Some important discoveries this session. The Rainbow Connection finally discover the lair of the Jale Slavers. They had first learned of it after rescuing some slaves in the wilderness. They would begin to plot its downfall starting now.
They meet my Carcosa take on Trap-Jaw. I had written up a Carcosa style He-Man encounters, though I didn’t end up using too many in my game: 16 Encounters on Carcosa & [16 More Encounters on Carcosa][h2]. Master’s of the Universe was meant to be core to the whole game, and I tried to inject littles bits and pieces of that world when I could. I wrote these encounters after reading Richard’s [How Brightly Coloured Should Carcosa Be][color]. This post about Carcosa and Masters of the Universe was one of the biggest inspirations for my game. It’s what got me thinking about Carcosa in a completely different way.
They also discovered that the Castle of Decline was empty. The Bone Men from that town had said they would join them in Invak many sessions ago, but never made it. The party would learn what happened to them for a few more sessions. (Half travelled south to Snake-Men ruins, others were captured by Slavers on route to Invak.)
Finally the players find the Orange Citadel’s former “God”, the Frog Spawn Llothali. They killed the creature so hard I would end up having lots of discussions with them about whether the laser guns in the game were too over powered. Probably, but we never ended up changing any of the rules.
Quiet in Invak, the party head south towards Jahar to inquire about raptor trainers and their staff.
On the way they encounter 11 Blue Men, one shouting about wanting their metal.
They chase them off once they produce their armaments.
In Jahar they learn their staff has the power to summon the evil old one Molkrom: the sage doesn’t know how exactly, but thinks vile sorcerers may.
Merchants are readying themselves for a trip South to Cron.
Head back to Invak to go after some slavers!
No one will join them! Or will they?
The Lawgiver of Winds joins the party after a rousing speech about slavery.
Encounter a group of 12 slavers on the road while looking for the Slaver encampment!
A battle breaks out, of course. The Slavers are aware of the Rainbow Connection and aren’t fans.
Midway through the fight an old crone shows up, ready for battle! It’s Chris P.
This battle is bloodier than most: almost no misses till the every end!
A jerk ass slaver wounds Renoir, and makes his escape with 3 of his friends.
Capture 7 slaver heads and the vaporized remains of another
They find the slaver encampment. As they were told, it is a base built into a hillside. Slaves are chained up outside, and raptor mounted guards are outside.
The party decides now isn’t the time to attack.
They make their way over to the castle of decline, stopping along the way at the former Orange Men citadel.
Continuing to the Castle of Decline, they come to learn it has been abandoned. They aren’t sure where the Bone Men may have went, as Invak seems like the obvious choice.
Meet 4 Red Men on the road back to the Former Orange Men citadel, who they escort with them.
Head back to Invak without incident
Oh, the party also killed the Llothali without breaking a sweat. What?
The players had their home base in Invak, and had a strong relationship with the merchant town to the south, Jahar. At this point in the campaign they wanted to try and unify the region around the common aim of dealing with the slavers. There was a lot of travel between the two towns session, as they tried to negotiate an agreement. This was the session the Space Alien Strike Force finally made an appearance. They had been hinted at over the previous session, and were an entry on my random encounter table for some time. They were looking for whomever desecrated their tomb and stole the armour of their hero. Bad luck for the players: Gus’s character was wondering around in that armour. Had been since they found it. Hilarity ensues.
The players also reconnected with the women who escorted them to Invak at the start of the campaign, Queen of Autumn. Another random encounter roll? I don’t remember anymore.
The party heads South from Invak towards Jahar to learn more about the Staff of Avion and try and set up an alliance.
The Speaker of all Graces seems disinterested in this idea, but doesn’t say no outright.
Along the way they stumble upon the the Space Alien Strike Force: they are caught in a moment of rest.
Gus hides behind a rock because he is wearing the amour they are looking for.
The aliens have him sighted, so he ends up using his Solid Snake skills to sneak away. Meanwhile the rest of his team are friendly, and show the aliens they don’t have the armour. (And in fact saved their friends.)
When they investigate where Gus was, they see no one was there.
The party continues South, while Normangina takes a wide route to avoid the Aliens.
Along the way she stumbles upon a dead body off in the distance, which she decides to avoid as well.
Travelling further still she see a large Insectoid Spawn.
She manages to distract it with her smell squid, and sprints further away.
Finally she makes it back to the party.
They travel back to the dead body, to see if it has any loot.
They quickly learn there are several dead bodies, arranged in a circle head to toe with their arms reaching out to the centre. (So it looks like a spoke of a wheel.)
They take one of the bodies, a Red Man.
