Pipes, Pints, and Polyhedrons

Arashi wrote: ↑March 31st, 2019, 9:06 am

Ancalagon wrote: ↑March 26th, 2019, 4:25 pm I like those combats that turn into nail biters right down to the last hit point. Good times!

This was one of those. And I really couldn't have hoped for a more nail-biting conclusion to that fight from a DM perspective. PC victory, but questionable the whole way through.

Opposed to the mess we ended our last session with. We played another two sessions this week and the last one featured a confrontation that the PCs were intended to run the hell away from. Or died swiftly trying to face. They ended up defeating that encounter with nothing more than a dead henchman thanks to a lucky crit. From a DM standpoint I probably should have waved off such a brutal crit result against such a superior opponent but at the time I stayed true to the dice and established game mechanics, for better or worse.

Live and learn.

Good call. Let the dice fall where they may! The PCs made their choice and then got lucky... sooner or later luck will go the other way. Either way, as the DM, always play it straight up.

Just catching up on campaign reports myself, I'm digging the the last two posts. Good stuff!

Session 09 - March 26, 2019

Our ninth session I had self-titled "The Great Gig in the Sky" from Pink Flyod's album Dark Side of the Moon. Almost all of the "titles" I give our sessions are the titles of songs. Music plays a big part of my personal inspiration for campaigns and I will usually plan sessions around some sort of theme or "feeling" that is inspired by one music track or another. A lot of times they also have some indirect connection with actual events, such as planning for the PCs to journey to a place known as Sky Tower in this session.

With the three PCs still heavily injured from their fight with Gillo, the former acolyte of Tyrare who had turned to worshiping Kovoon, the Tyrant, and on a very tight schedule as it was to get to Sky Tower, they had little opportunity to waste time in Forevi to rest, heal and make any further investigations. Sigfrido, the Siyja'an Adjudicator, and Callisto broke away from the rest of the party long enough to return the body of the murdered priestess to the local temple/grain store.

I had expected this course of action, of course, and had something planned. Kovoon really dislikes having his minions thwarted and unlike his fellow major powers does not mind making his presence known directly, especially when he wishes to make his displeasure known. Sometimes I take a little extra time and write out fairly descriptive events to read to my players. I'll let the entry from my DM notes for this session speak for themselves.

You find Novitiate Perata in the Temple. Rather, you find what remains of Novitiate Perata. The scene that greets you upon opening the Temple's door is one that is difficult to imagine. A broom lays on the dirt floor only feet away, obvious sign that the young novitiate had indeed been preparing the temple for the priestess' return. Of Novitiate Perata, she is suspended in mid air in the center of the room, held in place by four lengths of her intestines that seem to be anchored to the ceiling at various points. They are oversized, blackened, and bloated. Worse yet, the Novitiate appears to somehow still be alive, despite the bloody mess on the floor beneath her.
Her head turns as the door is opened, her eyes wide in fear and pain. "Help me," she begs hoarsely. "Please... help me!"

The next words you hear come from all around you, though the priest's mouth moves in time with the words. The voice is low, gravelly, cold... so devoid of any feeling as to seem malicious. "She suffers for your actions," it says. "And now you die."

At this point I have both Sigfrido and Callisto make saving throws vs fear. It is a fairly horrifying sight before them, and as the campaign has progressed things Kovoon related have taken on a decidedly horrific/Ravenloft-esque feeling to them. Sigfrido, surprisingly, fails his save while Callisto -- also surprisingly -- makes his. Sigfrido goes running off back towards camp as fast as his legs will carry him and the scene continues. In hindsight, if either of them had to make their saving throw, it was Callisto who was the best prepared to deal with the result due to his AC.

The initiate begins to scream and you hear the sounds of cracking bones from within her body, her chest begins to bulge outwards moments before her ribs begin to tear through her flesh, jagged pieces of bone, and then the truly crack, and 24 bony spikes -- fragments of her rib cage -- explode across the room towards you. (Each member of the party within the Temple takes an equal number of attacks. The attacks are unaimed so they suffer a -4 to their attack roll. They do 1d3 per successful attack.)

Had it been Sigfrido standing there, with his much lower AC, there's a good chance he would have been dropped then and there. If Giovanni, the mage, with his AC10 been there, just a few successful hits would have dropped him. Callisto has the highest AC of the party at 15, and with the -4 penalty for unaimed attacks... 24 attack dice were rolled with only four hits. Those four still messed him up pretty badly, not being at full health, but he managed to stay on his feet.

As soon as the Novitiate’s chest explodes the four anchoring intestines unlatch from the ceiling and begin to serve as legs, allowing the Initiate's corpse to jerk about the room. There is more cracking from within her body, and jagged pieces of bone tear through the skin at her wrist, forming gruesome but lethal looking blades of bone. The… horror… advances on you… the Novitiate still somehow horrifically alive… still begging you to please help her, crying that she does not feel well at all, and uttering prayers to Tyrare, even Noyja, begging the two goddesses for her life.

When first planning for this specific event I had one goal in mind: I wanted to paint an image of Kovoon that would stick with the players and leave no doubt in their mind that that particular power is truly merciless, truly evil, with absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever and if a PC or two died in the process, so much the better. Most of the side quests that are available for the party to pursue are related to Kovoon in one way or another, and by extension, to the campaign plot. When planning the scene I took my original inspiration from an encounter that Ancalagon threw at his players in his C&C campaign early on, then expanded on the horror aspects of it.

As the scene was playing out I expected Callisto to choose to run at the first opportunity he had, but he didn't. He drew his rapier and advanced on the creature, striking at it to no effect before remembering running the hell away is always an acceptable option when alone and facing some horror you know absolutely nothing about. He backed through the door, shutting it behind him, just in time for it to start tearing apart the shoddy wall the door was set in. Moments later it burst through the old wood wall. He did manage to strike one of its "legs", severing it, just before it gutted his horse (which also had the priestess' body slung over it, as well as all his belongings including the rapier he had looted from the catacombs beneath Castello del'Medici).

