ZEITGEIST [ZEITGEIST] The Yellow Dogs play Zeitgeist (Adventure Logs)
Karma Kollapse
First Post
So haven't got a write up from Richard for a while, but we finished up with the Apet Ziggurat yesterday. Rainbow room was a bit confusing at times, but the final trap turned out to be incredibly fun. The party were all on low health and no spells by the time they left... throwing a giant godlike snake at them straight after was very fun 
Favourite lines from the adventure during the aftermath:
Regan: So, this group have asked me to take out Rock Rackus.
Toble: I think we should that.
Regan: ... as in take him out for a drink or take him out and kill him.
Toble: (without skipping a beat) Both!
They really, really don't like Rock Rackus.
Favourite lines from the adventure during the aftermath:
Regan: So, this group have asked me to take out Rock Rackus.
Toble: I think we should that.
Regan: ... as in take him out for a drink or take him out and kill him.
Toble: (without skipping a beat) Both!
They really, really don't like Rock Rackus.
Karma Kollapse
First Post
This space reserved for possible future log should Richard write it.
Karma Kollapse
First Post
GM Notes:
Richard surprised me the other day by giving us the first log in a while. He didn't write up the whole Ziggurat stuff, nor the subsequent investigation in Flint. So there's a whole bunch of stuff about running away from mummies and the flood trap (actually one of my favourite encounters so far, much to my surprise) that has been skipped.
This write up covers our special Halloween session where we all dressed up as our characters (and for me, I just dressed up as some Tiefling wizard, cause why not?). Also Jo's first session in while following on from a family crisis that thankfully ended with her dad being okay.
The girl's in the group haaaaaaaaate Caius btw, based purely on his letter to Finona.
Hopefully finishing up Adventure #3 before the end of the year, so far it has been my favourite adventure to run in the campaign, but it is the fourth adventure that I'm most looking forward to running.
Incidentally, I thought this log should be called 'Dr Reganlove (Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Nockgun)'. He's totally glossed over the fact that Samuel did all the heavy lifting with the water elemental.
---
Adventure # 3 - Digging for Lies
"Sharken not Stirred"
The Constables had tracked the otherwordly ether trail to the site of the Ziggurat off the coast of Ber. When they arrived, instead of just catching <> ship 'The Dagger' they encountered a small flotilla. 'The Dagger', a small vessel bearing the flag of Ber and a large rather menacing privateer were engaged in a low level mexican stand-off. The Privateer had carried Fiona Duvall's party of Investigators from Risur to this place to tamper with the Ziggurat. The Orc archeologist on board the Ber ship was intensely annoyed that he could not himself examine the Ziggurat. The Ber ship had been advised that if anyone left it and interfered with the investigations going on around the sunken Ziggurat they would be unceremoniously blasted out of the water. The array of large brass cannons along the sides of the well-crewed privateer suggested this was not a bluff. The parties vessel was almost a match for the privateer in armament, but they were outnumbered heavily on the boots-on-deck front. A long discussion ensued about the best way to even the odds and either drive off or disable the privateer, which would give them control over Duvall's party of Investigators that were diving below.
Various solutions were offered, including using acid to burn through the hull, invisibility and incorporeal transformation to slip aboard the ship and blow it up and possibly even throwing the kitchen sink at it. The odds on any approach discussed succeeding were slim, until someone brought up assassination as the only workable option. Regan and Samuel would proceed to the ship cloaked by invisibility potions, get on board undetected, find the Captain and murder him. The ethics of such an approach were hotly debated, but the argument that the threat of the privateer to blow anyone to pieces justified a proportionate (and hence mercilessly violent) response, prevailed.