Evan’s character is loitering near by, he joins the group—strange. No one mentions it.
In Jahar the party run errands.
They convince the guard guild to recharge their weapons.
Gus’ Bazooka and Evan’s teleportation Ray are fully charged.
Drink with guards ends with crazy mayhem. The guards are even more friendly with the party now.
Chris P’ character steals small change from all the revellers, earning 60 GP
The next day the guards get the party an audience with their leader.
“The One” gives the players a letter saying he will support a military alliance with Invak
the party travels North, actively searching for trouble, but end up finding the Blue Menhirs
They arrive in Invak and give the Speaker of All Graces the letter of support.
Travel East looking for Slavers.
Find Queen of Autumn and the group that had went searching for her led by The Illustrious Prince of the Bone
They had actually just rescued her from a Spawn, which they fled.
The party is looking for trouble, however, so they head back in search of the Spawn they were fighting
Kill that thing so hard. I need laser proof spawn.
Other notes:
Gus puts out a bounty for raptors! And Eric will match that! And a hiring bounty as well!
Eric looking for binoculars, Geiger counter, which will be set aside in Jahar if the merchants find one.
Staff of Avion is left with the Sage. Owed 200GP if he learns anything about it.
Treasure:
1000 GP in Spawn Bounty (200 GP for them, 800 GP split between the party) so that’s 133 XP each
Comments:
Ramanan S (2015-10-13 04:49): The Queen of Autumn tells viewers to admit their mistakes rather than lying to cover them up.
Wait, you guys didn’t learn that lesson.
Gus L (2015-10-13 04:51): Maybe - more lies and a few dead bodies will bury a mistake pretty deep?
As you’ll see in the comments, I had been reading Blood Meridian, and the book and its mood started seeping into the game. I wrote about this a few years ago: A Carcosan Western. The game was meant to be light-hearted Masters of the Universe themed game, and while there was a fair bit of that, the game was probably more cowboys than He-Man. (That said, the Staff of Avion the players find this session is from Masters of the Universe.) The players were wandering the wastelands, having shootouts with bandits.
The dead man they find on the road was meant to be a clue something was amiss at the castle, but maybe not enough of a clue. The Snake Men ruins were another important site in the game the players would ignore. Kheret ils Nu’s Reliquary, which I wrote for the Trophy Gold megadungeon, borrows ideas from this campaign and these ruins my players never explored. The Snake Men would end up freed by the Dominant Reflection. They would restart their war with the Old Ones, so nominally aligned with the players, except to the Snake Men the players were just reagents for spells.
My rules for getting lost seemed to only come up when the party would leave their home base. They were constantly getting lost right next to their home. A little silly, but I kept with it because I thought it was funny.
[You can contrast the recap that follows with my Carcosa-style hex descriptions.][s14]
Trade has resumed between Jahar and Invak. The merchants are happy to hear you dealt with the cultists.
The Illustrious Prince of the Bone, former head of the Bone Man village in the outpost, has not been heard from since heading South in search of The Queen of Autumn.
Traders speak of wild aggressive Migo wandering in packs to the South, harassing their caravans.
The Black Man rescued from the Cultists is planning on leaving for the Castle he is from to the West. (And wouldn’t mind company for the trip.)
No word from the Citadel of Decline to the West in weeks.
Aggressive group of Space Aliens continue to stop and search travellers to the South.
Plus all the open threads from the open thread thread.
Recap:
The party rests in Invak, having emptied out the (no longer abandoned) space alien outpost.
Black Man “the Speaker of Benedictions” needs help getting home.
Was hunting when captured by slavers.
The party agrees to take him back to his home, being promised a modest reward for their efforts (and good karma, of course)
On the way West they get a little bit lost—par for the course when leaving Invak, apparently.
They wait till the evening to re-orient themselves using the stars.
While searching for a place to camp, they find some ruins of the ancient Snake-Men. The place fills them with foreboding. The leave it alone.
In the morning they head Northward. On the way they encounter a long line of Giant ants heading South West.
They leave the ants alone and continue North.
Further along they find a dead body, a Black Man whose head has been blown clear off (from laser a gun), gear scattered everywhere.
They continue to approach the castle.
The “the Speaker of Benedictions” goes ahead to get the gates opened.
He is promptly shot at by two men on the parapets of the Castle.
Attempts at parlay are for naught, so the Bazooka comes out.
The doors to the castle are blown open.
4 riders on velociraptors ride out, two armed with pistols, two with clubs.
Are long fight breaks out, but eventually the party succeed in driving away the remaining Purple Men who had taken over the castle. (6 flee into the wilderness)
The party capture two of the raptors during the fight and by searching the wilderness for one that ran away.