By that time Sigfrido had regained his wits about him, fetched Giovanni and Vissia at the camp and they came upon this horrific scene, everyone making their saving throws this time around. Successful saving throws or not, the choice was made to run like hell. As they retreated from Forevi the sounds of the villagers dying to the abomination echoed behind them.

They rode hard for Sassenenvento Monastery the next two days, stopping only briefly in the deep of night to rest their mounts and catch a few hours of sleep themselves. At the monastery (connected to the Ducean church) they stabled their mounts before making the ascent up the mountain along the path known as the Road of the Broken Blade. At the top they reached Sky Tower, the seat of the Ducean faith's presence in Trant. Although late in the evening they had managed to arrive within the time that had been permitted them.

It was here that Giovanni spent five days performing his various tests to level up. His five tasks were to learn and transcribe a new spell into his spell book, solve a riddle, pass a test, fight his brother Callisto to the death, and finally to fight himself. A few of these were more interesting than the other.

For the fight against Callisto I simply handed Callisto's player, Mark, a slip of paper with instructions. In the midst of his studies Callisto barged into the room Giovanni was seated and drew his rapier, attacking him at once. Paul, Giovanni's player, not having a clue what this was about played true to his character being Callisto's brother and chose the risky route of trying to subdue rather than kill him. And surprisingly enough did in fact manage to subdue him briefly while trying to figure out what had gotten into his brother. But when Callisto got himself loose he murdered Giovanni in cold blood.

And then the illusion Giovanni's wizard mentor had cast dissipated and he was instructed to trust no one, ever. Not even his brother.

He fought himself the following day, which was without a doubt the easiest test to actually run, since he had just finished learning the sleep spell and I knew that would be Paul's go to spell. Being his go to spell, it would be his double's go to spell. It would all come down to initiative. The real Giovanni won that and the test was over when he slit "his" own throat. Once again, the illusion dissipated.

The test was his mentor offering him pretty much everything the character wanted. Giovanni is a transmuter, and a fairly frail and weak individual. His focus on transmutation is to transform his body into something more respectable. The mentor basically offered an opportunity to study long term under him, to learn the secrets of transmutation, of magicks that could transform his frail form into one that even Duceans would envy. But the study and effort and time would be intensive, and he would have to forego his adventures. Basically, Giovanni would have to retire from adventuring and leave the party full time to achieve his goals. Obviously I didn't expect him to take the mentor up on this offer, but it was still fun to see how he justified the choice given the character's desire to have all those things.

Meanwhile, Sigfrido and Callisto had discovered that their old "friend" Sabine had arrived at Sky Tower only a few days prior. Last they had seen her was when she had disappeared from Vallera after challenging Callisto to a friendly duel.

Callisto and Sabine did finally get their duel. Callisto, who fights with rapier and swordbreaker dagger, and Sabine, who fights in the "Trantoran Dueling" tradition with just a rapier, met at dawn the next morning on the combat platform overlooking the monastery far below. Callisto jokingly warned her that she best not be too attached to her rapier, which she blew off. (From her point of view, she had an enchanted rapier, which would be much more difficult to damage than a regular one, and knowing this shrugged off the threat.)

As they prepared for the friendly duel one of Sky Tower's servants stepped out onto the platform to light a pipe, a flask in hand. He politely asked if they minded if he watched... Duceans don't fight elegantly, he proclaimed, so it would be nice to see something a little different. Friendly fellow that he was, neither Callisto or Sabine objected.

She won initiative and struck at Callisto, whose initiative and weapon speed allowed him to parry and trap her rapier. Luck was actually with Mark this evening as he first rolled a 20 on his parry/trap attempt, and then a 20 on his sunder attempt. Her enchanted rapier shattered midways down the blade, leaving her unarmed.

That is when Callisto heard the "servant" announce, "Sabine Cantelli, the Ledger sends their regards." In my campaign world, its well established lore that members of the Assassin's Guild always politely inform their victims of the client who paid the fee to bring about their deaths, using the "so and so sends their regards" phrase.

The flask had contained a potion of haste that would last for six rounds. He moved blindingly fast, of course, drawing two daggers from where they had been concealed in the sleeves of his tunic. Sabine at that time had her back to the assassin and he got in two easy attacks from behind that immediately dropped her to -1. She made a CON check and managed to stay conscious, though she would be out of the fight, prone and more or less helpless for the remainder of it.

Despite all the problems Sabine had caused the PCs thus far in the campaign, Callisto didn't hesitate interposing himself between the assassin and Sabine, protecting her with his own body. It was literally everything he could do just to defend against the assassin's four attacks per round, but in the end Mark's dice were rolling high for him and mine were on a serious losing streak. Sigfrido arrived just after the doors from the keep would finally open for them (they had been wizard locked via scroll, the magic of which dissipated upon the assassin's death) and intended to question the assassin, but Callisto instead finished him off much to the Adjudicator's disgust.

This was another staged scene, designed to remind the players of the political intrigue that had been overshadowed in the past few sessions by the events surrounding Kovoon. While Callisto was under threat, Sabine was never at any serious risk of death, as she has a get-out-of-death-free ace up her sleeve, though using it at this point would likely have a profound effect a couple sessions down the road, when her get-out-of-death-free card could potentially save the PCs some serious campaign-changing grief.

Sigfrido did demand at that point, however, that the Keeper "the title given to the individual in charge of Sky Tower" make arrangements for Sabine's incarceration in one of Sky Tower's cells. She had, after all, solicited the death of Tyrus Megazzo, heir to the throne, back in Vallera. Threatening the lives of royalty is not the smartest thing to do, particularly in front of someone who's primary duty in life is to uphold the laws of the kingdom.

As the session came to a close, however, Callisto slipped into the lower levels of Sky Tower and picked the lock of her cell. He did not encourage her to escape, nor did she attempt to, but it would turn out to be a prophetic decision in the next session.

Session 10 - March 27, 2019

This episode, or session, was titled "A Tower Struck Down," from Steve Hackett's 1975 track on his Voyage of the Acolyte album.

