Crystals of Chaos [session report #15]

 

Hey, guys!  What's up?  Yeah, 15th session of our Cha'alt campaign "in the can," as they say.

4 players because 1 of them had a social function they couldn't get out of.

Heighten the halfling thief, Zagreus the dwarf thief, Robard the Red dwarf sorcerer, and the half-orc warrior Krandol.

Got to try some new stuff this time, so for that reason alone it was a worthwhile session.  But we all had fun.

So, last time the PCs escaped from that pocket universe just as it was exploding.  A bit of residual energy was also born in the aftermath, as an amorphous blob of crimson effulgence.  Zagreus decided to grab it before Robard could properly vet the thing with his sorcery.

The intense crimson light asked Zagreus what form he'd like to choose, and the dwarven thief chose a cheeseburger (of course).  So, we kind of collectively hashed-out what this thing would look like, the final say coming from Zagreus (such as his name - Mayor McCheese - I didn't realize until searching for an image of this thing that that's its actual name) and my dice - just to keep things interesting and neutral.

So, it became the cheeseburger humanoid guy from the old McDonald's commercials and we all attempted to do the voice - same as the Mad Hatter from Disney's Alice in Wonderland.  With jellybabies just under the top bun... because Tom Baker.  

Then, the PCs felt a tremor as a slow but steady Cha'altquake reverberated through Cremza'amirikza'am.  One of the PCs realized that particular vibration was due to sandworms burrowing above.

Robard wanted to magic himself an escape portal for later, just in case bad things went down.  He did, and I rolled on the fuchsia-infused wild magic effects table in Fuchsia Malaise.  A zone of silence followed the party, which led to a violent altercation with a gang of demons - which reminds me, at some point, I really need to come up with a d100 table for random demons I can consult when a bunch of infernal dudes happen to be walking down a tunnel.

A little bit later, there was another demon encounter, so I'm kind of conflating both of them in my mind.  But the first was silent, and Robard's player wondered aloud what it would be like if this fight took place as if in a silent movie.  I thought that was a fun idea, so I said yeah... and we roleplayed the fight like we were all in a silent movie.  I even found a silent movie piano track on YouTube to play during some of the action.

The second demon encounter was a bunch of demons surrounding several demon rights activists with picket signs and protest chants at the ready.  Unfortunately for them, demons don't care about humanoid activists, protests, or any political posturing.  So, the demons were about to sacrifice the humanoids for the greater glory of Kort'thalis.  The PCs didn't really want to hero-out for the activists, but were hoping to deny Kort'thalis any more devotees or sacrificial power.

These demons were tougher, and between a crystal-encrusted glaive, ruby laser eye-beams, and body spines, they gave the adventurers a run for their money.  Both of the new NPCs got killed, Teddy Westside was crippled, I think Robard was down to 3 HP or something, and Heighten had three of his fingers sliced off when he tried to gank the leader's glaive in mid-air.

You see, I told him that if he wanted to grab the glaive in mid-air and use it for himself, that he'd need to roll one of his lavender demon-moon destiny dice.  And he did.  He rolled a 1, which was a critical failure.  Then, he burned a point of Divine Favor to roll that d6 again, and got another 1.  That's why three of his fingers went bye-bye.  And now, that moon-demon Heighten had called upon owned a shard of the halfling's soul... and he'd need to undertake a service at some point in the near future.

Yeah, it was a formidable battle, but the PCs came out on top... and Robard used his sorcery to conjure up a new hand for the halfling.  It was a mixture of tentacles and gold and demon parts.  Heighten claimed the glaive for himself, since he was maimed by it and all.

Incidentally, this was my worst session for taking notes.  I wrote almost nothing down for some reason and have to pretty much rely on only my memory.  Oh well, shit happens!

For some reason, Robard wanted to free the demon who lived in the black blade he'd been wielding every since Krandol upgraded to the purple plasma sword (the black demon-sword was originally Robard's, though).  So, he used all those humanoid activists that the demons were going to sacrifice in order to permanently free the demon who would have the blade and the violet power-armor suit of the samurai-rangers.  Too bad for the activists, as Robard needed all their blood to complete his ritual.

I filled the guys in on my alignment shake-up, trying to turn that into something gameable in Crimson Dragon Slayer D20.  Chaotic PCs get to commune with the Old Ones (once per session), so Robard availed himself of the opportunity.  I imagined something like in The Golden Child, when the main villain Sadow Numspa'ar or something like that meditated or said a demonic prayer and everything melted away as he appeared in Hell, talking to Satan or whoever.

Surrounded by slimy tentacles, the sorcerer felt the presence of a Great Old One.  He asked for assistance and was willing to take on a task in exchange.  While I didn't have anything red hot at the tip of my brain, I told him the message was received and the sorcerer would get clued-in soon.  Not the greatest beginning for the new alignment system (I should have prepared more), but it was a start.

The last combat of the night (there wasn't as much exploration or social stuff happening in this session, unfortunately - definitely my bad and room for improvement next time) was with a dragon who guarded the elevator taking folks from Cremza'amirikza'am to the depths of Hell.

At first, the PCs were going to bargain with the dragon, which was smart.  However, I wrote a note to let the halfling thief know that his demon liege was cashing-in on his debt right now - kill the dragon!  Heighten used his new warlock hand to open up a portal behind the dragon and surprise him - and he also wanted to use the recently added Fuchsia Burn mechanic since there was only 2 points of Divine Favor currently on the table, essentially burning both to spike a critical-hit.

Him being a thief with sneak-attack, plus the glaive's inherent powers had him rolling 27d4, which came out to about 75 points of damage.  When the dragon returned fire (yes, a pun) he got some of the squishier PCs, like the sorcerer, down to 3 or so HP.

Robard cast a spell, which he, again, wanted to supe-up... causing me to roll on that wild magical aftereffect table.  Coincidentally, Robard's player decided to "mix" his dice for that roll, and then I laughed as I told everyone at the table there are reasons why you don't do that.  The result (according to my roll on that d100 table) was sorcerous seizure.  The original spell, Missile Command, went off, but it put the sorcerer in some kind of coma.  Thinking on my feet, and based on group input, I determined that Robard melted into a purple puddle physically, as the rest of him awoke in the purple labyrinth.  I also wanted Robard out of the way so if the dragon breathed fire again, his incapacitated body wouldn't get incinerated.  

Zagreus couldn't hit the broadside of a barn, and Krandol was whittling the dragon down in HP.  Not having Jackal hacking away on behalf of the party was disappointing.  Luckily, just before the dragon burned them all alive - three sandworms burrowed into the giant cavern they were fighting in.  The sandworms seemed most interested in devouring crystals, but their movement through Cremza'amirikza'am was also causing instability - rocks falling and it was a widespread cave-in situation everywhere.

While the dragon was distracted, the PCs ran to the elevator and pushed the button down.  I played The Girl From Ipanema since that strikes me as the most cliche trope of elevator music.  

Eventually, the elevator doors opened, and an attractive woman gestured for the PCs to follow her.  That's where we ended things.  We got a late start and ended a bit early, so this session seemed a bit shorter than most, but it was still packed with cool stuff.