The party create a pyre and burn the dead Black Men that litter the castle.
They, along with the “the Speaker of Benedictions”, take all the valuables and head back to Invak.
Treasure:
8 Laser Pistols (but “the Speaker of Benedictions” claims two as side arms)
9000 GP = 2250 GP each (since “the Speaker of Benedictions” claims a share of the gold)
“Staff of Avion”
Two raptors (4HD, AC 12, MV 160’), Feathered Orange hide. Immune to poison.
Comments:
Ramanan S (2015-09-15 04:31): Feel like I remember more when I force myself to write them down right away. I should sleep for real now, though.
Chris G (2015-09-15 05:33): Dang! I would have shat a brick when dudes on velociraptors came out of the gate.
Dion Williams (2015-09-15 07:30): Sounds like a great session. Wish I could be making these.
Ramanan S (2015-09-15 12:24): Me too. One day Dion!
Ramanan S (2015-09-15 13:33): This session feels heavily informed by my reading cowboy books right now. (Though now when I look back at all the seasons they start to feel like Westerns.) You guys have good success killing over confident cultists and bandits.
Chris G (2015-09-18 05:25): I remember you mentioning Blood Meridian. What other cowboy books are you reading? I’m on a major Western kick right now.
Ramanan S (2015-09-18 11:22): Chris Geisel I said books I really meant that one, which should count for several. Hah.
Chris G (2015-09-18 23:26): lol, too true. I got excited for a cowboy book recommendation.
Ramanan S (2015-09-19 12:25): Gus can recommend several! There were some Elroy books he had mentioned a little while ago I have been meaning to check out. If you haven’t seen Unforgiven you should go do that now, though. There is a Japanese remake with Ken Wanatabe which is also cool.
Gus L (2015-09-19 16:26): Chris Geisel The cowboy books I’d recommend are actually very limited:
Pete Dexter’s “Deadwood” (1986) is just a great book. It’s the inspiration for the series of the same name, but very different.
Cormac McCarthy “Blood Meridian” is amazing - is it a Western? Mostly. In form certainly, but it’s very surreal at times, and very strange.
As to Elroy, that’s more historically researched hard-boiled pulp detective stuff. The darkest there is. Very good - especially the LA ones about greed corruption and lurid crime. Elmore Leonard wrote a mess of Westerns and I know I’ve read a couple, but they’re pretty standard fare, well written and amusing though in his jaunty style.
Ramanan S (2015-09-19 17:08): I’d actually say Blood Meridan is a post-apocalypse novel. I’m sure someone has written an essay about that.
Chris G (2015-09-20 03:03): Gus L I’ve read Blood Meridian. I’ll check out Deadwood, thanks. There’s a collection of Elroy’s Western stories at a local book store here, do you think it’s worth checking out.
Gus L (2015-09-20 03:17): Chris Geisel I haven’t read a lot of his Westerns, I like the guy’s writing and he’s pretty much at the core of that genre.
Ramanan S (2015-10-07 12:32): I think i’m going to start using my alternate time line re-stocking tables as a way to do rumours going forward. Sort of like meta-rumours, I guess.
Eric Boyd (2015-10-12 03:25): Gus L Beloch Shrike How are we splitting up the haul, here? Two people get velociraptors and a low-charge pistol each, someone else gets the Staff of Avion and four laser pistols? Orange Julia would prefer a dinosaur if we go with that split.
Gus L (2015-10-12 16:00): Well I figure dinos would be based on the mechanics. Normigina has Animal Handling 3 - what’s needed to ride the raptor?
Ramanan S (2015-10-12 19:39): The raptors you have are domesticated enough you can hop on them and ride around. None of you would likely have practice riding them around for a fight, though. Maybe Normangina would be a bit better here? So you would need to practice that. They will likely run away if left unattended. They need to eat 3x the rations you guys do, but will happily eat the lizard meat available in Invak. Gus can try and train them to get used to your troupe so they know to stick around. Or to try and fight on command. Etc. Would probably take more time than a week?
Ramanan S (2015-10-12 19:41): The Staff of Avion is 6’ long and inscribed with runes, clearly of snake men origin to any sorcerers in the group.
This session the players explored the rest of the Space Alien outpost. When the returned I had re-stocked the space differently, because it had been captured. The rooms that they had not explored previously were sealed, so that area was unchanged.