This session was intended to be one of the major campaign events. Sky Tower would be attacked while the characters were present by a diverse force of typically evil monsters that would not normally work together but had been grouped into a sizable force by some of Kovoon's top agents on the prime material plane. A pair of ettins to batter the outer gatehouse, a margoyle to infiltrate the keep itself and open the inner doors, a endless slew of a type of monster the players have started calling Abomination Spiders climbing through open windows and a literal horde of goblins led by an 8 HD fledgling vampire in plate mail, which using our armor as DR mechanics, is pretty much an impregnable fortress compared to the PCs damage output.

Obviously I never intended a 2nd level rogue, 2nd level priest and 2nd level magic user to even try and fight that particular battle head on, and would present numerous clues to inform them that it was an unwinnable situation and encourage them to look for options to escape. If they took the escape route they'd have to fight through Sky Tower's six floors, floor by floor to the tower's only other escape route.

Often, all the effort I put into planning a session goes out the window the first time the players take a look at the situation. I'm blessed with some great roleplayers who have really developed their characters personalities well and stick to them, even when it's not mechanically wise for them to do so.

Before initiative was ever rolled the party had split into three across three floors. Callisto ran to Sky Tower's lowest level to ensure the locked up Sabine Cantelli's safety. Sigfrido had more or less ignored the orders of the Keeper of Sky Tower to assemble with her atop one of the keep's towers, preferring to try and find a weapon and don his plate of coats. Giovanni the mage chose to go with the Keeper.

The Sky Tower maps were rather large, so I had a problem early on: table space. Or lack thereof. Rather than focus on one floor at a time and leave the other players sitting around doing nothing for long periods, I requisitioned a coffee table and kitchen counter, which split the players as well as the PCs, and would move from one room to another with each round.

I pulled out my set of player killer dice. Nothing particularly special about them. Just a set of old school marbled blue and white dice with glittery gold numbers. They're a subtle visual cue that a session is going to go the DM vs Players route and that I'll be pulling out all the stops to claim the souls of the PCs. They're a pretty good indication that death is on the horizon for someone, if not everyone… if their history is any indication. With the group split up as it was and about to face a far, far superior enemy, I figured they'd have a new TPK to add to their dark history.

The ettins were a scripted event. They survived just long enough to batter down the gates of the gatehouse before being trapped by two groups of defenders on the hundred or so foot long bridgeway connecting the gatehouse to the keep proper. Given the distances involved there was no real opportunity for the PCs to fight them. Their purpose was to breach the gatehouse.

Upstairs Giovanni witnessed the margoyle land on the tower's parapet, introduce itself as a scion of Kovoon, and offer swift deaths to the defending Duceans in exchange for yielding the keep. How kind of it! When its offer wasn't accepted it plummeted backwards from the parapet and dove down along the side of the keep, as Giovanni and the Keeper rushed forward to look over the edge. They caught sight of it clawing it's way through a open window several floors below which the Keeper said led to the keep's inner gateroom.

A floor below, Sigfrido had armed and armored himself and could already hear the distant sounds of fighting below and proceeded to check it out.

Callisto arrived on the keeps lowest floor in time to see the first abomination spider (composed of bits and pieces of various animals from cats and dogs to cattle and horses and the occasional piece of human) climb through a window on that floor and begin attacking the lone Ducean guarding the keep's only prisoner.

Sabine let herself out of her cell (Callisto had picked the lock at the end of the previous session) broke one chair to use a leg as a makeshift dagger of sorts and hefted another to use as a makeshift shield.

My plan was for 1d4 spiders to arrive every combat round, each from a randomly determined window. Individually these abomination spiders are weak, being half HD creatures, but in numbers become a serious threat. As a group they players would have a good chance of keeping the numbers thinned out as they fought their way through the keep, but split as they were they didn't have that advantage.

Within a few combat rounds, as more and more spiders entered the fray, Callisto decided to take Sabine and flee as the Ducean went down. They reached had the keep’s second floor, where the gateroom was located, just as Sigfrido did. Four Ducean soldiers were engaged with the margoyle there and dying quickly.

Callisto and Sigfrido engaged the margoyle while Sabine armed herself with a longsword belonging to a fallen Ducean and tried to hold at bay the spiders that had followed them up the flight of stairs. Giovanni arrived a round or two later, searching for his brother with the goal of finding a way out of the keep.

Several rounds passed as the three PCs fought with the margoyle (all together once again) only to discover their non-magical weapons were having no effect on it. Giovanni’s magic was the only thing that seemed capable of hurting it, and this 2nd level mage at one point cast shocking grasp and attempted to engage the margoyle in melee, only to be pulled away by Callisto (protecting his frail and weak brother) and wasting one round of his spell.

They finally decided to retreat up the stairs behind them along with the two surviving Duceans, barring the gateroom's interior doors behind them and barricading the top of the stairs as best they could with overturned trestle tables in anticipation of the main assault they knew was coming. In the gateroom they could hear the winches that operated the keep's portcullis being operated as they began to face down the spiders that were now crawling through the third floor windows.

A few high ranking Duceans with magical weapons arrived at this point. I hadn't intended for them to actually have to be played so I hadn't prepared stats for them and had to do so on the fly. They were intended to be a a background event. “We'll hold the gateroom as long as we can while you run,” basically.

Sigfrido of course followed them down the stairs and into combat. Battle was once again split across two maps.

Upon entering the gateroom they found no sign of the margoyle. Its job completed, it had taken to the skies outside as the black plated knight and horde of goblins advanced across the bridgeway. Battle was joined with the Duceans going after the knight. Sigfrido tried to get a blow or two in against the obvious leader of the assault only to quickly discover he just wasn't capable of penetrating its armor, and turned his attention to the goblins streaming in.

Sigfrido literally waded into the goblin horde, caving in goblin skull after goblin skull, advancing slowly and leaving himself completely surrounded. In my campaign goblins cant do much damage with their smaller than normal sized weapons, and initially the damage resistance of Sigfrido's armor was sufficient to protect him from all but damage rolls of 4 on 1d4. He took a couple points of damage, but nothing serious. At first.

Armor also degrades and “threshholds”, at which point its DR for all damage categories drops by 1. The armor's HP is reset using the new DR (5 hp for each point of DR). Thus, the more damage armor takes, the less protection it offers, and the less protection it offers the faster it degrades. I was wondering why the hell Dillon (Sigfrido's player) continued pushing forward despite being under increasing risk until he was adjacent to one of the winches and announced he was would release the emergency catch.