The next blog post will most likely be about next July's VENGER CON III, so stay-tuned for that.

Thanks for reading, hoss!

VS

p.s. Want the hardcover Cha'alt trilogy (or individual books)?  Sale is right over here with ordering details!  Remember, these are professionally printed, signed and numbered, hardcover books unlike anything you've seen before - PDFs included.

Crystals of Chaos [session report #14]

 

For those who haven't been keeping up, I just ran the 14th "episode" of my Cha'alt campaign via Crimson Dragon Slayer D20 Revised (still free, still awesome).

Many believe that such an ultra-light ruleset can't sustain a long-term campaign.  Well, they're wrong.  Sure, I come up with the occasional ruling on the spot, but I'd be doing that even with a 200+ page rulebook.

And amazingly enough, we got the band back together!  The only thing we didn't get to try out (that I can remember) were the lavender moon dice of infernal destiny!  Oh well, next time!

Jackal the dwarf warrior, Krandol the half-orc warrior, Heighten Chancery Philthrop the 3rd (halfling thief), Robard the Red (dwarven sorcerer), and Zagreus the dwarf thief.  The cleric PC we picked-up late in the campaign was absent because his player had family affairs he needed to contend with.

So, with five players, we embarked on this latest stretch of the odyssey.  Since everyone was present, I had plans of ending the campaign with this session.  However, as you'll shortly see, that was pleasantly derailed.  I use that word "derail" specifically because I do try to let the PCs go where they may and follow their action to wherever it takes them... while also providing a loose narrative structure to keep things moving along.  

If I had pushed things too hard in the direction of my own preconceived notion for how the adventure should turn out, I'd be railroading the players.  Not cool, bro.

After all, we're cooperatively creating a story as we go.  As long as all the details and ending aren't set in stone, the tale we tell is alive and malleable, possibilities abound, fuchsia sky's the limit.

Two weeks ago, our normally scheduled program was postponed due to VENGER CON.  So, it took a little time before we recalled what happened the session before.  But once a couple details were presented, our memories refreshed.

It started with a dream... a dream of colorful dragons and riding on their backs through weird space.  Along the way, the PCs saw a serpent's eye as big as one of Cha'alt's moons, fuchsia tentacles bathed in chartreuse flames rising from a black pyramid and a crystalline banana shattering into a thousand shards, each one reflecting the face of a Great Old One so monstrously terrifying that looking upon its untenable visage immediately woke them up.

The PCs settled old business, which included acquiring payment in humanoid slaves, including some beach girl centaur hottie, named Nineteen, that I stumbled upon over at the Lamentations of the Flame Princess facebook page months ago. Robard immediately claimed her as his concubine.  I decided to roll on a few tables that I didn't normally have access to, and determined that she was insecure and had 6 kids (because Zagreus had found a time crystal earlier, it was indeed likely that some of those kids actually belonged to Robard).

The other thing the PCs got from their demon allies was information - that Commander Andrak of the Federation had gone to the southern caves in hopes of making his way down below Cremza'amirikza'am to find that ancient artifact / secret weapon / apocalyptic device he's been after since the campaign's halfway point.

Then, they noticed a violet spot of light on the cave floor, it was from a shaft that had no beginning.  Robard used his sorcery to find an invisible dimensional rift that led them into a dark bio-mechanical cave containing 40 or 50 humanoid battery-pods like from The Matrix, each filled with a person surrounded by wires, cables, and translucent pink goo.

The pods were being guarded by 11 black spider-droids, about the size of a big dog - and beyond all that was a large violet crystal glowing so intensely that it's light penetrated another dimension (the PCs' home world).  Robard casted a spell on Jackal, creating 5 additional mirror images of him.  But he wanted to super-charge the spell by making a ritual out of it, takes longer but if you're not in a rush, you get a bigger and/or better effect.

I decided to roll on the weird spell aftereffects from Fuchsia Malaise.  So, rolling the percentile and wouldn't you know, it came out "radioactive spider"!!! What are the odds?  Yes, 1 in 100... but still!

Normally, I don't keep a ton of other books nearby me when I'm GMing Crystals of Chaos, just trying to keep a somewhat restrained "work space."  However, because of the convention a couple weeks ago, I had my Alpha Blue books right next to my chair.  Since the radioactive spider result mentioned a possible mutation, I asked everyone to roll.  Everyone unfortunately "passed," which means no mutant... Venger sad.

Then I had the silly, genius, totally irresponsible idea of suggesting that anyone who decided to intentionally fail their roll would get a bonus point of Divine Favor.  4 out of the 5 agreed.  So, we got Krandol with possible seizures each scene / encounter (which I forgot to roll later, I'll have to write myself a note for next session), divine healing hands for Chancery, and eidetic memory for Zagreus, and Robard the Red smells like roses pretty much all the time.  Oh yeah, and centaur-hottie got danger sense.

Hey, in my defense - Cha'alt is gonzo, and also I still thought this might be our last session.  Why not go out with a bang?  There was certainly a bang... keep reading, hoss!

Ok, spider-droids dispatched with the PCs taking no damage because all 3 hits were directed at Jackal's mirror-clones, leaving two magical clones "alive."  I'm not sure if it's written into the fine print of that spell or because of the ritualized gonzo nature of how the spell turned out, but Robard commanded everyone to destroy the last two mirror images of Jackal, lest they take on sentience of their own and try to replace the "master image."

So, the PCs made short work of them.  One of the clones might have wounded a PC, but nothing significant.  Robard decided to plunge his black bladed demon sword into the violet crystal in an ongoing effort to make the GM squirm... more likely, an unconscious effort to push me out of my comfort zone... or that's just what his character would do in that situation.  Who can be sure?

After giving it some quick thought (and forcing Robard's player to burn a couple fuchsia stones on attaining a halfway decent d20 roll), I determined that the violet-hued techno-magical suit of retro-futurist armor belonging to the Samurai-Rangers of the Lost Universe would fuse itself to both Robard and his black infernal sword.  I listed all the benefits, but Robard's player is going to do a write-up of how it all shakes out.

Lastly, the party fiddled with a battery-pod, releasing one of the simulation-dreamers who assumed he was still in Chicago, circa 1999.  So, he decided to tag along and see what Cha'alt had to offer before deciding to awaken his fellow batteries.  That NPC's name is John Dick, an amateur male porn actor.

Meanwhile, back on Cha'alt, the PCs have made quite a name for themselves in Cremza'amirikza'am and picked up a couple followers - Ma'ato (green and slobby) and Namir (the color and smell of Corinthian brown leather who's arrogant and resembles George Hamilton).  The PCs then asked about the camera crew - now that I think about it, this may have happened before the violet shaft of light scene, but whatever - and it occurred to me that I should come up with a random table to determine what's going on with their documentary... are they on break, eating lunch, going to get more filmstock, fucking an intern, etc.  

Eventually, we decided it would be hilarious if they were on strike.  I described all three crew members holding picket-signs demanding more money with some catchy slogan.  Ideas were flowing like moderately-priced wine, and it was hard to keep up with what everyone said, but I do remember lots of laughs that lasted a few minutes.  And it ended with studio executive sharkoids giving the PCs 40% investment in the production for 500 gold pieces.

