Arcanis: Gonnes, Sons, and Treasure Runs (COMPLETED)

Deus Ex Machina - Part 6b: Maze

Cal stalked in the opposite direction, sniffing as he went. He turned the corner just in time to see a woman dressed in bright yellow robes and a pallid mask toss marbles beneath one of the wooden panels.

“You!” shouted Cal. He took his axe off of his back strap.

“Ahh!” shouted Orpen. She blurred sideways as Cal’s axe rent a gash in the floor. “You’ll bring down the ceiling if you keep that up!”

Cal swung again, but she blurred backwards. “Stop doing that!” he shouted.

The woman shrieked and ran down through the maze. “Druf!” she shouted. “Druf, shoot him!”

Cal caught a glimpse of her profile as Orpen looked straight ahead. She was preparing herself for something.

He swung his axe downwards again but she blurred forward, out of reach. When Cal turned the corner, he saw Orpen clear a long pit.

She spun to laugh at the big lizard. But he wasn’t there.

There was a thud behind her.

Orpen slowly turned around to look.

“I jump good,” said Cal, grinning a saurial grin.

“Down!” shouted someone from within the pit.

Orpen ducked, and a crossbow bolt thunked into Cal’s shoulder. The lizard looked down at it in disdain.

Orpen dove past him. She grinned back at Cal and turned, only to smack into Beldin’s shield.

The cultist fell backwards and raised her hands. “I give up!” shouted Orpen.

Beldin lowered his morningstar to point it at the woman’s head. “Don’t move.”

“I won’t,” said Orpen. “None of us will.”

Then the hilt of Captain Bezyli’s dagger appeared in her forehead.

Beldin whirled. “What did you do that for?”

Ilmarė, her hand still extended from the throw. “She hooked her foot around a pole. She was going to pull down the ceiling.” Sure enough, the edge of the woman’s foot was just underneath the wooden panel.

“The chanting,” said Cal, peering into the pit. Another crossbow bolt thudded into his chest from below. He didn’t seem to notice. “It’s coming from somewhere down below us.”

“We’ve got to find a way down there,” said Ilmarė.

Cal lifted his axe and roared. Then he jumped headlong into the pit.

A geyser of blood splashed upwards. Whoever was in there had surely been cleaved in twain by the combined force of Calactyte and gravity. Some of the gore spattered on Ilmarė’s boots.

“That’s not quite what I had in mind,” said Ilmarė with a look of disdain.

I like Cal.

Calactyte, played by my brother, is played a bit like a superhero. He's big, he's friendly, and nobody understands him. He's also a barbarian, so he gets to be really, really violent.

Cal's back story will be fleshed out quite a bit as the story hour progresses. Especially when we go back to his village and learn about his tribe.

Deus Ex Machina - Part 7a: Training Room

Ilmarė and Beldin carefully wended their way down the steps.

“Be ready for anything,” said Ilmarė. “Who knows what the Brotherhood is capable of?”

A huge axe blade jutted from the wall. Ilmarė hopped backwards in surprise.

Two more hacks and the wall smashed open. Cal stood in the opening, covered in blood and dust.

“Oh, hi Cal,” said Ilmarė. “Nice of you to join us.”

“Hi,” said Cal. He sniffed the air. “We’re not alone.”

The room was filled with all manner of clockworks. Abandoned mechanical horses, limp humanoid bodies, and large clocks of all sorts lay forgotten and unused. Something whirred at the far end of the chamber.

“The orrery is almost ready!” said the voice of an old man across the room. “Now if I could just find the invitation…”

The orrery was about the size of a merry-go-round, but in place of the colorful roof and all the prancing horses and noble carriages there were a set of brass globes mounted on sturdy metal arms. The arms joined at the center, where Ambrose tinkered up an elaborate set of gears and cogs that moved the globes around in great ovals.

Standing in front of the orrery was a large, white shape. It was too far away to make out, cloaked in the shadows of the room. An older man was moving back and forth behind it, dressed in a workman’s apron.

“That’s got to be Ambrose,” said Ilmarė. She drew her bow. “And if he’s working on an orrery, that means he’s opening a portal to Carcosa.”

“What’s the invitation to, anyway?” asked Beldin.

“It’s a costume party,” said Ilmarė.

A clanking man-sized marionette swung into view, blocking their path to the room beyond.

“He’s going as a puppet? Stupid costume,” said Cal.

Ilmarė knocked an arrow. “Take it out! We’ve got to stop Ambrose before he finishes making that orrery!”