Regan and Samuel lowered themselves into the cold sea after darkness fell and swam as quietly as possible to the privateer. On arrival, Regan carefully unwrapped and checked his Nock gun. The pair of them tracked the Captain to the upper deck. The first he knew of any ill-feeling being directed at him was a half-heard whisper, the faint snap of a safety catch being removed followed by a concussive blast that was probably heard well below the sea at the dig site. All seven barrels of the Nock gun belched flame, the projectiles (maybe directed to their target courtesy of a Luck Spell cast on Regan earlier by Bonnie, though he robustly defended his martial prowess when confronted with the possibility) hammered into their target at minimum range. The Captain, his fine red, laced waistcoat in tatters, was blown across the deck like a rag-doll. He was somehow not quite dead, so Samuel administered a coup-de-gras with an open handed blow to his wind-pipe. To be fair to Samuel, the blow was not fatal but the excessive blood loss caused by the impact of Nock Gun pellets was likely to be, unless first aid was administered quickly. Ignoring his RHC training in emergency wound treatment Regan stepped forward, braced one booted foot on the guard rail of the upper deck and addressed the somewhat shocked crew who were milling about below. 'Surrender!', he shouted. The command was given added force when at that moment the parties ship emerged from a magical Bank of Fog laid by Tobal like some phantom menace and turned its cannons on the now leaderless privateer. To a man (or Orc, or whatever) the crew help up their hands in capitulation.
With the privateers crew locked below decks, their captain resembling a colander and the crew of the Ber ship guarding them, the party set about deciding what to do with the now transportless Duvall and her Investigators still below the surface. Since they had nowhere to go and were at the mercy of the party it was decided to try and negotiate a surrender first. For dramatic effect a cannonball was dropped over the side of the ship which landed with a sandy 'thud' amidst the Investigators, who were working away under a magical bubble of air secured to the sea floor. The cannon ball then relayed a message via Maisie's ventriloquistic skills to the effect that the investigators were in a hopeless situation and should therefore give themselves up immediately.
Duvall uttered the bemusing reply, 'No'.
The party in response prepared to make a dramatic and overwhelming assault on the air bubble, which had obviously become so full of carbon dioxide that the judgement of its occupants was seriously compromised.
After Maisie cast an invisibility spell on Samuel, the party each rolled a cannon to the edge of the ship and pushed it into the sea, clutching it tightly as it crashed into the water. The heavy brass cannons sank like.....well..... heavy brass cannons and streaked missile-like toward the air bubble below. Bonnie, not wishing to attach herself to a cannon twenty times her weight, relied on her sufficiently heavy mail armour to do the job. Holding her breath frantically she jumped from the ship, sending up an enormous plume of water a breaching whale would have been proud of, and followed closely behind. The effectively uncontrolled descent of the cannons, though extremely effective at generating complete surprise did have some collateral effects.
The most significant of these was triggered when the cannon Samuel was (invisibly) riding crashed into the sea-floor at precisely the place where the Investigators had spent many hours painstakingly drawing, sealing and reinforcing a set of Wards. Wards that would prevent creatures entering from the plane now exposed on the other side of the portal from which the Seal had been removed.
As far as an exercise in Wards (Magical) Destruction (or WMD for short) the arrival of Samuel was a perfect example of the art.
With the Wards obliterated, the surprise shocked faces of the Investigators twisted into horror at the site of many tentacled creatures squirming out through the portal towards them. Not sure who they were supposed to be fighting, each member of the party turned on whoever was nearest to them and attacked. Regan released Knicker onto the back of a Wizard who knelt in the sand trying to re-draw the Wards. The rodent successfully thwarted the Wizards intentions, which wasn't actually very useful. Equally un-useful but more spectacular was Maisie and Tobals summoning of sharks to destroy the sharky quards already summoned by a half-Orc druid with the Investigators group. When Duvall eventualy made herself heard above the din, pleading with the party to help them against the extra-planer creatures, some sort of co-ordinated response to the otherwordly incursion was mounted. This culminated with another extremely loud, full barrel explosion by Regans Nock gun which left him lying on his back staring upwards at the sun, which wavered in the rippling water far above him.
Fortunately the air-bubble remained intact.
When the tentacled horrors were at length destroyed the Wizards of Duvall's Investigators re-built the Wards on the portal and surrendered.
The party returned to the surface, prisoners in tow.
The crew of the privateer were left at the tender mercy of the Orc commanding the Ber ship, whose resident archaeologist was highly grateful to be now able to study the Ziggurat unmolested. The Orc Druid in service of Duvall and her Investigators was also released, mainly because he seemed incapable of forgiving the 'unprovoked' assault on his summoned Shark pets by Masie and Tobals counter-summoned toothy, fish warriors.
Placed into a small boat and pointed back to shore, the moaning complaints of the Orc endured for some time until the Parties vessel eventually disappeared over the horizon into the setting Sun.
