Fresh off of GaryCon, we continue the CHA'ALT campaign in our home game...
4 players - Nix the demon/clown thief, Juan Tufrifo the crystalline warrior, Drogon the human sorcerer, and Gora the grog (sand construct) priest.
This session begins a new arc for the campaign. I have ideas, but don't want to solidify anything too much before things start happening in the game.
I started things with a laser shootout between Federation soldiers and the PCs in the rubble of Gonzo's former cantina after it was bulldozed and before that space could be remodeled. The adventurers had to get on their bellies and crawl towards the soldiers (Juan used his blue glass leeches to crawl for him).
They had to exit the hover-tank upon entering the Outer Settlements because they were inundated with people (mostly Cha'alt natives who live in the Outer Settlements). Before leaving the hover-tank they received a transmission that simply stated "Qada'ath has fallen."
Eventually, with the help of Drogon's invisibility and mesmerizing magenta mist, they got them all. As they were looting the bodies, a meteorite fell smack in the middle of the crumbling cantina remnants. Amidst the clouds of sand and dust, they peered into ground-zero to find a man dressed in a white toga.
Somewhat disoriented but lucid enough to provide explanation, Iza'akenuncovath or Iza'ak for short, after introducing himself. Basically, he's an avatar of the New Gods who are ready to establish themselves as the up and coming owners of Cha'alt.
Iza'ak told the PCs they should build statues and temples devoted to the New Gods, or himself, one of their mentored facsimiles. In the meantime, Iza'ak would journey to Qada'ath, enter the tower of black glass where the Supreme Council dwell, and find an artifact suitable to slay any of the remaining Old Ones or their servants.
Sensing they couldn't win in a fair fight, the PCs let Iza'ak go after giving him a leech and some false information. But Nix had the forethought to commune with the Old Ones to see what their next move should be. Upon connecting with Uma'at-Allah, Nix was told to acquire the super-weapon artifact before Iza'ak could get his hands on it, and use it to destroy the New Gods' avatar(s).
Before finalizing their next move, the PCs had a fruitful discussion about what they should do... work towards the ends of the Old Ones, assist the New Gods in their land rush crusade, skip all the celestial politics, or just go along with whatever side is right in front of them and play them both for the highest reward possible.
While the last is probably the closest to their true alignment, the PCs, encouraged by Nix himself, chose to side with the Great Old Ones, against the newcomer deities who threaten the status-quo on Cha'alt. Never trust a God whose emissary doesn't even bring a gift... aside from letting you worship them. That's rule #37 on Cha'alt.
And where was the holiest of holy weapons from the Ark of the Covenant? Still hidden away in petrified sandworm poop in the shape of Juan Tufrifo. They stashed it in the desert on the way back from the Crimson Rock of Sacrifice. The ground literally opened up like a dynamic sewer hole, accepting the X'queeu for safekeeping.
The PCs wanted to get to the tower of black glass first, so took their hover-tank (plus, it's good to have firepower). It was out of fuel, but Drogon was able to shave just enough off his ka'alaxian crystal to keep the hover-tank in operation without diminishing the brilliant, yellowish-green wishing stone.
They saw Iza'ak on their way to Qada'ath, and waved. Before long, they arrived at the outer edge of the orange labyrinth. A sizeable hole was already smashed into the orange wall, but ta'anzo, Drogon's spider-jack familiar, was ordered to blow a bigger hole into it before driving over the rubble.
Inside the city, they saw all the familiar sights of civil unrest - riots, protests (some holding signs that read "We're people; not blue glass!"), arson, looting, rape, murder, etc. The PCs drove all the way to the tower of black glass and shot it twice before a decent sized hole could be seen - which Gorra jumped into upon turning into sand.
Once through, he saw one of the Supreme Councilors attended by a few sand-blade guards. Gorra convinced the Councilor to follow him out, so "tube-man" [I decided to just use the Gigax Council from Psycho Goreman] opened an actual doorway out of the tower which the rest of the PCs used to enter. Ta'anzo aimed and fired once again, direct him, killing tube-man and the guards.
