ZEITGEIST [ZEITGEIST] The Continuing Adventures of Korrigan & Co.

[gideonpepys]

DM's Q&A Response

One of my players suggested that I fill out the questionnaire as Stover Delft. I thought it was a fun idea, so I had a go, though I lapse out of character more than once!

Character Name Chief Constable Stover Delft

Briefly describe your character's personality (as you see it) emphasizing any changes or developments since the start of the campaign. Though normally easy-going, Stover gets squinty and condescending when people obstruct important affairs because of politics or personal ambition. He chews tobacco and thinks he looks charming if he grins while sucking on tobacco juices. He walks with a cane because a mimic tore a chunk out of his leg fifteen years ago, and has a habit of poking inanimate objects with the cane before he gets too close to them, and spitting on them just to be sure. Stover has gone from being a just a boss - the guy who hands out the missions - to become the driving force behind the RHC's mission against the Ob, putting both his own career on the line, and thousands of gold pieces at the unit's disposal. He even showed his mettle in combat by fighting back against the Warbeasts of Gidim when they attacked the HQ.

Role within the unit. What's your specialty? Just as there are rather a lot of 'fifth Beatles' there are also many figures vying for 'seventh unit member' (including Sly Marbo, Krazy Krauss, and El Perro (the Stuart Sutcliffe of the RHC)). But I think Delft deserves the title, as the most proactive of allied NPCs. Delft has an eye for detail and flawless twenty-twenty hindsight.

Outline your relationship with other unit members. From the officer profile notes of Chief Constable Stover Delft:

Baldrey Korrigan was my first and last choice to lead the Flint unit. I wanted someone who could draw together and command the respect of a disparate group of powerful individuals, and Baldrey was the only man capable of doing both. Despite profound personal setbacks, he remains focused on the mission to protect Risur and the people of Flint, and has garnered popular support for the RHC in a way which, were he anyone else, would make me concerned for my job. It is a measure of his honesty and decency that, when he says he is courting popular opinion in order to do his duty more effectively, you believe him. Korrigan can suffer occasional bouts of indecision both on and off the battlefield. A spot of training at the Battalion might alleviate this.

A lot of folks tell me how frightened they are of Uru Scaithaig Ciotog. Reading over Korrigan's mission reports, I can see why. But as I have only ever laid eyes on the form he manifests in HQ - a little black kid who could easily be Korrigan's son - I find it hard to imagine that he is the same individual, although his habit of entering and leaving a room unnoticed is admittedly disconcerting until you get used to it. While he can be as stealthy and deadly as a jungle cat, Uru appears to have the concentration span of domestic kitten and this lack of focus could be a liability. But his natural inquisitiveness has led to major recent developments in the Obscurati case.

'Rumdoom' Kagan was brought in as the group's muscle. Though his service record in the military was exemplary, a history of depression and alcohol abuse made his appointment a difficult one to get past the top brass. Every passing day makes me wonder if I did the right thing. On the one hand it is clear that the dwarf is a formidable combatant, without whom it is possible the unit may not have survived its very first mission; on the other, it would appear that his state of mind has become increasingly fragile. This has led to numerous absences, and left the unit with a sizable weak-spot - a case in point being this philosophical group he is a part of. Officer Dima has looked into it for me and assures me that the group is doctrinally sound, meaning that it is not, on the face of it at least, a religious cult. I remain to be convinced.

The most controversial recruit to the unit was the tiefling Leon Veilleux. I think it would have been impossible for me to second Korrigan's nomination were it not for the fact that Leon assassinated the infamous General Dax Corbeau prior to fleeing Yerasol. I wish it were possible to say that Leon has since proven his loyalty beyond doubt, but his affiliation with the Vekeshi is compromising to say the least, and even more unlikely than his membership of the RHC. Does that say more about his powers of persuasion than I care to admit? Whatever. Sergeant Veilleux has demonstrated a keen tactical mind, and remains a reliable and adaptable second-in-command.

I am glad that circumstances have led to the inclusion of Inspector Malthusius in the unit, as his skill set is unmatched in the field of investigation, and he provides a grounding influence on the other members, despite their initial reticence. His eye for detail and command of the minutiae of the Obscurati case is second only to my own. A strange contradiction defines the deva, who is at once both superbly adept at reading the mood and motives of others, while at the same time being immensely trusting, sometimes to a fault. Despite his great age, he also demonstrates a disarming naivety on occasions.

The officer I am least familiar with is Matunaaga. He spends the least amount of time at RHC HQ and is very reserved. The martial prowess of the maustin caji is legend, and Matunaaga has not disappointed in this regard. Nor has he given me any reason to question his judgement or loyalty. During his recruitment interview, he expressed his admiration for Martial Korrigan, and his sole term of service was that he should be able to serve under him and him alone. His reasons were pseudo-religious and I am a man of no particular faith, but his dedication has not shown signs of wavering thus far.

What is your biggest achievement to date? Putting together this unit. A police chief is only as good as his officers.

What event in the campaign has had the most impact on your character? The discovery that the king's fiance - and the key to the success of his legacy - was a member of the Obscurati conspiracy.

Do you have a treasured possession and, if so, what is it? My grandpappy's tobacco tin. And perhaps my mimic bite, as it is a constant, painful reminder to leave no stone unturned (or at least unprodded and unspat on).

Describe your favourite moment(s) from the campaign so far. What I love about the Zeitgeist campaign is the variety - from the most epic 1st level adventure I've ever run, through the murder investigation of adventure Dying Skyseer, and the Indiana Jones style globetrotting of Digging for Lies, to the literal railroad of Always on Time. Each revelation has also been been fantastic. As a DM, the coolest part of any campaign is the moment when the players discover something you've known all along, and with a campaign such as this, revolving around a grand conspiracy, those moments are all the more piquant.