This session feels like some stereotype of an OSR game. The party wakes up all the Space Aliens that manned the outpost, who were in cryropods. Nick decided the best course of action was to knock one out while he was still disoriented, and run away with him. Maybe they were unsure what the deal would be with these particular aliens, and wanted to chat with one of them alone? This Space Alien ended up living in Invak, convinced he had been saved by the party and that all his friends were dead.
The rest of the session is typical Carcosa hijinks. They stumble up on the Frog-God Llothali that they had let loose in the wilderness when they freed the Orange Man citadel.
Spotty attendance after the last game because I moved the session a week, and didn’t create a new event. Once again, my biggest advice for running a long running campaign is playing on a consistent schedule. People will often say this game or that game have the mechanics required for long term play. Fuck that, the only mechanics you need are a calendar and actually showing up.
The party begins in the newly liberated space alien outpost. Before it becomes truly abandoned, they decide to investigate the remainder of the complex.
They recruit a couple Bone Men to act as henchmen, who are a bit wary of exploring this portion of the complex.
Prying open the locked door that leads north from the basement stairs, they find a small corridor, with 3 more doors.
To the East is a room full of pods.
Examining the pods they realize they each house an alien in some sort of stasis.
Renoir attempts to shatter the glass door on top of a pod. His sledgehammer bounces right off.
The party leaves the room, heading to the West most room. Inside they find a room full of strange plant life.
The floors are littered with some dead plants and fruit, but not enough considering no one has been in here for years.
While picking fruit the party sees that various autonomous robotic arms, etc, look to be taking care of the plants.
The party moves to the centre room, the last remaining unexplored room.
There is a large cylinder in the centre of the room that extends down into the ground. It pulses with red light. It’s cordoned off by a circular railing. The room is full of computers, and everything looks to be in working order.
Orange Julia pushes a big red button!
Slowly the pulsing of the cylinder comes to a halt. The lights in the complex turn off, and the sound of doors opening can be heard throughout the complex.
In the dark, the PCs here another sound, the sound of the pods full of aliens opening.
The party waits a beat to see what happens. They hear the sound of an alien retching.
Realizing the aliens might be disoriented from being in stasis for so long, Renoir decides to cold-cock one and kidnap him.
Alien on his shoulder, the party book it out of the complex. Everyone else is milling around outside, confused by the loss of power.
Seeing the party running away, they join in.
Once a reasonable distance away, the two groups of captives head off: the Orange Men to their town to the East, Joi; the Brown Men to the merchant town Jahar.
About half way to Invak the party spot what looks to be a giant frog off in the distance. That’s strange. Could it be the Frog-God Llothali, worshipped by those crazy Orange Men to the North. Yes, it probably is. How many giant-ass toads could there be?
The party decide to take a longer detour to reach Invak.
On the way they startle a group of 4 slavers.
Bargo charges in and completely brains one.
The rest flee post-haste.
The party gives chase, but without more range weapons pursuit seems fruitless. (I should look up the LotFP chase rules, they might have been a better option for that part of the game.)
The party regroup and head to Invak, where they are greeted as heroes.
The Swift and Silent Beginning thanks the players for ridding the world of more cultists, and for helping fight the slavers. (You have more renown in the town.)
Upon learning there is a space alien that was “rescued” from the complex, he asks that the creature be brought to him to be freed.
The party wake up the alien, who has a surprisingly positive disposition.
He is confused about where he is, what the date is, and what has transpired since his last week long shift at the space alien outpost.
The party informs him that they saved him, that the rest of his comrades presumably died years ago.
He decides to stay in Invak for now.
The new bone men also start to settle in to their new home.
The party travels South to Jahar.
Orange Julia’s pack lizard is worn down from all the travel and dies in Jahar. (The merchants will buy his body to be turned into rations for 50GP—I forgot to mention in the session!)
The party sell their weird alien fruit and call it a day.
The Bone Man sorcerer, The Dominant Reflection (AC 16, MV 90’, HD 4, Chaotic) has taken over the abandoned Space Alien outpost, along with a sizeable group of Bone Men cultists. They worship the long dead Snake Men.
I had been teasing Bone Men cultists operating between the party’s home town of Invak, and the merchant town to the South, Jahar, for a few sessions. The Space Alien outpost was between the two towns, and was also home to secret village of Bone Men. It was time to finally scope out what was going on!
I had fun seeing this long running thread from [the start of the game][s1] finally lead somewhere. As I have mentioned earlier, the Bone Man the party freed from a cell in the very first session was actually a dirt bag sorcerer, the Dominant Reflection, imprisoned by the rest of Bone Men that lived in the outpost. While the players were wandering Carcosa, he was gathering up a crew of cultists, who then took over the outpost, making it their base of operation.