Interesting. I hadn't ever intended for the PCs to fight this part of the battle so hadn't planned for any such eventuality. But I reward player creativity so yes, there was indeed an lever that could be pulled and release the tension on the portcullis chain. He fought his way to the second and pulled it with just a few HP remaining.

Then the unthinkable happened and I chose to stay true to the game mechanics and dice rolls. One of the Duceans scored a critical hit on the plate knight. Location was rolled and it turned out to be a head shot. Severity was rolled and it resulted in the knight's helm being forcibly removed. Double damage dice were rolled and the damage was pretty hefty. I use separate HP for limbs, with the head location having one quarter the HP of the body. With one devastating blow a Ducean had managed to down the big bad, an NPC that I had not expected I'd have to game out a fight with, and no further goblins could get past the dropped portcullis.

Not how I saw this session playing out.

The Duceans fought their way through the remaining goblins. Sigfrido put up a valiant fight as well but finally fell at 0 hp. He made his CON check so wasn't out, but limited to crawling five feet per round and capable of taking no other action as he began bleeding out. He curled up in a corner with his shield laying across his body for protection and waited for the end to come.

The Duceans cleared the last goblin with him at -5 or -6 hit points. Every time he took damage from a goblin or bleeding he managed to make his CON check, thus not rendering him unconscious and susceptible to a coup de grace by the dwindling number of goblins.

Bravery, creativeness and a really lucky roll by an NPC (bleh!) had blunted the main assault on the keep.

While Sigfrido had been battling for his life on the second floor, Callisto and Giovanni and the party's three henchmen had a fight of their own on their hands in the form of never ending waves of abomination spiders. There were a few combat rounds where I had some really good rolls for the number of spiders arriving (several groups of 4 in a row) and they were being quickly overwhelmed. There was a half dozen Duceans assisting them but Duceans rush headlong into battle, thus they were taking the brunt of the attack at first while the PCs supported when and where they could. Giovanni was down to a single sleep spell, as was Silinia, the party's mage henchman, Callisto was severely wounded, as was Onofrio, their henchman fighter. Vissia, their healbot, still 1st level, fell early on when she got swarmed by three of the spiders and her attempt to heal herself was interrupted by a successful attack. The spiders were played as low intelligence creatures, so once she went down they didn't move on to another threat but instead started feasting.

Vissia had died again and this time there'd be no random encounter card Pegasus to help and no resulting boon from the Scion of a god to return her to life. Giovanni cast his sleep spell when she first went down to try and save her but several spiders arriving the next combat round randomly rolled to feast on the nearest body which was hers.

Oh well, at least someonedied.

Giovanni was making excellent use of his sling. He was rolling high damage on his d4 and I was rolling low HP on my d4 half hit dice for the spiders, and they had no damage reduction. It turned out to be Giovanni the mage who accumulated the most kills in the battle for the third floor. Until he ran out of sling bullets and was himself at risk of being swarmed. He retreated into a corner and called for assistance.

Some spells I allow to be cast blindly, without seeing the targets, as long as you have some idea where those targets might be. The sleep spell is one such spell. If you can't see the targets it's an all or another gamble. The center of effect is determined by “grenade rules” and you can't pick and choose who you sleep. Anyone in the spell's radius is at risk.

With Giovanni's call for help and her vision blocked by the overturned, wide trestle tables she cast her last spell. The center of effect landed almost perfectly atop Giovanni. He was slept immediately, but three of the approaching spiders were at the very edge of its range of effect and also collapsed, leaving only two more.

It was round 10 at this point, the cutoff of new spiders to arrive, so the rest of the battle was mop up. The two unslept spiders chewed away at the Armor spell Giovanni had cast upon himself that morning (the spell description gives no mention of the spell ending prematurely, even in cases of unconsciousness or death as many other spell descriptions do, so I gave him the benefit) and were eventually slain by Callisto.

We'd been in five straight hours of combat at this point out of a six hour session and all my original plans had went out the window.

Worse was the realization that I'd have to deal with XP for Sigfrido, and I'd have to be consistent with previous rulings. The vampire knight hadn't been killed, only defeated, as it reverted to gaseous form and fled, and a defeat was worth half XP. A fledgling vampire is worth 8,000 XP. That amount would be cut in half for the defeat, but only shared between Sigfrido and the two Duceans (pointless XP) Worse yet, in keeping with the 2nd edition DMG suggestions for monster XP I re-reward all previous monster XP at the end of each “chapter” of the main campaign.

And this was the end of a chapter. Sigfrido would be receiving an XP payout that would boost him through third level, and as it turned out, put him 3 XP shy of 4th. Opps.

Meanwhile the PCs upstairs would be getting a paltry few hundred XP by comparison. Still, Sigfrido was truly a heroically played character in this encounter, so I suppose that's fitting.

As a DM I made more than a few mistakes during this session. Despite knowing better, I banked on my players making decisions that weren't suicidal for their characters. I also didn't take into account the possibility that the Duceans and vampire would actually come into games combat with one another, and how a single crit might affect the campaign story.

Live and learn as they say.

Having said that, my favorite part of DMing is when my players pull the rug out from under my feet, and this particular group is adept at doing just that. I set out with the intention of murdering as many PCs and henchmen as I could and had the tables turned on me by my players and a couple lucky/unlucky dice rolls.

I really couldn't have asked for a better outcome.

Session 11 - April 2, 2019

"God Bless the Children of the Beast" was the title for this episode of the campaign, for no other reason than Motley Crue's interlude by the same name on their 1983 album Shout at the Devil is without a doubt the best musical interlude to this day. At least in my mind. Since this session would be something of an interlude for the PCs after snatching victory from the jaws of defeat at Sky Tower in the previous session, it seemed fitting.

This session featured a guest player. Kayla, my stateside flatmate, and the sounding board I often rely on when developing recurring female NPCs, joined my regular three players at the table for the night. She loves gaming but her schedule rarely allows her the luxury of sitting down for six to eight hours and playing, so in each of the three weekly campaigns I run I do my best to keep at least one female NPC henchmen in each party that she can take over at a moment's notice. She would be playing Sabine Cantelli this evening.

