Lost Souls Campaign Advice: things that go bump... (Terraism OUT!)

[randomling]

Thanks again, Malcolm.

The problem here is that none of the trapped ghosts the PC is dealing with here have a problem with closure. They've been forcibly held on "this side" by magic, so it looks like I'm going to have to take a few steps away from the more real-world methods you mentioned. I do want it to be passive, though, at least at first; he won't really know what he's doing until he's done it.

Hm. More later I think.

 

[randomling]

All right, let's see.

I've already got the link with Anna established: a strong psychic connection that drains his energy when it's active and could cause Alex a fair amount of damage if the link was broken suddenly. How about if the releasing of ghosts is a follow-on from that connection?

You'd link with the spirit, and by combining your spiritual energy with theirs, you'd give them the strength to break themselves free of their prison. This would be hard to do and would probably involve developing a close and powerful connection with the spirit in question over many weeks or months. Eventually, your energies would be so closely linked that the ghost could use some of your strength to get clear. In the final event, this would involve a Will save opposed by a caster level check from the Professor: not easy to do at all, but when it finally happens, the rewards are vast. (Well; I'm thinking of giving him +1 morale bonus on attacks, skill checks, saves and defence for a day after; the bonus and duration will increase for every ghost he frees.)

Mechanical query: flavour wise, a small XP cost (25 or 50xp) seems appropriate since he is giving up "life energy" to the ghost. Does that sound like a good idea?

 

[Malcolm]

R,

The connection approach you mentioned sounds pretty good, but I don't know if I'd charge xp or not. Depends on how slowly you want the campaign to progress. Plus players tend to dislike paying xp for something that gives only temporary change; the first few times it will seem fine, then it will eventually wear thin.
Perhaps the process of release for xp would give Alex/pcs a spirit "friend" who might show up from time to time to help? trans: re-roll failed save once a day, +4 vs. a skill check once a day, etc.

If you have combat in the campaign (real world lethal fights are rare to unique for most folks) perhaps encourage Alex to take up a martial art of some form (ie. Monk); this would help in both his development of Chi (which is never a bad thing for learning to control psychic abilities) and give him a way of defending himself without resorting to guns guns guns.

 

[randomling]

Ooh, that works nicely. Although I might work it slightly differently: after the spirit has crossed over, he can spend some XP (25 or 50 per HD of the spirit, or something) to maintain the connection over the great divide. It may not last forever, but it'll last at least as long as the pre-release link did. The spirit will then show up if Alex is ever in danger or trouble, or when he calls for them. He's essentially giving them a piece of himself which will help them retain some contact with the world of the living for a while.

In return, he gets a helpful (if dead) ally for at least a few months of game-time.

 

[randomling]

Okay. Last session was kinda short, and mostly involved introducing a couple of NPCs - Anila and Rashi - and Alex doing some fruitless research at his local library.

Next session, he's headed to a larger library to do some more involved research. He's looking for information on three basic areas as far as I can tell. I need to track down some information on the web for the three major areas and I was wondering if anybody could direct me to some relevant resources on the web.

Symbols
He memorized a single symbol from Landau's old spellbook. I've got a symbol for him, and an explanation of it. The symbol itself is going to lead him down the path of finding out about alchemy - not directly relevant, but alchemy may in turn lead him to magic. It's resources on alchemy I'm after.

Ghosts
To be honest, I'm not sure what he's trying to find out about ghosts. Mostly what he's going to find in the library if he does a general search on "ghosts" is lots of books on ghost stories and myths about the supernatural. With the ghosts he's encountered being different from your usual "trapped on Earth for reasons of unfinished business" types, finding information relevant to the mysteries he's come up against is going to be tough (and probably beyond his ability to track down just yet). Here, I'm just not sure what kind of information to give out.

Protective items
Alex has the talisman he found in Anna's music box now, although he isn't wearing it. Anna thought it was protective, but it isn't. It's going to provide him with a +1 bonus on Sense checks. And of course, any magical item at all on Earth is unique, and probably listed in a book somewhere. That book's not going to be in Camden library. Madame Luludja might have more specialized knowledge. But if he does a search for "protective items", is he just going to find information on armour and birth control?