Who is the most memorable NPC and why? Rock Rackus. I'm surprised he's not had a mention from anyone else, as he was a party favourite for a long time, and got more laughs than all the other NPCs combined. They even wanted him to join them after adventure #3.

Whose name is on your Vendetta Bullet? The next player to cry off at the last minute.

What are your character's primary goals and priorities? To prove that the Obscurati are a genuine threat to Risur, and to do so before his political enemies have him replaced.

 

[Sound of Azure]

I've really enjoyed your in-character surveys, especially the Delft one. I think I'll use the template when my group ends part 5.

 

[gideonpepys]

I've really enjoyed your in-character surveys, especially the Delft one. I think I'll use the template when my group ends part 5.

I'm glad you can make use of the idea, Sound of Azure. Were it not for a similar method used by another DM in their character generation process for Zeitgeist (borrowed by me at the start of our campaign), I perhaps would not have thought of this idea, which is what I like so much about using these forums to share ideas about the campaign.

The response from each player far exceeded my expectations. I knew one or two of them would relish the opportunity to share their thoughts about the campaign and their characters, but the fact that everyone answered the questionnaire in such detail was very gratifying and extremely useful, confirming not only that I really do have a bunch of very enthusiastic and dedicated players, but also helping me to fine-tune the next tier of the campaign.

A good example being the fact that Korrigan's player is not enjoying the subplot concerning his wife. This is my fault because I left the plotline hanging in an uncomfortable way instead of resolving it several levels ago. What I did not take into account is that it feels false for Korrigan to be concentrating on his duties when such an extraordinary personal event is ongoing. We have since exchanged emails on the matter, and explained Korrigan's behaviour in a plausible way, but I need to move on this and draw a line under it more quickly than I had intended.

It was also interesting to see how the players reacted to one another during our first session after our break - Uru made a point of 'reaching out' to Leon, and there was a round-the-table appreciation of the fact that Matunaaga is by far the most reserved and quiet character and that everyone likes and respects him as a result. The player is quite confident and talkative, so no one had quite realised just how focused, singular and insular the character was until they sat down and thought about it.

The life of a roleplaying character can become quite in-depth and complex, but that life often exists only in the mind of the player, or in private exchanges between the player and DM. This allowed every player to glimpse that inner life in the way that allows them to act out their relationships more convincingly. Arguably such an understanding is unrealistic, but then if you really were those characters, you would be spending far more time with one another, and might intuitively understand that (for example) one member of the group has been more distant towards you since a specific event occured. But sat around a pub table for three/four hours each week, that understanding never comes about, and can become confused with the personality of the player, so it makes sense and is very satisfying to have it writ large.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 92a - Final flashbacks

This was a strange session to get started. First of all we needed to recap after a 3 week break. Then we needed to learn all about the Get Kell mini-game (which I had saved til now to avoid everyone forgetting the rules during our hiatus). Then we had to establish what the unit had been up to in the two weeks between the end of their last buffer adventure and In media res because, what with the Meeting with Aodhan, A Bear in Bosum Strand, Mia Casa, Bomb's Away! and A Bunch of Bolts, we hadn't had time in the previous two sessions for a detailed set of flashbacks.

In session report 90b, we touched on three important matters that needed to be resolved before we could move on:

1) The aftermath of the Dawn Square rally and skill challenge, including Korrigan's big speech.
2) The initial fallout from Rumdoom's domination by the Deep Ones.
3) Malthusius using location loresight at the spot where Andrei Recklinghausen was abducted.

Here, in summary, is what each of the unit members, and the unit as a whole had been up to in the last week of 500AOV, and the first week of 501, in addition to the three items above:

The Unit
Having failed to prevent the launch of the Black Star Mining fleet, the unit turned its attention to the Kell Guild. Unit B had been nibbling round the edges, and scored a sizable victory over the guild with its strike on Vander Lepage's hideout in North Shore. Delft set about handpicking the officers they would use in the strike force now that Governor Stanfield had given the all-clear to take out Kell. (A major shift in policy from the Governor's office, prompted by the revelation of Kell's involvement with the Ob; though perhaps the canny deva had sensed a shift in the prevailing political wind? For it was only two weeks later that the King ordered a full-scale assault against the guild...)

For the time being, the unit believed they were playing the long game, and were at pains not to spook the guild unduly.

Korrigan
Undertook extensive training at the Battalion to refresh his skill at martialling large units of men, as he had once done on Yersaol, before his injuries caused him to leave the military. There he learned that his Dawn Square speech had impressed the more forward-thinking young officers in training.

Through Malthusius, he was invited to dine with wily Bishop Antonescu, the highest-ranking clergyman in Flint and de facto Crysillyiri ambassador. Malthusius advised Korrigan to keep his wits about him. Everything was friendly until Antonescu asked some pointed questions about one or two turns of phrase in Korrigan's speech, which Korrigan admitted had been influenced by the text of Triegenes recommended to him by Ottavia Sacredote. Antonescu had heard of Ottavia, as Malthusius had tried to ascertain her current whereabouts with Antonescu's help, and was surprised that an oracle of the church should have suggested reading of this kind. It transpired that the book was regarded has heretical, having been written by William Miller. Its interpretation of Triegenes' story and teaching - that any man could aspire to godhood - was not clergy doctrine; they insisted that Triegenes and Triegenes alone could and did ascend in this way. Antonescu 'politely' advised Korrigan not to adhere to such notions if he wanted to foster friendly relations with Crisillyir in the future.

