Media ShadowDark in-person Actual Play - Tables & Fables

[BazaarOfTheBizarre]

We run an Open Table in the little State of Rhode Island, USA. Reach out if you want to join us in-person.
Here's the game synopsis.

The day of the pink sun has allowed a one-time passage to an inaccessible continent. The landing site revealed ruins, artifacts, and remnants of Cyclopean Sign Language. With no way home, an outpost named Arventa is established. Arventa is composed of various factions (The players' stable of characters), should all their characters die, the faction collapses. The adventurers explore the nearby Citadel, the black sands deserts, and are slowly revealing more than they ever could have imagined while racing the "Preservation Syndicate", the rats they brought along with them in vie for power, artifacts, and more, all while they carry "The Oriss", a powerful Cyclopean device that allows them manipulation over time, outcomes, and their destiny.

Our campaign is loosely based on cursed scroll 2. Hope you enjoy.

Here is the YouTube playlist with all of our chapters.
Or if you prefer the audio/video version on Spotify
Tables & Fables • A podcast on Spotify for Creators

 

[BazaarOfTheBizarre]

Here's a recap of Chapters 1-10

 

[BazaarOfTheBizarre]

Here's a video recap and text write up of chapters 11- 17. We're playing a campaign loosely based on Cursed Scroll 2, albeit with a Cyclopean Sign Language foundation that influences my creativity greatly.

 

[BazaarOfTheBizarre]

Here's our most recent episode.

The awesome thing about an open table is that sometimes you get a completely whole new (old) group. (These are some of my schoolin buddies here that go way back)

And it allows for a reestablishment, re-framing, and a refocusing of the table conditions at hand while opening up new leads and interests in other directions.

What booms onto the scene...? The Wandering Echoes.

Bavo and Vulas of the Wandering Echoes light up the Onyx Ballroom with a dazzling show, but in the shadows, Parekeos fears the Preservation Syndicate is closing in on a Cyclopean Disk he’s hidden. Their schemes tangle with politics as they weave a “battle of the bands” into Parekeos “Reki’s” mayoral campaign. When Syndicate spies draw too close, Vulas blinds them with spectacle, luring them into false promises of joining the band while Bavo shields their meeting with smokeweave wards.

Parekeos reveals the Disk lies within a collapsed mound in Arventa’s ruins. That night, the duo descend into an ancient amphitheater, deciphering celestial and diabolic melodies to open a hidden chamber. A misplayed closing song triggers a trap, but deeper within they confront nagas who despise celestial harmonies. Through charm and music, they are led to “The Great One”, a skeletal, headless cyclops clutching a cursed ring. At first roused to fury by their discordant tones, he is soothed again by celestial chords.

Through the ring’s cacophony, a message emerges: visions of a lumbering cyclops burdened with books, whispers of the Hollow Legacy, the lost Saltstone Tower, and the name of his master- Zalvaran.

The music has opened more than doors; it has tuned their fates to a far greater discord.

 

[BazaarOfTheBizarre]

Arventa trembles on the edge of war. The Oriss whispers conquest into mortal minds, and Bone Gnasher fans the flames, teaching the ways of the desert to a people eager for power.

Deep within the Crawling Castle, Jagged Edge, Wan Tarr, and Inginatorum descend once more, seeking the elusive Grutheil Vein that powers its ancient weapons. Their path is one of peril with hidden traps, venomous scorpions, and the suffocating dark of collapsing corridors. Ingi slides into the a sticky stituation, Jagged Edge falls to a paralyzing blade trap, and the torchlight dies as box snails close in.

By grit and cunning, they escape only to find a desecrated temple, haunted by bone nagas and the very vein they sought. Knowing battle would mean death, they slip past serpents and cross a deadly pit by bookshelf and pole, barely escaping as fangs snap at their heels.

 

[BazaarOfTheBizarre]

Hermann, Bone Gnasher and his worg, Cag seek an alliance with the Blood Rocs, venturing into a ravine where the stone itself bleeds. After discovering a mauled beast, Bone Gnasher consumes its flesh and is subsequently poisoned, only able to speak truth. Navigating the perilous terrain, they are challenged by the Blood Roc champion Slozz: find the Grutheil vein and endure beside it for three rounds.

Assaulted by the monstrous Harvester and its grotesque brood, Bone Gnasher is struck down by a devastating blow. Hermann calls on his vestiges to heal and restrain, while Cag rescues Gnasher, who refuses to stay down. Together, they withstand the agony of Grutheil, until Bone Gnasher finally succumbs to the torment, collapsing to the side.

Slozz grants Hermann the right to claim a piece of his fallen ally. He takes only the whip. Cag takes Gnasher’s hand. The Harvester consumes the rest. Bloodied but proven, the survivors earn entrance to the Blood Rocs, but at a terrible cost.

 

[BazaarOfTheBizarre]

Jagged Edge, Bavo, and Zaphiel descend deeper into the sunken castle, scouring its armament level. A mysterious gazing gem reveals only shadows on the wall, but its true purpose remains hidden. Pushing forward, the party braves a vast acid-flooded chamber. With Zaphiel’s deft leaps and Bavo’s ingenuity of turning a metal door into a bridge, they are able to reach the colossal control mechanisms, only to find a crucial capacitor missing.

Their efforts to manipulate hidden bridges and doors, results in draining the acid spill danger into the naga warrens, alerting the serpentine guardians. Thassiss, dazed in a ritual trance, falls under the sway of Bavo’s celestial music, while a naga champion protects the gem and conceals its secrets. At the altar, the missing capacitor is revealed, used in the naga’s ritual haze and now guarded by two restless spirits.

The fight turns personal. The spirits are none other than the tortured father-and-son halfling engineers of Bavo’s Hollow Legacy. His faith falters as their millennia of anguish crash against him. Zaphiel strikes a devastating blow to the son, while Bavo, shaken, confronts the father’s soul with promises of remembrance and peace. The spirit relents, leaving only a cloak behind.

But victory is fleeting and the Red Naga arrives from the darkness, bitter and suspicious of the intruders meddling with Cyclopean relics. Only Thassiss, still charmed, buys time as the heroes haul the capacitor back. At last, the ancient gears grind alive, restoring the Crawling Castle’s armaments after centuries of silence.

Though another section of the level remains unexplored and Darian, with secrets of the Saltstone Tower’s elude them, the party departs with hard-won spoils. Bavo gains bitter enemies among the nagas yet uncovers hints of more Cyclopean Disks. Zaphiel secures treasure but stirs unrest within the castle. Jagged Edge, emboldened by triumph and Bavo’s encouragement, contemplates karaoke glory at the Onyx Ballroom.

For now, the Circle and Vulpes Argentum maintain control of the crawling fortress as it stalks the desert wastes with an unknown destination, its power newly reborn.