In Fair Cuccagna (Session 1)

I decided I wanted to run a dungeon that was kind of a redo of one I did for my Cuccagna setting some time ago. Some of the Nightwick Regulars agreed and I decided to use the version of the isle of wizards set in the World of Nightwick.

Characters Present

Cristobert 1st Level Karslish Mountebank

Cruart Staig 1st Level Karslish Fighter

Jules Mozarin 1st Level Averois Magician

Maglor 1st Level Changeling

Hirelings

Homobon - depressed cheesmaker turned linkboy 

Pippo and Rizzardo - Cuccagnan bravos (who died this session)

Tibio - Fellow bravo who managed to stay alive

Events

• The characters have heard rumors of the disappearance of Prospero the Blue and the vacancy of his infamous manse - the Lapis Vaults.
• Feeling this wizard's abode is ripe for looting, they hired a number of hirelings (described above) and set out on a worm-driven ship form the Great Wen to explore the smaller island which holds the Lapis Vaults.
• Landing on the southwestern shore of the smaller island, they made their way inland and quickly found that it turned into a formal garden at the base of a large cliff. Set into the cliff was a large, blue structure consisting of walls abutting the cliff and a squat, round tower.
• Approaching closer Cruart was challenged by a voice from within the squat tower. He claimed to be the king of this manse in the absence of Prospero the Blue, and demanded the party leave. The only clue to his identity was that his eye was visible through an arrow slit and - indeed- took up the entire slit. Cruart deduced the creature to be at least 15' tall.
• After accosting him, the unknown giant seems to have felt he was threatening enough and left his vantage point to do unknown tasks, allowing the party to enter unseen.
• But before they managed to make it to the doors, they found a number of statues set about the garden. All were in hyper-realistic mode and making pleading or frightened gestures. Cruart stated it was as if they had been turned to stone by a Medusa.
• Approaching the large, bronze doors of the tower - as at the time these seemed the only means of egress - Cruart was the only one foolish brave enough to enter initially. He discovered a large hall decorated with satyrs frolicking with women. Cristobert soon joined him and they noticed the number of present satyrs was seven, and speculated that these must in some way represent the colored wizards of the island. When Cruart pointed out that they were all blue, Cristobert asserted that this was some means by which Prospero the Blue had meant to show ownership of the others.
• The satyrs' eyes turned out to be peepholes through which guard chambers could be viewed. After looking through several of these the party found that one contained a number of dead, one-legged men.
• At first Cristobert asserted that Prospero the Blue had chopped off the legs of these men to make them into monopods (the legs, not the men), which are known to inhabit the island. However, investigating their wounds showed that they did not have their legs chopped off or, if they were, it was done far in advance of their deaths as they mearly had a flat piece of flesh over the legless side of their pelvis.
• The guard chambers beyond the satyrs eyes contained a number of arrows, which Cristobert grabbed up.
• Jules cast detect magic in hopes that he would reveal much within the manse, but was flustered until they came to a large room dominated by a fountain and fanciful floor tiles. The fountain was not magical, but rather there was a small alcove which contained a magic mouth.
• The magic mouth, glowing within the Averois magicians eyes, suddenly announced "I am unable to come to the door right now, but someone will be with you in a moment."
• The party debated the meaning of the mouth, and whether it could be interrogated, when a creature suddenly appeared within their torchlight. It was a serpent but bore strange ear-like protrusions from its head, vestigal wings, two tiny arms, and scintilating, opalescent scales.
• These scales quickly mesmerized most of the party, with only Maglor and the three Cuccagnan bravos free to act.
• They rushed in to do battle with it, the bravos hitting it about the head and body with their clubs. They wounded it severly but in its death throws it was able to grab Rizzardo in its serpents mouth and crush his body with its enormous bulk. It died soon after with blows from the changeling.
• With the creature dead its hypnotic pattern seemed to cease. Cristobert skinned the thing, for the scales still held an irridescent beauty, but found its body was strangely warm - especially for a serpent and especially for a creature gripped by the icy hand of death.
• Exploring the corridor from which the serpent had come, the party quickly found that it branched off in many directions. Choosing the nearest, they saw dark shapes moving distantly in a large room, but decided to explore a door - closer than the shapes - anyway. They left Homobon in the hall to watrn them of encroaching danger.
• As they entered the room, they narrowly avoided a trap consisting of a sack of stones held up by a trip wire mechanism. Cristobert observed this was likely not a trap made by a wizard as puissant as Prospero the Blue.
• The room held a number of tools and materials used in the making of various items, but nothing that looked particularly valuable.
• Suddenly. Homobon called out and shortly so too did the dark shapes in the large room - for they were those sinister fungi men call shriekers. Cristobert observed that if there were shriekers they must surely be on the lookout for piercers and other such strange dungeon creatures.
• The party rushed forward to destroy the shrieker only to find the room filled with them. They also found the fungus to be more resilient than they would've liked, and its screaming could not be shortened before creatures came to investigate.
• The creatures were largeish - but not necessarily giant - white rats. These rats called out in crued voices "Kill them! Kill them!" as one leapt at Pippo's throat and tore it open with its rodent teeth.
• The party engaged the rats in "social combat," though I unfortunately do not remember the barbs that were thrown back and forth. I am reliably told that the party "won" this exchange, but since they fled in terror from the rats out of the dungeon they received no experience for this.