At least it would be a quiet journey home to Risur…..
Richard surprised me the other day by giving us the first log in a while. He didn't write up the whole Ziggurat stuff, nor the subsequent investigation in Flint. So there's a whole bunch of stuff about running away from mummies and the flood trap (actually one of my favourite encounters so far, much to my surprise) that has been skipped.
This write up covers our special Halloween session where we all dressed up as our characters (and for me, I just dressed up as some Tiefling wizard, cause why not?). Also Jo's first session in while following on from a family crisis that thankfully ended with her dad being okay.
The girl's in the group haaaaaaaaate Caius btw, based purely on his letter to Finona.
Hopefully finishing up Adventure #3 before the end of the year, so far it has been my favourite adventure to run in the campaign, but it is the fourth adventure that I'm most looking forward to running.
Incidentally, I thought this log should be called 'Dr Reganlove (Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Nockgun)'. He's totally glossed over the fact that Samuel did all the heavy lifting with the water elemental.
---
Adventure # 3 - Digging for Lies
"Sharken not Stirred"
The Constables had tracked the otherwordly ether trail to the site of the Ziggurat off the coast of Ber. When they arrived, instead of just catching <> ship 'The Dagger' they encountered a small flotilla. 'The Dagger', a small vessel bearing the flag of Ber and a large rather menacing privateer were engaged in a low level mexican stand-off. The Privateer had carried Fiona Duvall's party of Investigators from Risur to this place to tamper with the Ziggurat. The Orc archeologist on board the Ber ship was intensely annoyed that he could not himself examine the Ziggurat. The Ber ship had been advised that if anyone left it and interfered with the investigations going on around the sunken Ziggurat they would be unceremoniously blasted out of the water. The array of large brass cannons along the sides of the well-crewed privateer suggested this was not a bluff. The parties vessel was almost a match for the privateer in armament, but they were outnumbered heavily on the boots-on-deck front. A long discussion ensued about the best way to even the odds and either drive off or disable the privateer, which would give them control over Duvall's party of Investigators that were diving below.
Various solutions were offered, including using acid to burn through the hull, invisibility and incorporeal transformation to slip aboard the ship and blow it up and possibly even throwing the kitchen sink at it. The odds on any approach discussed succeeding were slim, until someone brought up assassination as the only workable option. Regan and Samuel would proceed to the ship cloaked by invisibility potions, get on board undetected, find the Captain and murder him. The ethics of such an approach were hotly debated, but the argument that the threat of the privateer to blow anyone to pieces justified a proportionate (and hence mercilessly violent) response, prevailed.
Regan and Samuel lowered themselves into the cold sea after darkness fell and swam as quietly as possible to the privateer. On arrival, Regan carefully unwrapped and checked his Nock gun. The pair of them tracked the Captain to the upper deck. The first he knew of any ill-feeling being directed at him was a half-heard whisper, the faint snap of a safety catch being removed followed by a concussive blast that was probably heard well below the sea at the dig site. All seven barrels of the Nock gun belched flame, the projectiles (maybe directed to their target courtesy of a Luck Spell cast on Regan earlier by Bonnie, though he robustly defended his martial prowess when confronted with the possibility) hammered into their target at minimum range. The Captain, his fine red, laced waistcoat in tatters, was blown across the deck like a rag-doll. He was somehow not quite dead, so Samuel administered a coup-de-gras with an open handed blow to his wind-pipe. To be fair to Samuel, the blow was not fatal but the excessive blood loss caused by the impact of Nock Gun pellets was likely to be, unless first aid was administered quickly. Ignoring his RHC training in emergency wound treatment Regan stepped forward, braced one booted foot on the guard rail of the upper deck and addressed the somewhat shocked crew who were milling about below. 'Surrender!', he shouted. The command was given added force when at that moment the parties ship emerged from a magical Bank of Fog laid by Tobal like some phantom menace and turned its cannons on the now leaderless privateer. To a man (or Orc, or whatever) the crew help up their hands in capitulation.
With the privateers crew locked below decks, their captain resembling a colander and the crew of the Ber ship guarding them, the party set about deciding what to do with the now transportless Duvall and her Investigators still below the surface. Since they had nowhere to go and were at the mercy of the party it was decided to try and negotiate a surrender first. For dramatic effect a cannonball was dropped over the side of the ship which landed with a sandy 'thud' amidst the Investigators, who were working away under a magical bubble of air secured to the sea floor. The cannon ball then relayed a message via Maisie's ventriloquistic skills to the effect that the investigators were in a hopeless situation and should therefore give themselves up immediately.