At the conclusion of the previous session the PCs stepped out onto the combat platform overlooking the monastery below only to see smoke rising from the monastery as well as the surrounding village. It had obviously fallen under attack as well, and Sabine informed the party that she had re-sequestered Tyrus Cantelli, the king's heir, at the monastery before making the ascent to Sky Tower herself. It was a fitting place for him, protected by Duceans. Not to mention the lad had been raised and trained at the monastery for his entire life.

The party wanted to leave for the monastery immediately, despite it being the dead of night at least a couple hundred goblins had fled back across the bridgeway into the surrounding mountains when the portcullis had been dropped by Sigfrido. The Keeper of Sky Tower informed them in no uncertain terms that the keep's doors would not be opened until the tower's defenders who had fallen in battle were put to rest the following morning. Sigfrido received some healing from a Ducean cleric, enough to get him near max health again, but they'd exhausted all their spells and decided not to push the issue with the Keeper.

There was a nice memorial service the following morning where seventeen Duceans as well as Vissia were consigned to the afterlife and their bodies burned in a magical pyre on the combat platform. Following this ceremony the Keeper pulled SIgfrido to the side and said that the shield of the plated knight had been inspected and that it had turned out to be the personal shield of Agazio se'Carulli, second son of Earl Carulli. During the battle the vampire had identified itself as Valentino di'Fonzi, Paul's character from our previous playtest campaign, so its possession of the shield that belonged to the missing earl's son did not bode well for his fate. Sigfrido was tasked with returning the shield to Earl Carulli.

The keeper and a small force of Duceans accompanied the party on their descent back down to the monastery, which was uneventful. Like Sky Tower, the monastery had successfully defended itself from the attack against it though it was in much worse shape than Sky Tower, with over 70% of its defenders, staff and servants killed before all was said and done. The village was a near total loss. The monastery is where future Duceans are trained from a young age, from around 6 years old to 14. The fighting had become so fierce that even their wards were called into service and were slain by the forces of Kovoon no differently from older, more experienced Duceans. A few of the older ones however had proven their mettle in battle and decided to take the Ducean oath, so that in the expected upcoming second siege they could fight and die in Duceus' name.

Tyrus had fought and survived the attack. In previous sessions, dating back to the first few, it had been revealed that he was intending on taking the Ducean oath but the monastery's abbot had consistently encouraged him not to do so. (The abbot was one of few individuals who knew of his heritage.) In Sunsebb, joining a religious order immediately strips an individual of any right to title, lands, etc., unless ennobled again at a later time, and even then it's like starting from scratch, not restoring any previous titles or rights. The abbot was dead, and with the risk of another attack looming on the horizon Tyrus had decided there was no better time to take the oath than the following morning when two of his peers would be doing the same.

This was horrible news for the PCs. If he took the oath there would he would lose any right to potentially take the throne and help quell the political unrest that was enveloping the kingdom. And he knew nothing of his own heritage. He had no reason not to do so now that the abbot was not whispering in his ear discouraging him from doing so. Worse yet, part of the coming ceremony involved the oath takers being sequestered in seclusion. No one could meet and speak with them until after the ceremony, giving them time to contemplate the oath they were to take.

A few outcomes were possible here. The PCs could do nothing and watch as Tyrus made a terrible decision that would likely result in prolonging the turmoil of Trant and result in thousands more deaths. The PCs could try to sneak into the monastery and attempt to talk Tyrus out of taking the Ducean oath, which would carry risks of discovery, and even if they were successful in finding him would the young man believe such a tall tale as one suggesting he would be Trant's future king? Or they could try and intercede in the ceremony itself which would probably not go over well with the Duceans. There was one out for them -- unknown to the PCs, of course -- if they couldn't resolve this situation on their own.

The group plotted and planned, found problems with their plans, revised their plans, found more problems with their plans. They had a lot of good ideas that probably would have had a good chance of working, but one of the players would invariably come up with a what-if situation that might derail them and would convince the others that that particular plan was no good. It was an interesting insight into how my players approach problems I present to them. For the most part Sabine sat idly by encouraging them to come up with something... anything...

I'd discussed this at length with Kayla ahead of time, and when Callisto made the suggestion that maybe they could object publicly to Tyrus taking the oath during the ceremony that was Kayla/Sabine's queue to jump in with the "out" I had built into the story. She would object to Tyrus taking the oath before he could do so, but refused to provide any more details of her own plan. Throughout the whole campaign Sabine, even as an NPC, has been evolving, as she was always meant to do. From spoiled, bratty, and entitled to watching her kingdom fall apart around her. She's hadn't quite reached the selfless hero stage yet -- and never will -- but she has evolved considerably, and has become increasingly thoughtful and mature when it comes to truly serious matters.

The following morning the ceremony began. As Tyrus ascended the stairs of the monastery where he would speak his oath and being inducted into the ranks of the Duceans, Sabine stepped out behind him, longsword drawn and raised, and challenged his fitness to be called a Ducean. She spewed a crapload of vitriol at him, questioning his very manhood in front of his peers, making every effort to force him to fight her to save his honor.

The resulting fight was short and brutal, ending with Sabine's sword tip against a prone Tyrus' chest demanding he yield. He would not, however. The embarrassment he had suffered was such that only death might restore some of his honor. In a truly "selfless" act, Sabine threw herself on her own sword rather than kill Tyrus, after imploring him to return to Vallera with Adjudicator Sigfrido, hear him out and take the oath later if he still thought it was best. The other players were stunned by this unexpected turn of events. Sabine had obviously been intended as a long term recurring NPC, after all!

Sabine had shamed Tyrus, and he could not bring himself to face his peers. The PCs collected their horses from the stable, Sabine's body and Tyrus Megazzo and rode for Vallera some eight hours away. On the way it was explained to Tyrus why Sabine had done what she did, that he was in fact the recognized bastard child of King Megazzo and thus had a right to take his place upon the throne of Trant. Coming from anyone else this would have been immediately disbelieved, but it was Adjudicator Sigfrido who informed him of his heritage, and if there's one thing that Siyja'ans can be relied upon, its speaking the truth. They cannot lie and they cannot deceive. They cannot even willingly be party to a deception... they must call it out on the spot. It is an oath that they take that once broken sees them stripped of their powers.

