Before anything else, I just want to link a couple of Cha'alt reviews.
This is more of a general appreciation for the first book and it's overall vibe. Here is a fucking insane 2 and 1/2 hour detailed look at the entire Cha'alt trilogy. Thanks to both YouTube channels for taking the time to appreciate my eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalyptic campaign setting!
Ok, now to the session report...
You know when you look down at your notes and all you find are tantalizing fragments that leave you with little more than an aborted outline of what should be a fully fleshed-out game plan? That's kind of what yesterday's game felt like.
Nevertheless, it was fun and I think, overall, successful. One never really reaches the final goal endpoint that one might call "perfection" in roleplaying, game design, GMing, etc. You just keep going. Do your best and try to enjoy the moment.
The PCs, all but Gath the human priest whose player couldn't make it because of an out of town trip, were headed from Alpha Blue to Frigia, an icy penal planet where the Federation has a dude locked up that the resistance wants freed and set down on Cha'alt. Which may or may not be a Federation trick or psy-op... which somehow involves the cunning machinations of actual cyclops... we're almost sure about that.
I asked the PCs what each of them was doing aboard their shag-carpeted leopard print starship. Ro-Robard, being part crystalline now, was reading a magazine he got while on the space station of love "Crystalline Girls of Alpha Blue." We spent about 5 minutes coming up with various aesthetics, concepts, and photoshoot pictorials of what might be in there. Everything from crystals being rammed into hollow geode orifices to cross-dressing crystals to naked girls laying atop massive crystal shards. Pretty much the whole time we were laughing while coming up with wild and disturbing ideas.
About 3 hours into their 8 hour flight to Frigia, the PC's starship (finally named Jefferson), came across a deserted medical and scientific research space lab named Quasar-7. No life signs, but lots of tech, and a faint but strange energy signature.
The PCs went aboard and found out that the lab received a massive crystal containing a solidified emerald-green vapor that caused a severe case of space madness in one member of their crew. The rest of their logs and whatnot were all wiped, and all escape pods flew the coop.
Turns out that green gas within the crystal is evil and trying to possess humanoids - now, including the PCs. Heighten Chancery Philthrop III and Crandol both tried to free the entity from the crystal. The halfling thief blasted it with his laser (which bounced right off), but the half-orc warrior used his magical black sword to cleave the crystal in two.
The gas escaped and started using its mojo. It wanted the PCs to pilot the space lab to a heavily populated moon nearby so it could infect others. I rolled a natural 20 for Ro-Robard the Red's saving throw at the very beginning, so he was instrumental in waking the remaining PCs to what was going on. Someone had the brilliant idea of venting the emerald vapor out of an airlock hole and it froze in space.
Now that was over, the adventurers looted the place. They got a medical droid, psychologist droid, physical therapy machine, the cure for venereal diseases (extra valuable due to its close proximity to Alpha Blue), a mineral sample rover, and salvage probe.
Frigia, they discovered, is protected by a phase-shift barrier, the same as around Cha'alt. Put there by the Federation to control who goes in and out. To get to the other side, Jefferson would need to open a rift into weird space... and so the ship's A.I. obliged.
The PCs found themselves in a purple maze of sharp angular corridors winding and weaving in confusing and endless directions. Ro-Robard recognized the place from when he was zapped several sessions ago. Heighten decided to pull out some spare zoth he had and wipe it on a purple wall, and a message appeared, in a handwritten scrawl "Wait for the sign, then all prisoners will be released."
They continued to walk around, then waved their special colored crystals around until a deep, resonant gong sounded. They followed the sound as the purple hallway terminated into a circular opening. Walking through it, the smooth artificial purple walls became a purple and violet organic flesh that led to a system of tunnels and caves.