The marionette winched forward as Cal and Beldin advanced on it, axes raised.

“You know the routine Cal,” said Beldin, shield raised. “You go high…”

Cal hacked at the marionette’s head, slicing downwards. It spun sideways, but not fast enough to avoid the blow.

“And I’ll go low!” shouted Beldin. He rushed forward, swiping his axe towards the marionette’s torso. It smacked upwards so hard it hit the ceiling.

“Too easy,” said Cal.

Then the marionette swung back, whirling as it went. It gashed open Cal’s arm and hit Beldin’s shield so hard that it knocked him backwards.

An arrow ricocheted off of the marionette’s head.

The big lizard crouched and slapped the marionette with his tail. It spun sideways, its blade ricocheting off of the ceiling.

Cal raised his huge axe up to finish the marionette off. Then he froze in place.

“Cal?” asked Beldin.

The marionette stopped flopping around awkwardly. It moved with all the precision of a man. Mimicking Ilmarė’s throw from before, it hurled its curved blade at Beldin.

Beldin ducked as the blade SPTANG-ed off of the dwarf’s shield.

“There’s someone else in the room!” shouted Ilmarė. “There!”

Beldin got a glimpse of a portly, balding man with a wide grin. Then the room burst with gray sticky strands.

Deus Ex Machina - Part 7b: Training Room

Beldin struggled in the web. He reached for his smaller hand axe and began hacking at it.

“Cal!” shouted Beldin.

Cal was trapped within the webs, but he had been frozen long before that by Khorbon’s magic. Another smaller creature, a gnome, was in the opposite corner, dressed in yellow robes and wearing a pallid mask. It was the gnome who cast the web. Behind them, Ilmarė was completely concealed by the strands.

The marionette started spinning backwards, entwining the chains that held it up. Beldin knew what was coming next. He hacked more urgently at the strands.

The marionette’s whirling slowed to a stop. Then, with its blade outstretched, it began to whirl clockwise, faster and faster.

The marionette was spinning so fast that it hummed. Its arms and legs had transformed into a blurring top. All that Beldin could make out was the outstretched blade, which was visible as a steel-colored smear at the outer edge of the marionette whirlwind.

“Cal, wake up!” shouted Beldin.

“This is going to be grand,” said Khorbon. “The Unspeakable One will be so pleased when we arrive at his party.”

The gnome giggled. “Now give us the invitation.”

The marionette whirled closer. Web strands began snapping off one at a time.

“Ilmarė has it,” said Beldin. “And she’s on the other side of your web.”

“No problem,” said Khorbon. “We’ll just let the marionette clear a path.” He grinned. “After it cuts through you of course.”

“Cal!” shouted Beldin. He was barely able to insert his shield between the marionette and the web.

The marionette’s blade began searing through the shield, shooting sparks everywhere. The shriek of metal on metal was deafening.

Beldin’s shield was slowly, painfully, pushed out of the way from the force of the marionette’s attack. The sparks edged closer to his face.

“CAL!”

All Beldin could see over his shield was Khorbon’s face. He was looking up at something in fear.

Inside his helmet, Beldin smiled. He knew what Khorbon was looking at: one big, pissed off lizard.

Deus Ex Machina - Part 7c: Training Room

With a roar, Cal tore out of the sticky strands. He hit the marionette with his axe so hard that it snapped free from its moorings and smashed into the giggling gnome. They both lay crumpled in a heap.

Cal’s earflaps were spread wide and his pupils dilated. He bared his fangs and roared again.

“Cal!” shouted Beldin. “The web! Cut me down!”

Another mighty swing dropped Beldin to his feet.

“Now,” said the dwarf, advancing on Khorbon. “You and I have some unfinished business.”

Khorbon pulled a flute from his robes. “Yes we do,” he replied. “I don’t think you’ve heard the Unspeakable One’s call. Let me play you a few notes, you can dance to it.” He put his lips to the flute.

A throwing axe shivered in Khorbon’s chest before he could finish.

“Dwarves don’t dance,” said Beldin.

Khorbon fell on his face, dead.

Ilmarė finished burning her way through the webs. She looked thoroughly irritated.

There was a crash as a large white and red blur, armed with an axe larger than Cal’s, slammed into the big lizard. They struggled back and forth, two axe hafts pressed against each other.

“What the hell is that?” asked Beldin.

“That,” said Ilmarė, “is Ambrose’s costume.”

