Monday, 12 March 2018

Session 171 - The Legend of Old Man Henderson

Man, what a session!
A ton of crazy stuff, most amazingly Galaxy Johnson's defeat at the hands of an old man who managed to wrestle the Elf out of him!
Welcome back for now, Coalminer Dan.

A slapstick fight against some Denialists also occurred, with a ridiculous amount of crits and fumbles flying every which-way. At least you've reached Moondin now!

And finally we've also had the return of Tom, now playing a gang of Extras that idolise his fallen character Rake Hacker.

On with the many many art attacks -



- Timothy completes his hazing by dressing as Sir Robyn!!!



- Timothy doodles the march of the Denialist!


- Kitty depicts the cover of the latest POWERLAD romance novel!


- Timothy ALSO makes a sikk meme!



- AND he creates the legal document for Hacker's Halberdiers. Busy boy!


"Twas ne'er a tale of  bitter tears
Than Hacker and his Halberdiers." 
Yes, it's overplayed! I know this well!
But don't drink up - there's more to tell...

Hacker, Moondin's Lord, was slew;
His fate known but to a precious few.
Doomed not unto a wat'ry crypt,
But to a slumb'ring isle beshipped.

Now Young Fred was a normal lad,
Gifted of voice, but lazy, a tad,
Till in will Hacker left his famed codpiece,
To Young Fred, who's his nephew, not his niece.

Now Young Fred looked like a Man!
Like Lynx adverts to him women ran.
Then back from him fled, for safety's sake,
For Hacker's codpiece sports a fearsome drake.

Poor Young Fred still wasn't getting laid.
But then he a goodly discov'ry made
When, stuffed inside his décor-du-cock,
He found a note (and not a sock).

"Young Fred," it said, "it's Rake, from beyond the grave!
You did me proud when you were a knave.
Your songs helped spread my name in favour,
Now I've a task of similar flavour.

"Dear Nephew, Moondin's pretty fucked!
A tentacle beneath is tucked;
I gave their pit a look around -
It's octopus a long way down..."

Now, these words spread wide, on rumour's wings!
Frederegar, fighting bard: he sings
Bowie-like, 'cross Moondin's ward;
Each stanza urging "take up sword!"

His words spun one joyous outfit,
Fruit-pickers, farm-hands, and a half-wit,
The parish priest, a lumberjack:
The second Halberdiers of Hack!

They marched against the Death Frost Mount,
There routed by the vamp'ric Count;
Cowards? Perhaps, but they'd never've won -
For they were only level one.

Returning by the backer roads,
Heads down with shame - what pitiful chodes.
They fought that that was that for fights -
Until they saw this sight of sights.

A Space Alien, half-slipp'd through shadow'd wall,
With a hairy elderman in brawl.
"Praise the Lord!" the Old Man proclaiming
Before from the posessed this demon maiming.

Now, in this Old Man, they'd found a friend,
And the possessed coalminer's party, for that end -
Yes, I know the tales of that heroic club,
But that's a different story, for a different pub.

Sir Robyn was with this merry band,
And penned he with a lawyer's hand,
A charter of complex legal clout,
And not a frivolous seal without...

Some other members joined the crew
I have not words to name but a few -
A golden man in a cage, and hark,
A German Dog who they named Bark.

Now united with lace-tounged Frederegar,
Old Man, the Halberds, like fucking rockstars!
Coalminer, POWERLAD, an elf, Sir Rob -
Off to Moondin do they plod...
- Tom regales us with Frederegar's song of the Halberdiers



Session 171 - The Legend of Old Man Henderson

Campaign Date:
Friday, 20 February, 1601
Moon Phase: First Quarter
Zodiac: Aquarius

New Characters:
- Hacker's Halberdiers, Second Company. A bunch of fruit farmer Extras led by newspaper magnate and propagandist Frederegar. Possible deserters. Truly believe the legend of Rake Hacker.

New Backstory:
- Sir Robyn was in trouble - while reading legal textbooks he'd accidentally murmered magical legalese out loud and set fire to the library! Facing expulsion, he did what he had to do - having sex with each and every member of the admissions board to stay in the university. (+1 Charisma)

Enemies Defeated:
- A level 3 Denialist Cleric
- A mob of Denialists
Total: 2400 exp

Treasure and Equipment:
- 9sp (9 exp)
- Two pistols
- A vial of colourful "Chaos Dust"
- A vial of water-purifying yellow goo
- Book #135 - Poison (100 exp)
- Book #275 - Flowers (100 exp)
Total: 209 exp

Exploration:
- Travelled around 90 miles (300 exp)
- 2 Random Encounters (100 exp)
Total: 400 exp

Events:
- Logistics of transporting a massive spider cross country via Fly and Floating Disk considered. To make it easier on overhead - it'll take 3 days, following POWERLAD's route. (50 exp)
- POWERLAD sends a note to Elenor at honey healing by some means. Perhaps Cardinal Scream's birds are nearby? Somehow anyway. He says to meet them at Moondin. They'll need something to deal with their spider egg belly problems. (50 exp)
- Randy and Gav are left behind, since they're heavy and Randy is geased to never sleep above ground. Difficult when travelling cross-country at speed.
- Sir Robyn tasks them with creating a magical prosthetic arm from the various bits and pieces of monster and their Dwarven living statue-craft (50 exp)
- The others Fly off, the Fliers taking the others and the sackful of spider queen on shoulders and Floating Disks. What a sight! (50 exp)


