Redbadge's Campaign (there will be spoilers)

[Isklexi]

Late post is late. We had a short session last weekend. Rai's player was sick, so someone else controlled Rai (he still didn't do much this session).

As the train approached Orithea, Kirk tried to have a conversation with Cardiff Hengehill; the conversation was fairly one sided. Cardiff didn't say much other than his name and that he was on the train for business.

Once in Orithea, Irony approached Luc and Ottavia to invite them to dinner; the two declined saying they had other arrangements in town. The team decided to split up to follow suspects. Rai would follow Luc and Ottavia; Irony would stay at the hotel to keep from raising their suspicions. Kirk would follow Cardiff. Bellicose followed the Grientos, and Doran followed Bree.

Doran lost track of Bree on the streets after she left the hotel. Rai managed to follow Luc and Ottavia to a bar where Verzubak made another toast, "to those we trust in, and those who earn our trust. May alcohol foever help bring us together." Rai then followed them back to the streets, but he lost track of their carriage as it headed towards the docks. Bellicose successfully tailed the Grientos all night; they took in a puppet show and dined in one of the tower restaurants in town. Kirk followed Cardiff to a tower restaurant where he bribed a waiter to spy on Cardiff; he learned Cardiff was reading a Dwarven phrasebook. Later, Cardiff retired to a fancy hotel outside the rail enclave.

Back at the hotel, Kirk decided to pursue Cardiff and his mysterious briefcase. Kirk laid out a plan to break into Cardiff's hotel room and check out the briefcase. Kirk took Rai's hat of disguise in case he needed to make a discrete getaway; this meant Rai had to stay at the hotel, because a Genasi would stand out on the streets.

Kirk climbed up onto the hotel while the others kept watch on the streets below. Kirk used the cracked cauldron handle (prepped by Irony) to cast silence into the room before prying open the window. Once inside, Kirk crept into Cardiff's bedroom. The briefcase was handcuffed to Cardiff's ankle as he slept. Kirk carefully picked the lock on the briefcase; the briefcase contained reports on Danoran naval power and movements. While leafing through the reports, Kirk set off an explosive runes trap on one of the pages blasting him across the room and waking Cardiff. Even dazed by the spell, Kirk was faster than Cardiff; Kirk managed to incapacitate Cardiff with a thrown dagger before he could retrieve his pistol.

GM: The explosive runes trap is only mentioned in passing by Cardiff when he hands over the documents to the Drakrens, but I thought it was a cool idea and implemented it here.

Kirk had barely subdued Cardiff before angry hotel security started banging on the door demanding to know what all the noise was. Thinking quickly, Kirk used the hat of disguise to appear as Cardiff and answered the door. Kirk was trying to explain away the loud noise as his pistol misfiring when suddenly all the lights in the building went out as their flames turned to water. The constables on the street witnessed the same phenomenon happen to the street lamps and saw the waters near the docks catch on fire. The hotel security seemed to take the bizarre event in stride and attributed the pistol misfire to the event as well.

Once the security guards left, Kirk signaled from the window for the other constables to come up; they also came in through the window wanting to avoid hotel security. The team decided Cardiff was some kind of spy, but they weren't sure who he worked for. The team decided to get him back to Risur. The party hadn't arranged for any allies in Orithea, so their options were limited. They decided to use a linked portal ritual to send Cardiff along with the briefcase and a note about his arrest to Slate. Irony was only able to maintain the portal just long enough to send Cardiff through.

The next day, the team got back on board the train now less one spy. They overheard gossip about another grisly murder as the train got underway.

GM: The players really latched onto Cardiff, and Kirk's plan worked out pretty well. I wasn't sure if there was a portal circle in Flint, so I let them send him to Slate instead. He'll be picked up by the RHC there, and the party will hear about the outcome later. I cut this session short, because I didn't want to move into anything major while one of the players was missing. I had the strange event happen during their little sting mission, because it was about the right time, and I thought it would be more dramatic that way.

 

[Isklexi]

Oh, I have a question for anyone that may know.

How does the Dreaming work in relation to the moon, Av? Is the Dreaming between Lanjyr and Av like the Bleak Gate and Nem?

From the adventure descriptions, the Bleak Gate appears to be a separate plane in between Lanjyr and Nem, but the descriptions of the Dreaming are pretty ambiguous. Rock Rackus' description of his adventure to the moon seems to describe the Dreaming, but he's definitely not a reliable narrator.

 

[RangerWickett]

I'm honestly not quite sure, and I figure planar scholars aren't either. Some planes just don't make clear sense. But sure, it seems feasible that Av is where minds go to dream, where the Unseen Court rules. Whereas the Dreaming is just a reflection of this world made more magical and dream-like, but still solid and real.

 

[Isklexi]

Open ended eh?

Well that let's GMs fill in the blanks how they want.

On a side note, I'm planning on throwing in some extra NPCs on the train in Trekhom. The fiasco with the trumpet player proved I'm not that great at inserting red herring NPCs on the fly, so I've created a pair of NPCs from scratch with their own backgrounds; that way I have a ready made story for them to play off of.