Deus Ex Machina - Part 8: Casting Room

The clockwork minotaur had a head formed of painted carousel horses, separated it into two halves. Portions of other horses were added to widen the whole thing. A pair of gilt unicorn horns jutted from its head. A great many ornaments--metal roses and fine brass fittings--were worked into the head so they spun and moved to draw the eye. The ears turned this way and that. Its fine mane was made of curtain tassels that tossed to and fro as it walked. The minotaur wore a cloak made of red velvet curtains on its back.

It tossed Cal off like a ragdoll. Before the ss’ressen could react, the clockwork minotaur slashed outwards with its axe. Cal spun backwards, face first into the webbing. He hung there, dripping blood.

Beldin snarled. “Never seen anything like it,” he said, drawing his morningstar. “It’s got to have a weak spot.”

“Beldin, no!” shouted Ilmarė.

Beldin smashed his morningstar into the minotaur’s knee with both hands. The blow should have at least chipped it.

There was a terrible creak as the minotaur’s head swiveled to look down at Beldin.

“Magnificent,” was all the dwarf got out. Then it backhanded him, swatting Beldin into the webbing.

The clockwork minotaur turned its head again. It focused on Ilmarė. The minotaur whirred to life, stomping towards her one plodding step at a time.

“We can’t beat it,” said Ilmarė, her eyes wide. “We can’t…wait!” She fumbled in her pack as the albino minotaur advanced towards her. It was so close that she could hear the ticking of its gears.

She found it.

Ilmarė thrust the invitation up over her head. “Ambrose, I have your invitation!”

The clicking continued, but nothing happened.

“Well, why didn’t you say so?” said Ambrose.

Ilmarė peeked out behind the note. The clockwork minotaur’s axe was inches from the note, stopped in mid-swing.

Ambrose climbed into his orrery. As the globes whirled about, the patterns of their movement created a force that pushed the orrery off the ground. Ambrose pushed the bellows on the massive heads to push it towards Ilmarė.

“Now I can go to my party!” said Ambrose. The orrery silently floated over to the clockwork minotaur’s back. He tapped it once with a tool, and the back opened up. Then Ambrose got in it.

The minotaur immediately whirled to life. It lowered the axe, turned around, and stepped onto the orrery.

Ilmarė peeked into the room. A glowing portal was at its center.

Beyond the portal, she could make out a city with strange, alien towers. It loomed over a misty lake. A rising moon appeared to be in front of the towers instead of behind it. And when she looked upon it, she knew.

“Carcosa,” whispered Ilmarė.

The flying orrery, the clockwork minotaur, and Ambrose floated through the portal. It winked closed and was no more.

Deus Ex Machina - Conclusion

Ilmarė stood there for an eternity. Someone put a hand on her shoulder.

It was Quintus. He was wearing clothes that were not his. Several of the Sea Lord’s guard stood behind him. Some were tending to Cal and Beldin’s wounds. The webs had long since melted away.

“They’re dead,” said Quintus. He kicked Khorbon’s corpse. “Good. Looks like you didn’t need our help.” He addressed Ilmarė with a slight smile, but she knew it was all a bluff. He had been through too much to not be disappointed. Quintus would have killed Khorbon with his bare hands if he had the chance.

A guard handed Quintus a rolled up piece of parchment. He unrolled it. “Looks like the plans to build some kind of crushing machine,” he said. “I wonder what he was building it for?”

Ilmarė finally found her voice. “They were stringing Ambrose along, promising him an invitation to a party,” she said. “Whatever he built for them, it was not meant to be in our world.

“Well, he’s gone now. And the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign is either dead or fled.” Quintus encompassed the room with a sweep of one hand. “I will help the priests of Illiir rebuild this place. That’s the best revenge of all.”

Ilmarė was silent.

“What’s wrong?”

“I delivered the note to Ambrose,” she said. “But now I’m not so sure that I should have.”

“Why?” said Quintus. “He’s gone. Khorbon’s dead. The Brotherhood is scattered. What more is there?”

“I just can’t help but wonder,” said Ilmarė, looking over her shoulder at where the portal once was. “What happens when Ambrose gets to that party?”

Chapter 17: Adventus Regis - Introduction

This adventure, “Adventus Regis,” is converted from the Miskatonic University Library Association monograph, "Ripples from Carcosa," written by Oscar Rios. You can buy the adventure at: http://catalog.chaosium.com/product_info.php?products_id=640. You can read more about Arcanis at http://www.onaraonline.org. Please note: This adventure contains spoilers!