Monsters Defeated

1 Scitalis, Some Rats (at least rhetorically)

Treasure Gained

Some arrows

XP Per player

75

*Called the "King Fish" by illiterate foreigners

Check out Bandit's Keep

 I'd been debating doing a post where I highlight a youtuber doing the Lord's work when Stavros Cole pointed out he had a criminally small amount of viewers.

So check out Bandit's Keep. He's replicating a lot of the OSR blogosphere wisdom for the youtube crowd. Here's a sample video: 

The Office of Scientific Investigation

Working for the OSI can be quite dangerous.

1945: the year that changed the world. An act of war that unleashed destruction on a cosmic scale also ushered mankind into a new age. The Atomic Age! Understanding this same destructive force could hold the key to unlimited energy and an understanding of creation itself. At the same time, scientific discoveries about the nature of outer space have opened mankind up to the possibility of a future among the stars. Still other new developments of the age reveal unguessed secrets about the ancient past and even about the nature of time itself.

With these new advancements come new threats. Scientists dabbling in forces newly unleashed create hideous mutations or strange intelligences never before conceived of. Foreign agents seek to steal advances in engineering using their own strange devices. Mankind's use of atomic power may also have attracted the attention of beings from other stars with technology far in advance of anything seen on Earth, if the contactee movement is to be believed. Given the stakes of these new discoveries, any or all of these potential threats could not only spell doom for the country but also the entire world.

With these threats in mind, the member states of NATO decided to create a new body - the Office of Scientific Investigation. From its offices in a secure bunker within the Nevada desert, members of the OSI act as a combination of research, law enforcement, and espionage agency. Its membership is composed of academics, soldiers, law enforcement officers, and secret agents from NATO member countries. Their task is to investigate and contain the new threats of this new age.

The year is 1952, and the OSI has already been involved in a number of classified cases. From what has leaked to the press, agents have foiled a Soviet plot to fake an interplanetary invasion, discovered an island populated with pre-historic life in the Pacific, and investigated the remains of what some believe to be an ancient spacecraft. Fighting enemies both foreign and domestic, wherever science goes awry there you will find the OSI!

Nightwick: The Continuing Adventures

Map by the man himself

If you haven't yet, head over to I Cast Light! and check out the adventures of the Thursday night Nightwick group. Warren's been summarizing them and even includes an info graphic illustrating how many characters have died!

It's been real good to run it with OSE.

The DM is a Shut Eye

A post on Prismatic Wasteland recently outlined, fairly well I think, the basic procedure of playing an OSR or Classic style of game. However, I have some problems with their prescription for a "modified procedure," and unfortunately to get at them I have to do some theory. This is going to be my most pretentious post to date.

The dungeon master, or at least my ideal one, is what Orson Welles referred to as a shut eye. As Welles explains here, a shut eye is a psychic who has forgotten its a grift and begun to believe in their own "powers." They have entered a state of self delusion because of the advanced nature of their process. They are able to apprehend the factors that used to be consciously thought about so quickly that they can begin the grift without thinking. But what is the grift a dungeon master is pulling?