In Vallera Sigfrido wanted to take Sabine's corpse to the temple (mortuary) of Axsyn (god of the underworld, in essence) for burial. Callisto vehemently refused, believing (for absolutely no reason) that Sabine was not in fact dead. He played the role of a shocked friend in denial to the hilt. SIgfrido eventually gave him an ultimatum: Callisto would have only enough time to say his final goodbyes as it would take for Sigfrido to deliver Agazio se'Carulli's shield to the earl. Upon his return he would be taking Sabine's body to the temple for last rites and burial, even if he had to go through Callisto to do so. Ultimatum delivered, he set off to the Carulli estate.

Callisto took advantage of his absence and sneaked off out of town with Sabine's body.

At the estate Sigfrido discovered that Earl Carulli was not present. He had been commanded to raise what levies he could from his subjects and join Baron Chiapetta and Duke Goldoni in King's Bridge to defend the town from encroaching forces of The Ledger. He was told by the estate's guards that a letter (and shield) intended to be delivered into the earl's hands could be accepted by Duchess Marzia Carulli, the earl's wife, who had full authority in the earl's absence. Sigfrido refused to accede to this, insisting they be delivered to the earl and only the earl, and returned to the inn they were staying at.

Sigfrido was quite upset upon returning and finding Callisto missing, along with Sabine's body and fumed in the inn's common room until he was distracted by Saafiyah, the innkeeper's daughter, who like usual was interested in gossip and rumors. Their conversation was unfortunately interrupted just as it was getting near to a major plot reveal, interrupted by the personal guards of Duchess Marzia who was apparently none to pleased with the Adjudicator's refusal to speak with her. He was escorted back to the Carulli estate. where he once again refused to hand over the letter the Keeper had given him. Up until the Duchess looked him in the eyes and suggested he do so. He failed a saving throw against the charm effect of vampires and found himself turning over the letter, agreeing that it was the proper thing to do. She demanded to know where Tyrus Megazzo was, and Sigfrido told her. Although she was not actively charming him at that point, his oath prevented him from lying or deceiving her. She convinced him that the Carulli estate was the only remaining safe place to hide the lad, and from that point on Duchess Marzia was a most gracious and friendly host until eventually dismissing him, even allowing him to retain her son's shield, with warning that she would be sending her men back to the inn to collect Tyrus and escort him to the safety of the estate.

Sigfrido returned to the inn and under the impression nothing untoward or strange had occurred struck up conversation with Saafiyah again. She picked up right where they had left off when they'd been interrupted.

For 10 sessions I've been giving the players a piece of the plot puzzle here and there... Earl Carulli was presented as a stand up guy, but the Carulli family was directly or indirectly implicated in dirty dealings time and time again, though never by anyone would could be deemed trustworthy. Servants and staff of their estate had gone missing. People they had had dealings with in the past (the the PCs from the previous playtest campaign) had gone missing, one of them (Doomguide Nolan) having had some involvement in the corruption of Gillo in Forevi, and Valentino di'Fonzi having been identified as a vampire. When Sigfrido asked Saafiyah her thoughts on Duchess Marzia, many of the remaining pieces fell into place.

At a makeshift campsite just a couple miles outside Vallera, exactly twelve hours after Sabine Cantelli had thrown herself upon her sword and drew her last breath, she drew her first. Callisto, without any reason to believe so, had been right. As mentioned in a previous session account, Sabine had a single get-out-of-death-free ace up her sleeve, a "medallion of three wishes" which she would later explain she had wasted the first two on completely stupid things (further highlighting her evolution). She'd been raised by wardkeepers, among the most powerful wielders of arcane magicks, and they had equipped her with every tool at their disposal to ensure the protection of their charge, the daughter of former king Cantelli. Wish magic, pretty much the pinnacle of arcane magic had been placed at her disposal and she'd wasted the first two on "drink" and later, "on bedding a certain lad."

Evolution indeed.

Some shock was in evidence when Callisto returned with a quite-living Sabine in tow, and after some explanations of the "miracle" that had brought her back to the living world the group sat down and discussed their options now that Sigfrido had managed to put all the puzzle pieces together. Their first plan was to run. But if Duchess Marzia was somehow associated with Kovoon, then she might have a means of tracking Callisto thanks to the brand that had been burnt into the palm of his hand several sessions back, and they were wary about tempting fate with another run in with a vampire without the aid they had at Sky Tower. They could of course allow him to be taken back to the estate, but if Duchess Marzia had anything to do with the initial attack on Tyrus' caravan all the way back during the first session -- and the gnoll soon thereafter had implicated the Duchess' daughter in the attack -- then handing him over was probably not the best course of action. They assumed (correctly) that the duchess would likely have him killed without any hesitation. There was some theorizing, which was spot on, that the earl was nothing more than an unwitting pawn and that the plan was to eliminate the remaining two people who had ties to the throne (Tyrus and Sabine) and convince Trant-on-Sea's Merchant Council to name Earl Carulli king and influence him from the shadows, just as she had likely been doing for quite some time.

Their brainstorming session was interrupted by the return of a half dozen of the duchess' men, arriving to collect Tyrus Megazzo and return him to the estate. The PCs were quite aware that they weren't going to be able to put up much of a fight against the well armored and armed men. Callisto jumped up, however, and acted quite glad to see the guards, weaving a story about how the Duchess' demand to see Sigfrido earlier had resulted in no one being at the inn to keep an eye on Tyrus. As he had done in the past, he had disappeared. Saafiyah, innkeeper's daughter, backed Callisto's tale, saying that she had personally seen him leave, but having had absolutely no reason to question or prevent his departure hadn't thought anything of it at the time. A few bluff checks were made and the guards bought the story.

