Ok, this doesn't have anything to do with this particular session, per se, but our family theater room is up and running again, and we kicked-off the new projector (last one died when the bulb burned out and fried some internal electronics) by watching Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2.
That scene after the opening where they're fighting the abilisk and rip it open - the thick, effulgent chartreuse blood pouring out - that's basically zoth. What the Old Ones have flowing inside their eldritch veins... not just them but their spawn and their spawn's spawn, and various servitor-entities such as the star-born sovereign, black-yoke vassals, and principalities of darkness who attend to their divine pleasure.
The last time I watched the movie, I remarked on that, too, but I'd forgotten the scene and watching it again made me perk-up. It's almost as if Cha'alt were slowly but surely coming to life right before my very eyes...
This session is brought to you by skin-of-our-ass-games! As in, we nearly didn't get to play today, but just made it by the skin of our ass.
Three players - Bandersnatch the blue-suede sorcerer, Thurberus the v'smm priest and cult leader, along with the astonishing appearance of Botsterdomus the droid priest ladies' man, and prophet of the almighty algorithm.
Yeah, no thief and no warrior - good luck, hoss!
After leveling-up Botsterdomus and the opening evocation, I flashed the PCs back to the beginning of last session where they placed the soft blue dream-crystal upon a boulder-sized chunk of stone masonry from the temple at the end and beginning of the universe.
Reminding everyone what happened at the end of last session with the RV and the crash of The Venturan into the desert, I described the twisted metal and black smoke wreckage of that colony ship where the PCs' adventures began.
They slowly drove along the length of the crash, murdering a guard they never liked, and just seeing what's going on. Soon, they came to Bela'ak, a half-demon, half-dark elf sorcerer who I wanted to introduce from my GaryCon pre-gens. That one Cha'alt session in particular stayed with me, and the parallels between the LOST style plane crash on the beach and the colony ship crash in the deep desert seemed apropos.
So, there he was - Bela'ak stabbing survivors of the wreck with a magical staff of obsidian-like flesh. Each soul taken added another thorn - 7 thorns meant that his staff could blast a death-ray, but then the thorns would be gone and he'd have to start collecting souls all over again. The staff's name was Nya'avenkshem, which means "seven souls cast into the pit of Hell."
The dark-elf demon would say "Praise be to Yog-Soggoth! His seven-lobed burning eye gazes into the unquiet void." The PCs questioned him, and Bela'ak seemed nice enough. He was looking to kill Thoth-A'amon, the sorcerer-priest who made his home in The Black Pyramid long ago because Thoth-A'amon had killed those dear to him. Bela'ak, realizing the formidable nature of the adventurers and cognizant of the fact that they were on a mission from god, made a deal with them. He would adventure with the party until Thoth-A'amon was dead. After that, he'd give up his staff to the party and go his own way.
Bandersnatch read his aura and saw it was both dark and transparent. Sure, you couldn't trust him farther than he could be thrown. Nevertheless, Bela'ak wouldn't betray the PCs out of hand. He was an honest villain.
BTW, I decided to break-out a set of dice that I'd never used before... this one's got more orange and some shimmery purple. I felt like coming back from GaryCon, I just wanted something new to mark the occasion.
The 6th thorn was acquired when Bela'ak stabbed yet another wounded crash victim with his staff. The victim, with his dying breath, said "Nexus... the hive. It must be destroyed!"
Moving on, the PCs encountered a tribe of primitive Zevateef wearing animal skins. They were beating on an energy shield protecting 5 silver-skinned humanoids with colorful forehead crystals. Their shield would give out soon by the way the wave patterns were fluctuating. So, the PCs decided to wait it out to see what happens and possibly loot the bodies of the winners (whom they would surely murder).
However, the silver-skinned dudes asked for help and pledged their loyalty to the cult of the dead and tentacled cow. Botsterdomus lobbed a thermal detonator that went right into the central primitive's satchel. They pretty much all died right away.
Oh yeah, there was a faction of Jurtwee throwing mud cakes and sand-balls at both factions. A missile command spell made them scurry back to the recesses of The Venturan... or what's left of it. One Jurtwee fell down from his perch and Bela'ak used him to gain the 7th and final thorn.
Moving on (with the silver-skinned humanoids following close behind - they were from the space station Liberator and so called themselves Libertarians), the PCs ventured inside The Venturan to see what could be salvaged. Another small primitive but heavily mutated tribe was trying to get inside a locked door - hitting it with "the holy vessel" from the first adventure, which was revealed to be a plasma reactor core. The PCs cautioned them not to smash the volatile power source into the metal door.
After investigation, no power was getting to the door, which is why it wouldn't open. The mutants included a pink-skinned female with fish scales and 3 breasts. Botsterdomus took her to a more secluded area where he laid his healing hands upon her and began "gleaming the cube" which, on Cha'alt, means running his pick-up artist game on her in order to achieve mutually beneficial sexual gratification.
The sorcerer and priest waited patiently while listening to the moans of the pink girl. Eventually, Botsterdomus came back to help with the door and they got it open - it was a theater room with Beta-Maxxx laser 8-track casette disk player - including 4 different Beta-Maxxx laser 8-track cassette disks that were clearly foreign imports, but still exactly what the cyber-surgeon Reznik wanted as payment for his digital services.
The titles were...
- Lucky Blonde Gets Her Fuck & Internally Jizz
- This Chick Named Ka'ara Has a Scandinavia Mature Babe in Her Pussy
- Edward Penisworm & Banana Vagina
- Womb Raiders of the Lost Lesbian Prophecy
- "The black sphere leads to death."
- "This is the riddle of Tyr, the God-King of shadow dimension 11-A-437."
- "Part cassette, part disc... all laser."
- "All the zeroes have turned into ones." - that means a machine is horny in binary language (get ready for a non-consensual robot orgasm. Surprise, motherfucker!).
- "Clear!" - the idea of someone using Thurberus' hands as electro-shock paddles in order to heal themselves while he was paralyzed. Lol
- "Hey, Bela'ak. Tell us about your hot-pink pussy." - referencing his magenta cat.
- "Say cheese, Thurberus. Oh yeah, that's going in next month's issue."
- "Grabba the Butt... he'll mess you up... butt-quick!"
- "Purple petrified sand from a worm massacre - tastes like cinnamon."
- "There'll be space Hell to pay."
- "You're playing with space fire."
- "Do androids have artificial souls?"