ZEITGEIST [Zeitgeist] Chronicles of Unit 42

You are in control of the kind of information available from that type of ritual, not the player. The players don't get to ask questions, they just receive random images. The trick is to give some 'useful' information that appears to advance the plot (or indeed does) without giving the game away and making your players feel like you are deliberately stonewalling.

It may very well be that Bergeron did not even see Sijhen: that the creature was on him (and in him, shudder) before he knew what hit him. So a 'vision' of the creature would be nothing more than the equivalent of what one might see when being smothered by a pillow or blindfolded. You might refer to the sudden slither of tentacles. (If your players aren't already screaming 'mind flayer' then they haven't been playing D&D for long... Sorry, not mind flayer - gidim.)

The rest of Bergeron's visions could be pretty cool teasers for the rest of the campaign: One could be an unshaven hobo smoking a cigarette, representing Nicodemus. Another could be Finona Duvall (who they haven't met and who holds the next clue). A vision of the apet seal or the star map would be useful (particularly the latter, as Caius must be wondering where it got to). Another might be of Xambria Meredith looking angry and frustrated. If you need more, they could relate to other obsessions or interests of Bergeron.

You needn't even have a vision of his killer, though a frustratingly blurred glimpse might be nice.

I've got a spirit medium in my game, and he makes use of his object history perk pretty much every day. Since we play online via Google+ video hangouts, I sometimes take the opportunity to show the players some of the cool art from the adventures. For example, when he used the ability on one of the relics from Digging for Lies, I showed him the picture of the ziggurat, the picture of the mummy, and (IIRC) the picture of Xambria.

Oh the spirit medium ability? I thought you meant the ritual. The psychic history thing is even easier to deal with because its just one image, and as Ajar says, its an excellent way of colouring the campaign, and giving the players a glimpse of things they might not otherwise get to see.

No, I specifically meant the ritual.

But, your suggestions are great. I guess my question was how to give them something of substance (i.e. not cheat them out of the ritual) but without giving away too much information that they need to get with good old fashioned police work.

Thanks for the help, guys.

I'm a bit behind again.

We have one session left for Digging for Lies. Unit 42 just fought off Xambria and the thoughtform creatures at the museum, and have cuffed her and are taking her in for questioning. That means, they'll be running the final encounter of the module, hopefully on Friday before I head for my Irish vacation.

Nothing real to report, except that I drew up maps for the RHC and the subrail station below. I didn't get any good photos of the RHC yet, but here's a few to show what they'll be up against below ground.

Also, I'll begin preparing for Always on Time while on the plane, so what advice do you guys have for that? Has anyone taken the time to map out all of the individual cars for their groups? Because I think that's my plan, just to give them an idea of what the train is really like, even though I know they'll be spending little time in most of the cars.

Excited about it, though, and so is my group. They really enjoyed the letter from Caius to Finona, though of course they missed the most important detail - Delft has gotten really good at being incredulous that they can be so good in the field and miss such important details like - now we know where a member of the Ob is going to be and they don't know we know!

Anyway, I'll try and get photos of RHC HQ for you guys this evening.

nice to see I'm not the only one using a Purple worm to represent the thing beyond the portal.

Me too. And the same mindflayer mini for Sijhen!

You drew your railroad track a lot neater than mine, though. I just scribbled the sleepers. Lazy DM!

Yeah, I'm not a Lazy DM, mostly by the virtue that I really enjoy taking the time to make the maps to use during the encounters for them. Hastily drawn maps are fine when I'm a player, but as a DM I like to really give my players a treat, and this is one of those things I'm pretty good at, I feel.

They liked how I had done the Ziggurat of Apet, so I kept it going with these maps.

So, here's the RHC Headquarters, with the subrail station below it, and another shot of the Thing From Beyond and Sijhen, surrounded by Unit 42 (Gareth Carter the human swordmage in the red cape, Viktor Bays the human wizard in the hat with the torch, Casimiro del Garra the longtooth shifter monk/shaman is the shirtless one at the top, and Reginald Battersea the human artificer is in the green cloak with the crossbow) and their menagerie of creatures (the shaman/monk's spiritual companion and owlbear beast companion, the artificer technologist's construct, and the wizard's meerkat familiar), as well as an action shot from their encounter with Xambria in the museum.

So how'd the climax go?

We'll be running the final session on Friday night. I'll let you know then!