Korrigan also discovered that his political allies now had much greater ambitions for him than he did for himself: Deneric Jayce and Heward Sechim urged him to consider petitioning the King for the post of Governor of Flint! In all cases, Korrigan did his best to ensure that the person he was speaking to left feeling that he had agreed with them. He had learned a lot from Deneric Jayce

Korrigan also spent a considerable amount of time meditating at the foot of the bower created by his wife for her magically induced statis. Here was a problem he had been unable to solve, one which he had pushed out of his mind, and felt extremely guilty about. Unbeknownst to him, a possible solution was soon to present itself...

Uru
Learned about the dryad Jelia's work on constructs from team B. She had married the designs of the dwarf Tortho Chell with program cards supplied by the mysterious 'Clockwork King', and grown them in the seeds of her bonded tree to create hybrids of machine and lifeform. This was something that truly fascinated Uru, and he did all he could to study her work and apply what he learned to improving Little Jack.

He also set about scouting out the known strongholds of Lorcan Kell, beginning with Machete Hill (where his stealth proved exceptional as always, but his concentration was not the best). This endeavour was interrupted when Leon invited him to accompany the tiefling into the bayou. Uru accepted, as he had seen Leon growing more and more distant from the group (ranging into the Dreaming unaccompanied and pursuing a private agenda) and he saw Leon's offer as an attempt to include a comrade in his adventures. They headed for the strange cave Leon had learned about during a previous foray, and here the pair ended up spending the rest of the fortnight. While Leon meditated (see below) Uru occupied his time hunting, tinkering with his clockwork companion, and coming up with a design for a replacement arm for Malthusius.

Malthusius
One priority for Malthusius was to ensure that the mechanism Rumdoom had tried to use to open a portal connecting Flint with the bottom of the ocean was safely deactivated and stored in a secure vault. (He and Uru had cooked up a scheme to one day return to Odiem, restore the clergy vault and place all the evil items they could find back there.)

The book on deva reincarnation Malthusius had consulted in Governor Stanfield's library had suggested a ritual that would enable him to influence the point, or at least the distance, of a subsequent incarnation, making it easier for him to pick up his old life. Meanwhile, his researches, and developing skill as a spirit medium had allowed Malthusius to identify every one of his previous incarnations over the past 500 years. (Well, 420, as he had occupied his current form for 80.) These studies had led to an increasing capability to access their memories and skills.

However, none of these incarnations corresponded with the form that had appeared in the golden mirror during the unit's encounter with the corrupted godhand, Gene: strangely robed, tall, and with dark markings instead of light ones. Malthusius had assumed this was one of his prior incarnations. Now he was toying with the theory that it might be him in the future.

As the most respected detective in Flint, Malthusius had also built up relationships with police stations throughout the city, and was called on by Delft to help cherry-pick suitable officers for the Get Kell initiative.

Matunaaga
Devoted himself entirely to the study of the Palimpsest.

Rumdoom
For a while, Rumdoom was unconscious, and subject to the tender ministrations of Isaac, Mayor of the Nettles and expert in all things arcane. When he came round, and his freedom from the deep ones could be confirmed, his first concern was with Khoomrung and the rest of his Rumschatologist friends. (This encounter was summarised in session report 90b). Now Rumdoom was at a loose end while his return to the RHC was under consideration. At length, he steeled himself and went to visit Hildegaard to apologise for the death of her father. No demure dwarf maiden, the feisty heiress threw herself at him, beating him about the face, head and chest. Rumdoom took the blows until she tired and collapsed, weeping into his arms. In the moment before their embrace became a passionate kiss, Rumdoom struggled with his conscience for what seemed like an age: The affair of his possession by the deep ones, and the fate of Harn, had demonstrated that - while he might be invincible - those close to him remained mortal and vulnerable. Could he afford to open his heart to Hildegaard in this way? But there was a gaping hole at the core of his being left by Moraga and his unborn child and in the end the need to heal that wound overcame him. Rumdoom and Hildegaard became lovers that day, and the two weeks flew by in a trice. (DM's Note: This was a unexpectedly fun moment. I threw it at the player thinking he would bat it away, disinterested. Who cares if their D&D character has a love interest, right? But he got quite anxious about the decision, and we had to go round the table twice, dealing with other players, before he could make his mind up whether to reject Hildegaard's passionate advance, or give in to it.)

Leon
Thanks to the copy Brajham had made of the star systems in the ancient burial chamber, Leon was able to connect the whispering crystal idol that B team had lost to Tatzel with a mysterious cave in the deep bayou - a cave he had never seen except in visions. He had experienced these visions, and a siren call to explore the cave, while rooting out a cult of cannibals that worshipped a facsimile of the Jade Idol (also stolen by Tatzel). But his allies at the time - an old swamper guide and the Pine Island police - had been deathly afraid of the cave and warned him against going there. Now Leon was determined to do so, and set off with Uru as back-up. The old swamper was persuaded to take them as close as he dared. Leon's fey powers were weak here, in the realm of Avagdu, his old patron - a jealous toadlike entity who regarded his acceptance of the patronage of the Unseen Court as a terrible betrayal. But he was able to navigate the rest of the way with Uru's help (and Uru's water walk ritual).

The cave radiated the kind of nauseating energy that Leon had last experienced around the Ziggurat of Apet, but it was different. Instead of distorting space, it made each second seem distorted, like a yawn in time. Pressing on, they saw the cave through the foliage: a scooped out maw in the side of a jumble of rocks, obscured by creepers. Within, strange glowing fungal growths mimicked the starfield Brajham had copied from the tomb - identified by Malthusius as the stars as they would have appeared 5000 years ago.

Leon sat down to meditate and eventually began to hear a whispering voice, unintelligible at first. It drew him into a trance, in which he travelled through space as a disembodied consciousness. He saw clouds in the void, and galaxies invisible to the people of the earth, and over time - what seemed like many months, even years - he grew to understand the voice.