Whether the players give them any attention or not, I can reuse them later on in the adventures too.

 

[Isklexi]

I'm prepping for a session this weekend (yay), and I've realized an oversight on my part in the "Always on Time" adventure. It's supposed to be an adventure of levels 8-9, but I can't seem to find an explicit statement of when the PCs gain level 9. The only reference I've found was in the rewards section near the start of the PDF mentioning they level up mid-way through the adventure. I'm probably just missing it somewhere, but if anyone can point me to it, that would be great. My players are just leaving Orithea, so I'm certain it happens later in the adventure if not at the end.

 

[gideonpepys]

I can't find a reference either. It's not in 'rewards' where it usually is. Because I run buffer adventures I only leveled them up just before the last encounter, but if you're heading straight into Cauldron Born, the obvious choice would be after Nalaam, (in time for Off the Rails). That should give you enough action to feel about right, even if you don't beef up the clergy vault.

 

[Isklexi]

My thoughts exactly. I was planning on putting the level gain after Nalaam if I couldn't find the official time for it.

 

[Isklexi]

Incoming wall of text: it takes a lot to describe our long sessions.

We rejoin the constables as the train pulls away from Orithea on its way to Trekhom. Shortly after departing Orithea, Malia invites passengers to participate in a safari from the train’s roof. Bellicose and Kirk join the safari along with several other passengers including Bree, Boone, Damata, and his son Tarro. Bellicose and Kirk spend an hour in a friendly competition to see who could bag the most monsters. The contest was a close one with Kirk taking an early lead, but Bellicose recovered from an early fumble to win. The gunplay was cut short when the train screeched to a sudden halt.

GM: I had them make opposed ranged attack rolls for their little contest. It was a best 3 out of 5 deal. They ended up doing all 5 roll-offs being neck and neck the whole time. It was a fun little diversion from the plot.

Bellicose and Kirk couldn’t see what had caused the train to stop, but they did witness a massive multi-headed monster emerge from the swamps. Meanwhile in their first class suite, Irony, Doran, and Rai climbed out on top of car 17 to see what had stopped the train. The constables immediately started running along the train to stop the monster’s attack. Bellicose rallied the guards to follow them, but the nervous train guards moved up the train much more slowly than the breakneck pace set by the constables.

As they neared the beast, Doran spotted bandits attacking the front of the train. Doran called back to the rest that he would go ahead of the group and deter the bandits while they dealt with the malice beast. Doran’s path was blocked by one of the beast’s heads, but a well placed shot from Bellicose caused the head to rear back clearing Doran’s path forward.

The other constables engaged the screaming monster. They were unpleasantly surprised by its ability to generate spawn by severing its own heads. They also quickly realized that the screams coming from below meant that these monsters were inside the train attacking passengers. Rai moved front and center to distract as many of the heads as possible while Irony supported him. Bellicose stayed a train car back trying to keep distance from the beast. Kirk avoided being ripped apart by two of the heads by rolling down between two of the cars at the last moment causing the heads to collide with each other. Kirk ran inside the train car to stop the group of malice spawn from attacking any more of the passengers.

Kirk had to push his way past fleeing passengers to reach the pack of malice spawn, and when he got there, one of the heads smashed through the side of the train in pursuit. Irony and Rai managed to keep half of the heads distracted, but one of the heads created spawn to chase down the out-of-reach Bellicose.

Thinking quickly, Kirk slammed into the side of the pursuing head pinning it to the side of the train and forcing it to detach and make more spawn. Isolated from the group, Bellicose was surrounded by the malice spawn at the edge of the train car. Imitating his captain, Bellicose rolled in between the train cars leaving behind a primed phosphorus grenade to eliminate the malice spawn.

Kirk found himself alone and surrounded by a dozen malice spawns. Fortunately, he had learned something from the last time he’d been separated from the party. Kirk had invested in a high-powered electrical upgrade for his rapier and discharged the blade’s daily battery to clear out the entire car in a single blast of chain lightning. Reeling from the unexpected resistance, the screaming malice beast retreated into the murky swamp.

Meanwhile, Doran managed to catch the bandits as they approached car 6. The bandits, confidant they could beat a lone interloper, opened fire at the figure running along the train’s roof. The bandits were caught off guard when an attacker burst out of the freight car. Doran recognized the newcomer as the mysterious naked man from Cherage (now with 100% more pants). Doran leapt down from the roof and joined the mystery man in dealing with the bandits.

Doran and the mysterious stranger wiped out the bandits with their surprise assault before they even had a chance to flee. They then ran towards the front of the train and the remaining bandits who quickly fled after seeing their leader defeated.

The stranger introduced himself as Mr. Mapple to Doran as they investigated the barricade blocking the train tracks. They discovered the blockade was actually an illusion after attempting to prod it. Mapple snuck around the other side of the train as some of the train guards approached from the other direction. Doran informed them that the blockade was an illusion and urged them to get the train moving again before another attack happened. He refrained from telling the guards about the stowaway having taken a liking to Mr. Mapple.