- On the way, they fly over some loud Termaxian chanting. From up here it's easy to see all the dead grass and cancerous trees and lumpy waving tentacles writhing from the cracked earth. (50 exp)
- They reach Pembrooktonshire as sun begins to set. On the way past Oshregaal's place they see a bunch of passed out people, many with red honey caked around their mouths. (50 exp)
- Sir Robyn leaves a business card. "Dial M for BEEEEEEES!" shouts Galaxy Johnson, to much mirth. (50 exp)



- They go to POWERLAD's now-usual abandoned house in the ruins of Pembrooktonshire. They take the opportunity to look around the town for lootables. (50 exp)
- All the food and booze has been ransacked by Oshregaal's party, but they do find some stuff lying around the place. Mori finds a couple of pistols, while others find a colourful vial of "Chaos Dust" and a vial of yellow goo that purports to purify water. (50 exp)
- As they loot the town and evening falls, a column of daylight can be seen clearly! Investigating, they see that it's a god beam with a tentacle frozen inside. Still-standing tentacle cultists with vicious stab wounds are within. (50 exp)
- They sleep, and the next morning they continue on. They land across the great river Deeprush and continue on towards New Rakedin. (50 exp)
- On the way they gather some of the mutated tentacle samples that occasionally writhe slowly and cancerously amongst the dead grass. (50 exp)
- Also seen along the roadside - a little golden man in a little wooden cage. It's fallen by the wayside amongst evidence of a scuffle. It's barely helpful. (50 exp)
- Hacker's Halberdiers emerge from the forest! Apparently they chased off some men with similar cages, and they must have dropped this one in the pursuit. (50 exp)
- The little man in the cage agrees that it's a greed demon and says it eats gold. It can even smell gold. Nobody gives it any gold to eat. Then they chuck it in the bag with the Spider Queen. (50 exp)
- Sir Robyn summons a fish with a Strange Waters cantrip. Galaxy Johnson goes Gollum briefly at the sight of it. (50 exp)
- Frederegar, leader of Hacker's Halberdiers, explains that they are sort of deserters from the great battle against Mt Death Frost. They fled when the battle turned against them. (50 exp)
- Entering New Rakedin, POWERLAD is confronted with a winged draconic Andromeda, the same one whose POWERLAD he killed last time! She believes that she was wrong, this POWERLAD is her true POWERLAD! (50 exp)
- She wants him to marry her, but POWERLAD tells her that he's already married to Bertha. She asks where Bertha is, he points towards Dwimmermount, and she rockets off to presumably create an ex-wife for POWERLAD (50 exp)
- Sir Robyn sets up shop in the tavern as a notary and legal counsel for hire. One night only! He makes a small but appreciable amount of cash for his services. (50 exp)
- Galaxy Johnson decides to use this night to kidnap a weak-looking old man to feed to Arach-Nacha... he has no idea what he's in for. (50 exp)
- He stalks across the rooftops, sights an old man walking home on his own, and activates Spiderclimb... (50 exp)
- The old man sees thin grey arms reaching from a nearby shadow, They grab him around the waist. "I'm old man henderson motherfucker!" he yells and drags Galaxy Johnson out of the shadow! (50 exp)



- Crying out for help, Old Man Henderson wrestles the alien Galaxy Johnson into a headlock. People run out of nearby houses. Hacker's Halberdiers come in from the other direction! (50 exp)
- Mori is on the roof, watching. He sees Galaxy Johnson writhing in Old Man Henderson's astonishingly strong grip. Everyone around has Make-Light glyphs to see by. (50 exp)
- Mori runs past, a shadowy blur, and steals all the lights with his Elf powers. The orbs of light dart into his outstretched hand as he scurries past. There is much confusion. (50 exp)
- Galaxy Johnson takes his chance to escape, casting Spiderclimb again so he can crawl through shadows. But Old Man Henderson's grip is too strong, the spell goes wild, and... (50 exp)
--- Coalminer Dan
- Blackness. Falling. Distant voices. Then. (50 exp)
- A man's face. Old. Angry. Concerned. And now, amazed. (50 exp)
- Lights appearing. More faces. Many faces. A sense of lost time. Where am I? (50 exp)
- You're safe, son. You're safe. The demon is gone. You're safe. What's your name son? (50 exp)
- I'm Daniel. Daniel... Johnson. (50 exp)
--- Breathe. Just breathe.
- Old Man Henderson wrestled the elf out of Galaxy Johnson. Holy shit. (50 exp)
- POWERLAD approaches the scene. He, too, is amazed. He blesses Old Man Henderson in the name of Ninhursag. (50 exp)
- Daniel must be taken to Moondin for healing. Iron manacles are put around his wrists. The demon will be expelled forever, mark our words. (50 exp)
- Daniel spends the night in irons, shivering and sweating under a blanket. He feels damp cloth on his brow between bouts of feverish shivering. The demon is still gone. He is still Coalminer Dan. (50 exp)
- The next day, they travel the last miles to Moondin. Old Man Henderson questions the big sack of mysterious goods, but doesn't question too much. (50 exp)
- To allay suspicions, they merely walk. After some time they hear shouted Bible passages and a passionate sermon ahead. (50 exp)
- It's clear that these people are advancing down the road towards New Rakedin. They bear shields emblazoned with "Obey the Lord" and "The End Times Cometh" and "John 3:16" and "God Hates Fags". Denialists! (50 exp)

- POWERLAD stands on the road, hands on hips, to confront them and prevent them getting to New Rakedin. Nearly everyone else goes into the trees to ambush. (50 exp)
- As the lead priest approaches, he calls out to POWERLAD asking him if he believes in the one true God. POWERLAD retorts that he worships Ninhursag, to great fiery consternation. (50 exp)
- The rest of the party, behind trees and bushes, shout questions at each other! The Denialists hear and Sir Robyn pops off a pistol shot from a bush before they can react! (50 exp)