Giving itself no name, and speaking of itself with a pronoun that meant both I and we at the same time, the entity said that it was a being of pure thought that had left physicality behind aeons ago. It told Leon that it had only one enemy, an enemy it knew he had knowledge of, an enemy it referred to as 'the thought eaters'.

The being said that it once followed the thought-eaters to Leon's world to thwart them, but had become trapped there long ago. While it desired the freedom to roam the stars once again, it remained in silent vigil, watching for signs that its enemy may have re-emerged or returned. It once found allies among the people of this world, and gifted them with patronage in the form of the crystalline icon Leon had heard about. The being offered similar patronage to Leon, with the proviso that he find the idol stolen by the Wyrm.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 92b - 9th Spring - The Investigations Begin

We divided the day into 4 'turns' of 4 hours each, with Uru gaining a bonus turn because he doesn't need to sleep, just trance for 4 hours.

1. The first turn was spent at RHC HQ meeting Justin Rollins the Royal Engineer, Doctor Stanmore of Unit B, and unveiling their work on the Bronze Golem. (See Session Report 91.)

2. The whole unit then headed up to meet Isaac at the foot of Cauldron Hill. The Mayor's mansion was still being repaired following the seismic activity and witchoil leaks a year earlier. Lieutenant Dale had been permanently assigned to the mansion, to guard against further activity. He met the unit in the garden and escorted them inside. He said he hoped to be working with them in the near future and told them about the bleak gate wards he and his men had salvaged from Macbannin's workshop. He also offered to teach the technique at the core of his infamous martial thesis to anyone willing and capable of learning it.

Isaac had finished his machine - a macabre cross between a dentist's chair and a electrocution device. It would confirm whether any of the unit was still possessed or dominated in any way following their recent dust-ups with demons and deep ones. Leon examined the device and confirmed it was safe. Isaac even subjected himself to a scan to demonstrate its efficacy. The unit then took it in turns with the following results:

Korrigan - CLEAR
Rumdoom - CLEAR
Matunaaga - CLEAR
Malthusius - Possessed by the quarantined spirit of Xambria Meredith who was in turn possessed by the demoness Ashima-Shimtu. Isaac now thought he could use the secondary function of the device to apply a remove affliction ritual to Xambria. Malthusius agreed to the procedure, but it was decided not to 'free' Xambria until the current mission was over, in case the cure turned out to be ineffective...
Leon - turned out to have some memories missing - whole strands of memory dating from seven years ago, and going back five or six years prior to hat. (DM's Note: Actually, Leon had to 'bluff' the machine because he is in fact another mind in the wrong body. But he couldn't bluff his missing memories because he didn't even know about them.)

Uru - had an added, false memory! Isaac used the machine to identify what the memory was:

When Korrigan went to the Dreaming to free his wife from her fey bargain (to hand over their firstborn if Korrigan was returned safely from the war) he was told that the bargain, while made with the River King, had been 'bought' by Jenny Greenteeth - and that the bargain was sound: when asked, Uru confirmed that he had answered a call from the river he once inhabited to go to the place where he had found Korrigan dying. Well, it turned out that this memory was planted, just a few days earlier, by Ambertain the Black (an ally of Jenny Greenteeth). Uru was relieved to learn that his rescue of Korrigan had been his own decision, not the bidding of some distant fey noble. But this knowledge had an even greater consequence: the bargain with Elizabeth was false. But how to confirm this with the Unseen Court?

3. The unit split up and applied themselves to their mission(s):

Matunaaga aided the police in casing the various districts of Flint and scouting known Kell strongholds.

Working on a hunch prompted by a prior investigation by team B, Leon investigated the 'Clockwork King' and learned that he was an established 'urban legend' on the streets of Parity Lake and the Nettles. He connected the Clockwork King with the wererat halfling youths known as the Brick Boys, and traced them to the sewers. The boys were notorious for stealing construct parts - particularly golem eyes... (Leon also heard many street kids singing Uru's creepy songs. It turned out that all this time, the puppeteer Miss Fortune, who had her puppets made and mended by Tinker Jack, had been working Uru's ditties into her shows, and now all of the children of Flint knew them off by heart.)


Uru followed Asrabey Varal as he met up with various contacts around Flint: Admiral Dawkins - who turned out to be none other than the Old Stag; a gnome beadle called the Alderman and various other fey. Uru then lost Asrabey for while, only to pick him up again at RHC HQ, when Malthusius spotted him in the grounds conversing with a tiny pixie. Uru crept closer and learned that the pixie, known as Mugwort, hid in the rafters of RHC HQ and spied for the Vekeshi and the Unseen Court. Sadly, Uru lost the eladrin again shortly after. (This task spilled over into turn 4.)

Malthusius and Rumdoom went to the scene of the terrorist explosions and examined the scene of the crime. They came up with a number of leads, none of which led anywhere.

Korrigan spent his time learning about Alexander Grappa. Military records listed Grappa as a soldier in the third Yerasol War. Korrigan traced his name to an address - a workshop in the Central District which was empty, locked and boarded up. Grappa's neighbours hadn't seen him for years. They described him as a kindly old man, who liked to talk about his ambition to create military golems that could fight in wars instead of wasting the lives of so many young men.

We ended the session here, leaving most characters with a final turn to spend, and the checks for the Get Kell mini game yet to be made.

What's interesting is that the players haven't followed up the Soknik's Repairs lead. They've forgtotten about it, with the three-week gap, and it would appear no one has noted it down. Nor did anyone ask me to recap on any of that information. I was tempted to help them out, but I don't want to spoon-feed them. Maybe Delft or unit B will pick up on the error at some point?