The adventurers owe Ta'anzo some serious spider porn after all his surefire blasting!
Nix went into the cloakroom to see if he could find any secret passages or traps. He did find a hidden panel accessing an elevator going all the way to the top, so they could bypass the spiral staircase. Juan Tufrifo noticed a secret button that also led them down, so he pushed it.
They went into a dimly lit chartreuse system of caves and tunnels where up ahead two giant lizards were munching on a dead humanoid. The PCs blasted the hostile reptilians, but then Drogon used his sorcerous senses to see which direction the most powerful magic was located. Up top. So, away they went back up the elevator.
As the elevator rose, they noticed through the transparent elevator car that Iza'ak was walking up to the tower of black glass. Before reaching the top floor, the elevator got stuck. Blasting their way up through a ceiling vent, the PCs found themselves on top of the elevator car. Just before opening the door and blasting the shit out of everybody, they heard a lot of commotion and yelling, followed by "Dear Gods, what the Hell is that?"
Realizing this could be potentially good or very bad, they opened the door to see the rest of the Supreme Council being menaced by some Elder God or Great Old One within a dimensional rift that looked violet-magenta and weird. Drogon recognized this as perhaps the legendary Quorta'ath... but I'll go into detail about what he knows next time. The entity's tentacles had a grip on all the Councilors as one of them threw an object illuminated in a white glow through the portal and into the entity's mouth.
It was then that Drogon started brewing a fireball in conjunction with the use of a lavender demon-moon die of destiny. The roll was flubbed, so he burned a point of Divine Favor and succeeded with both d6s. All the remaining Supreme Councilors melted in a pool of horrible, dying, screaming flesh. Additionally, the dimensional rift closed and Drogon disappeared.
The PCs didn't know it, but Drogon was in the purple labyrinth, wandering the purple corridors, searching for greater truth, a way out, or something in-between.
Meanwhile, Iza'ak walked all the way up the stairs to find out the object of power he sought was no longer on this plane of reality and questioned the PCs. They decided it was time to actually test their invincibility theory - Nix backstabbed him with his new banana laser-sword, but no damage was done. Instead, Iza'ak batted the clown-demon across the room like he was a ragdoll. Gorra turned into sand and went into the avatar's anus (why one of the players stimulated a SLEAZE Cha'alt X-Card, I don't know... possibly to prevent me from inventing an anus-shield on the fly? I think I owe the players more sleaze, but hopefully not involving a man's anus, next session) and exploded him from the inside-out. Unfortunately, in just a few minute, Iza'ak began to reform, little scraps of flesh moving towards the center to become anew.
Meanwhile, Drogon received an impression from the Great Old Ones, telling them to search the subterranean caves below the tower of black glass for slutty zoth-witches who will guide them to overthrow the New God pretenders.
Not wanting to wait around for him to complete the reassembly, the PCs went back down the elevator after Nix fixed it. Then Drogon reappeared, told the rest about his purple labyrinth vision, and suggested they go all the way down to that chartreuse cave system below Qada'ath (the sister-cave system to the one they explored a few sessions ago).
The PCs fought some insectoids they found within the first few minutes of exploring, half the party being trapped in amber by the insectoid's scepter, and then Drogon roasted them with a fireball.
They were just about to be assaulted by some crazy looking chaos-clown when we decided to end the session as the sorcerer's player had to leave a bit early, which was fine by me since I was already getting tired from a combination of post-GaryCon recovery, Spring Break / Easter shenanigans, and sinus / allergy junk going on.
So far, this new arc feels promising, and that's all I can ask for. Thanks for reading, hoss!
VS
p.s. Want your own hardcover Cha'alt trilogy? Here you go! Gonna be around the Wisconsin area this July or feel like making a road trip to the birthplace of RPGs? Grab your weekend badge for VENGER CON III: Revenge of the OSR and game with us!
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