Next, the PCs headed further south and found a massive chunk of ka'alaxian crystal with tangerine striations embedded in an even more massive stalagmite.  Who's going to touch it?  A common refrain in my games.  I believe multiple PCs did, and they experienced the same vision...

Commander Andrak, one side of his face horribly burned and scarred from his last tangle with the PCs, standing in a cave embedded with blood-red crystals.  The Federation officer held a crimson box in his hands.  When he opened it, there was a flash and the adventurers could see the entire planet of Cha'alt explode.

That bastard Robard the violet-red asked if that vision would allow him to teleport there using his sorcery (because technically, he has been there or at least seen the place via the crystal's warning).  I said yes, and then he opened a portal, and everyone came with.  So there they were, standing in "the last room" of the adventure, possibly the campaign, hours ahead of time and with approximately 90-minutes of game time remaining.  Lol

After a minute or so of deep thought, I told Robard that the blood-red crystals were forcing his mind to project them all into yet another dimension - a crimson labyrinth.  Luckily, I had brought my VENGER CON Like A Fucking Boss d100 gonzo table with me downstairs before the game's start.  I rolled on it several times to give me ideas, since I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen until I spontaneously thought it up.  Now, that's auto racing without a seatbelt - not for the faint of heart!

The atmosphere was 7% cinnamon.  Then I rolled on a result that simply said "The day God went mad."  Of course, I knew what that was in reference to, since I wrote it and all.  It's the original title for the vintage episode of Doctor Who episode called "The Face of Evil."  So, in the distance, there was a mountain (similar to Mount Rushmore) fashioned in the likeness of Tom Baker.

Inside his open mouth, the PCs saw a few humanoids.  So, off they went to climb.  Then I rolled again and got Satan's Little Helpers - just inside the mouth was a biker gang whose High Priest had been taken down a corridor and through a locked door - this was technological and the bikers asked the PCs to help free their High Priest, and in exchange, the bikers would do something for them (but I forget what exactly).

Krandol used his purple plasma sword to burn a hole through the door.  Inside was their High Priest, sitting cross-legged with arms out at his side, meditating and chanting under his breath.  In each hand, he had a crystal - one chartreuse and the other fuchsia.  I imagined the High Priest as resembling PeeWee Herman since Satan's Little Helpers was from PeeWee's Big Adventure and Paul Reubens just passed away (RIP, hoss).

One of the PCs asked him what he was doing, and the High Priest replied "Waiting for it to come!"  And the PCs noticed an infernal glyph carved into the stone floor beneath his lotus position.

Chancery Heighten Philthrop III, who'd been relatively quiet so far, decided to get the party started with a laser blast at the High Priest.  Literally, everyone at the table assumed the halfling thief's player would miss because that was his MO.  However, that notion turned out to be utter bullshit, as he scored a 15.  Plenty good enough to shoot a stationary humanoid who's preoccupied and with his eyes closed.

He got the High Priest in the neck and blood spurted out, then his head opened wide and this small, squidgy, slimy green Lovecraftian obscenity slithered out and hovered in mid-air... then grew into the size of a mid-sized car with massive tentacle - the fuchsia and chartreuse crystals also hovering next to the horror.

I forgot how much raw firepower the PCs could exert when they're all assembled.  And all my attack rolls failed and/or the PCs made all their saves.  So, they killed it without a scratch (I should have beefed it up mid-battle, but decided against it on a whim).  Then, to add insult to injury (not really, but that's what it felt like) someone (most likely the halfling, since he just acquired divine healing hands) asked "Does anyone need healing?"  To which everyone responded "Nope," since no one had a single HP taken from them.

Oh yeah, on that first round of combat, the PCs blew the conch shell to summon that worm the dark elves used a few sessions ago.  So, he showed up to eat the flesh and drink the emerald-green blood of the abomination once it finally showed up one round later.  

However, I subverted that anticlimax by telling them the emerald blood seeped into the infernal glyph and made the entire thing glow as an "earthquake" shook the entire place and pieces of the mountain they were in started crumbling.  They hightailed it out of there on the bikers' motorcycles and as they were exiting the mouth, noticed a priest or something of the Tom Baker religion, this dude in priest robes had a Tom Baker scarf wrapped around his neck.  He mentioned something about the Tro-kla'an or convergence of weird occurrences and mystical events that would likely result in another apocalypse.

That priest asked the PCs for a lift out of this micro-universe, so they allowed it, if he could hold on to Nineteen, Robard's centaur-hottie concubine (who wasn't a slave, but her own woman - she can do what she likes).  He did and grabbed her boobs on the ride back, which Robard swore revenge for (not a cuck, but possibly a simp - Lol).  We'll have to see how this plays out next session.

The PCs made it out of the crimson labyrinth (on second thought, in my mind's eye, it's more of an expanse or realm than a labyrinth) dimension to the blood-red crystal room.  Realizing that I still had the exact same logistics problem as earlier, I quickly followed-up with "And then the apocalyptic explosion was so HUGE that it psychically blew everyone back through the teleportation gateway you used to get here, and back to the spot you were in before reaching the red crystal room."

We were about out of time, and that was a perfect point to end the session.  It didn't go the way I expected, but I (and it sounds like all the players) felt it was an awesome session!  I know I'm extremely biased, but it seems like VENGER CON a couple weeks ago helped prepare me for improvising the eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalyptic vibe of Cha'alt.

If all goes well, session #15 will be in two weeks.  Although, the middle of August is a tricky time for me work-wise, so no promises.  I won't know how much work I'll have to put in until it gets much closer.

In any case, thanks for reading!  You had to be there to hear all the jokes (including a strange but dirty Doctor Who anecdote).  Nevertheless, the following are a few amusing phrases heard at the table...

• "White Jackal Privilege!"
• "Dumping random A.I. generated shit through the multiverse into Cha'alt." [Basically, whenever you use the prompt "Cha'alt," then whatever you generate using A.I. will appear somewhere in the Cha'alt multiverse]
• "Don't cross the crystal streams."
• "Worms that eat up Lovecraftian abomination corpses are called Cha'altian roombas."
• "You might have to find another God."  [I didn't say it, but good advice in this campaign, and reminded me of the movie I just finished, the 1976 King Kong - classic!]

Please, comment down below if you have a question, feedback, or just to say "Hi."

VS

p.s. Do I still have gorgeous, premium hardcovers of the Cha'alt trilogy for sale?  Do I...?!? Yes, yes I do.  In today's world, buy from the little guy, the independent creator selling books out of his basement, just trying to break-even - not soulless corporations that first and foremost care about profits - and are hard-pressed to come up with good content!

VENGER CON Aftermath (convention report, part 3)

 

Ok, here's part one, part two, and my latest video.  All in an effort to get you up to speed on VENGER CON II: Electric Boogaloo.  

Alrighty, the meat of this blog post will be my 2nd Cha'alt game and a little about the final session of VENGER CON... Alpha Blue.