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 93 - On task and off piste

9th Spring continued

Leon devoted his final hours to tracking down Asrabey. It turned out he had headed into the midden at the foot of Cauldron Hill near the Nettles. Uru followed him in there and witnessed his meeting with a strange fey entity whose elvish name translated into primordial as Heap of Filth or Trash Heap. Their conversation was not a long one. The Trash Heap had heard Ekossigan's call, but was powerful enough to ignore it; it did not think Ekossigan was hidden in the city itself. The Trash Heap gave Asrabey the gift of a magical dagger before he departed. Uru's friend, the pixie trader Searkil Shortankard, had told him about the strange creature who lived in the rubbish dump and handed out magical items of prophetic usefulness, but Uru had dismissed his tales until now. Asrabey left Flint and headed into the Cloudwood, where Uru chose not to follow him. Instead, he headed back to the dump and called upon the Trash Heap.

The Trash Heap was grouchy at being disturbed twice in one day, but Uru placated it with the gift of a vial of strange fluids he had distilled from the ichor of Malice Land insects. Mollified, the Trash Heap told him that it had once possessed the golem eye he sought. His friends had found it and brought it to him, and he had given it to the servants of the Clockwork King (just as the unit had suspected). This all happened a few weeks ago. Uru asked who the Clockwork King's servants were. The Trash Heap said they ranged far and wide throughout Flint and gave a description of a rat-like being with some mechanical adjustments. Uru then asked about the friends who had given him the golem eye. The Heap said they would be along soon, after dark, so Uru waited...

After sundown he heard a clicking and a skittering and soon found himself surrounded by several huge, fey arachnids. They were very friendly and pleased to meet him. They called themselves 'the Nice Spiders' (another clumsy translation of their elvish tongue) and were keen to change human perceptions of their kind, so asked if Uru could spread their message. The Nice Spiders knew about Uru: they bowed to him as Lord Clatterspin, and did not care that he had renounced his title to avoid being dominated by Ekossigan. They spent their days tidying up the city, bringing things of value to the Trash Heap, and had found the eye where it fell in the steelworks and had been left, undiscovered by the original unit B months before. Sadly, they did not know where to find the Clockwork King either.

Malthusius and Rumdoom finished their day visiting the places in the dwarven community where folks might know about the eschatological cult. They were greeted by a wall of silence borne not out of sympathy for the terrorists, but out of fear: already, dwarven homes and businesses had been attacked in reprisal for the explosions. Malthusius convinced many of them that it would be in their best interests to cooperate. It could only help their cause if the dwarven community could be said to have rooted out the cultists.

The unit returned to RHC HQ for a debriefing with Sergeant Macon. Almost the entire strike-force had been devoted to casing districts and scouting. Results were mixed: a lot of fronts, illicit transactions and dens were discovered, but when Matunaaga led a bust on one of them, it turned out to be a legitimate business. A couple of officers were also lost scouting the strongholds, which turned out to be a lot stronger than expected. Still, the unit had plenty of intel to use the following day, and the decision was made to prioritise and focus every effort on the Get Kell initiative, with Malthusius, Matunaaga, Uru and Rumdoom leading squadrons of officers against key targets.

10th Spring

The strike team took out several fronts, dens and an illicit transaction that day, though due to one of the fronts being bolstered by guild thugs after it was scouted, a few more officers were injured and lost to active service.

While four of the unit kicked down doors across Flint, sending a very clear message to the Kell Guild, Korrigan took the case of the dwarven cultists in hand, fearing further activity could result in the deaths of more civilians. It was intended hat Leon would help him, but the tiefling arrived that morning following another meeting with Asrabey, who had searched high and low for Ekossigan to no avail: none of the local fey knew where he was, nor did the Vekeshi. The only fey he had been unable to make contact with was Hana Soliogn. Leon used the messenger wind to reach Gale, and to his surprise she agreed to a meeting on a switchback trail deep in the Cloudwood later that very day. Leon told her he would be bringing Asrabey, but Gale refused to meet the eladrin, so Leon went on his own. Alarm bells were ringing, but Leon chose to take a gamble. The exchange of messages had taken several hours (with the messenger wind functioning at walking pace) so Leon had time to visit with The Trash Heap and ask it more questions before learning the location of his meet with Gale, where he did not arrive until early afternoon.

As a fey warlock, Leon usually felt at ease in the Cloudwood, but this was not the case today. The whole forest seemed eerily quiet, and Leon's spirit companion sensed hostility. At the allotted time and place Gale spoke to him through the messenger wind and did not appear before him. Judging by the speed of her replies he knew she was close by and the fact that she kept her distance in this way was unnerving. Gale told him that she knew why he had come and that he should cease to pursue Ekossigan. With some emotion in her voice she said that the fey lord was very powerful, that he commanded the four seasons with equal strength and was as irresistible as the coming of winter. Gale's words, and the circumstances of their meeting, prompted Leon to fear that Ekossigan might very well be close at hand. But he felt that in coming here alone, and as a Vekeshi Mystic who had had positive contact with Gale in the past (convincing her not to kill Guy Goodson; leaving Isobel Travers in her care), he stood a better chance of getting out in one piece if an ambush was planned than if he had turned up with the whole unit. Discretion being the better part of valour, rather than persist in trying to mine Gale for information lest that provoke suspicion, Leon lied and said that he had little interest in pursuing the matter if Ekossigan did not want to be found, and no intention of harming the fey lord.

"In that case," said Gale (and in doing so she confirmed Leon's fears), "you may leave this place."