The players some how managed to steam roll their way through the outpost, building up a posse as they freed captives. The session concluded with them saving the town. One of the more He-Man sessions in the game. In the commotion the Dominant Reflection escaped! There is chatter in the comments about what happened off camera, whether it was cheesy or not to let the character escape. I thought not, and the players agreed.
The players convince the town’s leader to come back with them to Invak in the post game discussion. We would sometimes play out things like that in post game chat between sessions.
This would end up being the midpoint of the campaign, though I didn’t know it at the time. Kind of fitting we looped back to where we started.
The party travels from Jahar North towards the “abandoned” space alien outpost.
They see that it is guarded by two Bone Men, so they venture in via the radioactive wastes.
The large centre room is filled with 9 bone men, reviewing maps and papers on large tables. The characters surprise the group, and kill a few before they can even retaliate. A few manage to flee to the basement.
A long drawn out fight takes place on the main floor. Bone Men from various rooms join in. The party also encounter Bone Men from the original tribe that were living here, who join them in trying to shake off these cultists.
The characters make their way to the basement, making quick work of two guards below.
Moving forward they make their way to where they believe they will find the leader of the cult.
More cultists are killed, and tribesman recruited, as the party marches forward.
In the middle of the battle, the The Dominant Reflection looks to have made a break for it, his “throne room” sits empty.
The party continue to travel around the basement in search of the sorcerer, but only encounter other former members of the Bone Men tribe, whom they free.
By the time the party makes it back up to the top floor, and out the front door, the sorcerer looks to have fled.
The party rest in the Space Alien Outpost, where they are heralded as heroes.
Notes:
The Queen of Autumn was not amongst any of the people killed or freed. The leader of the Bone Men believes she escaped when the Sorcerer originally returned with his band of cultists to take over the ‘town’.
The leader of the town, the Prince of Bone, gives your characters a 500 GP blood red ruby from the vault you passed when you first entered the basement.
The Prince of Bone reveals that while they have no power over the Spherical Hunter Killer robot, they quickly learned that it can not “see” Bone Men. It completely ignores them. They also confirm your suspicion that it only hunts at night. They leave it alone.
The Prince of Bone reveals that the sorcerer was previously imprisoned by the Bone Men here, because he was crazy-ass-crazy. They don’t know how he escaped, though they think it probably happened around the time Gus and Eric were previously here. He doesn’t put two and two together, because he’s so happy to be free. (You will recall you freed a naked Bone Man from a cell and fed him, before letting him run off into the wastes.)
As before, the Prince of Bone asks that you not reveal to anyone the location of the town.
Treasure:
The heads of 23 bone men cultists, whose bounty will be collected in Invak. (100GP per cultist killed or 2300 GP once you return to Invak)
500 GP gem
173 GP in random coinage from the 23 dead cultists.
One laser gun (Brendan’s character has it)
Comments:
Brendan S (2015-07-21 04:28): For my records: Laser gun has 9 charges.
Ramanan S (2015-07-21 04:28): The leader had several rounds on you guys and ran around and back up the stairs. I don’t think you guys would have been able to catch him and his (now small) crew. How would you have handled pursuit like that? (He was the other 6 I rolled for initiative when you guys were fighting in the basement hall way.)
Ramanan S (2015-07-21 04:30): You guys also managed to kill most of the bone men, which seems crazy. Whenever I read these old TSR modules with giant mobs of monsters I’m always at a loss for how it won’t just turn into a shit show.
Eric Boyd (2015-07-21 04:32): Yeah, that’s tracking, not a chase per se, and you’ve let the party get away in craters and badlands enough times that I’d call this a fair call. We should’ve sent some of the freed captives back around to keep watch…
Ramanan S (2015-07-21 04:47): On the one hand it seems lame to save my NPC, but on the other it seemed dumb to have him just wait for you guys when it was probably clear the tide was turning.
Gus L (2015-07-21 06:05): I’d say this leader needs a talking to. The city to the South of some non-bone men know where his people are, the sorcerer who kicked his ass last time knows where his people are. The slavers will undoubtedly soon know where they are.
We won’t come back and save him next time he gets taken over by a sorcerer - we’ll just bring the town guards and Invakians to kill everyone. Everyone. They won’t be a nuisance to trade anymore. The major power in the area - the one we nominally work for/with is boneman - he needs to bring his people into Invak, and set up a life there - they should be welcoming. We can help arrange that. If not, since he was a dude in a cell recently Normagina will encourage the other survivors to come with us to to Invak and let the crazy leader and the crazy sorcerer fight it out before we come back and murder the winners/survivors with Invak’s militia in a few months.
