Tales from the Cutthroat Inn: Queen for a Night

...Slaughter by early morning's light!

"I smell... ORCS!"

Session Date
April 28 (28th Day through the 30th Day of the Month of Portly Pomp)

Characters Present
Annapurna, Altanian Ranger
Grafari, Skandik Rogue
Green Sonya, Half-orc Barbarian
and introducing... Red Hawk, Altanian Fighter!

Events

• The party, including members who weren't present but who discussed it beforehand, was able to have Annapurna raised from the dead by the Heirophant of the Spider God thanks to a reduced cost resulting from the favors they owed Green Sonya.
• Green Sonya spent the rest of her week waiting for Annapurna to recuperate by spinning the spider-silk she got last week from the temple into scarves.
• Grafari spent his downtime buying white lotus powder to snort and robbing merchants.
• The party then decided to set out for the Halls of the Black Spider with their new companion, the Red Hawk (and his own companion, Big Red).
• On the way out of the city they were heckled by a well-guarded Alryan senator, who accused Annapurna and Red hawk of being incestuous siblings. Red Hawk responded by commanding Bid Red to defecate on the men while Annapurna kissed him on the cheek and joked "actually he's my son." The senator stood gawping, covered in birdshit, as the four went on their way.
• They elected to pick up their wagon from the Overlord's stables, since Big Red was able to drive it, and then attempted to proceed by their normal route up the Conqueror's river and by one of its tributaries to the Halls.
• Unfortunately, Grafari noticed a set of odd trees while scouting. These cedars seemed to have strange, arm like limbs that were set to throw cedar fruit at passers by.  This forced the party to head east of the river early, and into the forest.
• They attempted to make camp, but the damp weather meant any fire they made produce a great deal of smoke.  This must've been what attracted the orcs...
• During Green Sonya's watch - the dead of night under the waxing Howla and the waning Vanis - a group of 10 orcs led by an orcish priestess approached the camp.  Sonya attempted to talk them out of combat, but mentioned they came from the City State (she did not know of the antipathy the orcs of the purple claw have for the Overlord).
• The priestess flew into a rage, and a large half-ogre moved to block the party's wagon; however, the other orcs were shocked by the fight between two females and waited to see who would win.
• Green Sonya chopped the priestess's muzzle in half with her greataxe and then was showered with praise from the orcs.  The half-ogre, seeing the way the wind was blowing, thrust her up onto his shoulders.  She then commanded them to get rest before they headed on to the Halls.
• During Grafari's watch - just before the light of dawn - he noticed a set of four, furious unicorns approaching the camp.  Realizing they were here to kill the orcs, he woke Red Hawk and the two began preparing the wagon for an escape.
• The Unicorns teleported close to the sleeping orcs and began slaying them.  The party, for its part, made its escape away from the trampling hooves and stabbing horns.
• By the light of the next morning the party returned for their equipment, and were able to track down a single orc survivor (whose name was Bolg).
• Around this time, Red Hawk proposed to name the party the Rainbow Warriors, or some variant thereof.
• The Warriors then pressed on towards the Hills, but Annapurna was able to realize that they would arrive near the lions' den just at the time when lions are most active.
• Instead they decided to search the adjacent hex for a permanent place to camp so they could travel a shorter distance each week to the dungeon.
• They found a long pipe, perhaps some kind of culvert or ancient sewer, that was of a suitable size.  Unfortunately, Grafari was able to note that it served as the  lair for two winged apes who were currently away from their home.  
• The Rainbow Warriors decided to wait in ambush so they could secure the lair for their own.

Tune in next week to see the Rainbow Warriors GO APE!

An Announcement!

For my 666th post(!) I thought I’d announce something...

Prepare to delve the ultimate dungeon... NIGHTWICK ABBEY!

Built by by blood thirsty knights and mad demoniacs, the abbey has been a place of dread for the people of the Dark Country. The inhabitants of the abbey would ride out to terrorize the living and desecrate the dead.  But now they too are dead...