Meanwhile, Korrigan sat down with Unit B and went over their incident report on the bomb attacks. His patience was rewarded by a clue that had been missed: the name of the company responsible for the engineering work done on the skywalk was Soknik's Repairs. Korrigan spent a long and tedious morning tracking down the company to an address in Central Flint., but when he got there it seemed he had reached a dead end. The unassuming little business showed no signs of significant activity, and the bookish teenage clerk had no useful information to share. Only when Korrigan asked if he could inspect the company records did the clerk's response set alarm bells ringing. He demanded a warrant. At once, Korrigan pulled out his badge and made it clear that he would take any obstruction of his duty very seriously. (This, after all, could be a matter of life and death.) The clerk allowed him into the back office. Korrigan checked the ledgers and discovered hardly any entries at all. A quick glance suggested this 'busy' workshop had been operating at a loss for months. Before he could say anything further, he noticed that the clerk had slipped out of the room. A window shattered, and a display case behind him exploded.

Korrigan stepped to the window and looked out. There was an empty warehouse over the road, with upper windows giving a clear shot into the office. Using his canary pendant, Korrigan flew out of the repair shop and straight through the open window of the warehouse building, in a move that took the dwarven sniper completely by surprise. But instead of scrambling to reload, the dwarf raised his rifle in the air, lowered it slowly to the ground and stepped away from it with his hands behind his head.

It was Kvarti Gorbartiy. Korrigan told him that he was under arrest. Kvarti acquiesced without a struggle and told him, "I want you to know I could have blown your head clean off just then. I aimed to miss."

"Why would you do that?" asked Korrigan.

"To stop you going any further alone. And because I wanted to meet with you."

Again, Korrigan could only ask why.

"Because there are many cultists in the tunnels beneath the workshop. And because I have a message for Rumdoom Kagan."

Kvarti went on to tell his story. He said that he had been contacted months ago by Grundon Zubov, who he knew to be a radical eschatologist from Drakr. He accepted Zubov's offer of employment. As an assassin, he assumed he would be chosen to target a key political figure, maybe Governor Roland Stanfield, so he hung around to check out if Stanfield deserved to die. (He had already decided against killing Rock Rackus on behalf of Tyler Starke, he said.) He was also charged with finding a suitable hideout, and uncovered the tunnels that lie beneath the streets of Flint. While waiting for Zubov, he became interested in Rumschatology and discovered that a number of Zubov's other allies - Azon the Stoneforger, and Thered and Thangir Kharngraft - were also members of the group. They were soon to become the security detail for the sect, which confirmed Kvarti's impression that Rumdoom was a follower of Zubov too.

Of course, this turned out to be false when Azon and the others stole the sect's funds and killed Harn in the process. Kvarti said that this was wrong and by the time he and the others joined up with Zubov (newly arrived in Flint) it was evident that Kvarti was not an ardent fellow traveller. Instead of letting him in on their plans, Zubov instructed him to take up a place in the empty building opposite and keep a watch out for anyone poking their noses around. Kvarti toyed with the idea of leaving, but figured his best bet was to hang around and wait until the unit showed up, as he figured they would. When Korrigan told him about the bombs, Kvarti was shocked and shook his head.

Unsure of Kvarti's motivations, Korrigan placed him in cuffs. With the rest of the unit otherwise engaged, he could only call in Leon (who was on his way back from the Cloudwood). So he took the decision to call on Unit B, who left only Niniel and Doctor Will Stanmore to guard Brakken of Heffinata, while Theren, Brajham, Professor Marcione and Sevitar came to root out the terrorists. Leon gave them a frosty glare, but decided against blaming them for what happened to Lilly. For their part, Unit B lowered their eyes apologetically, not wishing to provoke the tiefling.

By now it was early evening. When reinforcements arrived, they headed back into the office. Korrigan already knew the 'clerk' had disappeared. In the back room he now found a secret hatch, revealed by the clerk as he escaped. The hatch led into a network of tunnels which Korrigan estimated at being several hundred years old. Kvarti said they dated from a time when the inhabitants of Flint were hiding from the witches coven that had taken hold of Cauldron Hill. He warned them that the restless dead inhabited the tunnels, and a colony of army ants used them to get about too. The network was confusing, but Kvarti knew the way through. What he didn't know about, however, was a series of traps that the eschatologists had laid along the route. A freezing rune proved particularly dangerous, though Leon was able to dispel it before it killed the junior team members. Leon himself fell victim to a pit trap when the group failed to heed Kvarti's advice to keep going straight, and instead investigated a 'hidden' portal which triggered another rune. Further tunnels were revealed beneath, with signs that they too were frequented by giant ants. Leon teleported back up. One final and particularly deadly trap lay just before the entrance to the hideout: a room that filled with ice, after hidden portcullises had dropped to prevent escape. But this trap was avoided entirely thanks to the group's keen eyes and cunning.

They reached the hideout just beyond the second portcullis. Leon waited in a room littered with rib bones, while the others raced across to join him.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 93 - DM's Notes

This adventure is fiendishly difficult to run. There are several very detailed threads which the players could pursue in any order; NPCs with complex motivations; very small text which is hard to read in the dim light of a pub. Add to all that the fact that my missus and I have just had our first kid, and I’ve just started a new job – so hardly any sleep and almost no time to prep, other than read the adventure - and you have the recipe for a very eggy session. I wasn’t happy with my inability to improvise when the PCs went off-piste.

One complication I hadn’t anticipated is that Cauldron Born invites the players to either split the party, or ignore their primary objective: to send the police officers in alone to deal with the Kell Guild while chasing Ekossigan and the dwarven eschatologists themselves (and in my case the Clockwork King too); focus on Kell and ignore all the other threads (which are, after all, tangential); or split up and present logistical problems which we’ll come to below (because that’s what my lot opted to do).