We started with 4 players - Imur a droid warrior (an old assassination-droid with the serial numbers filed off), Gabriel a human cleric (and worshiper of the King in Yellow), Frank Beezlebub a demon sorcerer with made an ill-fated pact with a demon and was sentenced to Cha'alt as a punishment, the droid thief ST-K1 who goes by "The Saint" and keeps killing folks wielding scimitars without the proper license and registration... and halfway through, we picked-up a 5th player who played Black Destro, a human warrior.

This is the session that ventured deep down into Cremza'amirikza'am.  It's why I brought the magenta lamp - the lamp that never got used because I plum forgot about it!  Oh well, next year.  On the plus side, I did remember to bring my travel drum.  It was only for one encounter (could have used it more, I suppose), but it lent a certain amount of je ne sais quoi to the session.

I know I've said this elsewhere, but if I'm running a session primarily set in a certain location, I usually don't begin there.  I start the PCs in another place and let them arrive at the place they'll be exploring after 15% - 25% of mucking about in a tavern or wandering the desert or on a starship.  In this case, the PCs were locked behind laser bars on a starship headed for Cha'alt.  Cha'alt was listed as a Federation penal planet, and the PCs were prisoners.  In several hours, they'd be starting their new life on Cha'alt.

Of course, ST-K1 was familiar with the planet... as was an NPC I cooked up named Za'av - green skin, former gladiator with a badass weapon that would be too difficult to describe with mere words (it was named Ka'arl).

The PCs became acquainted (also an important step in my games), got to Cha'alt, but no one was around - all the crew had vanished.  They re-acquired their stuff, took as much info as they could from the ship's computer, and walked out into the desert.  Getting a bird's eye view, the demon sorcerer noticed a stone temple that had seen better days.  They walked to it.

Inside was a ball of yellow light that could speak directly into their minds, and a stone spiral stairway leading down to Cremza'amirikza'am.  In my best Thundarr villain voice, I instructed them that Iva'ak-Na'az, the great and powerful, wished them to travel down into the under-realm and bring back the Lokna'ar!

Gabriel believed this was a direct message from the King in Yellow and gladly obeyed.  The rest either felt like there was something to be gained, or that it was at least a starting point in their adventuring career.

I used the Vanessa and her banana-men servants as the opening - once they got past the black robed Kort'thalis worshipers flaying the back flesh from a humanoid corpse with none other than a crystal-rimmed jaccard - a thief's tool of inestimable value that was slumming it in the hands of depraved cultists.

From that moment on, ST-K1 used the crystal-rimmed jaccard as a "whip-missile" like from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, the weapon employed by the blue guy.  Why the fuck not?

Wanting to help Vanessa and find the Lokna'ar, the PCs ventured forth, exploring the first level of Cremza'amirikza'am.  They encountered more cultists, androids, replicants, and a tentacled clown-worm before discovering a secret cave leading to a subway tunnel with active subway!  The PCs decided to get on board and see where it took them.  After climbing aboard, they realized it was a 2-day journey to someplace they didn't know.

After a random encounter of a unicorn murdering an NPC passenger, the subway car was attacked by a warlord wearing black serpentine armor and his minions.  They jumped on top of the subway car and laser-sworded a circle in the ceiling to jump down.  Several were shot with blasters and assorted weapons by the PCs before getting into melee range.  It was a good battle.

Hours later, the subway slowed down in front of The Black Pyramid of Cha'alt and the PCs decided that's where the mettle of real adventurers are probably tested, jumped out, and headed for their fate.

We had a lot of fun, and many jokes were made... my favorite memorable line was the following, "This timeline is from a damaged prophecy."

I did get a chance to use the moon dice, and realized that it didn't provide the punch that I wanted.  The way I approached the mechanics, it emphasized something slightly different than what I was after.  I was reminded that in game design, you should make your design fulfill a variety of purposes.  However, at the end of the day, decide which has the highest need and go about fulfilling that first and foremost.  

With the moon dice, I wanted it to serve many masters, but in the end, I mostly wanted a way for the PCs to attempt epic, legendary actions that would normally be out of their reach.

Since the convention, I redesigned the moon dice, mechanically speaking, in order to meet that highest design goal.  Thanks to my speedy layout guy, I already have an updated PDF for Crimson Dragon Slayer D20 Revised.

So, the last session was Alpha Blue.  As I stated in my latest (as of this writing) video, character creation just sort of fell into place.  I saw it from a different angle, and that objective perspective made it clear how to proceed.

Here's what I did... 

• Everyone roll either on the scoundrel or respectable career table (just one time per PC).
• Then choose if you want to be an alien, robot, mutant, or human (other)... which means rolling on the d4 table allowing you to have psionic powers, zedi abilities, etc.
• Finish all your rolling on the other tables as seems reasonable (outfit, gun, backstory, name, etc.)
• If you rolled on the respectable career table, your combat dice pool is a 2d6.  If you're a scoundrel, roll 3d6.

The PCs were Dreego the human medic (who owes a bounty hunter named Ma'altag - hey, I was still in a Cha'alt mood, and was toying with directing the PCs to that desert planet), Razwand a cyborg con-man, Azroy a human psionicist, Feyd Akhbar a human interior designer and rich nobleman, and Satara the Lovecraftian alien assassin who was more female than male.

The shared background of the penis-headed alien who groomed two of the PCs on the same ship made for a good starting place.

They were all aboard Feyd Akhbar's ship on their way to Alpha Blue when they came upon a seemingly dead vessel but still full of lifeforms.  Force-docking onto the S.S. Love Ship, they boarded it.  All the passengers were comfortably sleeping.  Azroy reached out in his mind to discover that most were having erotic dreams featuring a small green alien with a bulbous head.

The small green alien, eventually located in the cargo hold, was using his own psionic powers to control the sleepers' dreams and collect some blue juice filling a cannister sitting next to the alien.  

After finding out the details and realizing this was a potential gold mine with no one to stop them, they shot the alien, stole the blue juice (along with various valuables belonging to the passengers), and went back to their ship.  Now, they had something to sell on Alpha Blue.

After arrival, they went to a Mos Eisley cantina style bar where deals usually went down. There was some space hanky-panky in the champaign room to start things off.

It was then that I decided, as the GM (or Bold Dungeon Space Master) that I decided to fly too close to the sun.  There was a guy tailing the PCs and he had a boss.  The PCs found someone who had a boss that might want to buy the blue juice.  And there was the bounty hunter who wanted the money owed to him - plus interest.  And who knows, maybe another guy, as well?!?

I got lost in all the guys with bosses, deals being made, names, appointments, and just everything.  Luckily, the PCs had taken notes and got me sorted out.

There was some high-level grifting, wheeling and dealing, and a white-knuckle shoot-out back at the cantina.  The scenario only lasted about 3 hours, but it was the tail-end of the convention, and we came to a satisfying conclusion.  Time to pack it all up, say goodbyes, and drive home.

It was a great time, while still leaving room for improvement.  If you want to mark your calendars, the official dates agreed upon by my wife and several of the attendees I talked to over the weekend are Friday, July 19th - Sunday, July 21st.