Duvall uttered the bemusing reply, 'No'.
The party in response prepared to make a dramatic and overwhelming assault on the air bubble, which had obviously become so full of carbon dioxide that the judgement of its occupants was seriously compromised.
After Maisie cast an invisibility spell on Samuel, the party each rolled a cannon to the edge of the ship and pushed it into the sea, clutching it tightly as it crashed into the water. The heavy brass cannons sank like.....well..... heavy brass cannons and streaked missile-like toward the air bubble below. Bonnie, not wishing to attach herself to a cannon twenty times her weight, relied on her sufficiently heavy mail armour to do the job. Holding her breath frantically she jumped from the ship, sending up an enormous plume of water a breaching whale would have been proud of, and followed closely behind. The effectively uncontrolled descent of the cannons, though extremely effective at generating complete surprise did have some collateral effects.
The most significant of these was triggered when the cannon Samuel was (invisibly) riding crashed into the sea-floor at precisely the place where the Investigators had spent many hours painstakingly drawing, sealing and reinforcing a set of Wards. Wards that would prevent creatures entering from the plane now exposed on the other side of the portal from which the Seal had been removed.
As far as an exercise in Wards (Magical) Destruction (or WMD for short) the arrival of Samuel was a perfect example of the art.
With the Wards obliterated, the surprise shocked faces of the Investigators twisted into horror at the site of many tentacled creatures squirming out through the portal towards them. Not sure who they were supposed to be fighting, each member of the party turned on whoever was nearest to them and attacked. Regan released Knicker onto the back of a Wizard who knelt in the sand trying to re-draw the Wards. The rodent successfully thwarted the Wizards intentions, which wasn't actually very useful. Equally un-useful but more spectacular was Maisie and Tobals summoning of sharks to destroy the sharky quards already summoned by a half-Orc druid with the Investigators group. When Duvall eventualy made herself heard above the din, pleading with the party to help them against the extra-planer creatures, some sort of co-ordinated response to the otherwordly incursion was mounted. This culminated with another extremely loud, full barrel explosion by Regans Nock gun which left him lying on his back staring upwards at the sun, which wavered in the rippling water far above him.
Fortunately the air-bubble remained intact.
When the tentacled horrors were at length destroyed the Wizards of Duvall's Investigators re-built the Wards on the portal and surrendered.
The party returned to the surface, prisoners in tow.
The crew of the privateer were left at the tender mercy of the Orc commanding the Ber ship, whose resident archaeologist was highly grateful to be now able to study the Ziggurat unmolested. The Orc Druid in service of Duvall and her Investigators was also released, mainly because he seemed incapable of forgiving the 'unprovoked' assault on his summoned Shark pets by Masie and Tobals counter-summoned toothy, fish warriors.
Placed into a small boat and pointed back to shore, the moaning complaints of the Orc endured for some time until the Parties vessel eventually disappeared over the horizon into the setting Sun.
At least it would be a quiet journey home to Risur…..
Last edited:
RangerWickett
Legend
I'm thrilled at the bloody use of that ridiculous gun.
Karma Kollapse
First Post
Even better, Maisie's player has a real life working badger gun. I should get a picture of it.
Karma Kollapse
First Post
Today we had our last session of Adventure #3, and our 25th session of Zeitgeist. I asked the players if they wanted to take a break and play a different adventure for a bit of go straight into Adventure #4 - they voted for the latter overwhelmingly, so clearly everyone is having a good time with this campaign so far despite a host of issues including losing over half our players since the adventure began.
As GM, I'd say Adventure #3 was a little too combat focused for my tastes - it felt a bit like jumping from combat to combat to combat - but I think the final encounter made up for this. It was an absolute blast, especially the Thing From Beyond which really pushed the party to their limits.
On describing the limbs of the dead bodies that claw at the players once its shell broke, one of our players asked "Who the comes up with this stuff?" another; "Someone very disturbed."