...BUT THE ABBEY LIVES! It calls out to the creatures of darkness and animates the corpses of those who died within. It hungers for power. It hungers for blood. IT HUNGERS FOR YOU!

EXPLORE a living dungeon whose walls move to trap those inside!

FACE the unliving horrors of the abbey, including the Piteous Worm, the Bleeding Baroness, and even Great King Death himself!

WIN fantastic treasures including a sword made from a shard of God!

OR DIE in the shadow of the Great King of Hell, Armadeus!

Nightwick Abbey is a megadungeon and supplement covering the first three levels of the infamous megadungeon, its monsters, and character options for the Swords and Wizardry White Box.

ARE YOU READY TO DIE IN A HOLE?!  

Coming to tables in 2020.

Silent Legions of Superheroes

I've talked with certain people quite a bit about the pros and cons of the scenario tools in Silent Legions. One of them has argued that it doesn't do enough to create a holistic mystery.  Instead of having each new piece of information compounding to create a picture of the incident, they act as breadcrumbs to lead you to a preset resolution.  This isn't necessarily linear (indeed non-linearity is part of the point) but Silent Legions' goal is focused on having certain types of scenes rather than replicating a police procedural.

However, that structure works better for the kinds of superhero games I want to run. Having the kind of action and investigation "beats" (for lack of a better word) allows problem solving to be tied to the heroes' abilities and superhero stuff while still keeping it from being a bunch of fights in a line. I've made a couple of these before, but for this post I'm going to use one I made while writing it to show how it's done.  I'm going to roll on the Silent Legions tables, provide the results, and then convert the whole thing into a supers scenario.

First we need a resolution.  I roll that it's going to be a Time Sensitive Resolution and get the following result: An Enemy seeks to destroy a Friend or an object which is impeding its Scheme. Investigations will reveal the existence of the threat and the means by which it intends to do this.


So we need to figure out what clues lead to the Existence of Threat and to the Means.  I decide that both are people/events (the means being an actor of some type) and for the Existence of the Threat i get: The event was related to a Secret in the location, and those that are trying to protect the Secret will also try to dissuade the PCs from examining the event.


For the Means I roll: The Actor involved has been kidnapped by agents of the Enemy and taken to a remote Place. They mean to keep him or her out of events until the Scheme has come to completion, but they’ll kill him or her if necessary to preserve their silence.

Now I decide I want a clue to the Scheme itself and get: The event was hushed by local police, and getting the facts requires either the cooperation of an Actor involved in the investigation or a stealthy inspection of local police records.

For the Introduction scene I got: A Friend gives the PCs the results of their own research which aims the PCs at one or more Investigations. They’re still looking into things; if the PCs don’t dissuade them they’ll discover a useful clue for the heroes, but will perish hideously.

... and the Hook: The site's Enemy needs victims or recruits, and just happens to pick the heroes for an attack that is decidedly less overwhelming than it should be. The assailants have some sort of clue that traces back to the site.

To give a little more description I want to flesh out some of these.  I decide the Hook is an Ambush and so roll an ambush scene: The Enemy threatens a known Friend or ally of the PCs in order to goad them to come to their aid, and then attempts to deal with them all. The PCs will be aware they’re heading into danger, however, and may choose not to respond.

I decide the Means is going to be some kind of physical Combat scene (the thing guarding the captured Actor) and get: an eldritch entity summoned by the cult.  I decide to ignore the direct text - since this isn't a Cthulhu game - and instead that it's going to be some kind of non-human baddie as guard.

For the Actor involved with the police I decide I want a social encounter with Someone Who Fears Something and get: fears a person present with them

And finally the clue found that points towards the existence of the threat needs someone to..: recognize the residue of an occult ritual or event.  Again I'm ignoring the word "occult" and just going to say they need to recognize that some kind of villainous activity took place.