- Several charge at POWERLAD, who breaks one of their spears as he infuses himself with the might of Ninhursag! He grows a foot taller and far more muscular! (50 exp)
- He punches one of his assailants, and out grows the phantasmic might of NINHURSAG ascendant! The great green dragon roars overhead! (50 exp)
- The rest of the shield-and-spear wielding Denialists close ranks around their priest, whose rhetoric gets loud and god-infused and backed up by facts! (50 exp)
- Mori summons forth a fog, enveloping the Denialists. Within, the sermon gets more heated. "NOWHERE in the Bible does it mention NINE GODS! That dragon is a beast from REVELATIONS 12:9! The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray!" (50 exp)



- To a man, the party's faith is shaken by the righteous rhetoric. More importantly, the Denialist faithful disbelieve all falsehood! The phantasmal form of Ninhursag fades away before their faith! (50 exp)- Turned around in the fog, the Denialists charge forth. A bunch charge POWERLAD, the priest comes off the road and runs into Hacker's Halberdiers, smacking at them with his massive bible! (50 exp)
- Mori discovers that his shamanic north african religion is considered Nonanist, especially by these Denialist types. All religions are a part of the all-encompassing embrace of the Church. (50 exp)
-  POWERLAD punches one of the Denialists in the jaw, sending his teeth flying slo-mo from his head and into his fellow flock. Several fall dead, teeth embedded in brains and throats and hearts. (50 exp)
- Sir Robyn finds himself assailed by a man with a sandwichboard shield, flipping his guns over to pistol whip to little avail. (50 exp)
- Hacker's Halberdiers strike at the priest with their garden shears. Fruit farmers, all. The priest himself, though bleeding and in pain, keeps laying about with his huge bible, smacking Extras left and right. (50 exp)
- Mori sneaks into the fog with a pistol loaded with scattershot, emerging to blast the Denialists attacking POWERLAD. Nearly all fall, with POWERLAD ducking to avoid the bulk of the blast. (50 exp)



- The two survivors are neatly taken care of with a single mighty slap! They fly backwards into trees, dead. (50 exp)


- Coalminer Dan, heretofore hiding from the chaos, finds a suspiciously nasty looking poison fang in his (are the his?) bags. He grabs it and runs at the priest! (50 exp)
- Too distracted by the Halberdiers, the priest doesn't react in time to stop Coalminer Dan from jamming the poison fang into his neck. It's a ton of poison. The priest dies almost instantly frothing from the mouth. (50 exp)
- It is quiet again. The echoes of gunshots and combat fade away. Hacker's Halberdiers grab as many spears and shields as they can find, scraping off the religious slogans with whatever they can find. (50 exp)
- Among the dead, they find some cash and a couple of books. Not bad! (50 exp)
- Moondin is ahead, and as they're reaching the gates they find another mob of Denialists chanting and singing! It is late irl, and so suddenly there is a great roaring sound from above. (50 exp)
- It's Magman cult leader Brandon Magnusson on burning wings! He belches forth a great ball of magma from his dwarven mouth, it screams down from the sky and melts every single one of the Denialists! (50 exp)
- Oh there is so much treasure in there that has been melted and evaporated. Gallon upon gallon of Azoth set painfully alight, thousands of gold pieces bursting into ash. What a sight. Oh, what a sight. (50 exp)
- Anyway they're all dead now. The party enter Moondin. (50 exp)
- POWERLAD heads towards Ninhursag to worship. He gains the Devotion of Ninhursag - the ability to bend any glyph containing the Earth rune to his will. (50 exp)
- The rest of the party listen around for rumours. An eventful trip! (50 exp)
Total: 3250 exp

Misc:
- Ace Attorney bonus (50 exp)
- Aggressive Negotiations bonus (50 exp)
- Balls to the Wall bonus (50 exp)
- Brutal Kill bonus (50 exp)
- Classic Charles bonus (50 exp)
- Dramatic Battle bonus (50 exp)
- Fame bonus (50 exp)
- Heresy bonus (50 exp)
- Ludicrous Gore bonus (50 exp)
- Poison is OP bonus (50 exp)
- Pundemonium bonus (50 exp)
- Ridiculously Bad Rolling bonus (50 exp)
- SpoOOoOoOooky bonus (50 exp)
- Tactical Fighting bonus (50 exp)
- What Could Possibly Go Wrong bonus (50 exp)
- WWE bonus (50 exp)
Total: 850 exp

Party Roles and Individual Exp:
- Remembrancer (Charles / Galaxy Johnson - 100 exp)
- Caller (Tom / Hacker's Halberdiers - 100 exp)
- Mapper (Fraser / Mori - 100 exp)
- Treasurer (Fraser / Mori - 100 exp)
- Quartermaster (Kitty / POWERLAD - 100 exp)
- Guard ( Kitty / POWERLAD  - 100 exp)
- Tracker (Timothy / Sir Robyn - 100 exp)
- Art Attack bonus (Charles, Timothy, Kitty - 100 exp ea.)
- Attacco d'Arte bonus (Timothy, Kitty - 100 exp ea.)
- Artapalooza bonus (Charles, Timothy - 100 exp)
- Cosplay Chaos bonus (Timothy - 100 exp)
- Fiction Fanatic bonus (Tom - 100 exp)
- Office Supply Filcher bonus (Charles - 100 exp)
- Chippo Man bonus (Timothy*2 - 200 exp)
- JÜGBRINGYR bonus (Fraser, Charles, Timothy - 500 exp ea.)