Erm.... help?

 

[ZosKia]

Hi Lucy,
This is the best Alchemy resource

http://www.levity.com/alchemy/home.html

Andrew

 

[ZosKia]

BTW a search for 'Protective Talismans' will get you sites on how to make your own. I guess a search for or in books would give the same thing.

 

[randomling]

*bump*

So after a bit of a break, I'm going to start running Lost Souls again on a fairly regular basis.

Due to the shortness of sessions, and the fact that everything basically takes twice as long over IM (and for some other reasons I haven't identified yet) the campaign hasn't really taken the standard "adventure of the week" format. Anything that could be classed as an adventure in this game would probably be encounters by the usual analysis - mostly RPing encounters, I haven't attempted to run a combat yet.

The last session (which was some time ago) ended mid-encounter. The PC (Alex) was talking to a gypsy psychic woman, Madame Luludja. My favourite NPC Rashi works for her in some capacity - I'm thinking he may just do errands for her in return for bed and board since he ran away from home, or something.

He's been telling her about Anna. She is probably going to attempt to contact/find out about Anna using a crystal ball. This really ought to involve Alex and Rashi in a seance-type way. Trapped by a spell, she'll be almost unreachable by any "normal" psychic methods, and I think that the magic wards that 7-13/Landau has put up around everything he does will hurt some. (I use VP/WP, so it'll probably be 1d6 or 2d6 damage that goes to VP on a successful save and WP on an unsuccessful one. I'd appreciate a little help on the mechanics - Alex levelled last session, but he's not going to level mid-scene, so he'll still be first level for this. I'd like it to be a CR1 or CR2 trap, I think.)

I'd also appreciate some help on where to go after the trap encounter. I can deal with the immediate consequences of that just fine, but I'm not sure if it's too early for this activity to alert 7-13 that somebody is messing with his magic. (I guess that partly depends on how I'm working magic - I quite like the idea that a caster has a part of their awareness devoted to spells they have running, but it's way too early for Landau to get involved in Alex's life directly, especially when I have a villain who's so willing - eager, even - to kill.) On another note, maybe Anna will know what's happened, as it's her magic that's been messed with.

Any ideas would be massively useful here...

 

[randomling]

Hmm, OK - here's some notes on NPCs, and some of the wonderings I'm having.

Anna
Doesn't really need stats just yet - she's a ghost trapped in a mirror, and can't have much effect on the outside world. She might be able to directly affect Alex's dreams if she really tries, but she isn't likely to try right now. She could theoretically be a danger to Alex, though - he has a strong link to her, and if that link was suddenly broken (most likely to happen when things are emotionally charged). She's held in that mirror by a spell that might be in some ways similar to Trap the Soul - I haven't quite figured out the details yet. The spell is either warded by other magic, or the spell itself wards against any psychic attempts to look into it. If it's the latter, it makes sense that Anna herself might know about attempts to look into or break the spell (because those attempts will probably hurt her).

Madame Luludja
I don't think she's above 4th level - she's probably Dedicated 3 and has one level of some kind of Seer class. She might have to be a Hero for that (can Ordinaries take advanced classes?). Her abilities and knowledge are actually fairly limited, but she's been doing the professional psychic gig for a long time and knows how to sound like she knows a lot. She can do the crystal ball thing to track down ghosts - she doesn't have the Sense skill, but a similar one that gives her the ability to sense ghosts that have moved on, which I think means she can sense ghosts here too at a penalty. So finding Anna is a Sense check, aided by Alex and Rashi. And the magic wards prompt a Fort save.

Professor Landau/7-13/'Boston'
I picture him about 10th - he's a long-term project for Alex - with mostly Smart and Mage levels, and a level or two of Tough too. The big question is whether he'll be able to sense the attack on the wards. Maybe I should oppose Madame L's Sense check with his Spellcraft check, and if he beats it, he'll be able to tell that she reached his spell. (I should also set a DC for the Sense check - probably Anna's Sense DC, whatever it is, with a warding bonus for the spell.) There's also the question of what he'll do if he feels somebody messing with his magic... he might already have an idea that somebody's been poking around his house....