I think someone has fans
As GM, I'd say Adventure #3 was a little too combat focused for my tastes - it felt a bit like jumping from combat to combat to combat - but I think the final encounter made up for this. It was an absolute blast, especially the Thing From Beyond which really pushed the party to their limits.
On describing the limbs of the dead bodies that claw at the players once its shell broke, one of our players asked "Who the
comes up with this stuff?" another; "Someone very disturbed."I think someone has fans
RangerWickett
Legend
*goes and checks to see if that was in the draft submitted by Matthew J. Hanson, or if I added it*
Oh yeah, that was me.
Oh yeah, that was me.
Karma Kollapse
First Post
GM's notes: Woo, another write up from Richard. He is still misspelling Xambria and Toble and chinese-whispering everything
---
Adventure #3 - Digging for Lies
"Madhouse"
The party returned to Flint without Zambria, who had gone missing after a particularly unpleasant incident in the hold of the ship which involved the removal of the brains of her erstwhile companions. Suspecting trouble, the party set a guard at the Flint Museum in anticipation of the Planer Beast/Zambria trying to get at the Ziggurat artifacts on display there. They weren't disappointed. The Zambria Creature crashed into the museum through a skylight and after a frenzied battle it was captured. It appeared that Zambria was possessed by a Planer creature named Slihen and was barely able to keep him under control. The party returned her to RHC HQ and locked her up in the most secure cell they had.
They may as well have confined her in a paper bag.
Just when things were returning to normal the RHC HQ found itself under attack from within. Slihen relinquished his control of Zambria and triggered a reality warping spell that turned RHC HQ into a maze of see through walls, constantly shifting between solid stone and transparent nothingness. Slihen turned incorporeal and floated up through the ceiling of the holding cells in the basement, on his way it appeared to the office of RHC big cheese Lady Saxby. At the same time, strange beasts flooded into the building, along with some shadowy, clawed creatures that the party had encountered before at the abandoned chapel in the Cloudwood.
Samuel used the Nem stone to turn incorporeal himself and pursue Slihen, but found himself face to face with a hideous floating eye, surrounded by whip-like tentacles and exhibiting a particularly aggressive attitude. He caught a glimpse of Slihen engaged in conversation with Saxby through the shifting walls just before the eye monster attacked him. Calling upon deep reserves of Ki, the Monk focused his attack as tradition dictated on the squishiest and most vulnerable parts of his opponent. In the case of a huge floating eye this was unsurprisingly its optical sensory organ. His flurry of blows would have had it reaching for the Optrex if there had been any available.
The others had fought their way out of the basement and made it upstairs. Inspector Delft was cringing in his office, obviously experiencing hallucinations, though the saliva dripping monstrosity gnawing at the door of his office to try and get at him was certainly not a figment of his imagination. They left him to it, as the two great floating tentacle eyes that appeared in front of them demanded immediate attention and Delfts door seemed to be holding up quite well.
Regan had mangled the lock on the staircase door to prevent pursuit, so was disappointed when he heard footsteps in the stairwell. He turned to face whatever was coming, then suddenly found himself profoundly deaf. One of the eyes had cast a spell of silence in response to being repeatedly poked by Tobal and Knuck. The sudden deafness was almost immediately accompanied by a crushing blow on the back of his skull, which left him slumped against a wall. Knuck had succumbed to some mental suggestion by one of the Eyes to attack the nearest thing, which happened to be the exposed back of Regans head. At least that is what they surmised afterwards, though Regan was convinced the bird had been 'looking at him funny' ever since Knicker the Rat had arrived on the scene.
While Bonnie spent most of her strength casting spells to keep everyone alive, Samuel made it into Saxbys office. The Chief Inspector of the RHC was still there, but Slihen was already leaving, slipping through the transparent floor to the lower levels of the building clutching a golden disc in his hands. Saxby was a little wide-eyed and nervous, but picked up her sword with the intention it seemed of confronting the creatures that had invaded her workplace. In the corridor outside, Regan and Tobals shadowy assailants unexpectedly fell back, which was a good thing as Tobal was looking fairly beaten up and Regan was present in body only.
Tobal slapped Regan awake and Samuel told them what he had seen. Regan sneered, 'Haa…Saxby…no surprise there then'. Tobal suggested they head immediately downstairs, much to the consternation of Bonnie who was still attempting to blind one of the eye-monsters. 'After everything I do for them…they just leave me to it', she cursed, swinging her mace at her opponent.