Our cast of characters includes:

· Beldin Soulforge (dwarf fighter) played by Joe Lalumia
· Bijoux (fihali druid) played by Melissa Gendron
· Calactyte (ss’ressen barbarian) played by Joe Tresca
· Ilmarė Galen (elf bard/fighter) played by Amber Tresca
· Kham Val’Abebi(val rogue/psychic warrior) played by Jeremy Ortiz (http://www.ninjarobotstudios.com)
· Sebastian Arnyal (dark-kin sorcerer) played by George Webster

Michael Tresca (that’s me) was Dungeon Master for this session.

I pulled out all the stops for this adventure: cardboard props, music from Requiem for a Dream, chocolate coins, Mega Miniatures’ Town Folk (I used them in groups of eight) and liberal use of my Battle Box from Fiery Dragon Productions. Did I mention I love my Battle Box?

I didn’t tell the players that this was a Call of Cthulhu adventure, but it didn’t take long for them to become completely freaked out. I should point out that this adventure is fairly disturbing, which helped put our PCs in some moral quandaries. As my brother is fond of putting it, “this is SO Resident Evil.”

I tried a bunch of different writing styles with this story hour. There are references to several of Campbell’s King in Yellow stories (specifically, what happens to Cal and Kham). The descriptions of the byakhee are straight from Lovecraft’s “The Festival.” And of course, there are the verses from Blish’s “More Light” version of the play. It’s a bit difficult to understand what’s going on without the context of the play itself. After all, this adventure kicks off a horrible inevitability—the birth of the King in Yellow, a play that drives to madness all who witness it.

The end fight was a tough battle, but perfectly balanced…a rarity. Fortunately, they did not take on the Avatar of Has--I mean the Unspeakable One. But then, any day when you can put down two byakhee (two very large, advanced byakhee) is a good day indeed.

Adventus Regis - Prologue

UOHT: You have been looking at Carcosa again.

CASSILDA: No…Nobody can see Carcosa before the Hyades rise. I was only looking at the lake of Hali. It swallows so many suns.

UOHT: And you will see it swallow so many more. These mists are bad for you; they seep into everything. Come inside.

--The King in Yellow: Act One​

Click to expand...

Though Grand Coryan was the center of the Empire and arguably the most exciting city in the known world, it was good to get away, and the trip promised to be a wonderful vacation. Taking a luxurious river barge up the Corvis River, Ilmarė arrived at the town of Vestalanium.

To her surprise, Cal and Bijoux were on the barge as well.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. They were easy to spot in a crowd, and on a crowded ship they were impossible to ignore.

“Quintus invited us,” said Bijoux. “Sebastian is here as well, below decks.”

Ilmarė arched an eyebrow. “Quintus didn’t say anything about any of you.”

Calactyte tilted his saurian head to look quizzically at the Elorii. “You are sad he’s not here?”

“I didn’t say that,” she snapped back at the big lizard.

Sebastian joined them shortly thereafter. “I didn’t know you were on board,” he said in his usual half-whisper. “Dodging trouble?”

“What makes you say that?” asked Ilmarė.

“Because that’s what I’m doing,” said Sebastian. “Beldin sent for me. It seems that Elabac has summoned the best and brightest of Solanos Mor once again to train his replacement. Beldin wishes to have no part of it. Vestalanium seems to be a good excuse to lay low until a successor is chosen.”

Known for being one of the most exclusive of all Coryan resort towns, Vestalanium was nestled amid rolling green hills dotted with date and olive orchards.

“Quintus sent for us as well,” said Bijoux. “We were attacked in Freeport. He thought it best that we spend a week in Vestalanium until things settle there.”

“Hopefully, Dril and Vlad can handle the Brotherhood,” said Ilmarė. The Milandisian and Altherian had journeyed northwards to Freeport to keep an eye on Brother Egil and Lucius. “As for me, I’m taking a well-deserved vacation. I did a favor for a senator.”

“One doesn’t just get into Vestalanium,” said Sebastian. “Quintus pulled some serious strings.”

The level of exclusivity of the town was evident as soon as they arrived. Just after dark, slaves and servants of the resort villa of Ravulus met them at the docks. They were loaded onto a littler with their baggage and carried to the resort. Double the amount of slaves were assigned to the big ss’ressen.

They were shown to beautiful rooms, given a glass of fine wine, and then slept upon a marvelously comfortable bed.

It was the best rest Ilmarė had in a long time.