GM: This battle was quite fun. The players managed to drive off the screaming malice right as the train guards finally got in position to fire on the beast. I don’t mind though because the fight was still challenging, and they made excellent use of their abilities. Doran is the party’s aoe specialist, but I was still worried about him running off on his own. Thankfully, he reached the bandits in time to team up with Mapple. The players quickly dubbed him the “super hobo”, so I had to make sure to introduce him right after combat. The players also quickly came to the conclusion that Mapple must be a pseudonym.

The train limped into the Trekhom enclave at roughly 6:30pm. The foreboding Trekhom didn’t look particularly inviting to the tired constables. The constables still had a duty to perform though, and they resolved which passengers they would investigate tonight. Kirk decided to follow Damata while Bellicose and Doran went to see if they could locate Mr. Mapple, and Rai joined Irony to track Luc and Ottavia.

Kirk followed Damata to the presentation by Vlendem Heid, founder of the Eschatology movement. Kirk questioned the philosopher what he believed came after death and that surely something must come after the end of the world. Heid pointed out that what if anything comes after is a complete uncertainty, so people should focus on living their lives well in the here and now. Damata opened up to Heid and revealed his true purpose on the train. Damata had taken loans from the Family, a Crisillyiri crime syndicate, to invest in a railroad for Ber, but the railroad was a scam. There were no real plans to build a railroad in Ber, and all of the money was stolen. The Family demanded payment and was forcing Damata to steal relics from his clan to pay the debt. With Heid’s encouragement, Damata came to the conclusion that he could not live his life beholden to the criminal organization. He planned to confront the Family in Nalaam and break ties with them or die. Damata turned to Kirk and asked him for help in dealing the Family having seen Kirk’s heroics early in the day. Kirk agreed to help the beleaguered businessman save his family.

Mr. Mapple found Doran and Bellicose before they found him. He called down to them from a rooftop to ask about them since he hadn’t had time after the bandits. Doran and Bellicose stuck to their cover stories and were evasive about their reasons for being on the train. Mr. Mapple explained he was just “along for the ride” on the train, but the constables suspected he had other reasons for being on the train. Mapple left by running along the rooftops. The constables decided giving chase was a waste of time since he was already on the rooftops and had a head start. Instead they decided to follow a brochure to check out a Drakran shop called “Knigi, Grudi, Bongi, I Streli”. Bellicose decided not to buy any of the exotic armaments in the store, but they did notice some odd customers. The constables spotted a pair of minotaurs paying for a large order of weapons. From eavesdropping, Doran and Bellicose learned only that the pair was getting on the train in the morning, and they had purchased several crates of munitions to be loaded on the train as well.

Irony tagged Luc with her “vengeful gaze of the goddess” power to facilitate tracking. Irony and Rai then followed Luc and Ottavia staying a block behind them. When the pair went into the Korol Morya inn, Irony ducked into a bar across the street while Rai followed them inside using his hat of disguise to change his appearance. The dwarf Verzubak was there and made another toast about trusting people (Rai was focused on Luc and not paying attention to the dwarf). Once they finished dinner, Luc and Ottavia went on the move again riding a trolley through the streets of Trekhom. Rai and Irony were able to follow them using the underground tunnels without trouble thanks to Irony’s supernatural awareness of their location. They tracked the pair to a building near the lighthouse in Trekhom’s harbor. Irony kept her distance while Rai snuck up behind the building to spy through a window. Rai witnessed a meeting between Luc and several dwarves amid replicas of lighthouses and the spire at the malice land’s border. Rai recognized the dwarven leader from his early years in Drakr as Ramos Zoltan, a powerful political figure that owns all the prisons in northern Drakr. Luc produced a strange lamp from a locked metal case he brought with him. The lantern gave off a strange blue light. Rai experienced a stabbing pain in his chest as his elemental affinity for fire was suppressed just as it had been at the seal of Mavisha. Rai realized that the lantern was made to channel and emit elemental energy for some unknown purpose.

The constables returned to the enclave hotel to discuss what they had found. They are fairly certain the Luc is a part of the conspiracy, and they suspect he is selling his lantern as some form of defensive weapon to protect harbors while concealing its true purpose. The constables retired for the night. They’ll have a long day ahead of them tomorrow in the city of decadence, Nalaam.

GM: I introduced the Minotaur characters to give them another lead to poke at. I was a little disappointed they didn’t follow them, but the session had gone on pretty long: people were getting tired. Rai’s demi-elemental nature makes him quite useful as a canary-in-a-coal-mine for strange planar magic. The Vekeshi daily power is quite good for tracking suspects, and it worked perfectly for following Luc without being seen by anyone. I’m not sure if I should break these posts up in the future. I don’t think it would really change anything seeing as they would all be consecutive posts anyway. What do you forum-goers think? Should I make multiple consecutive posts or stick to one ginormous one?

 

[RangerWickett]

I don't think the post is too long. I've certainly seen longer posts in storyhours. And, to be honest, in forum debates over simple rules interpretations. Your length (and content) are perfectly appropriate.

 

[Isklexi]

Thanks for the input. It just seems really long when I have to use Word to compose the post and then copy/paste it into the reply block.