This should not really be a choice for them, small communities get slaughtered, mutated or taken over by nuts. They are not even a small community now - time to join up with someone bigger.
Also mumble mumble something about strategic hamlets.
Ramanan S (2015-08-07 04:57): Alright!
You can convince this fellow that staying here is a dumb idea. The group is still very suspicious of outsiders, but since you have shown up and saved them from cult-stupidness they are willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.
The leader and 5 of his followers are going to search for “The Queen of Autumn”, the women who escorted Gus L and Eric Boyd back to Invak during that first session. Everyone else will come with you. (I’ll look up numbers.)
Also I realise I made a mistake with the people you were freeing from the cells. Not everyone is a Bone Man. Some people are captives from the region. They will also come back with you to Invak. I need to double check my notes for where people are from.
This dungeon is basically cleared except for the central locked section in the basement. (The doors to the North when you go down the stairs.) The bone men have also not entered the area, lacking the appropriate pass key. They assume it’s where the power comes from. There is a strange symbol that they say means power embossed on the door.
I should give you guys XP for messing up the cultist faction as well.
Eric Boyd (2015-08-07 04:59): Do any of our assorted key cards open the basement?
Ramanan S (2015-08-07 05:16): Sadly no. It’s the same sort of metal sliding door you see throughout, just locked. You can try and bust it open if you are so inclined. The Bone Men are superstitious about it, but won’t interfere if you want to mess with it.
This is the first session Chris P joined the fight. There were two Chris’s on G+ that were consummate players. Like Eric, they were almost always down to play whenever you would post a game. Players like that make running a poorly organized campaign work.
When I would share invites on G+ for the Masters of Carcosa sessions I would include rumours and news the players had learned. There was also a post on my G+ community for the game where I would keep all the loose threads up to date. For this session the players knew the following:
Trade between Invak and Jahar presumably remains on hiatus for now while Jahar’s merchants waits for this cult to move on or be replaced.
The merchants will travel East to the Citadel of Brown Men known as Lessel.
Deep One sightings at the Lake to the South.
During the session they would learn more about the deep ones, who apparently had emerald belts. (The deep ones in this game were effectively Mer-Man from Masters of the Universe.) This was the rumour the players decided to follow, resulting in a very straight forward session compared to some of the others: kill some cultists, free some captives, find some treasure.
The party finally learned some more rituals, not that it really mattered. The rituals didn’t really match the vibe of the game, even though Chris’s character was a real dirt bag sorcerer. He was constantly trying to learn and find more, and I basically didn’t really want them in my game so was kind of a real dick when it came to having them show up in play. For the most part playing a Sorcerer was just the hard-mode version of playing a Fighter. The classes were the same, but Sorcerers had harder XP requirements.
The next session the players will return to the “abandoned” Space Alien outpost that kicked off the campaign. It’s kind of neat that it happened to happen at what would be the midpoint of the campaign.
The party decides to remain in and around Glom for the time being.
The city is clearly built within snake men ruins, but no one in town seems to know or care—or at least won’t talk to the party about it.
Rumours of emerald wearing deep ones send the party south to the lake.
There they see a group of cultists camped near the statue and pillars visible last session.
They approach closer and start examining the pillars: rituals!
Then they get shot at.
A fight!
The obvious cultists put up a mediocre fight, missing like the cast of G.I. Joe.
The party are victorious after a protracted fight. Captives are freed. New rituals learned. Success!
Treasure:
500 GP
5 Gems: 2700 GP
6 wax figurines of deep ones
4 Naginatas (6 grabbed by captives)
Rituals:
Summon Amphibious Ones - This eleven-hour ritual can be completed only on a fog-shrouded night. The Sorcerer must obtain the root of potency found only in ruined apothecaries of the Snake-Men. The sacrifice is a virgin White girl. As her life leaves her body, 10–100 of the Amphibious Ones will coalesce out of the mists.
The Blasphemous Sacrifice (to Bind Amphibious Ones) - This ritual cannot be performed on its own, but only as an adjunct to the SUMMON THE AMPHIBIOUS ONES ritual. It adds an hour to the time required to complete the ritual (thus twelve hours total). The sacrifice is further subjected to an hour of unspeakable tortures before being slain. At the end of the rituals, the Sorcerer will have complete control over the horde of Amphibious Ones for 24 hours.
The Call of Cthulhu (to Summon Cthulhu) - This 24 hour ritual must be cast while waist deep in the polluted waters of Carcosa. Once the ritual chanting and genuflection begins, the sorcerer must drown a Purple Men at the end of each hour of the ritual. All the victims must be a willing sacrifices to the Great Old One Cthulhu. When the life leaves the last of the Purple Men, Cthulhu will rise up from the waters.