Unfortunately, those dates don't work for the hotel (which is weird, because even during our convention the day-of there were room vacancies), so I'm going to shop around for another venue.  I'll keep you posted.

That's it!  Thanks for going on this journey with me, even if it's just reading the post-con report blog posts.  I appreciate your support.

VS

p.s. I did sell a number of books, including the magnificent and gorgeous Cha'alt hardcovers that are still on sale!  Ordering details here!

VENGER CON Aftermath [convention report, part 2]

 

Ok, before jumping into my own sessions, I want to acknowledge the official VENGER CON mascot... Zeema'ar the game-thirsty demon.  He was crouching in the main convention room, casting his infernal gaze upon proceedings, watching over us, and protecting the structural integrity of whatever dark reality we were attempting to convey.

One of the ways I was able to talk myself into purchasing something as extravagant and ultra-utilitarian as a 22" inch gong is that I kept telling myself how awesome it would be to bang the gong at VENGER CON.  And bang the gong I did, every morning.  And the reverberations were also heard a few more times throughout the convention by eager GMs who needed a little extra ancient Tibetan gravitas during their game.

After the first hour of meet and greet, there was only myself and six players, perfect for a rip roaring session of Cha'alt.  We retired to my private room and started with character creation.  Using Crimson Dragon Slayer D20, it only took about 10 minutes to manifest an entire 3rd level party of adventurers...

The droid-thief STK1, human warrior Vaca'al-Mar, human priest Ether, human warrior Zippy G, crystalline sorcerer Lowbar, and demon cleric Narva'al.

Like when Luke Skywalker decided to put his targeting computer away, trust the force, and "we'll do it live!", I decided to run this session like one of my 90-minute, Roll20 one-shots.  I started with a basic premise, the PCs wandering the desert, and winged-it as they discovered a cave entrance that soon led to numerous encounters with strange humanoids and creatures.  Of course, I had all my Cha'alt books and plenty of ideas, but the structure was loose and free-flowing.

We broke for lunch after a couple hours, I ordered pizza and mountain dew for everybody (from Pappa Johns about a 5 or 6 minute drive from the hotel), and we continued on for a total of nearly six hours. I'll bullet-point the highlights of that session (events and quotable lines) since there's so much gaming content to get through...

But first, I got to test out the moon dice mechanic.  It worked pretty much how I wanted, though most players were hesitant to use it, given that the bonus was relatively small (potentially) with a 1 in 6 chance of a demon moon-god claiming a shard of one's soul.  

After three playtests, I have a better idea of how I want to implement the moon dice and showcase a memorable epic and mighty deed - will be updating Crimson Dragon Slayer D20 next week to reflect the change.

• The PCs interrupted an infernal ritual to summon a god-like demon worm.  They killed several demons, stopping the ceremony, and looted their supplies.
• They realized there were factions they could exploit, and exploit them they did... the wa'agasi and yuza'ak, specifically.  
• A powerful artifact was at the center of the humanoids' conflict.  The PCs eventually acquired a super-magical glaive (like in the movie Krull) that went to the demon cleric, as he was the only one brave and foolish enough to dive into a pool of zoth, become mutated, insane, and corrupted to wield A'azkulek!
• A trio of demons were guarding a cave of memory crystals, and the PCs were able to see a bit of Cha'alt's history just by touching them.  Unexpectedly, the crystalline sorcerer decided to absorb one of the crystals - I allowed him to gain and extra (and permanent) point of HP.  A gold-skinned demon wielded a magical two-handed sword, that went to Zippy G after he'd been dispatched. 
• That sword was later used to slice into reality itself, creating an In the Mouth of Madness "flappy hole" leading into the unquiet void of unutterable blackness.  The PCs peered in and saw a tentacled monstrosity that beckoned.  Narva'al made some kind of connection with it and later tried to free that Lovecraftian godling.
• Then, the party freed a beautiful woman sleeping within a glass sarcophagus.  Specifically, Zippy G smashed the glass, freeing Destiny and was rewarded by the tasting of her nubile flesh... "Get out the zoth-based lube."
• Demons wielding scimitars, a weapon that STK1 or "The Saint" despised became a running joke throughout the convention (the droid thief, played by Judd, appeared prominently in both of my Cha'alt scenarios).  We discovered that brunch is the scimitar of meals, making willing participants not worth the air they breathed.  
• ""She has an only-Cha'alt account."
• "You can take a bird out of the saw clan..."
• "Venger, you need to come up with a circle of protection from 'stupid gonzo'... just for RPG Pundit's sake."
• While Narva'al was playing mid-wife with the tentacled entity from beyond, the others were busy investigating a golden pylon in a nearby cave.  With no way in, their investigation stopped short.  However, the cave next door contained an orgy of humanoids using a pyramidal "pylon key" as a sexual aid.  Lowbar noticed a massive purple crystal sitting upon a pillow of the same hue in the orgy cave.  He immediately tried to absorb it into himself.  While he gained one or more extra HP, the crystalline sorcerer also suddenly disappeared, finding himself wandering the purple maze... as sorcerers occasionally do in my Cha'alt games.
• The remaining PCs went into the pylon as STK1 began touching crystals on the central matrix table.  They took a little trip just outside The Black Pyramid of Cha'alt.  Meanwhile, Narva'al had released the Lovecraftian godling who was busy melting reality and acquiring worshipers.  Lowbar came upon something in the purple maze and decided to cast wish in order to bring himself back to the real world of Cha'alt, I allowed him to choose between two universes - one containing the demon priest's new god who was devouring reality itself, and the other was a similar timeline but without that tear in the fabric of time and space.  He chose the latter.
• Seemed like a suitable place to end the nearly six-hour session, so I did.  

By then, another half-dozen attendees showed up and other games were run.  I know that throughout the convention (other than the games I played in) there was a Lamentations of the Flame Princess session, a Dungeon Crawl Classics session, Conan, and ShadowDark.

I wanted to hang-out, schmooze, and drink with my fellow gamers each night, but I'm old and each day I was pretty wore out, leaving by 11:00pm to go home and sleep.  At least I felt refreshed each morning when I arrived at 9am to open the gates (literally and figuratively) to get things going.

This session report is already pretty long, so I'll try to get part 3 up tomorrow.  Aside from Pappa John's, I (and many other attendees) ate at the nearby Popeye's chicken and biscuit fast-food establishment, Red Lobster, and had a rather mediocre sub from Potbelly's.  I wanted to each at Chili's, as well, but didn't want to take the extra time and risk being late for Griff's Tonnisborg game on the day when it would have been possible.

Two of the three Cha'alt zines were freely available for folks who snapped up the complimentary copies... The Skeevatier and Zoth-Laced Worm Trails.  Grab them because both have awesome Cha'altian goodness (and a little something contributed by yours truly)!

The third and final Cha'alt zine will soon be ready for prime-time...

Yes, there will be a 3rd VENGER CON next July, but I want to get something in writing from the hotel before providing an exact date.

Ok, if you have any questions, comments, or feedback between now and part 3 (most likely tomorrow), let me know below, hoss!