They are trying to convince the players of what Matt Colville calls the secondary world.* Many players, myself included, want the experience of interacting with a fantasy world that feels real and that reality is a trick. However, like the shut eye, the trick works best if the dungeon master is practicing a self delusion. All of us do this to a degree, because it is necessary to the very act of imagining. 

Nightwick regular and former blogger Cole calls the imaginative self-delusion "my dog barks some." To borrow the example but make it D&D specific, the DM rolls on a table and sees that the PCs have encountered a dog. From having the vibe of the setting and the scenario they are running, the DM just upon seeing the existence of this dog in the table knows the type of dog but does not consciously choose it. Colville in his video above talks about looking in on an imaginary dragon and seeing what it's doing. The incident of the adventure, the way a particular question the players ask is answered, the actions of an NPC are thing the DM "knows" without consciously deciding. Some, or indeed all of us because we are mortal, may need to take some processing time to "reveal" this unconscious answer, but it is important that the answer be unconscious or, at the very least, decided beforehand.

If you, like me, want the experience of this kind of violent fantasy tourism, the fictional reality of the secondary world must be maintained for engagement. If it no longer feels real, I get bummed out. Obviously it was never real, but my ability to pretend its real for the purpose of the game requires the self delusion of a shut eye.

One of the easiest ways for that to become punctured is for the DM to ask me, the player, questions about the setting. I locate the secondary world largely in the DM's head, and if they are suddenly asking for my input it reveals the artifice. They are not looking into an imaginary world that is locked in some portion of their midbrain, they're just making it up. The modified procedure, where the DM questions the PCs back about in fiction details, would cause me to be less engaged because I have stopped treating the secondary world like a world and started to treat it as something that is fake. I'm asked to operate the strings on the hubcap that was, moments ago, a flying saucer. I do not take joy in the co-creation of the fiction. Rather, my actions are revealed to be meaningless.

Maybe this is why I studied history instead of english. 

* I do not actually condone things he talks about in the video such as rebalancing encounters on the fly or quantum ogreing, but hopefully that is also clear from this post.

Running Nightwick on Start Playing

Art by Chris Huth 

Starting next Thursday, I'm going to be running my world famous megadungeon Nightwick Abbey on Start Playing. If you want to try OSE or do an old school dungeon delve into a Doom Metal Mega Dungeon, consider signing up!

Tales from the Rattlebones Tavern: You've Got to Find the Demon...

 ...Way Down in the Hole!

Holes can be dangerous. You go first.

I've been somewhat neglectful in relaying the adventures of both of my parties. The amount I've missed in terms of the Howling Kommandos has been enormous and I'm hoping Huth will soon have a catch up post I can put up here so that I may resume the Kommando Kronikles. The patrons of the Rattle Bones tavern, too, have been having adventures but I think I can summarize a bit at the beginning of this session report and then get back into the swing of things.

The short of it is, after burning the bodies of their viridian foes and giving Beerbane a proper burial, the party was approached by three new members: the pirates Snogmar and Kleftis and the barbarian Baran the Blade. They too mislike the Shah of Effernath, who seems to be looking for the "eye" the party now seeks. They agreed to work together, but after searching the black-metal dungeon they found no sign of the eye. They decided to head to the nearby village of Gashmu so that they might lick their wounds and consider their next move.

In Gashmu Annapurna learned of a nearby dungeon - said to be a bottomless hole in a nearby bog - that would house a demon whose sinews she could use in the construction of a magic bow. Sobek-ra managed to anger the wizard in charge of the village by too openly praising his foul serpent god. Kleftis, angered that someone would slight his compatriot, began to plot a robbery of the wizard's keep. After this had all transpired, the party decided to detour from their current quest for the eye/roc egg and instead investigate the hole in the swamp. This they have found to be seemingly actually bottomless and to have been constructed during ancient Kelnore by remnants of the city of Thracia. 

The hole is lined with ancient tombs* and as of yet the party has not found the one which is purported to contain the demon. Navigating the hole has been somewhat difficult as its presence in a swamp means that a waterfall covers each side of the square aperture. The noise from this also makes some forms of perception and communication difficult. We pick up at the beginning of last session where the party had just slain a group of wights guarding one of the tombs.