I remember this session really well, because it was another weird one. Only Dion and Willie could make it, and they didn’t want to do anything risky. The players travelled with the merchants on their trip South, stopping in the village of Glom. There they met affable Carcosans and got totally wasted. The description for the settlement in the hex is as follows: Village of 310 Ulfire Men ruled by “the Unapproachable
Radiance,” a neutral 6th-level Sorcerer. A lot of the Carcosa book is villages like this. That somehow transformed into what is described in the recap below. I am quite certain that going into this session I thought the players would return to the cavern they had been exploring, and so when they didn’t I had to spin something out from my most meagre of notes. Besides the description in the Carcosa book, the only thing I knew about this town was its name, which I had given it when drawing the initial region map for the campaign. In my notes I had something about Mer-Man cultists worshiping Cthulhu by the lake. I’m pretty sure I came up with the idea of evil Cthulhu lake water as a type of booze, and then just extrapolated everything else from that. Sometimes that’s what you gotta do.
This is the first session Eric missed! There was a mixup because I kept on rescheduling. This is why you need to be consistent when you’re running games!
The party begins the session in Jahar, where they returned with the body of a dead amoured space alien and a Bone Man cultist who attacked them on the road. They learned of the base the cultists presumably operate out of.
Since there were only two players today the group decided to avoid the cultists enclave and head South with the traders.
The party ended up in the city of Glom, the trip South was uneventful.
The merchants stay in a quiet Inn, with no name but a strange ancient symbols etched on its door. Sorcerers will recognize this as the snake man word for Torture Gallery.
The party wanders around town, which seems to be a surprisingly easy going place.
They come upon a louder and more boisterous tavern.
The bar servers two drinks, “lake water”, and a purple lotus concoction.
Asha-Rea samples the lotus drink, Grenn the lake water.
Each gets plastered in their own way.
They wake up the next day back in the original inn. (TODO: make a carousing table!)
The next day they explore the town.
“the Joy-Giver of All the Living” sells tonics and potions made out of the lake water. They buy a “healing potion”
“the Inestimable Fullness” is a tailor that is built like the Kingpin. They buy fancy hats from him, and Asha-Rea buys a set of clothes. They will be ready in a week.
The party decides to trek to the near by lake to collect water for sale to the Alchemist.
This occurs without incident, but the lake gives them a thoroughly creepy vibe. There are rumours it is full of Deep Ones.
They see a monument of statues in the distance, surrounded by pillars. They don’t investigate!
They return to town with two barrels of the bizarre lake water, which they sell for 50GP a pop.
The players had found a Space Alien compass in an earlier session and decided to see where it would lead them. I had decided it would lead them towards the tomb of a dead Space Alien hero. A nearby hex was described in the book like so:
In a pure white chamber is the perfectly preserved
corpse of a Space Alien wearing a suit of reflective armor
that protects against the following types of weapons:
microwave, yellow laser, dysprosium, polonium, nickel,
neptunium, cesium, strontium, radon, aluminum, boron,
mercury, thulium, protactinium, niobium, and helium.
8 Space Aliens (AC 12, MV 120’, HD 3), part of an elite combat squad, pursue a group of Carcosan who have defiled one of their tombs through the badlands. They are armed with laser rifles.
They were first mentioned in the session 7 recap, and I likely added them as an entry on the encounter table for the region shortly after. The players would meet them a few sessions later. As I mentioned earlier, I would sometimes use the recaps as a way to share rumours, and also share news about the off camera world with the players. In the session 8 recap I shared that the Bone Men cultists were taking people back to an Abandoned Space Alien Outpost. The players would eventually return there, but I don’t think it was because of the mention in that recap. This is probably too subtle a way to share what’s going on, but it was a fun all the same.
I also used the other entry from Hex 1113 this session, having the mutant T-Rex show up.
There are no settlements in this hex because of the mutant tyrannosaurus (AC 15, MV 150 , HD 15, Neutral, 30 aura of radioactivity, bulging eyes, transparent skin) that slays anything in its vicinity.
The entries in Carcosa are quite terse, but sometimes that’s all you need for something to be memorable. I got quite used to spinning out whole sessions from a few sentences, both in my own notes and from the book.
The party begins the session in Invak, having returned their from Jahar. They decide to follow the strange alien compass to wherever it may lead.
They venture South towards Jahar, but about 4 hours out of town they stumble upon 6 White Men, presumably slaves, dying in the desert.
The party splits up, with one group heading back to Invak to secure a rescue party.