VS

p.s. Here is part one of my convention report.  BTW, I'm still locked into Twitter appeal Hell for giving good advice to climate activists who think it's a good idea to protest in the middle of the road.  Please, continue to nag anyone behind the scenes over at Twitter to finalize my appeal favorably so I can get back to promoting shit, trolling idiots, and letting people know what movies I'm watching at night.  Thanks!

Seven Lavender Moon Dice of Destiny

 

Ok, what follows is a Cha'alt-based rule change for Crimson Dragon Slayer D20 (still a FREE PDF on DriveThruRPG), which I'll be updating next week... assuming this weekend's playtest goes well.

Because yeah, it's VENGER CON!!!  It starts tomorrow, but weekend badges are still available here.

Until then, this will serve as tentatively official.  The idea of the seven souls or soul fragments and their connection to Cha'alt's seven lavender moons had been with me for awhile, and then I was inspired by this video by Dungeon Craft.

Exploding Moon Dice of Lavender Destiny

Central to all religions on Cha'alt is the idea that every humanoid has seven souls, or rather one soul divided into seven fragments or shards (if one considers the soul to be crystalline, as it is customarily envisioned, perhaps due to the dispersed soul energy of Great Old Ones' passing filtered through the planet's many crystals - most of them subterranean and unglimpsed by humanoid eyes in centuries).  

These seven soul-shards, corresponding to the seven moons of Cha'alt, represent defining moments in a humanoid's life - the more legendary the adventurer, the greater they shall be noticed by the Gods.

Throughout a PC's life, he has seven (d6) moon dice with which to increase his chances for success.  Whenever the player wants to boost his character's die result by an additional d6, he may roll one of his seven available moon dice.

Multiple dice may be rolled in a single attempt, but once the seventh moon die has been cast, there will be no others.  Also, moon dice "explode," meaning that if a 6 is rolled, another d6 is rolled and that result is added to the previous results.  If you keep rolling 6s, you keep adding results together.

Whatever action is aided by one or more moon dice, that deed becomes a defining moment for the character.  If successful or unsuccessful, the results will be tangible, reverberating throughout his life.  This is how he will be known and remembered... affecting honor, reputation, and future prospects.

Additionally, a result of 1 means a demon moon-god holds an infernal claim upon that shard of his soul.  The demon-god may leverage a deed, task, or quest from the adventurer before his soul-shard is released.  If a PC turns his back upon the moon demon's request, he may not call upon future moon dice, and the first saving throw of every new day will be Disadvantaged.

____________

Well, that's it... for now.  I'm looking forward to seeing if this affects play at all.  I may include some concrete mechanics for making the use of moon dice "defining" for PCs... but for now, I'll leave it intentionally nebulous.

Check back for VENGER CON updates as the convention progresses (or just after it ends).

Hope you have the best gaming of your life, hoss!

VS

p.s. The hardcover Cha'alt sale is still ongoing - ordering details right over yonder.

Crystals of Chaos [session report #13]

 

Ok, it's Sunday, the day after our game, and really the only time I'll have to write up this session report, as I'm going on a family vacation starting tomorrow.

Again, the "3-player summer syndrome" strikes again... although, it's not really a bad thing.  In fact, it's kind of nice to focus on a smaller adventuring party... every once in awhile.  My only real concern is that 3 players is very nearly 2 players, and I won't run a face-to-face game with only 2 players when the full party is 5 or more.

Anyway, we have Robard the dwarven sorcerer (back from his spell research sabbatical), Kra'andol the half-orc warrior, and Heighten Chancery Philthrop III the halfling thief.

I had planned on the PCs waiting out in their starship Jefferson for the 2 weeks between sessions because of Zagreus' injuries.  However, since he wasn't among the illustrious 3, the adventurers could continue right away, after a good night's sleep.

There were only a handful of locations left unexplored on the 3rd level of Cremza'amirikza'am, along with the cave belonging to The Mutilator that wiped his ass with the PCs last time, so the PCs went at it.

First, they encountered an opium den, humanoids in a haze, lounging on pillows, golden fabric covering the rock walls.  The proprietor bade them smoke his opium for a nominal fee, chase the dragon, and have the visions.  Weirdly, the halfling did not partake.  But Kra'andol and Robard did.

Specifically, the sorcerer was looking for insight on how to defeat The Mutilator.  Kra'andol was just looking for a good time - and he was still pregnant, according to the medical-droid who scanned him at the end of last session.

Now, I can't remember ever doing this, but I'm going to set down something here on the blog that happened which I didn't mention during the game.  Maybe Kra'andol forgot his dream upon awakening... or perhaps something was blocking his memory until now.

During his sojourn through the purple labyrinth, Kra'andol felt something on the left side of his abdomen, looked down, and saw a little creature - Kua'ato - poking out, a sort of conjoined twin fused with the half-orc's belly.  The two of them began having a conversation about the nature of life, death, mercy, bloodthirst, slavery, and freedom.  This "Kua'ato" told the half-orc that he was the manifestation of Kra'andol's pregnancy, and not to worry... things would work out, eventually.

Meanwhile, Robard found a 6" hole in the purple maze after an hour of walking around.  He stuck his arm through, briefly touching a slimy, organic, fleshy thing and decided to pull it through.  Out came a tentacle that terminated in a tentacle on the other side, about 5-feet long.  Robard decided to wear it as a scarf.

Upon waking from their opium dream, with the tentacle (and hidden Kua'ato), they went to the next cave containing a Quick Stop convenience store.  Outside was a sheet with "I ASSURE YOU, WE'RE ZOTH-PILLED!" scrawled on it, covering up the metal curtain that couldn't be raised, due to a bunch of savages in the demon-haunted tunnels and caverns of Cremza'amirikza'am.

Going inside, they found Cha'altian drinks and snacks.  The clerks Dante and Hicks (Imagine the 2nd guy as not Michael Biehn, but Bill Paxton who got confused as Hicks in Aliens) were trading banter between themselves ("I'm not even supposed to be here today, and my girlfriend sucked 37 dicks," the PCs ("That's a fabulous tentacle-scarf, hoss!," and a 3rd party customer who came in looking for scarlet demon jizz and happened to mention that someone brought forth Goza'ar the Goza'arian from her slumber outside this universe and gave her form.

This knowledge freaked out Dante who was a worshiper of both Goza'ar and Kort'thalis (the two of them prophesied to be flesh-bonded groin buddies, and possibly instrumental in destroying or merely enslaving every humanoid on Cha'alt).  Dante leaped over the counter and stabbed the customer in the throat before he could say more, such as give away Goza'ar's current location.

Dante was beheaded by Kra'andol and Hicks mentioned an opaque box made of shadow-glass with a sign above it that read, "Break glass in case of a Goza'ar related emergency!"  I didn't mention it during the game, but Hicks was quietly rocking back and forth on the floor behind the counter whispering to himself, "Game over, man.  Game over..."

Inside the shadow-glass was a scroll that could summon an elder god named Quiza'ak-Nyath (prophesied to bring down the Goza'arian).  All the PCs would have to do is find Goza'ar, speak the Cha'altian Latin in the form of ancient eldritch-infernal glyphs, choose its final form, and watch them duke it out.