The guards departed soon after, grim-faced at having to return empty handed and face the wrath of the duchess, and surprisingly Saafiyah and her younger "sister" slipped out after them. That raised some eyebrows, and concerns that Saafiyah might be informing the guards in private of their activities. As they discussed this possibility Vallera's alarm bells began to ring. A fire had broken out somewhere, or perhaps an attack against the town was underway. They rushed out to meet whatever new threat faced them only to find a cluster of people near the estate gathered around six dead guards and Saafiyah, who had been wounded by an arrow. She proceeded to spin a tale about following the guards after they had collected someone from her inn, only to watch as they were beset by men attired in ringmail (common to bandits and raiders). She had overheard something involving the Ledger before a fight broke out, the six guards quickly slain and the man they had taken from the inn bound and hauled off. She had been spotted by one and had taken an arrow, and played dead thereafter until the bandits had departed and she had yelled for help.

But that made no sense... Tyrus was still back at the inn. Who had killed the guards? What was Saafiyah up to?

Later, Saafiyah would maintain her story about the guards being killed by raiders, bandits, or thugs from The Ledger (take your pick), and that she only thought to throw Tyrus in the mix after the fact to lend credence to the idea that the guards had recovered Tyrus at the inn and then had lost him to The Ledger on the way back to the estate. Probably due to player meta knowledge of who exactly Saafiyah is (the problem with recycling popular NPCs, I freely admit) the PC's were suspicious of the whole "attacked by The Ledger" story. I had a few different ways this could have went down, and the objective was to remove Tyrus from play completely, rather than the PCs having to worry about safeguarding him at the expense of following side-quests and storyline leads or risk taking Tyrus with them everywhere and having him inadvertently killed.

Instead, he'll now be hiding right under the Duchess' nose. Very few people know that Tyrus Megazzo actually exists, after all, and of those who do only the PCs and a few of their associates actually know what he looks like. Saafiyah will be putting him up in the inn, assuming the identity of a refugee from the east who managed to escape the worst of the turmoil there. Thus the NPC is available for future use but less of a worry to the PCs for the time being.

The final hour of the session was devoted to leveling up Callisto from 2nd to 3rd level. Sabine would be his trainer, and keeping in the spirit of her mischievous but mostly harmless personality, his task was to play five practical jokes on townspeople over the next five days. Mechanically, he had to make use of at least one of his rogue skills for each such practical joke. He came up with several good ones such as dropping a sharp needle into a townie's coin purse just as they were reaching into it to pay a merchant (pick pockets), the age old suspended bucket of water over a door (find traps, or I suppose its reverse, set traps), scaring the daylights out of an old woman at night (move silently), and drawing a picture with charcoal sticks on the face of a sleeping guard (open locks, for the light sensitive touch that would require). He failed miserably the first two but succeeded on the last three, and three successes were all that were required.

Sabine noted that the best practical joke of them all, however, was her's... when she convinced Callisto that playing these practical jokes on the townspeople would help him further hone his skills.

Sigfrido stood in for Vallera's Adjudicator for a hand while he traveled to King's Bridge on business. Sigfrido was taught the Ceremony spell (from 2nd Edition Priest's Spell Compendium) and his tests were to perform five different ceremonies the following hand. Since the ceremonies would be new to him, I also required a Religion check for each to get it right. He had to deal with the blessing of two newborns, one of whom cried so loudly and so profusely as to make him suffer a penalty on his Religion roll. He dealt with a coming of age ceremony with a female NPC who made every attempt to make Sigfrido lose his cool (he did not). A companionship (wedding) ceremony that involved a young woman who did not wish to marry the fellow in question (arranged marriages are extremely common in Sunsebb) which was designed to test Dillon's knowledge of the campaign setting, and I don't recall what the fifth ceremony was. He passed all but one of his tests and like Callisto advanced to the 3rd-level.

The PCs will be staying in Vallera for another couple hands at least. Sigfrido is eligible to level up again, so must undergo another hand (five days) related to that along with the associated test(s), Callisto wishes to improve his fighting ability by learning some new skills (which will take time as well), and Giovanni has some books he'd like to pour through. They also have an injured henchman who is still a hand away from being fully healed -- Onofrio, Silinia's brother, was injured many, many sessions back by Callisto during a friendly duel and is only now nearing fully healed.

Everyone had a good time despite how scripted this session was, and it was a welcome change to have Kayla sitting at the table for a change. I expect next week to be a almost pure RP session though it'll prepare them for a side quest or three before the next major storyline event rears its head.

Session 12 - April 9, 2019

"Calm Before the Storm" was what I took to calling this session in my own mind while I was working out the details. It was Judas Priest's track by the same name from their 2008 album Nostradamus that came up on my easy listening playlist when I first sat down to plan out the session. After two major combat encounters in the past three sessions I wanted to give the PCs some downtime and an opportunity to level up, especially Sigfrido after receiving the huge amount of XP he was awarded for participating in the defeat of the vampire at Sky Tower. I had planned on the PCs spending several hands in Vallera training and whatnot, but Mark had already gotten Callisto's third level training out of the way the previous session.

Sunday evening Mark chimed into our group's text chat that he was thinking of having Callisto return to Forevi to check on the status of the village after the PCs had run from the abomination a hand or so prior, and to see whether he could find the rapier (which had detected as magic but remained unidentified) that had been lost along with many other valuables when his horse had been gutted and killed. He'd try to talk Sabine into accompanying him on his journey. My players often give me a heads up on things they plan on doing, which in turns helps me plan for a session.

Giovanni spent the majority of the session trying to bone up on his knowledge of the undead. Silinia had collected a half dozen books on the subject from the Koovonite Gillo's makeshift lab and library in the keep just outside of Forevi. Everything they had seen utilized by Kovoon's agents suggested a heavy reliance on necromancy and tapping into the negative energy plane so it seemed to be an area of study worth delving into.

Sigfrido learned himself a new skill, Diplomacy, from the local Adjudicator before spending a second hand training for his 4th-level, which involved a single court case being brought by Earl Carulli of all people against the deceased Alwyn. This was supposed to be an interesting test for player and PC alike. Alwyn was well liked by the players and all but one of the PCs, and the earl, through his wife the Duchess Marzia, was seeking legal approval to re-enslave Alwyn's wife due to his failure to uphold a contract he had entered into. They'd already had serious issues with how the Earl had simply instructed his men to throw Alwyn's body into the woods for the carrion beasts to deal with. Would Sigfido side with the Earl (and the law) and grant the earl's motion, or would he let his respect and experience traveling with Alwyn get in the way?