On the way back the encounter a Spawn, a Blue quadruped with a smooth hide, 4 eyes, and a beaked mouth. They give it a wide berth, and it leaves them alone.
They rescue the White Men without incident, who are now recuperating in Invak
The party heads South again, travelling towards Jahar.
They make it to the town without incident and spend the night.
The next day they head East towards the site the compass is pointing towards.
They discover a small white structure.
Examining it, they discover it looks to like a tomb for a dead Space Alien.
The party takes the alien and his armour.
As it is quite late they camp out in the wastes!
At night a group of bone men wander by, but do not see the party.
They party surprises the group.
The bone man snuff out their torches, and a melee breaks out in the dark.
It is violent, and the bone men are put down. One bone man is captured.
The party returns to Jahar, but as they are about to leave a radioactive t-rex shows up!
It is distracted by the pile of carrion and lets the party move away.
Back at Jahar the party hand over the captured bone man to the merchant caravan guards.
Treasure:
Space Alien Armour - full body and reflective
3 laser guns (from cultists)
Well preserved dead Space Alien
50’ of Rope x 4
10’ of rusted iron chain, with manacles (no key)
One small pouch of Green Lotus Powder
Ceramic short swords, perhaps space alien in origin x 8
6 torches
I was still apparently not confident the game was actually fun, 9 sessions in. Reading these recaps now it’s funny how unsure I was about this game.
Eric Boyd (2015-05-06 01:13): Side note: my character is named Orange Julia.
Ramanan S (2015-05-06 03:45): I added items of note from the dead cultists. They were wearing leather like armour, but that would be ruined from the fight. Green Lotus Powder: A victim of the green lotus powder falls into an unconscious trance for 9-12 hours, then awakens in a state of extreme weakness and sickness. He can do little other than speak sparingly, recline, and eat and drink. The green lotus sickness does not directly cause death, but the body becomes very thin and the mind prone to despair. Eventual suicide is common among victims of the green lotus.
Eric Boyd (2015-05-06 06:24): Is the green lotus powder something we can throw in someone’s face, or is it an ingested poison?
Ramanan S (2015-05-06 09:43): I pictured it like a throw in your face sort of thing, like you make a small cloud. Ingesting works too and is probably a more reliable vector for administrating it.
Chris G (2015-05-06 16:44): I freakin’ love these recaps. One of these Mondays I’ll get off work early enough to join.
Ramanan S (2015-05-06 23:48): The actual sessions are probably less exciting. Hah.
Chris G (2015-05-07 20:46): That sales pitch needs some work …
Ramanan S (2015-05-07 22:03): Once I figure out how to be a good DM i’ll get on that next. Ha!
Eric Boyd (2015-05-07 23:17): Hey, enough with the self-deprecation and imposter syndrome! If you didn’t know what you were doing, we wouldn’t show up.
Ramanan S (2015-05-08 04:09): Fair enough. I think my main problem is everyone I play D&D with also happens to be an amazing DM. Ha! I think I can do a better job if I was like 20% more organized. One day.
… the leader of Invak would pay for the heads of Jale Slavers, and so the game because all about hunting the slavers and chopping of their heads. Blood Meridian, but in Carcosa. (Except the party would actually kill slavers, not any old person.)
Wait, I lied. This session the party does end up killing people and taking them back to Invak to collect their reward. Bad PR for OSR players everywhere.
Were these Bone Men slavers? No, I’m pretty sure they were cultists working for The Dominant Reflection. If you have been following along, in the very first session the players freed a Bone Man they found imprisoned in the Abandoned Space Alien Outpost. He disappeared into the wilderness, but that wasn’t the end of his story. At this point the players had not encountered him or his followers again, but that was soon to change.
The party also some how manage to turn the death of two hirelings they recruited in town into some positive PR, paying for their funerals. Jahar initially had a negative disposition to outsiders, but the group would slowly change that over the course of the campaign.
The main goal for the session was to pilfer Alien technology from the campsite of the lost Space Aliens they had rescued recently. This resulted—once again—in a battle with insane Mi-Go. How many times would I have the players fight Mi-Go? Several: I always listen to the results of the dice!
Sam Pearson is the person behind two of Games Workshop’s greatest games: Warcry & Spearhead. He has recently started a YouTube channel after ending his time at the company as one of their lead game designers. So far the videos are all straight up bangers, but he’s recently shared three videos on game design that are worth watching in particular:
Meaningful Player Choice is an incredible discussion on game design, whether you’re interested in war-games or not. The last video is about turning your ideas into a polished product. This is all top tier! Enjoy.
