Sessions 9 & 10 of the Virtual Hump-Day CHA'ALT Campaign

 

Session #9: Pantomime Worm

As the fuchsia sky darkens and the lavender moons start to rise, the shadows around this ruined city spread like inky deep-purple things. The entrance to wa'avenjour, the place before the place, is open. It's black in there. You have no idea what is waiting for you. But there is a slurping sound.

The PCs find some metallic purple caltrops and the party's wizard, Nicollo, turns them into a pixie-fairy.

You see a woman laying on a bed in what used to be a well-appointed room that's fallen into disrepair.

The slurping sound is coming from where she is.

As you approach, you can see some kind of insect that's attached itself to the outside of her ear. It's making that slurping noise. You see something like a tongue flick into her ear.

The PCs gave the insect to Mid for him to hold, but then it squirted some jale liquid onto him.

Mid says something about being able to feel her dream and walk into it as he immediately falls asleep and drops the insect that scurries through a hole in the wall.

Then a portal opens and everyone can see Mid in this dreamworld as he's fondling the breasts of a female PeeWee Herman and encouraging the guys to come in and find some demon vaj.  Somewhere along the way, a dream-whore wielding a chainsaw brought it down hard on the Midnight-elf hireling, and I rolled enough damage that it killed him.  

After all those dream shenanigans, they open a door and find a demon demanding tickets before the PCs are allowed in.  If they don't have a ticket, they can either buy their way in or put on a pantomime worm costume and perform for everyone at the party.  They put on the worm outfit and two of the three become the sandworm's neck-penis.  An old woman who claims to be the "birthday girl" insists upon it. 

A crystalline man leans against a wall, smoking.  He points to a corner of this massive party room. It's got squares of different color. There's a turquoise square, magenta, tangerine, fuchsia, chartreuse, and purple. Each square is lit up with its own color. "They can be dangerous if used properly."

"You don't play, you choose.  And it chooses you, as well."

The adventurers leapt onto the turquoise square and I asked for a d100 roll.  The result was 69, hoss.  They enter a room in some kind of turquoise dimension and find two blonde women in a complimentary position on a fancy chaise-lounge chair.  The PCs investigate and explore, only to eventually find themselves melting into a sewer grate and then waking up.  Most of it had been a dream.  Though, they still had the pantomime worm costume and Mid was still dead. 

Next thing they knew, bandits entered their room and attacked.  The PCs killed a few and the rest fled.  That's pretty much where we ended it.

For loot they had a couple issues of Red Cherry Magazine, some magenta coins, and that sweet-ass pantomime worm getup.  Plus, I believe they still have that insect that squirts out jale-hued dream liquid.

Session #10:  Cha'alt Breaks Some Adventurers 

The Saint gets everyone back on track, just like a good droid should.  He reiterated that the party needed to find a way to go deeper, in order to modify the prophecy.  

An NPC overheard him... 

"A man who stays on task," a robed stranger says as he opens the door into your room. "I like that. I like that very much."

"Do you know the ha'aiku?"

"My name is Zurik. I live down here in these subterranean ruins. This is my home."

One of the PCs gave it a go and recited a haiku that included swimming fish.

"The way to Cremza'amirikza'am is not far, but unless you know the ha'aiku, the door will not open."

"I've never seen a fish swim."

"It must be a Cha'altian ha'aiku. That's what the magenta door asks for... what it demands before opening. Do you know it?

"I only know of one line. Here, let me show you." He gestures for you to walk through the door. Zurik points at the ground which is scorched with a slut-glyph. It's barely recognizable to you, so you rely on Zurik's translation.

"Sickly-sweet." He points at the symbol while walking in a circle around it. His eyes are all black. It's obvious he has demon blood in his veins.

"I've seen other ones before, but didn't know what they were. Just hours ago, I fell asleep and had a vision. You 3 were in my dream, and you were searching for 3 slut-glyphs that, when read before the magenta door, opened it, and that way led to Cremza'amirikza'am."

4, 3, and then 7... syllables, that is.  Traditionally, that's the order, but Cha'alt natives have written plenty of ha'aiku that ignore it. 

The Saint deduced what they needed to do as automatically as his waste disposal movements... "So, we must find the other two glyphs and then work out the order?"

Their new travel companion, Zurik, led the way to a doorway with a sign above it that read "Learing Center."  Walking in, the place looked like a high-tech medical facility or scifi hospital.  There was a woman in a straightjacket that bumped into The Saint and barked at him, a guy in a white lab coat with clipboard and moustache, a nurse who smartly ran away as soon as she clapped eyes on the PCs, and an orderly wheeling a gurney around.

The guy with the clipboard told them they should leave because adventurers being here triggered patient anxieties.  You see, this is where ex-adventurers in Cha'alt go when no other place will have them.

"These are the people who played around with Cha'alt, but just couldn't hack it. Cha'alt broke them, broke their minds. Now, they're cared for here, in this facility."  Sad!

While the PCs hoped they never ended up in a place like this, they searched for possible glyphs.  Finding none, but seeing the lights flicker and hearing a tremendous thud sound, the PCs prepared themselves. 

As all this was happening, a patient started talking about how he used to be a sorcerer, and he grabbed a magic sword and it became his penis.  "No glyphs... only doodles of cartoon worms and bananas and... they're all penises - A'aaahhhhgg!!!"

He jumps out of an open window that just happens to be there in the hallway.

The clipboard guy gets into a fetal position and rocks back and forth. "This is no bueno."

A portal appeared suddenly as a mauve-worm screamed out of it and chomped the clipboard dude in half.  At that point, the PCs were ready to leave and hurried out the door.  It lead to the more usual dank dungeon environment with spider webs aplenty.  

They made it to an oddly angled room painted dark purple and black in a haphazard manner, like the work was done by folks more interested in human sacrifice than staying within the lines.

More bandits - this time laying on a tapestry with prostitutes.  When the bandits ask what they want, the adventurers know the importance of showing strength right off the bat.  They kill 2 of the bandits in the first round, and the rest flee.  The prostitutes stay, get railed, and leave with a pink gemstone for payment.

Looks clear to you. You can hear murmuring from within. It opens into a dimly lit room painted cinnamon.

There are people in the room, discussing matters in hushed voices.  The men are wearing what looks like brown wormskin armor. The women wear white flowing dresses.

There's a machine like a big pipe in the back corner of the room. There's a transparent viewing area in the middle of the pipe and you can see something moving in the illuminated greenish water.  A scrawny man in brown robes limps up to you and asks if you have an appointment with anyone from the Sherza'ad dynasty.

The PCs go with "Do you know who we are?" and the scrawny guy lets them approach and speak with whoever they want to see.  That's where we ended it.

Thanks for reading - next session is this Wednesday!

VS

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