Active Businesses:
- Honey Healing. Safe. 1106sp. (Bertha)
- Knickers Gloves Bodices. Risky. 1030sp. (Ratimir)
- Blood Honey 4 U. Safe. 515sp. (Sir Robyn) 

Rumours:
- "If you ask around enough for an invitation to Oshregaal's mansion, he will invite you to his feast. He prefers Barbarian guests."
- "Carrowmore folk are good mercenaries, but they sure don't talk much. They're unstoppable because they must be killed seven times in seven ways."
- "The Winged Goblins flying into Dwarrow from the Drudge Wastes are protecting the refugees from angels and demons! They claim to worship the Grudge Drake!"
- "A Termaxian Demonhunter saved my life! She wore a red bracelet and fought with the fury of Hyperjesus himself!"

Death Toll and Injuries:
- Not even one!

Exp Totals:
- Kitty / POWERLAD!, Level 7 Muscle Wizard: 84055 (Level up at 144000)-- Devotee of Ninhursag, Bond 6 (-30% exp)
- Charles / Galaxy Johnson, Level 5 Elf (Alpdrucke): 36371 (Level up at 48000)-- Devotee of Ereshkigal, Bond 2 (-10% exp)  

- Timothy / Sir Robyn, Level 5 Magic-User: 22592 (Level up at 36000)
- Fraser / Mori, Level 4 Elf (Worriganger): 21560 (Level up at 24000)
- Tom / Hacker's Halberdiers, Level 2 Extras: 1722 (Level up at 3000)
*DING!* +1d12 HP! +1 Named Character! +backstory!
--- Old Man Henderson, Level 0 Elderly Man

Absent or Retired:

- Issy / Sturdy, Level 2 Dwarf: 2773 (Level up at 4400)
- 
The Dwarfs
--- Randy, Level 4 Hench-Dwarf: 9884 (Level up at 17600)--- Gav, Level 0 Inclusion
- Ollie / Synthia,
 Level 4 Inheritor: 16935 (Level up at 18000) 
- James / Ratimir, 
Level 5 Ratman: 20944 (Level up at 24000) 
- Tom / Clarence Eclair, Level 3 Specialist: 3040 (Level up at 6000)
- Tom / Aces Fontaine, Level 1 Specialist: 869 (Level up at 1500)
- Kitty / Bertha, Level 4 Necromancer: 9931 (Level up at 18000)
- Imran / Friar, Level 1 Magic User: 1040 (Level up at 2250)
- Andy / Carrie Meleste, Level 5 Cleric: 25557 (Level up at 28000)
- Yuri / Bjorn Gunnerson, Level 2 Barbarian: 2278 (Level up at 4000)
- Sunni / Larry's Legends, Level 1 Extras: 758 (Level up at 1500)
- Fraser / Tippin, Level 1 Ratman: 1458 (Level up at 1500)
- Charles / Zena, Level 6 Fighter: 41566 (Level up at 64000)
- Tom / Meteor Power Shower, Level 2 Barbarian: 3061 (Level up at 4000)
- Nix's Retainer
--- Huz, Level 0 Hireling
- Tom / Spicy Mac, Level 2 Halfling: 3457 (Level up at 4000)
- Eleanor / Mugg, Level 2 Fighter: 2357 (Level up at 4000)
- Kyle / Gimlass the Brave, Level 2 Dwarf: 2257 (Level up at 4400)
- Amar / Amar's Cleric, Level 1 Cleric: 1413 (Level up at 1750)
- Henry / Henry's Next Character: +2084 exp
- Ollie / Tremendo Picante, Level 2 Ratman: 2654 (Level up at 3000)
- James / Raaf van Held, Level 4 Fighter: 14838 (Level up at 16000)
- Eglė / Bob, Level 1 Dwarf: 434 (Level up at 2200)
- Will / Cecil Fulbright, Level 5 Cleric (Termaxian): 15063 (Level up at 28000)
- James / William Fox-Shitt, Level 3 Cleric (Zeanist): 4571 (Level up at 7000)

Saturday, 10 March 2018

Retrospective 17 - Apocalypse Now

We're here! This is it! The end of days!
Angels fall from the sky. Shimmering beams of light pierce down through the clouds. Demons flee before the wrath of God.
And from below, the tentacles of Shub-Niggurath rise. Great fissures cracking the Earth as the great tendrils emerge.
And in between, a city starts to walk. An apocalypse dragon cracks its floating mountainous coccoon. Humanity's final army is crushed by the Dead. A deadly poison spreads across the land, killing a third of all trees and all green grass.

And amongst it all, my players are trying their absolute fucking best to cancel the apocalypse.

In broad strokes, the party's key goal has been to travel to Dwimmermount and find a source of Azoth to fuel a giant stone golem.

This neatly ties together a few things that wouldn't otherwise be related. The Slaughtergrid is a module they were stuck in for mooooonths, but they know it's a big fuck-off mech which would be massively helpful in the current apocalypse if they need to punch something big.
Azoth made its first appearance in the distant past of 2014, predating any of the current players. It's one of Dwimmermount's big deals. Azoth and Dwimmermount have cropped up a fair few times in the game, and by now I'm pretty sure everyone's guessed that this is the Holy Mountain that is central to the Termaxian faith.

The secondary goal - help a dragon cult to create a super-poison that will kill Shub-Niggurath.
This came up after some delves and a couple of tragic deaths due to spider venom. The first level of Dwimmermount is host to the Spider Queen Arach-Nacha whose bite is a a sort of hyper-powerful omnipoison and whose kiss is a hyper-powerful antivenom.
The plan is to capture her and take her to the Drakencult in Moondin so they can milk her for use in poison research. Not as easy as it sounds... and it doesn't sound easy.