Slihen had managed to flee to a section of the Risur Subway below the RHC basement. Sounds of fighting came from the floors above where other RHC constables were now dealing with the intruders. The whole building was still shifting crazily in and out of solid form, so at the most promising opportunity the party leapt en-masse through the suddenly non-existent floor.
They found themselves face to face with Slihen, who was fiddling with the large golden disc taken from Saxbys room. Before the party could react he managed to open some planer-portal -type-thing, which provided access into the subway for a large-fanged-tentacled-eel type thing . The monstrosity was directed by Slihen to set about the party, which it did with relish. It had not reckoned, amongst other things, with the Nock Gun clutched in Regans hands. Once again the roar and concussion of its multi-barrel discharge rent the air, reducing the monster to a blubbering wreck and Regan to a crumpled heap on the floor. At this point, Slihen shifted form and entered the monsters mind and body in an effort to bolster his flagging pet. However, the party were now engaged in full-throttle-hideous-creature-disposal mode and his efforts were in vain. After a fearsome struggle the creature and Slihen with it were vanquished.
The party got back into RHC HQ just as the building stopped its upsetting planer shifting and the walls returned to solid stone. On the top floor, Inspector Delft had regained his senses and was studying the door of his office, which had somehow developed a large, tooth marked hole in it. The party explained what had happened (skipping a description of the Inspectors mental episode) and attention turned to finding Saxby.
She had not surprisingly vacated the building.
Further investigation revealed that an iron ring set under plaster in the lower level stairwell, which had allowed access to the planer creatures, had been put there on Saxbys instructions. Why no-one had questioned the purpose of its placement some weeks before, which must have been obvious, further reinforced Regans view (present party company excepted) that most of the RHC employees were a bunch of white, woolly creatures far too focused on chain-of-command and all that rubbish.
It was with particular irony then that Inspector Delft became promoted to Chief Inspector and his vacant role was offered to a member of the party. When asked if they were interested, Regan developed a sudden interest in the length of his fingernails and Tobal seemed to slip into a deep Druidic meditation ritual that made him unresponsive to stimuli from the outside world.
Samuel offered his services, but was told immediately by Regan and Tobal, emerging surprisingly quickly from their ruminations, that he was better off concentrating on refining his impressive ability to hit things very hard with his bare hands.
Bonnie was the obvious choice, being the most diplomatic of the party as well as the last one to get a chance to express her opinion in the current debate. She was congratulated by her companions on her promotion. Though the mumbled words of encouragement from all, accompanied by a slow hand clap from Regan, could hardly be regarded as overly enthusiastic.
Regan and Tobal later found themselves much more excited at Bonnies promotion when they realised she had acquired greater access to the monetary resources at the disposal of the RHC. Everything would be as above board as it had been before, they assured her. Bonnie was not convinced, as the aforementioned board had been positioned at a very low level to start with.
For the time being though, everyone was happy and set out to spend, gamble, donate or whatever else they chose to do with a considerable amount of cash they had been granted as their monthly stipend. Regan headed into Parity Lake to a little shop he knew that specialised in the production of magical (if not totally legal) weaponry.
---
Adventure #3 - Digging for Lies
"Madhouse"
The party returned to Flint without Zambria, who had gone missing after a particularly unpleasant incident in the hold of the ship which involved the removal of the brains of her erstwhile companions. Suspecting trouble, the party set a guard at the Flint Museum in anticipation of the Planer Beast/Zambria trying to get at the Ziggurat artifacts on display there. They weren't disappointed. The Zambria Creature crashed into the museum through a skylight and after a frenzied battle it was captured. It appeared that Zambria was possessed by a Planer creature named Slihen and was barely able to keep him under control. The party returned her to RHC HQ and locked her up in the most secure cell they had.
They may as well have confined her in a paper bag.
Just when things were returning to normal the RHC HQ found itself under attack from within. Slihen relinquished his control of Zambria and triggered a reality warping spell that turned RHC HQ into a maze of see through walls, constantly shifting between solid stone and transparent nothingness. Slihen turned incorporeal and floated up through the ceiling of the holding cells in the basement, on his way it appeared to the office of RHC big cheese Lady Saxby. At the same time, strange beasts flooded into the building, along with some shadowy, clawed creatures that the party had encountered before at the abandoned chapel in the Cloudwood.