Taking some cues from the current political moment, I decide that HYDRA is working to get Taskmaster to train some Watchdogs recruits so they can infiltrate the NYPD. Ben Urich has been doing a report on the Watchdogs and wondering who is funding them and what they're planning.

A group of trained but not yet initiated into the police Watchdogs take Urich hostage and are overconfident in thinking they can take out the team of heroes that arrives to confront them.  From interrogating the Watchdogs or perhaps from some card or written address they can track down where Taskmaster is training them. Taskmaster doesn't exactly know who's funding him or why they want the guys trained but he's not one to leave money on the ground.  The PCs can either confront him directly or stake out the place to become aware of his presence and then figure out how to proceed from there. 

If they want to follow the cop angle there's a non-crooked member of the NYPD, we'll call him Officer Joel because that name popped in my head, who realizes that all of his buddies are being replaced by real racist assholes but isn't in a position to talk about it and is usually followed, even off duty, by somebody in with the Watchdogs.

While the PCs are working on one of those two angles, Urich continues the beat and gets kidnapped by actual HYDRA members.  They lock him in a warehouse with some robots made by Arnim Zola and you got some things the PCs gotta fight to save him.

It also leads some loose ends, like where are the HYDRA brass opperating out of? Do they have a goal with the police beyond just turning a blind eye to hate crimes? Do they have any other schemes with the Watchdogs?

So hopefully that shows how you can use the Silent Legions tables to make super hero scenarios.

Tales from the Cutthroat Inn: Snakes!

Session Date
April 21 (21st Day of the Month of Portly Pomp)

Characters Present
Annapurna, Altanian Ranger
Grafari, Skandik Rogue
Father Thorne, Human Wizard
Green Sonya, Half-Orc Barbarian

Events

• The session began with the party performing their various downtime activities. Notably Green Sonya became a member of the cult of the Spider God in order to gain access to the spiders so she could use their silk to make "pretty dresses" with the sewing equipment gained last time.
• The party also scrounged up the money to get Annapurna a restoration spell from the Temple of Odin. She had been preternaturally aged last time and was restored to her original age of 22, though she kept a shock of white hair.
• The goal for this session was to return to the Halls of the Black Spider and finally finish off their quarry.  Grafari was selected to be the party's guide, but he failed his roll by a couple of points. If they had continued on over the next few days, they would've ended up slightly off target as he thought they were about a hex north of where they actually were.
• However, just before trying to make camp for their first night, they were attacked by a great number of flying snakes.  Father Thorne noted in his mind that he had heard these creatures pester the Overlord's Light Cavalry, but he would not live long enough to relay this information.
• Father Thorne was taken out in the first round by the creatures' potent poison. 
• Annapurna decided to attack the snakes with bow and spell, but overestimated the efficacy of her magic and soon fell herself.
• Grafari, deciding that discretion is the better part of valor, jumped into the Conqueror's River and began to swim towards the City State.  Some snakes followed him but he was able to avoid their bites by remaining mostly submerged.
• Green Sonya tried for a time to fight the snakes, but soon realized Grafari had the right of it and joined him in the river.
• That night the two remaining party members made camp, but then stole away to go retrieve their comrades bodies for burial. This occurred without incident, though they did notice that the snakes dangle rather precariously in their trees when they sleep.

Monsters Defeated

2 Flying Snakes

Treasure Gained

A fear of flying snakes and their potent venom

XP Per Surviving Player

25

Politics in the Wilderlands

Click to Embiggen

Dark Green - Viridistan
Pink - The City State
Yellow - Thunderhold
Grey - Warwick
Purple - Orcs of the Purple Claw
Orange - Kingdom of Lightelf
Light Blue - Kingdom of Ossary
Brown - Kingdom of Croy

Unlike Rob Conley's vision of the Wilderlands, I do not view the politics of the City State as fundamentally feudal. Instead I think the name implies that it is a city state in the Greco-Roman or Mesopotamian mode and instead of having subordinate fiefdoms it has a "sphere of influence."

