, all they talked about was ways they could have done it differently, and more successfully, which is very good! It meant they realized that, even though it was a very difficult challenge, it wasn't completely unfair (though, it was pretty unfair, and is kind of designed as a death trap).

- The moment when they were trapped between the orbs and the mummies, in a tiny hallway, with no healing left, and the water crashing down over them, was one of the best moments of the campaign so far. The fact that two of them actually made it out alive was even better. So good.

I'm going back through and reading the ziggurat section of every other DM's campaign thread in preparation for my own group arriving there. Thanks for the comprehensive summary! I suspect any of my players who are brought back to life by the Voice of Rot will have similar sentiments, so I'm going to think about how to play it so they realize that the revival wasn't free...

No problem! The escape from the Ziggurat is a really fun sequence, and was very tense around my table. I'm sure that added to their frustrations, but I think that kind of emotional investment can only be a good thing, personally!

OK.

We finished up the Ziggurat (it only took us three sessions!) and they got the actual, useful information (i.e. how to defeat the thoughtform creatures, and the location of the Mavisha Ziggurat) that they needed, and they decided to head back to Flint before performing the Detect Planar Energy ritual.

When they returned, they headed straight for RHC HQ, where the secretary told Gareth Carter he had a letter waiting for him. He was quite surprised to find an invitation to a ball being thrown by the Lord Viscount. At this point, two of the other players decided it was time to switch to a Zeitgeist theme, because they had see the cool stuff Gareth had gotten that they hadn't. So, Victor Bays is now an Eschatologist (after his brief brush with death, he has decided it is time to really start preparing for the next time that happens) and Reginald Battersea is now a Technologist (because it fits his image of his character way more than whatever he had initially chosen anyway. I was pleased with this development.

Next, they had to choose to either do the ritual, or finally track down Gaius Bergeron, which they had put off in order to travel as quickly as possible to the Ziggurat. They chose the ritual.

They first performed it near the fair, where it lead them to Rock Rackus's equipment. They found his ceremonial dagger, and decided to ask him a few questions. Not before they used a different ritual on the dagger however - Object Reading...

This is the second time they've used Object Reading. The first time on the head of Alexander's golem, which let them see that Leone Quital was behind that attack. This is a tricky ritual in this campaign, because if they roll high enough, it can really get them quick answers. Not necessarily a bad thing, but tricky.

So they got to see Rock using it to teleport from a cruise ship (surrounded by half-naked women and musicians) to the dreary confines of his tent at the fair. This was very interesting to them, indeed.

They decided to go question him, where they learned the truth behind his escapades (and they are pretty curious about the ruins he found in Pala). I tried to play him up as pretty dumb and self-centered, to really hammer home that he was a bad fit for the dockers, because my group has a bit of a soft spot for the activists. He offered to use his last scroll with them, and they considered this, but decided to come back later to release him.

* Side note. After the first of their party learned to speak Ancient in the Ziggurat, they took the time to solve the puzzle three more times so that all four of them could learn the language, and they would be able to actually have conversations in front of other people that no one else would be able to understand. I thought this was rather clever.

They performed the ritual again on the north shore, and sure enough it took them to the Silver Swan - which they had no idea was Gaius's home. It led them to his door, but they got a bit gunshy and decided to formulate a plan, instead of just charging in. I was so proud of their growth.

They asked the bellhop to bring down the occupant of the room, and he agreed after a substantial bribe.

While he was gone, the party devised a complicated strategy where Reginald and Casimiro would talk with Gaius while Gareth and Victor climbed the outside wall and climbed in through Gaius's window to snoop and get important information.

A few minutes later the bellhop came running back downstairs in a panic. He grabbed the jacket of Reginald and pulled him along behind him, telling him to hurry upstairs.

They arrived to find Gaius murdered, with his brain apparently pulled straight through his soft palate. They spent a few minutes investigating the scene (they found the maps that corroborated the information they found at the Ziggurat of Apet and the Ob ring, which completely stumped them) before Reginald decided to again pull out his favorite ritual - Object Reading! - on the corpse of Gaius Bergeron.

That is where we stopped for the night, because I'm not real sure how to answer any questions they would have. I suppose I could just give them the physical description of Sijhen, which wouldn't necessarily spoil the twist at the end, it would just give them a bit more to go off of, to find him for the Voice of Rot... I don't know.

Advice anyone?