Samuel used the Nem stone to turn incorporeal himself and pursue Slihen, but found himself face to face with a hideous floating eye, surrounded by whip-like tentacles and exhibiting a particularly aggressive attitude. He caught a glimpse of Slihen engaged in conversation with Saxby through the shifting walls just before the eye monster attacked him. Calling upon deep reserves of Ki, the Monk focused his attack as tradition dictated on the squishiest and most vulnerable parts of his opponent. In the case of a huge floating eye this was unsurprisingly its optical sensory organ. His flurry of blows would have had it reaching for the Optrex if there had been any available.
The others had fought their way out of the basement and made it upstairs. Inspector Delft was cringing in his office, obviously experiencing hallucinations, though the saliva dripping monstrosity gnawing at the door of his office to try and get at him was certainly not a figment of his imagination. They left him to it, as the two great floating tentacle eyes that appeared in front of them demanded immediate attention and Delfts door seemed to be holding up quite well.
Regan had mangled the lock on the staircase door to prevent pursuit, so was disappointed when he heard footsteps in the stairwell. He turned to face whatever was coming, then suddenly found himself profoundly deaf. One of the eyes had cast a spell of silence in response to being repeatedly poked by Tobal and Knuck. The sudden deafness was almost immediately accompanied by a crushing blow on the back of his skull, which left him slumped against a wall. Knuck had succumbed to some mental suggestion by one of the Eyes to attack the nearest thing, which happened to be the exposed back of Regans head. At least that is what they surmised afterwards, though Regan was convinced the bird had been 'looking at him funny' ever since Knicker the Rat had arrived on the scene.
While Bonnie spent most of her strength casting spells to keep everyone alive, Samuel made it into Saxbys office. The Chief Inspector of the RHC was still there, but Slihen was already leaving, slipping through the transparent floor to the lower levels of the building clutching a golden disc in his hands. Saxby was a little wide-eyed and nervous, but picked up her sword with the intention it seemed of confronting the creatures that had invaded her workplace. In the corridor outside, Regan and Tobals shadowy assailants unexpectedly fell back, which was a good thing as Tobal was looking fairly beaten up and Regan was present in body only.
Tobal slapped Regan awake and Samuel told them what he had seen. Regan sneered, 'Haa…Saxby…no surprise there then'. Tobal suggested they head immediately downstairs, much to the consternation of Bonnie who was still attempting to blind one of the eye-monsters. 'After everything I do for them…they just leave me to it', she cursed, swinging her mace at her opponent.
Slihen had managed to flee to a section of the Risur Subway below the RHC basement. Sounds of fighting came from the floors above where other RHC constables were now dealing with the intruders. The whole building was still shifting crazily in and out of solid form, so at the most promising opportunity the party leapt en-masse through the suddenly non-existent floor.
They found themselves face to face with Slihen, who was fiddling with the large golden disc taken from Saxbys room. Before the party could react he managed to open some planer-portal -type-thing, which provided access into the subway for a large-fanged-tentacled-eel type thing . The monstrosity was directed by Slihen to set about the party, which it did with relish. It had not reckoned, amongst other things, with the Nock Gun clutched in Regans hands. Once again the roar and concussion of its multi-barrel discharge rent the air, reducing the monster to a blubbering wreck and Regan to a crumpled heap on the floor. At this point, Slihen shifted form and entered the monsters mind and body in an effort to bolster his flagging pet. However, the party were now engaged in full-throttle-hideous-creature-disposal mode and his efforts were in vain. After a fearsome struggle the creature and Slihen with it were vanquished.
The party got back into RHC HQ just as the building stopped its upsetting planer shifting and the walls returned to solid stone. On the top floor, Inspector Delft had regained his senses and was studying the door of his office, which had somehow developed a large, tooth marked hole in it. The party explained what had happened (skipping a description of the Inspectors mental episode) and attention turned to finding Saxby.
She had not surprisingly vacated the building.
Further investigation revealed that an iron ring set under plaster in the lower level stairwell, which had allowed access to the planer creatures, had been put there on Saxbys instructions. Why no-one had questioned the purpose of its placement some weeks before, which must have been obvious, further reinforced Regans view (present party company excepted) that most of the RHC employees were a bunch of white, woolly creatures far too focused on chain-of-command and all that rubbish.