Within that sphere of influence the power in question has de facto power but not necessarily de jure power.  The de facto power comes mostly from the fact that they are more heavily militarized than the small villages they effectively bully.  You'll note on the map that many of the spheres of influence overlap, and these are the places in which battles happen.

Viridistan is slightly different.  On this map it shows a sphere of influence like the others, but on its home map it has provinces with governors who are more or less left to their own devices because of the incompetence of the inbred fish emperor. Most governors use their position to line their own pockets despite, or maybe because of, the fact that many have secretly been replaced with demons.

I should note that the kingdom of Lightelf is technically a client state of the Skandiks at Ossary, and that both Ossary and Croy are client states of the CSIO.  Pity the villages that lie where their spheres of influence overlap, because they get bullied twice.

A Map of the Karslish Isles

Click to Embiggen

This is a map of Karse and its neighboring islands.  The the North lie the Northern Isles, to the northeast is the largest northern isle known as Dogger Isle, to the southeast is Yseleg Mon, to the south is the Isle of Wights, and to the west is Brasil.

The southeast quadrant was meant to be the bit that contained the hex descriptions I wrote, as well as the capital of Nindol; however, the process of making the map made me realize I probably can't chunk the campaign into different quadrants and so those hexes are going to be spread around the main island.

Regions of the main island include the Tamesa Mountains, the Darkmoor, the Tulgey Wood, the Northern Marshes, and the Black Cliffs of Vore.

The Comitatus

The Comitatus is the name given to the mini-pantheon of the Invincible Overlord and his companions who went through apotheosis after destroying a giant, metal "insect" from the era of the Uttermost War that nearly destroyed the City State.  The exact mechanism for this is lost to time.  Today the demigods are worshiped usually as avatars or subcults of another god (Bjorn the Mighty being worshiped at the Temple of Odin, for example). They have been represented below with the crude idols that represented them around the time of the destruction of the strange creature.

Bjorn the Mighty - Strength
Bjorn is the most prominent of the members of the Comitatus, since he currently acts as the Invincible Overlord. Bjorn is worshiped by small number of Skandiks as a unifying figure, and by warriors and hedonists within the sphere of influence of the City State.

Alanna - Forge
Alanna is believed to be the member of the Comitatus whose understanding of the magical devices of the past allowed them to slay the creature.  In addition to contraptions and crafts of all sorts, she is generally associated with luck; however, despite being perhaps the most important figure in the apotheosis she is seldom worshiped outside Thunderhold and its colonies.

Mannas - Nature
Mannas was a dwarven druid who was one of the reasons the magician Salassim bought the members of the Comitatus from the slaver on the Plaza of Pleasures in the first place. He was able to correctly identify the Druid Stone, and once he apotheosized he visited his dwarven wrath on the dragon who dwelled in the Majestic Fastness.

Sarpedon - Death
This Ghinoran necromancer was an expert at raising the dead and his skeletons fought many battles in the unification of the Skandiks.  However, due to the prominence of Hamarkhis and the Hellbridge Temple in the City State, his cult is unpopular.  Even the Overlord seems to favor Hamarkhis, though perhaps Sarpedon is viewed by him as a sub-cult.

Slithering Fang Shi - Trickery
Fang Shi was from distant Wulin which lies somewhere east of Kharak, though it is perhaps part of that empire. He was magician whose type of magic is now lost to the people of the Wilderlands, but perhaps the tiny sect dedicated to him could once again uncover it.  He is associated with snakes and serpents, especially black racers and other small garden snakes.

D'Gok - War
D'Gok is the most obscure of the Comitatus, being primarily worshiped in conjunction with either Tosthaggus or the Toad; however, his cult is firmly lawful and believes their patron to have been of true knightly virtue. The origins of D'Gok are obscure, but it is known that he wore a magical shield emblazoned with an owlbear.