In the end, he tried every which way he could to try and justify ruling against the earl, exploring every possible loophole he might exploit. He finally settled on a odd hybrid of the two options he faced that had legal basis, wherein Alwyn's wife would serve for a period of time as an indentured servant rather than enslaved. This, even after Adjudicator Nution, the head Adjudicator for the region, warned Sigfrido that he was always certain to make special concessions for House Carulli, after it was implied that Adjudicator Nution had already guaranteed they would receive the ruling they wanted. Duchess Marzia was not pleased, of course, and there will absolutely be fallout from this decision in the future.

The Lady Tienne, one of the Wardkeepers who had not made an appearance since the second session some months back, finally reappeared in Vallera, traveling with her father towards the monastery and Sky Tower, both of which had been under attack recently. She stopped in Vallera only long enough to be updated by the PCs on what they've discovered, and to inform them of important events. Oh, and to cut off Callisto's hand. Callisto's hand was indeed severed and it was thereafter explained that the mark of Kovoon that had been branded onto its palm had likely served as a location beacon as well as eavesdropping device. The Wardkeeper's father, a priest of Tomes, produced a scroll and cast Regenerate on the bloody stump left behind. (The brand had played it's role in the story and rather than have such powerful magic simply disappear one day, I used a moment of violence and rather powerful magic to account for its removal from the campaign.)

Callisto departed for Forevi shortly after the Wardkeeper and priest of Tomes departed for the Ducean monastery in the nearby mountains. He was indeed able to convince Sabine to make the trip with him and the two day ride south was entirely uneventful. Thanks to Mark's heads up I was able to plan this side trip out ahead of time, including rolling for potential encounters to save time at the table. The string of incredibly lucky random encounter rolls continued, and there was nothing of note to sidetrack them on the trip south.

In Forevi they found the village still intact, much to Callisto's surprise. A dozen villagers had been killed by the abomination that had been awoken by Kovoon in response to Gillo's death, including two children. The townsfolk were not all that pleased at seeing Calliso, given he and his compatriots had turned tail and ran and left the villagers to fend for themselves against the abomination. It had eventually simply dropped to the ground dead not too long after the PCs had fled the village. (Kovoon really has no need to expend valuable energy killing random villagers, he wanted to punish the PCs specifically.) As for the gear that Callisto had been forced to leave behind, including the magical rapier, he was told that said gear had been collected and shipped north along with the earl's portion of the latest harvest. The wives of the dead would need coin to hire help during the next planting, and the proceeds from the gear would be spread among the windows and go a long way towards alleviating some of their immediate problems. Callisto's equipment had been sent north to Vallera to be sold in the market there.

Callisto and Sabine spent the night camping outside of the village as it had no inn. They made a quick visit to the catacombs beneath Castello del'Medici at first light, shattering the vials upon the alter that the priestess had been sacrificed on, thus releasing the souls of both her and her unborn child. They then headed north, with the intention of Callisto searching through the Vallera market for the magical rapier.

Unfortunately... Callisto would not make it back to Vallera.

The first random encounter I had rolled for Callisto came on the morning of the second day of the return trip. As I've explained in the past, I used both traditional random encounter tables and the 2e "Deck of Encounters" box sets from which I draw random events. A followup dice roll determined the encounter to be from the random encounter deck and I drew encounters until the first encounter appropriate for the terrain and climate. "By Spell Bound" is the encounter card that fits the requirements. This should be a no-brainer encounter and easily overcome by even a 1st level character, but in the event of a fail, the entire party if present would have been an instant TPK.

In essence, the encounter calls for the sounds of growling from beyond a hill to catch the attention of the PCs. Upon investigating, they discover a dead mage (heart attack) laying just beyond the edge of a magic circle containing a black abishai, a demon of hell. In this case, the demon used its change self ability to present itself as a simple peasant woman who tells a tale of being in her home one minute and then standing within this circle the next moment. She has been here for days (so she claims) and is dehydrated and famished. I intentionally made parts of her story easy to call into question, such as the mage's body not being days dead, her inability to name what village she was from, etc.). Also, Sabine, though an NPC, has a backstory of having been raised by two Wardkeepers -- extremely powerful arcane magicians. While not practically trained in magic, she would be aware of some basic things, such as summoning circles and the like, and Sabine provided some of her own warnings as well.

This encounter was intended to Callisto to refuse to release the "woman" and thereby making an enemy of the abishai when it was eventually freed by wind scattering the circle, an animal crossing through, another individual falling for the con job, etc. My plans rarely survive contact with my players though. Callisto was taking Sabine's advice and leaving the woman alone... they were only half a day from Vallera and access to his brother's magical aptitude... they could always return with Giovanni to investigate further. But Callisto is a nice and considerate guy... and after randomly asking Sabine if she still had a full waterskin... threw his into the circle for the woman.

"She" immediately reached down, picked up the waterskin and threw it at the ground, skipping it across the dirt and grass to break the perimeter of the magic circle. This is where I ended up calling the session a little bit early because this was not an outcome I had really counted on. It was an outcome that made sense (a demon is not going to ignore an opportunity to escape), but with Sabine present and her importance to the campaign I'd need some time to work some things out.

Callisto is quite dead at the very least. Mark rolled up ability scores for a new character after I called the game for the night. There's no possible way that he and Sabine can defeat a demon by themselves. The only question is how it actually all plays out, and for that I will probably twist some Black Abishai abilities around to make it a bit more interesting than simply "it attacks, you die."

Callisto is my first PC death in this campaign. I'm usually up a handful of PC deaths by a dozen sessions in but it seems I can't kill PCs when I'm aiming to and have no problem killing them when I'm planning on throwing them easily avoidable encounters. I was so stunned myself by this turn of events I even took the time to do a post-mortem on my own decision making in regards to the Abishai's actions and the limitations of the magic circle, going so far as consulting with Ancalagon to make sure it all made sense.

Oh well, I've discovered the secret of killing the PCs, at least. Don't try near as hard and they'll do it themselves.