This is only really possible because they managed to unite the various factions under Ninhursag late last year, allowing them to focus on poison research instead of fighting the Rebel Dead.
Stealing a horrible boss monster from a dungeon in order to drag it overland to somewhere else is just so great.

beep boop i am an angel

There's been a general theme of angels and demons these past few months, which is conveniently apocalyptic.

Angels have already gotten a rep as being dangerous and strange.
Because my idea of angels has been coloured forever by Evangelion, I wanted to make angels be more along the lines of weird eye-covered wheels and unfathomable plans as opposed to winged dudes with tortured souls.
They're sort of holy magic-immune robots with stasis beam weapons. They're all unfolded spheres and communicate in choir-like Angelic Binary.
I'm leaning hard on modrons for these guys, but with a few twists. Upgrade when a higher-tier angel is destroyed and all.

The anti-magic thing is the most worrying to my players. The Muscle Wizard's otherwise-unstoppable Magic Missile punch has no effect on them.
Luckily Sir Robyn the magic lawyer can understand their song-language, so that's led to lots of shenanigans.


-- boss angel online --

As for Demons, the party's travels through the mountainous demon territories have seen them run into a fair few.
What I call Demons are perhaps more rightly called Devils by D&D nomenclature, but fuck that. You've got smart demons and you've got dumb demons such as those dragged forth by the Summon spell. They're all demons. I think mine have ended up somewhere between Perdition and Kill Six Billion Demons in terms of influences.

Most importantly, demons feed on sin. The most powerful demons wear masks, a different colour depending on which Sin they eat. They tend to be quite friendly and try to persuade you to indulge in their sin in order to feed them.
I love chatty enemies. While initially unintended, the chatty demons vs the unfathomable angels creates a nice dichotomy.

I feel like there's a modern tendency to think of angels and demons as sort of evenly matched oppositional forces. Constantine, Supernatural, Diablo. Evenly matched inhuman entities locked in an eternal war for the souls of man.

But not here. Demons flee from the light of God, and a single strike from the lowest Angel will destroy the mightiest Demon.
The demons are scared.

HE BIG

Other than angels and demons, Dragons are the big force on everyone's radar right now.
I've been pleased with how the mechanics of becoming a dragon cultist have been working. This stuff is based directly on Patrons in Perdition, so anyone joining a cult has to obey their strictures and suffer an increasingly hefty experience tax.
My game has ended up with a sort of tacit level limit at Level 7. Nobody has ever managed to breach that limit to reach level 8.
That's meant that joining a drakencult has taken on a sort of alternate leveling system. Since you're not going to reach level 8 anyway, might as well just eat the exp drain. It's only an advantage!

We've got POWERLAD who has been the most active dragon worshipper, trying to convert everyone he meets and spreading the good word of Ninhursag.
He's been unsuccessful at converting the party at time of writing, but did manage to convert a whole town to worshipping the dragon, uniting warring factions under its aegis. Real cool.
He's high enough in the dragon's esteem to see heartbeats, gain subcutaneous green scales, and deciding to take the dragon's rune-aspect of Size has given him the ability to hulk out for +4 Strength mod. Pretty rad!

The other dragon worshipper in the party, Galaxy Johnson, has been too far away from his patron to really visit and level up. One of the fundamental issues with joining a drakencult is that you have to return to the dragon or a higher level drakencultist in order to level up your dragon powers, and Galaxy Johnson hasn't managed to get back to Ereshkigal since he was first inducted.



In other news we've had the arrival of Timothy, who immediately grokked the shenanigans.
He's playing a Magic-User lawyer, and is probably the first one to abuse cantrips to their intended extent.
It's fun having someone new to the game because it suddenly puts how bizarre the campaign is at the moment in perspective. To everyone else it's been a slow increase in stakes over time, to a new player you're suddenly explaining "yea so the world is cracking like an egg, there are angels, she's playing the son of her previous character, this guy's maybe an alien, and they're trying get dragons to start destroying the world but stop them before they've gone too far".
Shit's wacky.

We also had the return of Ollie who'd been away for a good long while due to life stuff. He back!
Unfortunately his long-running character Andromeda soon died to spider venom alongside other long-running character Nix. Poison is OP, man.
He's now playing the campaign's first Inheritor and becoming a real menace.

Speaking of Nix, shoutout to Fraser whose character Nix has been with us ever since the time skip. Long may she rest. He's playing a furtive Elf character now who's managed to get massive Stealth, so a big change from his previous Barbarian. He's really getting a lot out of the Evade / Combat Stealth rule which is nice to see.

New player Issy has juuuust arrived at time of writing. She's completely new to this, so I don't know what she's like in play yet. Strong start with calling her Dwarf character Sturdy though, A+!


oh shit yea and Ollie's got into 3D modelling and is looking at starting a miniature business!

Mini Reviews:

The Magma Lake of Ninhursag:
Some bullshit I made up. High level open air area made up of vine bridges hung between enormous crystal trees above a lake of magma. Lots of chatty enemies, LOTS of treasure.
Sort of intended as a heist or high level shenanigans area, currently it's been mostly POWERLAD coming here to pray before the great green head of Ninhursag which sightlessly dozes in the pool of magma at the centre of the area.
Maybe I will write this up one day.

I like this module a lot. I ran it again because I was caught short one session, reskinned to be the abode of a Gluttony demon.
It was entered via a tavernkeeper so enormously fat that he was stuck behind his bar. He sobbed and whispered for Our Heroes to save him, and they obliged by crawling into his mouth and delving the interior dungeon.
Everything inside as written but reskinned (with very literal skin) to be a floor of rotting and mushy food, corridors of throat, pus, stomach linings, as much gross stuff as I could manage.
It's a pretty natural fit, actually.