Walking to the other side of this level, the PCs explored another group of caves.  They snuck past a bunch of demons running train on some woman to find a demon exiting a cave that contained a freshly murdered leprechaun.  Apparently, being anointed with the green blood of a leprechaun will prevent you from dying for one hour - but the blood must be warm or else no dice!

Quickly bathing in the green blood, the PCs went down to The Mutilator's cave.  The halfling thief took such a massive blow that he would have died if not for the leprechaun's blood.  Kra'andol went from about 50 HP to 3 as the bodybuilder demon critted on him.  But eventually, they took him down thanks, in part, to Robard's 60-point fireball.  

The demon champion wasn't dead but just KO'd, so they gazed upon all of his unpainted miniatures, looted his stuff (including the massive double-handed purple plasma sword and a valuable looking time-crystal), admired the crystalline back wall of this cave, and went down the stairs to level 4. 

Upon reaching the next level down, they got past the magenta illumination, but still ran into a woman who worked at a demon's massage parlor down here in Cremza'amirikza'am.  They told her to ask for Vanessa at the fried chicken and whorehouse on level 2.

Then, the PCs found a cave containing a courtroom populated by kangarooids who wanted to try the PCs for murder-hoboism.  After being questioned, a couple of kangaroo-humanoids tried to clap slave collars on them.  That didn't work for the Crimson Bastards, so Kra'andol decided to just lop-off one dude's hands and the other's entire body into pieces.  The courtroom went into a panic as the adventurers wandered off to explore another cave containing memory-crystals guarded by 3 demons playing a game of chance that involved dice and cards... old-school... 3d6 in order!

After a bit of conversation, the PCs walked away - only for Heighten Chancery Philthrop III to toss a thermal detonator behind him, towards the memory-crystals.  It blew-up the entire area, but they weren't interested in investigating the debris.  However, one of the demon guards wandered out of the smoke-filled cave.  Also, a neon-pink juice began spurting out of a few different holes in the cavern, eventually creating several puddles.

I almost forgot, I actually remembered to let the players know that if their character took the time to do a reality show "confessional" spot, that I'd award them an extra point of Divine Favor.  All three made use of the opportunity, which opened up new dimensions of characterization and PSYCHOCOSM character-player-setting bonding exercise.

Moving on, the PCs came to a huge cave containing 3 different demon factions that revolved around a sleeping Old One who might, if woken-up, make reality disappear - everything in the universe merely being a dream the Old One was having.

The PCs worked out a deal to murder one of the demon factions in exchange for a centaur-hottie slave.  Creeping up on the wasp-demons while invisible allowed the halfling to explore the mirror-like vein of crystals in the outer cave wall.  Being invisible, he could see right through it for a time - showing a thousand of machine-pods containing humanoids surrounded in pink goo.  Did this have anything to do with the luminous pink juice that spurted from the cave cracks and crevices after the massive explosion?

They killed all but one of the demons in the faction that wanted to wake the Old One and possibly initiate an apocalypse.

And that's where we had to end it as time was running out.  How many sessions remain of the Crystals of Chaos campaign?  I don't know.  At least 1 more... possibly 3 or 4.  I'm looking to close it out this fall, but anything can happen.

Ok, amusing or poignant words and phrases from the session...

• "Rest your weary trouser-worm in this centaur-hottie."
• "Poor bastard, he wasn't even supposed to be here today."
• "I want more sexual encounters of the 3rd kind."
• "Hello, violet, my old friend."
• "It's tentacle casual."
• "The finest in cloth armor."
• "Cremza'amirikza'am seems to be salted with whores, cam-girls, and THOTs... does every woman down here have an OnlyFans?"

On the way to get subs after the game, Robard's player asked me what I would do differently now that I have a full Cha'alt campaign under my belt (as you'll remember, for the last few years, I was pretty much only running one-shots)?  There's so many different options available, I told him, that my mind was swimming, like looking too long into the abyss, I didn't have a definitive answer for him, except to say that I would start PCs off at 1st level, not worrying too much about how squishy they seemed during the first couple of sessions.

Incidentally, the guy on the intercom was doing a heavy Irish accent, and when I got up to the window, I asked where the leprechaun was, and the dude said his little fingers were in the back wrapping sandwiches.  Only proving that, yes, we are living in a matrix-type simulation.

Then later that night we watched the 1981 Excalibur, which I hadn't seen in maybe 8 or 9 years and the 3 other guys I watched it with had never seen.  It was amazing seeing it again on blu-ray... so much based wisdom and spectacle and creativity and talent.  Sometime soon, we'll have to watch Zardoz, as well... a Cha'alt movie if there ever was one!

In two weeks, of course, is VENGER CON II: Electric Boogaloo!  So, super excited for that.  Weekend badges still available.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you on the other side!

VS

Crystals of Chaos [session report #12]

 

This was kind of a strange episode... reminded me of Empire Strikes Back.

Only 3 players (which I consider the bare minimum for playing face-to-face in a long-term campaign).  We had Jackal the dwarf warrior, Zagreus the dwarf thief, and Crandol the half-orc warrior.  As you can see, they're missing at least half their firepower.  

I opened the session by gazing at the Kort'thalis meta-sigil, striking the Gong of Destiny, and donning my black Game Mastering cloak!

Aside from Vanessa who didn't even get mentioned this session, and the film crew... I meant to remind the guys that they could do that thing where they talk to the camera in a private interview format to earn an extra point of Divine Favor - next session, don't wait for me to forget again, just ask!

So the main NPC du jour was Teddy Westside (along with the medical-droid they liberated from that Federation penal colony, OZ-22).  He didn't have as much screen time as last session, but towards the session's end, he was there when it counted.

There was only one cave on level 2 of Cremza'amirikza'am that hadn't yet been explored.  Zagreus, being the stealthiest, checked it out first.  It was a demon massacre, at least a dozen demons ripped or hacked apart.  Many pools of blood, including one that was neon-blue.  They saved a vial of that for later and the thief searched the bodies for loot.

They found a number of interesting things, such as a sleestak bobblehead with a series of numbers taped to the bottom, a bust of H.P. Lovecraft covered with fungi that glowed indigo in darkness, an onyx idol of Kort'thalis, and 111 gold pieces.  Also, Zagreus picked-up a magical and vorpal ba'atleth (the Klingon melee weapon).

As the thief scoured the corpses, he noticed one demon was still barely alive.  With its last breath, the demon croaked "The Mutilator!" then died.  Zagreus took the just-now-dead demon's aquamarine ring that he believed was magical... and then kept getting thirsty for no apparent reason.

Towards the back of the cave was a spiral stairway going down to the third level.  They eavesdropped on a couple of young lovers who were part of this game or contest, the survivors got some sort of prize, and it was all being televised with silent drones that Zagreus happened to notice.

But not having much to do with either of the Crimson Bastard's quests - search for crystals to fuel their starship Jefferson and track down Federation Commander Andrak before he can find that super-weapon capable of destroying Cha'alt - they let them go on their way.

Zagreus scouted ahead again, noticing a purple demon pleasuring himself to the sight of two women making-out just up the northern tunnel.  He bypassed that while silently creeping to the southern caves, and found a few different humanoid settlement factions preparing for something - ritually cleansing themselves with zoth, trying to decipher infernal glyphs on scrolls, and so forth. 

