Crystals of Chaos, session #3 (part 1)

 

Remember, I'm coming at this campaign from a strange position or background.  Before this, I hadn't run a long-term campaign since 2016.  Only face-to-face and virtual one-shots.

It feels like we've been playing in this Cha'alt campaign (that I'm calling Crystals of Chaos) for longer than three sessions, but on the other hand it also feels like we're only at the very beginning of our journey.  So, it's freaking me out a bit... in a good way.

This is part 1, and here is part 2.

5 players for the game on 2/4/23, here are the Player-Characters...

• Crandal the half-orc barbarian
• Heighton Chancery Philthrop III the halfling thief
• Zagreus the dwarf thief
• Jackal the dwarf warrior
• Robard the Red, dwarf sorcerer

I decided to start the session just as the adventures had reached their latest significant destination.  In short order, I told them the backstory - their merchant friend and sort of business partner, Dookal, suggested they search for a black demon sword.  He had a map and the journey would take a couple days.

The PCs reached the limestone steps twisting down into the desert's heart as play opened.  The first reason I opened it this way was to make the time-jump feel more cinematic... or whatever the TV equivalent is called.  The second was because I knew the next bit would involve a lot of social interaction in the city and I have a habit of starting with a number of social interaction and exploration encounters / moments, only getting to the combat stuff later on.  Rather than do the same exact thing as the previous two sessions, I wanted to start with some combat, have the social interaction stuff in the middle and end with exploration and more combat.

As the adventurers descended the stone stairs, they discovered a high tech thing high up on the wall.  Zagreus investigated, determining that it was most likely a surveillance device.  He still had a pair of lacy panties from session one's successful pick-pocket attempt in that crowd.  So, he covered the little camera lens with the panties and they continued on... just as they heard a woosh sound coming from further down below.

Sure enough, 3 blind cultists were standing in a 15' square stone room at the bottom of all those steps, the only door behind the malevolent worshipers. The limestone floor of this room was covered with 7" metal spikes, each a foot apart.  And the cultists had some organic slimy green substance attached to their hand and forearm that ended in three long tentacles.

Discovering these guys weren't part of the welcoming committee, at least not a friendly one, battle ensued.  Immediately, one of the cultists was cut in two, his top half falling upon one of the spikes, blood spurting up as his torso sank down upon the spike... tentacles thrashing.

The party's two warriors were both struck by the tentacles during combat, and both failed their saving throw.  After the battle was over they felt weak, diminished potency.  They rummaged around the cultists' robes, hoping for some kind of antidote and found a single vial of yellow liquid.  They weren't sure there was enough liquid, assuming that would help them, so Jackal took half and Crandal put on the Lovecraftian organic device.  Moments later, its fine tendrils dug into his forearm's flesh.  Both warriors' health improved.

Opening the black door, they entered a larger stone ritual chamber with the black sword in the center, on a dais.  Immediately upon grabbing the black sword, a demonic spirit withdrew from the blade, coalesced into a physical creature, and started attacking the party - with the black sword inexplicably appearing in his own clawed hand!

It took some doing to eventually slay this demon, making the nigrescent fiend crumble into rubble as its infernal essence returned to the sword.  Zagreus was knocked unconscious, and a couple players remarked how fortunate it was that the dwarf had not succumbed to his wounds back in the square, spiked room. Someone bandaged Zagreus as the others investigated the black sword, fearful of re-summoning the demon they had just fought.

Robard the Red used his sorcery to investigate the situation.  Turns out the black blade had subtly etched glyphs upon it, and that saying the name of the demon would render him powerless to leave the weapon.  Robard's spell emblazoned the nearly undetectable glyphs in glowing emerald green.  They spoke his name while grasping its hilt, and the sword was now usable by them.

Stats for the black sword named Za'alkalek after the demon residing in it.  It does 1d12 damage, it's a +3 weapon.  When top damage is rolled (a 12 in this case), a black portal opens and tentacles reach for the sword's victim and pull what's left of him into the unquiet void (save to avoid).

Before leaving, Heighten Chancery Philthrop III did a deep search of the ritual chamber.  Eventually, he found a block of limestone that was fairly wiggly and loose.  With a little effort, the halfling thief pried the stone out, revealing a black urn containing ashes.  Three letters were carved into the urn... SWK.

Heighten Chancery Philthrop III decided to snort some of the black urn's ashes... because he's fucking insane.  I quickly remembered that I had a random table for weird drug trips in Cha'alt: Chartreuse Shadows, and proceeded to roll.  

To the rest of the party, the halfling seemed to stare off into space for about 20 minutes.  But for him, it was a trip to the hospital where he was operated on as his insides became a black abyss that one of the surgeons fell into.

The halfling really wanted to do another line, but the rest of the party suggested they keep the rest of the ashes, possibly selling them back in A'agrybah.

Even without going into excruciating detail, this is turning into a long session report.  I think I'll break it up into two parts, with part two coming tomorrow.

Before I go, just want to say that it was a blast.  We had a criminally indecent amount of fun, and the location couldn't have been better.  Even with some technician coming into our library meeting room to adjust the smoke alarm or change the furnace filter or whatever he was doing on three separate occasions while we were there, it was still super awesome.  The wooden table was long - big enough for us to have 10 players - though 5 or 6 is ideal, I think.  The chairs were incredibly comfortable, too.  And it was quiet enough for me to bring in my portable Bose CD player so we could have dark ambient music in the background.

One more thing, we discussed something that I saw at my last convention, Game Hole Con, in the dealer's room.  It was a little wooden dice display... thing.  Just a thing with 7 risers at different levels where you can place your dice when they're out but not currently in use.

The moment I saw it, I thought what a strange idea... but further consideration made me think that it, indeed, served a valuable purpose.  How many times have I taken dice out of my bag to have them at the ready, but during the session, in-between rolls, I'd just stash them at the far corner of my dice rolling tray or near my phone or on the other side of my Cha'alt book?  There really wasn't one perfect place to put my dice when not in use.

But if I had one of those dice display things... I could put them there after my rolling was complete.  So, now I'm on a mission to find the most awesome, as well as, economical version on Etsy.  

If you have any experience with these devices, let me know.  Would you use one?  Have you ever seen them before?  If you've spotted a fantastic looking one, let me know.  I was thinking about buying a plain-Jane version and then customizing it myself.

Ok, have a great Sunday!

VS

p.s. Yeah, the Kickstarter is still going for a few more days... Advanced Game Mastering Like A Fucking Boss!