Once Christmas, one of the players murdered Santa Claus.
As per famous Tim Allen docudrama "The Santa Clause", Lulu Spiderbite became the new Santa.
Then the timeskip. Lulu's fate unknown.
A false Santa arose. A demon Santa. "Our" Santa. A demon of Greed, feeding on the greed of children come Christmas.
Lulu did not like this. She became the Krampus of Santa is Dead.
The 4-D art gallery was the main thing we saw, since the players didn't follow Lulu Claus's trail of destruction across the land.
A+ module and PWYW!

Of this megadungeon, much has been said.
I like it.
So ok, real talk, that thing that megadungeons do where they start off normal wooden-doors-and-stone-corridors and get weirder as they go down?
I get why they do it. Megadungeons are meant to be campaign-spanning centrepieces so you want to start with the normal stuff before you get weirder as you go down, bringing across a sort of mythic underworld vibe.
It makes sense if your megadungeon is a tentpole, but for me it's just a very big dungeon that someone else already made for me.
Which is to say - I've amped up all the space-fantasy vibes and made the doors made of slide-back metal and various other bits iris open or have some blatant plastics and keycards and stuff thrown in.
Thematic innit.

Saturday, 3 March 2018

Session 170 - Boss Rush

Plans go successfully! Angels are smashed up, the spider queen is captured, and everything goes pretty well!
Also, destruction of plant life on a massive scale. Uh oh.

Welcome to Issy who's playing our new Dwarf! Amazingly enough in these end times, her prior profession was as a false prophet.
I write these obnoxiously lengthy recaps every week. If you truly want to see everything that's ever happened it's up on this blog, but I really don't expect anyone to read all that.

So to get you up to speed here's all you really need to know:
- There is an enormous tentacle beast in the core of the Earth. It is rising and fracturing the planet. The world is ending. 
- The party's overarching goal seems to be to daisy-chain a solution to the apocalypse by using world-ending threats to kill other world-ending threats
- Current plan: help a dragon cult to make a virulent poison so powerful it will destroy the tentacle beast. Hopefully something that won't kill everything else at the same time.



- Timothy graces us with the chained up spider queen in his inaugural art attack!


- Make that TWO spidery art attacks!

- Charles continues the Galaxy Johnson meme train!


- I doodle the mountainside light show!



Session 170 - Boss Rush

Campaign Date:
Friday, 12 February, 1601
Moon Phase: Waning Crescent
Zodiac: Capricorn

New Characters:
- Sturdy, a Dwarf who left her homeland and basically blagged her way across the country as a False Prophet. Has a loyal lackey called Lofty, an extremely poorly crafted Inclusion that's as tall as a human.

New Backstory:
- As we all know, Randy's planned excursion into the Barrowmaze with his best friends and his lover went horribly wrong when they abandoned him down a hole. (+2 to AC and Saves for 10 minutes when a plan goes horribly awry)

Enemies Defeated:
- 2 boss angels (2000 exp)
- 2 upgraded angels (200 exp)
- 2 baby giant spiders (100 exp)
- Arach-Nacha the Spider Queen (100 exp)
Total: 2400 exp

Treasure and Equipment:
- 8 Azoth Coins (800 exp)
- Some bits of angel, including an arm
- The arm and hand of a Caretaker
- A spider statue set with malachite (500 exp)
- A spider statue set with zircon (5000 exp)
- A key card with a familiar symbol
- Sparking electric-blue spider babies
- Arach-Nacha the Spider Queen, in a bag
Total: 6300 exp

Exploration:
- Explored 10 or so dungeon rooms (200 exp)
Total: 200 exp

Events:
- POWERLAD heals astonishingly quickly, even sleeping rough in the party's rough campsite. The scales under his skin glow softly green when he sleeps. (50 exp)
- While he rests, others prepare for glorious battle against the angel at the red doors on the other side of the mountain by lowering a bucket down the hole into the Moon Pool. (50 exp)



- Mori sneaks off around the mountainside to scout out the angel situation. There's one big boss angel looking pretty rickety, a single mid-tier angel with its bottom hemisphere opened out into legs, and one normal spherical one just sitting there. (50 exp)
- This is relayed to the rest of the party, who hatch a plan. (50 exp)
- Some time later, the plan is ready. Everyone but POWERLAD is hiding up on the mountainside. Sir Robyn listens into the angel singing and hears the big one pinging the giant six-winged angel in the sky for reinforcements. (50 exp)



- POWERLAD, on the other side of the mountain, sings for backup then blasts up into the sky! It's too far for his voice to reach but it was a nice idea. (50 exp)
- Midair, he pulls out his great hammer, dramatically hulks out, and falls towards the boss angel! (50 exp)
- On the mountainside, the rest of the party see the falling figure crackling with lightning, plummeting towards the angel. They open fire! (50 exp)
- Mori's beam is a direct hit! The electricity arcs between the angel's spinning shards of sphere, heavily damaging it and throwing its spinning rings out of alignment. (50 exp)
- Sir Robyn blasts at it with dual pistols, and while Galaxy Johnson misses he does find that the crystal focus glove works great now! (50 exp)