Characters Present
Annapurna, 5th level Altanian Ranger

Ion Skamos, 4th level Tiefling Cleric of Set

Sobek-Ra, 4th level Orichalan Sorcerer (of Set)

Hjoldahr Braveflight, 3rd level Dwarf Fighter

Baran the Blade, 3rd level Viridian Barbarian

Kleftis, 3rd Level Ghinoran Rogue (only there for the wights)

• The party found themselves at the entrance of the fourth tomb they had as yet begun to explore. The waterfall behind them raged and the corpses of 3 wights lay at their feet. They pondered what to do next.
• Sobek-Ra, ever curious, plunged onward into the tomb beckoning Baran to follow. Annapurna cursed to herself at their recklessness.
• They soon found themselves in a large chamber decorated with the triumphs of various Ghinorans led by priests in black robes. These depictions showed the Kelnoran empire, or perhaps some other entity, vanquishing and enslaving various forms of bestial humanoid - gnolls, strange dogheaded things that were clearly different from gnolls (Sobek-Ra posited they were flinds), lizard men, and the first men.
• Beyond this chamber where two small tombs, one of which still contained its occupant (and his associated treasure) and the other of which had been smashed by an unknown agent. The treasure amounted to a fine black robe and 2 platinum pieces placed over his eyes. This they had found was common in the bottomless tombs.
• The inquisitive and perhaps reckless pair of Sobek-Ra and Baran again led the party down a corridor, this one ending in a door.
• Upon Baran's attempt to open it, they found that the other side was but a small alcove meant to house a hideous ooze which attempted to fall upon them once opened.
• Battle was joined with this black ooze, and while they initially panicked at its ability to split into smaller beings, they soon overpowered it through the proper application of spells.
• The way beyond offered no egress and seemed merely to be a house for the strange being which had tried to absorb them. 
• This tomb looted, they  made their way back to the surface and took a short rest.
• Sobek-Ra after careful study determined the black robe was not magical, but liking its synchronicity with his dark god he dressed himself in it before they returned to the interior of the tombs.
• Lowering themselves down on a rope affixed to the roots of a nearby cypress, the party entered yet another tomb. 
• This one contained an altar to Thanatos at its very entrance. Ion Skamos and Sobek-Ra debated for some time whether the prominence of Thanatos in these tombs, and an earlier statue of Ares they had come across, meant these gods were one and the same. Unfortunately Kleftis was not there to way in on the gods of his people.
• Beyond they found a number of niches containing skeletons. Sobek-Ra used the power of his draconic blood - that extends all the way back to the Kings of Orichala - to empower Baran and Hjoldahr with the ability to breathe fire. This they used to quickly clear out the large number of skeletons.
• The niches lacked symmetry and a large section of wall which, given the other side, should've contained skeletons was instead flat. The party decided this must mean that there was a secret door, and soon this was confirmed by a test using Sobek-Ra's supply of water. Unfortunately, none could find the way to open it.
• After some debate over whether Hjoldahr or Baran should knock the wall down, Ion Skamos decided it would be best if he called on the desert winds of Set and cast shatter upon the wall. This allowed them access to a tomb hidden beyond.
• One of the stronger party members entered to crack it open and loot it, but upon touching the lid it was thrown off by its occupant who revealed himself to be a hideously preserved mummy!
• Battle again ensued, and though the party was able to vanquish the creature they spent a great deal of resources doing so. 
• Inside they found yet another robe, more platinum, and a strange scimitar from ancient Kelnore. Hjoldahr called "dibs" on this weapon.
• This treasure in hand, and fearful of fighting more creatures after having spent so many spells, the party returned to their rope and climbed back to the surface to make their way back to the village of Gashmu.
• Once there, Sobek-Ra cast identify on the newly found scimitar, finding that the runes named it Mournblade. It provided both a +1 to hit and damage as well as a +2 to initiative due to the quasi paranoid thoughts it constantly subjects its wielder to. Hjoldahr was also able to ascertain that, due to its great age and poor human craftsmanship, it is perhaps more vulnerable than typical magical weapons to destruction.

Monsters Defeated

3 Wights, 1 Black Pudding, 7 Skeletons, 1 Mummy

Treasure Gained

4 pp, 2 priestly black robes (200gp each), a priestly diadem (200gp),  Mournblade

XP

Kleftis: 175

Everybody Else: 518

* I'm using Dyson's bottomless tombs (players don't click that link) for this. The players seemed genuinely surprised that I had it be for realsies bottomless.