This session was managed with a skeleton crew. Myself and 3 players did what we had to do in order to keep the campaign going through this God forsaken holiday season.
A lot happened but I'm still going to try and keep this short because every 20 minutes or so one or more of my kids yell for me to come and deal with something.
We had a brand-new player who decided to play a grog (sand construct) priest of the Great Old Ones named Gorra (male). The other two were Ha'agly Morningwood the pixie-fairy sorcerer and TX-1139 aka Uppgrade the droid warrior.
Before I continue, let me remind everyone that I have a new Kickstarter for The Cha'alt Experience: Designing Worlds Like A Fucking Boss. Check it out and back if you can, hoss! It's a great way to get the Cha'alt trilogy in hardcover, as well!
The usual adventurous activities which I had prepared shortly after our last session wouldn't do since most of the party was MIA, so I improvised.
The PCs were at the Quick Stop, spontaneously buying some supplies from the two black-robed drug dealers hanging outside the convenience store (Jack and Heat-vision Bob), and then snacks, oil, and information from Dante the clerk and Quick Stop manager.
Morningwood got himself a little "squirt gun" sized blaster that was powered with this little crystal that turned it into something almost like a disintegrator (but after use it takes an hour to recharge).
Once inside, Gorra asked where the party was at, and Dante told him to go to a cantina called Casa Zoth around 9:30. It didn't take Gonzo too long before he sauntered in and asked when the PCs could get their black van and Ark of the Covenant out of his garage. They took Jack and Heat-vision Bob along with.
The Federation had a transport check-point and the PCs wanted to risk going through, knowing that if the shit really hit the fan, they could take care of those Federation soldiers themselves.
The sorcerer used a glamor spell and Gorra decided to give an impromptu sermon. At the start of the session, I had explained the new game mechanic we were playtesting (first time we tried it was last session), the Gilded Die of Satanis (product releasing on DTRPG later this week).
He rolled a standard d20 along with a gilded d6. The gilded die came up cringe (2 in 6 chance), but he also rolled a natural 20 - that meant Satanis Gold! He managed to be such a zealot that his religious oratory got their black van waved through. Additionally, his Yog-Soggothothery ended with a Howard Dean "yeehaw-scream" that embarrassed himself and everyone in the vehicle. And for his trouble, earned a point of Divine Favor.
They got through, went inside Gonzo's garage, and looked at the weird writing engraved on the Ark. Turns out, they're primordial glyphs, an older and darker form of language which eventually developed into the eldritch-infernal glyphs which every sorcerer worth his zoth already knows.
Luckily, Jack knows a demon who can read primordial glyphs. So, the pixie-fairy writes it all down on a scroll and they take it to the demon, while also taking the van, along with the Ark of the Covenant (it has an aura of gravitas) out of Gonzo's garage.
They come up to a cafe where the demon was sitting on the patio. He asked TX-1138 to get him a drink while he translated what was written on the scroll. Also, Gorra played a game of 17-dimensional chess with another cafe patron while the demon prepared the translation (Gorra won - I'll include the rules for 17-dimensional chess in another blog post next year).
Here's the translation...
"This Ark contains a power so terrible and fearsome that the Old Ones' servants hid it away - Do Not Open! Ever!!! Furthermore, those in possession of the Ark of the Covenant are assumed to be its protectors, and must guard the Ark from revealing its secrets."
So, they stash the Ark away in another dude's garage, and decide to head to Casa Zoth. The PCs got to the cantina early and saw that hardly anyone was there. To kill time, they went across the street to a gun store. A strip club was also in the vicinity.
After perusing, buying, and special ordering various weaponry and ammo, the adventures heard a commotion outside. Three Federation soldiers were behind a barricade, shooting at a couple of civilians just inside the door to the strip club.
Quickly deciding to get involved and help the strip club patrons, TX-1138 waded near the Federation, believing that his former Federation droid body would allay their suspicions. And he was right. The soldiers didn't suspect he was a danger until TX-1138 open fired on them, wounding one.
Morningwood used magic missile, Gorra used his new hot-pink blaster (it was cheaper), and TX pulled out his bazookoid and rolled a crit. Basically, that finished them off.
The two guys in the strip club were grateful and bought the PCs a round, including TX's little cyber-demon companion growing out of his magical wound, named Downgrade. "Tequila, por favor." I still don't know why this little kuato guy is Mexican, but he is.
Once inside the strip club, they heard about a legendary stripper named Sausage Candy. She's known far and wide as "the good luck lap dance" stripper. They all got a lap dance, but only Gorra paid extra for the Champaign Room. When he came out, there was a post-coital bonus waiting for him, and Sausage Candy had glittery sand all over her face.
As the PCs were leaving, they eavesdropped on two low-lifes and a tall fancy man wearing expensive robes and an impressive hat. They were talking about a shipment coming in. The fancy man paid the low-lifes with an ornate box, and both parties departed. The scum went to Casa Zoth (TX and Morningwood followed) where they opened the box to find a sticky, organic, pink, fleshy thing. The PCs had no idea what it was, but the low-lifes were pleased.
Meanwhile, Gorra shadowed the man with the fancy hat. He went to a disused star-port (a nicer, newer, and much bigger star-port was recently built several months ago just a few streets away) and received a shuttle containing strange cargo - it looked like blue crystal.
The blue crystal went into a truck which the fancy hat man and his little humonculous sidekick eventually (after some car trouble created by Gorra when he turned into sand and screwed with the power-coupling) drove outside The Settlements and to the Federation Wall about 10 miles away.
They know this because the PCs stole the shuttle after putting the dock workers to sleep. Getting close enough for a visual, they saw the truck unload its cargo by Federation soldiers and then load it onto a hover-tank on the other side of the wall. Then, the hover-tank went away from the wall, north... possibly to A'agrybah.
Perplexed, the PCs considered what was happening and then their options. Finally deciding to take the stolen shuttle over the orange labyrinth and into mysterious Qada'ath.
They landed safely and went out to explore. The PCs were astounded to see that it looked like Shadowrun.
Choosing to head downtown, they walked - eventually coming to a nighclub that was next door to someplace that manufactured that same blue crystal. Although, in Qada'ath, they call it blue glass.
Turns out, it's a drug [hey, it's 4:20 as I type this... the prophecy!]. What you do, and the PCs watched it happen, is break off a piece of blue glass from a glass sheet, melt it down, use a little creature (kind of like a leech), to suck it up, then you put the elongated creature on your skin and it secretes the drug right into your bloodstream. And it gets you fucked up, like, tripping balls!
Gorra was brave enough to try it (curious to see how it affected a grog or sand-construct), so I had him roll. He decided to roll his d20 along with a gilded die, and the gilded die came up a 1 (or possibly a 2). The grog started to feel something, then foul smelling clay gushed out of his bottom - clearing the dancefloor. Yeah, that was cringe, but hilarious!
By then it was almost 6pm and my GMing muscle felt like a wet noodle. So, we ended the session there.
Thanks for reading, hoss! There's a 1% chance I'll be staying up until midnight tonight. It's now 4:34pm and I'm already yawning. See ya on the flip side...
Happy New Year!
VS
p.s. If you don't yet have your weekend badge for Venger Con III: Revenge of the OSR, Grab it now! You won't want to miss an entire weekend of old-school, OSR, and traditional RPGs in Madison, WI this July.
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