It was with particular irony then that Inspector Delft became promoted to Chief Inspector and his vacant role was offered to a member of the party. When asked if they were interested, Regan developed a sudden interest in the length of his fingernails and Tobal seemed to slip into a deep Druidic meditation ritual that made him unresponsive to stimuli from the outside world.
Samuel offered his services, but was told immediately by Regan and Tobal, emerging surprisingly quickly from their ruminations, that he was better off concentrating on refining his impressive ability to hit things very hard with his bare hands.
Bonnie was the obvious choice, being the most diplomatic of the party as well as the last one to get a chance to express her opinion in the current debate. She was congratulated by her companions on her promotion. Though the mumbled words of encouragement from all, accompanied by a slow hand clap from Regan, could hardly be regarded as overly enthusiastic.
Regan and Tobal later found themselves much more excited at Bonnies promotion when they realised she had acquired greater access to the monetary resources at the disposal of the RHC. Everything would be as above board as it had been before, they assured her. Bonnie was not convinced, as the aforementioned board had been positioned at a very low level to start with.
For the time being though, everyone was happy and set out to spend, gamble, donate or whatever else they chose to do with a considerable amount of cash they had been granted as their monthly stipend. Regan headed into Parity Lake to a little shop he knew that specialised in the production of magical (if not totally legal) weaponry.
Karma Kollapse
First Post
So had a bad session to start Adventure #4 :/
Talking over Obscurati and the basic mission - Check, everything fine.
Explaining how a spy mission works - Check, all fine.
Get the ball rolling with coming up with cover stories, etc. - Check, a good fun creative hour.
Going through the planning montage - everything falls apart.
Some people seemed to understand what I was trying to explain and got that they needed to proactively create false leads, that they had to practive their covers and plan their contingencies. A small few seemed to just bitch because they couldn't get a passenger manifest and then threw a strop saying their character was just going to go to the forest for 50 days and come back as disguised :/
I felt like I completely failed... did I not explain things right? Were people just being rude and not paying attention to things?
I ended up taking a breath, leaving the table to use the bathroom, coming back and saying I didn't think people were enjoying the encounter and that I was calling it a day, and that we'd start next session on the train. In retrospect, I almost feel like I should have asked the player who said he just wanted to go to the forest 'Okay, that's fine, please go home whilst everyone else enjoys the encounter'. However I'm then wondering if this adventure really is for that person; if the idea of proactively seeking out spies, setting up contingencies and the like is offputting, are they going to enjoy the rest of this campaign? How are they going to handle an adventure like Schism, which is incredibly important but is mostly roleplay-based.
Eh. Just had a bad session I guess and wanted to vent with some fellow Zeitgeistians. I've been really excited about this particular adventure and having it start off this way has been really upsetting.
Talking over Obscurati and the basic mission - Check, everything fine.
Explaining how a spy mission works - Check, all fine.
Get the ball rolling with coming up with cover stories, etc. - Check, a good fun creative hour.
Going through the planning montage - everything falls apart.
Some people seemed to understand what I was trying to explain and got that they needed to proactively create false leads, that they had to practive their covers and plan their contingencies. A small few seemed to just bitch because they couldn't get a passenger manifest and then threw a strop saying their character was just going to go to the forest for 50 days and come back as disguised :/
I felt like I completely failed... did I not explain things right? Were people just being rude and not paying attention to things?
I ended up taking a breath, leaving the table to use the bathroom, coming back and saying I didn't think people were enjoying the encounter and that I was calling it a day, and that we'd start next session on the train. In retrospect, I almost feel like I should have asked the player who said he just wanted to go to the forest 'Okay, that's fine, please go home whilst everyone else enjoys the encounter'. However I'm then wondering if this adventure really is for that person; if the idea of proactively seeking out spies, setting up contingencies and the like is offputting, are they going to enjoy the rest of this campaign? How are they going to handle an adventure like Schism, which is incredibly important but is mostly roleplay-based.
Eh. Just had a bad session I guess and wanted to vent with some fellow Zeitgeistians. I've been really excited about this particular adventure and having it start off this way has been really upsetting.
Similar Threads
