Coming off the heels of VENGER CON IV: Post-Modern Apocalypse (if you haven't seen the blog post), I was on the road to recovery... having gotten sick the last day of the convention and making steady progress every day since.
I found out the morning of our Cha'alt campaign that we'd be down another player (the one who played in that half-session with my son a couple weeks back) due to food poisoning. With only 3 players showing up - none of whom had every played it - I decided to run Hunted In Tenzarith - modified here and there. I felt like an isolated "bottle episode" of a session would be ideal, given the circumstances.
The biggest modification was the PCs being chosen for a mission by The Guardian. An extra-dimensional being, he set the adventurers in a drow prison near the Caves of Carnage as they were to find a crystal that was part of a gleaming, transparent cube hidden somewhere in that cave-system.
Each player got to determine what color / dimension in the skinematic Vengerverse their character du jour originated from. So, we had purple-Bandersnatch, purple-Tinker, and I suppose purple-Black Francis (since this was only his second session and his first appearance was in purple-Cha'alt).
Soon enough, the PCs broke out, released an infernal beholder (who kindly disintegrated their slave collars in exchange for his freedom), and found their stuff - plus, a bit more. The Zeeku narrative game mechanics were in full effect as purple-Bandersnatch rolled a 1 on his d20 and a 1 on his accompanied d6. The first thing he found was a black skull that radiated magic. The skull, Wilzon, talked to him psychically, telling the blue-suede elf sorcerer that he didn't need any of that other junk (stuff like his blaster, magical weapons, etc.) "Just take the origami unicorn... that's enough. I'm all you'll ever need."
Following a failed saving throw, the black skull had successfully possessed Bandersnatch. Luckily, the sorcerer summoned his faithful familiar, Tiny Danzig. After talking with Wilzon, Tiny Danzig realized the black skull would be detrimental to his master, and threw the skull on the ground, smashing it into several pieces.
The spell broken, the sorcerer gathered up all his belongings, and they hauled ass out of there - oh but not before searching the descending stone staircase to find a half-woman (with rockin' tits) and half-spider statue holding aloft a glowing purple orb. There were a bunch of giant spiders down there, too, so once they got the orb, they finally left the dungeon.
The streets of Tenzarith were filled with backstabbing and betrayal, as you'd imagine. I used the priestess of Lolth massage parlor encounter which I've employed a half-dozen times, now. Usually, with slight variations. This time, no one was murdered, only a precious necklace was stolen as Black Francis was invisible and snuck in to steal it.
Meanwhile, the priestess used a form of sexual healing to bring the magic-spent sorcerer back up to full (or near enough) HP. Once the thievery was over and Black Francis was paid with a storm opal, the dark elf female fled into the night. There was an amusing discussion started by Black Francis, dismayed that a "7" was running away. I assured everyone that this being my world, on Cha'alt, 7s, 8s, and 9s, were rather commonplace. "You'd be hard-pressed to find a 4 in this campaign, hoss."
Continuing on, the PCs not wasting time assisting their fellow prisoners escape re-capture at the hands of drow guards, they passed the food truck "Chicken of the Poisoned Blade." The in-joke started with another group last weekend continued - "Wait? Is the chicken poisoned? How many customers are fine with eating at a place with poison right there in the name?" A lot, apparently, as there was a line 6 or 7 deep.
Tinker got a dish of mango-pineapple BBQ "chicken," and it was as sweet, spicy, and tasty as you could get. Incidentally, I did a write-up of the games I'll be running at Gary Con next year (in March), and it includes a session where the food truck has expanded into a mid-tier, chain-style restaurant and the PCs work there. Kind of Office Space meets Waiting... in Cha'alt.
Ok, the PCs made it into the Caves of Carnage. After sifting through trash and chatting with a vagrant searching the mounds of garbage, the adventurers were waylaid by bandits. Black Francis' player was rolling poorly, which I attributed to the drow poison coursing through his veins. To aid him, I reminded the table about the Cha'alt X-Cards. Stimulate one of those and you get a point of Divine Favor.
The Pop-Culture card was stimulated, and Hulk Hogan came out from the back of the cave to put one of the dark elf bandits in a choke-hold, giving the PCs the upper hand.
They tried to make a deal with some fellow prisoners in a cave attempting to loot a few crystals, asking them if they'd seen a cube-shaped crystal or something that would be part of that. No luck, so they continued on.
Although, now that I recall those events, the PCs threatened the escaped prisoners to walk ahead of them (like sheep through a minefield) or die. So, I suppose they now have an entourage of three to take the front position.
Sexy dark elf women tried to lure the PCs into their cave of slut cannibalism, but the PCs resisted. Bandersnatch didn't have to roll since he'd received a BJ from the priestess of Lolth but an hour ago.
And that's where we ended things. Since it had been so long since we'd gotten together (chatting at the beginning), and stopped a bit early, that's as far as we got.
I've got more Guardian intrigue in store for everyone when we reconvene. Not sure if we're playing next week or the week after. The wife is away visiting her parents in Florida, so maybe it's best to game right away this Saturday? Hmm...
Before I go, I painted something in the days between VENGER CON and running our Saturday Cha'alt campaign - it's the glyph of Kort'thalis, titled "Infernal Tentacles of Kort'thalis Drip Tribal Blood in many Hues... Orange in Particular."
I was inspired by some nice comments (including Sandy Petersen and his wife) about the paintings I brought in for VENGER CON. This painting now sits behind me in the computer room. It turned out just as I had hoped.
BTW, I do have something special coming Friday, August 1st... (silly teaser video). I don't know what kind of impact it'll have on the TTRPG world, but it's called Kult of Kort'thalis!
Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to ask a question or post a comment below.
VS
p.s. p.s. Want the hardcover Cha'alt trilogy? Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!
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