The party's sorcerer wanted to cast invisibility, which struck me as the perfect time to roll on my fuchsia magic "chaos and mishap" random table found in book II of the Cha'alt trilogy. A toxic ooze dripped out of the sorcerer's pours - pure zoth mixed with the sorcerer's own essence. While everyone else thought it was disgusting, the sorcerer was being seduced by his own ichor and decided to drink it - three times the magical potency... if he survives. After succeeding in a saving throw, Ro-Robard now had immense power.
I won't go into all the "weird space" encounters, but there was the purple skull with tentacle, wallflower cave (the halfling got a +1 flower-shaped short sword out of that, as well as, his snazzy new purple robes containing Prince's weird purple sex symbol), tentacled worm (I don't mind repeating myself, but definitely could have used a unique monster here instead of staying firmly seated in my comfort zone), "These pretzels are making me thirsty" purple-elf watching Escape From New York - just like in The Black Pyramid, violet barrier, and subhuman creatures crawling around a purple-jade statue of an Old One or its spawn that was missing a tentacle. The PCs had pepperoni pizza due to another roll on the weird magic table and threw that at the subhumans to distract them. When the tentacle was attached, its mouth opened wide enough for the PCs to enter... which brought them out.
They woke up in planetary orbit of Frigia. After landing, the PCs split up to find Garren Voy. One group did while the other killed this carnivorous plant monster.
Garren Voy told them about a generator in Frigia's command center. That's what's creating and maintaining the phase-shift barriers around various planets like Cha'alt. For an extra 10,000 credits, the PCs decide to take on this mission - destroy those generators so the Federation can't block travel to and from Cha'alt.
Ro-Robard drinks what's left of his toxic, zoth distilled essence and almost dies, but doesn't thanks to several expenditures of Divine Favor. Now, his sorcery is potent enough to cast invisibility on the entire party. They sneak past multiple guards, sneak around a zedi laser-sword battle, and through a nature preserve. As soon as they reach the generator room, they instantly become visible as an alarm goes off. Only then do they notice a sign that reads, "Anti-magic zone! Sorcery is forbidden here... we have the technology."
Because one of our players had to leave because of a family commitment, we decided to end things right there, a half-hour early, which suited me well as I need to plan the rest of that Federation facility adventure. I have some ideas...
After the tentacled worm creature from that weird space cave was killed, Heighten decided to look inside the gutted abomination. He asked, "Is it filled with little tentacles inside?" I said, "Yeah." He asked, "And teeth?" "I said, "Yes, and..." He responded with "Lasers." I replied, "What else?" "Jet packs?" And I said "Yes."
Then we kind of all mutually agreed that only Heighten could see this (since he's usually on hallucinogenic drugs), everyone else just thought it was blood and intestines and such. It was a small thing, but I found it hilarious, and that's the kind of thing I really, really like in my games and want more of. Facilitating that can be tricky. I don't think any mechanics can force it without making the whole exchange artificial. But if I glean any insights, I'll let ya'll know.
What else? I do have something in mind for the glowing crystals of rainbow hue they picked up their first time in weird space. BTW, I think the party is divided on whether weird space is a thing they want to keep exploring or not. Ro-Robard the Red would rather get back to Cha'alt without having to deal with weird space or the purple labyrinth again, whereas Jackal likes dealing with that place and would definitely keep exploring it.
At the start of next session, I think everyone (except for Gath) will be 6th level. Due to that and their new power armor, I need to come up with encounters that actually challenge them.
Alright, session 8 is happening in 2 weeks. Looking forward to it. In the meantime, I might run a virtual one-short (I meant to say one-shot, but that works since it'll probably top-out at 90 minutes) or eventual bi-weekly campaign for all the people who are liking what they read on this blog, but aren't liking that they're missing out on the Cha'alt action (I get asked all the time, believe me). And there should be more Cha'alt webcomic awesomeness coming soon!
VS
p.s. Get your Cha'alt hardcovers now, before the Federation finds out what we're doing, confiscates them all, and then jacks up the price! Also, get your ticket to VENGER CON before they're gone. We're just going to be roleplaying old-school, OSR, and traditional games all weekend.
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