- POWERLAD blasts down from the heavens moments later... but the ranged attacks has made the angel flinch and his orbital drop hammer blow juuuust misses, to his great chagrin (50 exp)
- The angel configures its wings into cannons and blasts POWERLAD, but it's too damaged and one of the cannons explodes! (50 exp)
- The blast throws off POWERLAD's hammer blow. Not again!! The smallest spherical angel rolls up close to him, but he doesn't care. (50 exp)
- Successive Explosion beams blast the second-tier angel back away from the cliffside, it staggers backwards returning fire, but Randy's cover is too good. (50 exp)
- Up on the mountainside Mori fucks up spectacularly, the errant lightning beam falters, trails across the inside of Randy's shield, reflects back and forth across the landscape, and somehow ends up zapping Mori himself! He spasms on the ground, paralyzed by his own lightning. (50 exp)



- POWERLAD hears the laughter from the mountainside and assumes they're laughing at him! Angrily, he smashes the shit out of the boss angel with the hammer, destroying it in one mighty blow! A low clear note like a bell rings out. "The bell tolls for THEE motherfucker!" he roars. (50 exp)
- Behind him, the blasted-back second tier angel freezes. Sir Robyn hears it sing out " -- hierarchy disrupted -- emergency upgrade --" on loop, a song picked up by the small angel near POWERLAD as both their singing voices drop down a couple of ranges. (50 exp)
- The second tier angel's upper hemisphere expands out into the spinning rings and sphere-fragments of a boss angel, while the other upgrades to take its place. "Kill the smaller one first!" POWERLAD yells. (50 exp)
- Just then, as if from nowhere, a stocky Dwarf riding a lanky Inclusion runs down the mountainside to attack the angel that's next to POWERLAD!... but they trip before getting close. (50 exp)
- The boss angel reconfigures its wings into a swirl of contra-rotating pieces, and the air around it starts going weird as a stasis field begins to form around it (50 exp)
- Beams and bullets are shot at the angel to no avail, creating strange and stuttering fractal patterns and afterimages where they touch the partially-formed field. (50 exp)
- POWERLAD's had enough of this. He gambits, grabbing the angel next to him and jumping high up into the air! The angel sings in alarm as they blast down towards the ground! (50 exp)
- It takes a massive amount of falling damage. There is a massive electrical explosion, framing POWERLAD inside a crater of blackened metal. (50 exp)


"IT DIES"

- The boss angel is the only one remaining, but it's inside the stasis field it seems invulnerable. Mori electric beams it to no avail, and rocks seem to slowly roll down the curve of the shield as it slowly simmers away. (50 exp)
- Everyone has a picnic and occasionally chucks stuff at the stasis shell. Not even bits of dead angel go through. It's slowly decreasing in size, but it's taking ages. (50 exp)
- Randy, meanwhile, has realised that this new Dwarf is a woman! Excessively rare, in their mutual Dwarven arcology of Ur-Kalladh the men have to craft their sons from rock and gems. He doesn't know the first thing about how to talk to Dwarf women. (50 exp)
- Distantly, then quickly closer, a deep deep braaaaammmm like a deep bass trumpet travels across the land. It's clearly being relayed by the six-winged angels high above. (50 exp)
- Sir Robyn hears a repeated " -- Prophecy Confirmed -- Trumpet Sounded -- ". This is ominous. Sir Robyn tries to remember his Revelations. (50 exp)
- Disturbed by the sounding of the trumpet and the potential rain of fire across the land, the party decide to head into Dwimmermount and capture the spider queen. (50 exp)
- A chain is inscribed with Enlarge runes, the idea being that they'll get the queen to step in it then turn off the runes, trapping her. Galaxy Johnson expresses his displeasure, but goes along with it. (50 exp)
- The entrance hall within is as it was. Headless statues of gods and goddesses, buckets on the floor, oil everywhere, a bunch of dead Inclusions. (50 exp)
- They call out, but there's no reply. Mori has the map, so he points the way forward into the main corridors. (50 exp)
- Part way down, they find wispy webs and hear quiet spidery voices. Sir Robyn, again, leads negotiations. The spiders are very small for giant spider and say they'll pay good coins for someone to kill the angels ahead. (50 exp)
- Galaxy Johnson shadow-warps past them and checks out where the angels are allegedly supposed to be... no angels. (50 exp)
- The spiders are surprised by this news. No angels?! So they can get out of here?! (50 exp)
- They give the party their 8 azoth coins, or "Zothcoins" as Galaxy Johnson insists on calling them. Score! One of the baby spiders comes with them to lead the party to mummy, the other scrambles for the exit. (50 exp)


- They reach the spider queen's cave without incident, other than a constant flow of azoth-enriched air making fires both mundane and magical burn clean and strong. (50 exp)
- Galaxy Johnson calls to his queen and she emerges. He asks for her blessing and she kisses him again, wriggling her long slick tongue down his throat. This time, her tongue scoops out countless eggs and tiny spiderlings. (50 exp)
- The rest of the party, especially those who received her "gifts" earlier in the week, look on in horror. (50 exp)
- At least his poison immunity is topped up for another week. (50 exp)
- Dreading the consequences, the rest of the party allow her to give them their "shots". The spiders emerging from POWERLAD's belly have a noticeably blue colour. (50 exp)
- Finally, the party present the spider queen the chain, alleging it to be a gift from Ninhursag itself. The queen gladly puts it on, marveling at the strange runes, before the rune is depowered and the chain shrinks around her! (50 exp)
- She screams betrayal at Galaxy Johnson as the party pull Santa's sack over the fat ensnared body of the spider queen. Galaxy Johnson hides his sadness and guilt poorly. (50 exp)



- Some of the spilled eggs are scooped up in the hopes of raising the demon spiders as pets. More importantly, the queen's lair is unguarded! (50 exp)
- Inside the lair they find a few valuable spider statues and, crucially, a rectangular device with a very familiar symbol! It's got to be a keycard for that big main door! (50 exp)