Leaving the police to take on Kell is, by the looks of things, likely to result in failure. After the first day (with only Matunaaga backing up the cops as his player was absent) the party realised that they would lose too many officers if they didn’t reinforce them. I thought they might back them up on one or two stronghold raids, but to my surprise they went ahead and committed four out of six unit members to work with the strike force for the whole day. Only one of these earned a strike, though they have collected a whole bunch of TFTs. Hope they know what they’re doing, cos there’s only a couple more days left!

Meanwhile, Korrigan started looking into the eschatologists; Leon messaged Gale.

Viewing Gale as an ally, Leon agreed to meet her alone. His alarm bells rang when she insisted on meeting in the middle of the jungle, but he still went ahead by himself. It was only his incredible bluff score that enabled him to escape fighting Gale alone, which was in retrospect a little bit anticlimactic. (What I think I will do now is have Gale intercept them when they trace Ekossigan to the school. They will have to deal with her first.)
Korrigan also headed into danger. Having uncovered the address of Soknik’s Repairs he went to investigate without any back-up. This made Kvarti’s intervention a warning, instead of just a playful way of getting the players’ attention.

But in both cases I might have ended up with a single player taking on the bad guys, which could have had all kinds of ramifications: a dead character; bored players. To be honest, knowing my group, I think a solo fight or two would go down well, and I’m fairly confident that the characters could have escaped if things went badly. But I thought it was worth flagging this fact for DMs who might be concerned about it. I also wasn’t happy with my slightly tentative response in each case. I could see the ramifications, but didn’t have the quick-thinking or confidence to make the most of each situation. I was only too happy to have a quick bluff check rescue Leon for example, and to have Kvarti stop Korrigan from advancing any further alone. Really, both players deserved to have some come-uppance for being so reckless: Leon knew he was walking into a dodgy situation, and Korrigan went along to make enquires at Soknik’s without ever once considering what he would do if there were a cell of terrorists there.

Hopefully, the players will realise they had a narrow escape in both cases and be slightly less blithe when it comes to separating. If not, there's going to be a lot of thumb-twiddling in the next few weeks.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 93 - More DM's Notes

Being a bit slow on the uptake, I’ve only just now come to realise that the real challenge of the first section of Cauldron Born is resource management. Not just in terms of choosing when and where to commit themselves and the police, but also the PC's physical resources – surges, powers, etc. I like this. Resource pressure hasn’t been huge factor in Zeitgeist so far. But here it really is integral to the success of the party.

For example, in our last session the most of our main party was committed to the Get Kell initiative, so Korrigan pulled rank and drew 4 members of unit B from guarding Brakken. This means only two of them will be in Sunset Bench when things kick off – far too few to arrest Quentin Augst. In our next session (report coming soon) Leon teleported away from Soknik’s Repairs and made a dash for Sunset Bench leaving Korrigan and four level 5 officers to tackle a level 11 encounter. They lost a lot of hit points and surges, before being forced to respond the emergency of the arrival of the Cherno Bezna which (thanks to their tardiness in chasing up the Soknik’s lead) has already docked and unloaded by the time they arrive.

To make things tick along nice and smoothly, I’ve decided that each PC has four turns a day of four hours each. Almost anything they choose to do – follow up a major lead; support the police against Kell – eats up a slot. (If you take into account travel time, it doesn’t seem unreasonable). This leaves 6 hours to rest, and 2 in loose change, which means they could make a dash for Golden Point and deal with the Malice Beasts without eating in to their sleep. But I can easily envision a circumstance in which they need to move into the next day without a rest, or use up one or more of their four hour slots to rest.

I’ve also decided that if they accompany officers on a mission, they only count as 8 officers if they agree to commit dailies to each raid, otherwise they count as 6. If the raid goes wrong, and combat ensues, each PC loses 1d4 healing surges plus a daily (if they committed one). So they have to be careful about running out of powers and surges as well as time.

So far the choices the players have made have had a real impact on the way the threads have unfolded. Once more our group is enjoying the varied focus and change of pace in this latest Zeitgeist installment.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 94a - Soknik's Repairs

The hastily formed RHC unit of Korrigan, Leon and four members of Unit B (Theren, Brajham, Sevitar and Professor Ludo Marcione) were cautiously approaching the eschatologist hideout, for fear of setting off more traps. Guiding them through the antique tunnels was a repentant Kvarti Gorbarty, who had been left in handcuffs just in case.

Just before they reached the threshold, a messenger wind arrived from Niniel. She and Doctor Will Stanmore had remained as bodyguards to mediator Brakken, and had accompanied him to a plush nightclub in North Shore. Niniel had spotted a high value Kell Guild suspect and was calling for back-up if possible. Leon said he would handle it and, to Korrigan's surprise, teleported away.

Theren was now on point. A ghostly figure beckoned him from down the hall and he was irresistibly drawn towards it. The figure promptly vanished and he found himself in the clutches of four crumbling skeletons. When the others moved to help him, a swarm of army ants spilled out of the honeycomb walls of the tunnel and beset them.

More skeletons arrived and Theren staggered back before their onslaught. At that moment, two crazed dwarves - a female and a beardless male - stepped out from hiding in passageways behind the skeletons and opened fire with their shotguns. Korrigan soon realised that unit B were nowhere near as seasoned as his own men: this fight should have been a walkover, but instead was very hard-fought indeed.

In the end, the ants, skeletons and dwarves were all felled. One of the dwarves took a frosty suicide pill rather than accept capture; the other was killed by Sevitar who rarely if ever took prisoners, despite the standing order to all officers. Korrigan did not have time to disapprove - there was evidence to be gathered:

A central chamber, where the fighting took place, was filled with enough double bunks for twenty four cultists. The room smelled. Sodium borate was sprinkled on the floor to discourage the ants from coming in here, but there wasn't much else. The remaining chambers were a meeting room and a makeshift workshop.