With Teddy Westside's prompting, the warriors eventually made their way towards the party's thief.  Jackal saw the purple demon jacking it and decided to stab him with his enchanted trident.  He did, killing the demon.  I rolled to see if the demon was able to finish before succumbing to his wounds.  Yes, he was!  Then I asked Jackal's player to roll a saving throw... and I believe he rolled a natural 1 (either that or it was real low, like a 2 or 3).  So, I ruled that the demon managed to get his purple spunk all over the dwarven warrior.

Wiping the purple ejaculate away, Teddy mentioned the repairing qualities that purple demon jizz had, like on leather furniture, for instance!  So, Teddy Westside collected as much as he could with a special instrument that he called "jizz tweezers" and Zagreus' player dubbed "jeezers," as Ted mentioned another name for the tool... a jaccard (the highest quality and fashion dictate the jaccard be crystal-rimmed, of course).

Finishing that, they met up with Zagreus, talked to more people, and found out about The Selection - a certain number of humanoids who passed The Selection were able to face The Challenge in the southwestern cave.  Whoever passed The Challenge would be set apart from all other humanoids down here in Cremza'amirikza'am.

Curious, they made their way further south, encountering a rave party that included a 22-person hot-tub, bar, DJ, the works.  The PCs spent a fair amount of time relaxing, having fun, and interacting with the locals.  Zagreus, whose thirst was nearly unquenchable by now, refused "the special" three-penis margarita, instead opting for the only other drink they had - a can of Bud Light... which led to a strange looking demon luring him away from everyone else - only to mug him.  But the mugger rolled a 1, and Zagreus chopped off his hand, as it got stuck in the dwarven thief's ba'atleth, and then was decapitated.

Jackal got in the hot-tub and put the moves on a sexy woman, eventually fucking her right there in the jacuzzi.  Cue the GM finding "Move Any Mountain" by The Shamen on his cellphone and playing that over the dark ambient tones audible in the background.

Crandol listened to a group of 6 humanoids planning to heist something from a black robed and black masked stranger who was also in the hot-tub.  Zagreus noticed the amateur thieving, and when Jackal had finished, he noticed his friends at the back of the cave with the humanoids who'd liberated a triangular black keycard from the humanoid in black.  Apparently, it opened a special room in The Black Pyramid - a rainbow room - where one of the six's brother had gone missing a year ago.

Crandol, instead of hacking them to pieces, which was his usual M.O. decided to help the humanoids.  After they were done with Cremza'amirikza'am, they'd accompany them to The Black Pyramid for everyone's mutual benefit.  In the meantime, the six humanoids were teleported to Jefferson until the adventurers were ready.

The PCs decided to move towards a cave between the rave and The Challenge.  It was a man in a jeweled animal mask executing humanoids who failed The Selection.  After he offed one of them by shooting him at point-blank range, Zagreus blasted the dude in the back.  The remaining three failures stayed with the PCs as they all went to see what The Challenge was all about.

A huge and muscular demon stood between them and a back wall completely covered in crystal formations.  It was an amazing sight, and access to it would allow the winner to commune directly with the Great Old Ones.  But first, that demon would have to be disposed of.

The demon held a massive two-handed hilt in his hands, waiting for challengers.  One of the three humanoids who'd just been rescued stood before the demon and talked as the PCs stood way back.  Within minutes, the demon ignited a ferocious violet blade of plasma energy and sliced the whelp into pieces. Oh dear...

All three decided to challenge the demon.  Zagreus tried to blast him, missed, and the demon (who after some banter was revealed to be The Mutilator) kicked a rock at the side of his face - doing 6 points of damage!  Then it was Crandol's turn.  He rolled a 1.  The half-orc's magical black blade came down, was caught and held by the demon, then bitch-slapped against the nearby cave wall, and knocked unconscious.  Holy crap!

Finally, it was Jackal's chance.  He swung and hit, doing a fair amount of damage which the demon regarded as "merely a fleshwound" before striking back, reducing the dwarven warrior to nearly half his hit-points.  Ouch!

The trio+ decided to back away from this challenge until they were better prepared to face The Mutilator.  Jackal was pissed and wanted to quench his rage with a little senseless violence, cutting down a couple of night-clowns (or were they just regular clowns?) outside of a black structure.  The other two clowns ran inside, and the party decided to go around, venturing into another cave that contained a clown abortion in progress!

This was the final and deadliest battle (that the PCs finished).  8 night-clowns vs. the 3 PCs + Teddy Westside.  After the first couple rounds, most of the clowns were dead and had only dealt bush-league damage.  But the last 2 had detachable red noses that doubled as explosives.  The first threw his at Jackal (who made his save) and did 8 points of damage.  The second threw his nose at Zagreus (the 6th level thief, who failed his save... I think he rolled a 1).  I rolled enough damage to take the dwarven thief down to -9 HP. 

Yeah, he was in bad shape, almost blown apart due to the shrapnel.  Luckily, Teddy Westside was there with the PC's medical-droid.  The droid applied a quick-acting, antibiotic healing salve.  Ted had the foresight to collect and insight + willingness to experiment with the purple demon jizz as an infernal accelerant to the salve.

Meanwhile, the warriors dispatched the last of the clowns.  When it was all over, Zagreus was bandaged up.  His eye was badly damaged, his right arm up to the elbow was gone, and his flesh was cut-up all over, but he was alive.  Luckily, Ted knows of a top-notch cyber-surgeon in A'agrybah that could fix Zagreus up with a mechanical prosthetic.  The medical-droid explained that Zagreus would need at least a week of R&R before he was in-shape to adventure again.

"Everyone, back to the ship!"  With that, we ended the session a bit early.  It was an appropriate place to stop, so we hung-out and talked the until the 4 hours was up.

I have a feeling that next session will see the PCs' fortunes rise.  As I mentioned at the start, this felt like Empire Strikes Back - the "heroes" more or less defeated, but stabilized and preparing themselves for the conflict to come.

Aside from the multiple objet d'art lifted off of dead demons, the adventurers got some gold, that cool Klingon weapon, and a bunch of plastic purple trapezoidal coins - surely, some weird currency from another land.

If we can sustain the player-base, there's time enough for two more sessions before VENGER CON.  I'd be happy to end the Crystals of Chaos campaign with session #14, so we'll see how things work out.

Thanks for reading.  If you enjoyed the session report, leave a comment!

Edit - forgot to mention, between the hot-tub and clown abortion was a random encounter of some dancing lights that the PCs decided to basically ignore and march through.  At the tail end of the session, the medical-droid ran a scan on Zagreus, but Crandol was right next to him - and it picked-up that the half-orc warrior (very much a male) was pregnant!

VS

p.s. VENGER CON, you say?  What's that?  Only the most old-school RPG convention in the Midwest, hoss!  Weekend badges still available.  And if you want the books that comprise my eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalypse campaign setting, you can acquire the hardcovers right over here.  If you want to see some Cha'alt reviews, check out google and/or YouTube!