- Dragging the queen's body behind them, the party leave by the Dwarf door. Now to get to Moondin before all these eggs explode from their bellies... (50 exp)
Total: 2300 exp

Misc:
- Absolutely Disgusting bonus (50 exp)
- Antagonist Annihalator bonus (50 exp)
- Antagonist Antagoniser bonus (50 exp)
- Balls to the Wall bonus (50 exp)
- Best of Intentions bonus (50 exp)
- Brutal Kill bonus (50 exp)
- Classic Charles bonus (50 exp)
- Diplomancy bonus (50 exp)
- Doolittle bonus (50 exp)
- Dramatic Battle bonus (50 exp)
- Enmity Inciter bonus (50 exp)
- Freudian bonus (50 exp)
- Hard Bargain bonus (50 exp)
- Henchman Abuse bonus (50 exp)
- Mad Inventor bonus (50 exp)
- Michael Bay bonus (50 exp)
- Mountaineer bonus (50 exp)
- Operator as Fuck bonus (50 exp)
- PETA bonus (50 exp)
- Poison is OP bonus (50 exp)
- Pundemonium bonus (50 exp)
- Ridiculously Bad Rolling bonus (50 exp)
- RSPCA bonus (50 exp)
- Shunga bonus (50 exp)
- Tactical Fighting bonus (50 exp)
- WWE bonus (50 exp)
Total: 1300 exp

Party Roles and Individual Exp:
- Remembrancer (Charles / Galaxy Johnson - 100 exp)
- Caller (Kitty / POWERLAD - 100 exp)
- Mapper (Fraser / Mori - 100 exp)
- Treasurer (Fraser / Mori - 100 exp)
- Quartermaster (Kitty / POWERLAD - 100 exp)
- Guard (Timothy / Sir Robyn - 100 exp)
- Tracker (Timothy / Sir Robyn - 100 exp)
- Art Attack bonus (Charles, Timothy - 100 exp ea.)
- Artapalooza bonus (Charles, Timothy - 100 exp)
- Chippo Man bonus (Timothy*2 - 200 exp)
- Office Supply Filcher bonus (Charles - 100 exp)
- JÜGBRINGYR bonus (Fraser, Timothy, Issy - 500 exp ea.)

Active Businesses:
- Honey Healing. Safe. 1106sp. (Bertha) 📈 Up 1%
- Knickers Gloves Bodices. Risky. 1030sp. (Ratimir)
- Blood Honey 4 U. Safe. 515sp. (Sir Robyn) 📈 Up 2%! 

Rumours:
- -

Death Toll and Injuries:
- Not even one!

Exp Totals:
- Kitty / POWERLAD!, Level 7 Muscle Wizard: 82659 (Level up at 144000)-- Devotee of Ninhursag, Bond 5 (-25% exp)
- Charles / Galaxy Johnson, Level 5 Elf (Alpdrucke): 34191 (Level up at 48000)-- Devotee of Ereshkigal, Bond 2 (-10% exp)  
- Timothy / Sir Robyn, Level 5 Magic-User: 19970 (Level up at 36000)*DING!* +1d4 HP! +1 level 3 spell/day! +1 level 1 spell/day! +free spell! +backstory!
--- Randy, Level 4 Hench-Dwarf: 9884 (Level up at 17600)--- Gav, Level 0 Inclusion- Fraser / Mori, Level 4 Elf (Worriganger): 19438 (Level up at 24000)
- Issy / Sturdy, Level 2 Dwarf: 2773 (Level up at 4400)
*DING!* +1d10 HP! +optional lorebond! +backstory!

Absent or Retired:
- Ollie / Synthia, Level 4 Inheritor: 16935 (Level up at 18000) 
- James / Ratimir, 
Level 5 Ratman: 20944 (Level up at 24000) 
- Tom / Clarence Eclair, Level 3 Specialist: 3040 (Level up at 6000)
- Tom / Aces Fontaine, Level 1 Specialist: 869 (Level up at 1500)
- Kitty / Bertha, Level 4 Necromancer: 9931 (Level up at 18000)
- Imran / Friar, Level 1 Magic User: 1040 (Level up at 2250)
- Andy / Carrie Meleste, Level 5 Cleric: 25557 (Level up at 28000)
- Yuri / Bjorn Gunnerson, Level 2 Barbarian: 2278 (Level up at 4000)
- Sunni / Larry's Legends, Level 1 Extras: 758 (Level up at 1500)
- Fraser / Tippin, Level 1 Ratman: 1458 (Level up at 1500)
- Charles / Zena, Level 6 Fighter: 41566 (Level up at 64000)
- Tom / Meteor Power Shower, Level 2 Barbarian: 3061 (Level up at 4000)
- Nix's Retainer
--- Huz, Level 0 Hireling
- Tom / Spicy Mac, Level 2 Halfling: 3457 (Level up at 4000)
- Eleanor / Mugg, Level 2 Fighter: 2357 (Level up at 4000)
- Kyle / Gimlass the Brave, Level 2 Dwarf: 2257 (Level up at 4400)
- Amar / Amar's Cleric, Level 1 Cleric: 1413 (Level up at 1750)
- Henry / Henry's Next Character: +2084 exp
- Ollie / Tremendo Picante, Level 2 Ratman: 2654 (Level up at 3000)
- James / Raaf van Held, Level 4 Fighter: 14838 (Level up at 16000)
- Eglė / Bob, Level 1 Dwarf: 434 (Level up at 2200)
- Will / Cecil Fulbright, Level 5 Cleric (Termaxian): 15063 (Level up at 28000)
- James / William Fox-Shitt, Level 3 Cleric (Zeanist): 4571 (Level up at 7000)