Careful examination of the workshop indicated that the dwarves had been working on an enormous magical bomb. Whatever they had built had been removed. Only fragments and formulae remained. Brajham estimated that, once armed, a bomb made from the various materials present would take over twenty minutes to explode (giving plenty of time for a getaway). If an expert examined the formulae, a more precise timing could be arrived at. Judging by the casks of firedust alone, the bomb would be big enough to level a couple of city blocks. This was alarming news.

In the meeting room there was a lot of paperwork: maps of Flint, some with the new subrail system drawn on, and more of these historic tunnels, showing where they intersected the rail system; an empty envelope addressed to the editor of the Flint Tribune, bearing the stamp of the Governor's office; documents that revealed the radicals were anticipating a cargo from the Malice Land port of Ysfeld. The ship was due to arrive that very night!

Korrigan decided to act on this last, most immediate piece of information, hoping that the stormy weather that night might have delayed the ship. He set off with the four junior constables in tow, and called on Uru, Malthusius, Matunaaga and Rumdoom to join them as soon as they could. Kvarti begged for the chance to redeem himself, so Korrigan took of his cuffs and handed him his rifle...

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 94b - Beasts of the End of Time

A Drakren steamship, the Cherno Bezna was berthed at Golden Point. Kvarti told them that the name translated as Black Abyss. Dockers were using a crane to unload huge crates that were then wheeled into a warehouse by dockers and dwarves. Bestial cries issued from the crates; the dwarven crew were all beardless; the captain a wild-eyed brute with a double-barrelled shotgun. In charge of the whole operation were dwarven undertakers Thered and Thangir Kharngraft - former members of the Rumschatologist security detail. Korrigan wished he could have acted immediately, but judged it prudent to wait for reinforcements.

The rest of Unit A arrived just as the largest crate was being unloaded onto the dockside. Already two carts had departed, each bearing one crate apiece, destination unknown. Rumdoom had to be restrained when he saw Thered and Thangir. He took his anger out on Kvarti, punching him square in the face, even though Korrigan had already explained Kvarti's position. The Drakren gunsmith nodded, after he had picked himself up, accepting his punishment stoically.

Rumdoom calmed himself while Korrigan led Thered, Kvarti, Brajham and Ludo into position. They would attack the warehouse and prevent any more wagons from leaving. Malthusius would led a frontal assault on the dockside. He began by following procedure to the letter, but his request for the dwarves to surrender was swept away on the wind, and they carried on working without even noticing the deva, or the team of officers moving up behind him.

What did get their attention was the sudden movement of the enormous crate they were trying to decouple from the crane. Two dockers leapt away from it as it lurched upward, while a crazed dwarf clung stubbornly on. All eyes turned to the cab where they found a grinning dark faen at the controls: Uru - who had been in position for some time - had ordered the dock worker out and was now swinging the crate back onto the Cherno Bezna.

Thered and Thangir then saw the rest of the officers. Knowing all too well what an angered Rumdoom was capable of, the brothers hastened back owards the warehouse. Matunaaga took a shot and clipped Thangir; Malthusius brought them both to a halt with a blinding blaze of divine light.

Korrigan's team swept towards the warehouse, except Kvarti, who began picking off gunmen on board the ship. Theren arrived ahead of the others and saw that the crates were equipped with rudimentary clockwork timers, set for an hour from now. But the radicals began turning these devices one by one, releasing the twisted Malice Beasts pent within.

First out was a manticore. It took to the air immediately. Two unfortunate dockworkers were dragged into a crate containing a displacer beast. The dwarf on top of the crate Uru was handling succeeded in detaching it from the crane arm, and it crashed to the dockside close to the ship, breaking apart to reveal a ravenous behir.

Crewmen aboard the Cherno Berzna manned an arcane turret mounted at the prow, and fired a ball of ice which slowed down Korrigan and his team. At the same time the maniacal ships captain muttered a command word that caused an abyssal aura to surround the vessel with gloom, reducing visibility. He then took aim with his shotgun.

Some of the dockers had recognised Korrigan and greeted his arrival with a cheer. He urged them to defend their city, and identified the dwarves as the terrorists of Pardwright. While some of the feckless stevedores turned tail and fled, one or two more plucky individuals grappled with the cultsists and prevented them from opening any more crates. But enough chaos had been unleashed already:

The behir lashed about seeking a meal. Uru, Matunaaga and Malthusius attacked the monster, presenting it with a choice of targets. The manticore attacked the crew of the steamship, driving them away from the turret. The displacer beasts attacked anyone they could see, shrugging off attacks thanks to their disorienting defensive power.

Thered and Thangir flailed about them and cursed. Despite a magical protection provided by his brother, Thangir dropped beneath Rumdoom's relentless hammer. Still blind, Thered was midway through a speech about the coming end when Sevitar cut his head off. Deprived of Thered's magical protection, Thangir's skull caved in.


Rumdoom was still hammering away at Thangir's corpse when the behir, chasing Matunaaga, bore down on him. The enormous beast scooped him up in its aelectrical coils, but Rumdoom braced himself and the creature could not crush him, try as it might. Their struggle went on for a time, before the behir tried a new tactic and swallowed Rumdoom whole. This turned out to be a big mistake. The dyspeptic beast thrashed about, discharged aelectrical bolts, clawed at bystanders, injuring Matunaaga and dropping Malthusius in the process. In the end, Rumdoom fought it to a standstill, and smashed his way out through its teeth. (Uru made a point of collecting them at the end of the fight.)

By now, most of the dwarves had been killed and the manticore and displacer beasts had been driven off to cause havoc elsewhere. The last enemy to fall was the rabid captain of the Cherno Bezna who, like all of these crazy cultists, died ranting about the end of the world.