"The Ruin of A'agrybah" - CHA'ALT Campaign 5.5

 

We had a full table for this, our 5th session in the 4th year of our Cha'alt campaign.  Hey, it's 4/20!!!  Praise be to H.P. Lovecraft!

It had been a long, long time since I'd run any published Cha'alt adventures at the table, so I prepared a little something from Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise.

Before actually banging the gong and starting the session, everyone wrote a little suggestion for the Black Skull of Secrets, and a couple characters leveled.  So, we had Strum the human sorcerer at 2nd level, Deacon Elijah Crane at 3rd level, Ug the lizardtaur warrior at 2nd, Spoons (a new character that player decided to go with - I'm letting his XP stack because otherwise every fresh PC would always be at 1st level) a demon survivalist who lives in a school bus at the trailer park just outside A'agrybah (2nd level, also), and the nefa'arius Naza'akul human thief (1st level, but will reach 2nd by the session's end).

Deciding to play-out the introduction of Spoons with the rest of the party, the PCs walked towards Ja'alette, as the sorcerer's tower was on the way.  Passing the trailer park full of junk, such as plastic flamingos, broken down lawn mowers, and duct-taped kiddie pools, they noticed a demon working on his school bus.  Next to him was a toilet full of beers.  

Spoons asked Strum to hold a flashlight so he could see the inner workings of the engine.  Strum held it in place for about 2 seconds before tossing it aside and casting a spell, creating illumination spheres to light what the demon was doing.

Unfortunately, casting that spell triggered the zoth hangover / withdrawal Strum was now going through.  He felt lightheaded and dizzy + nauseous.  The sorcerer's player was smart and it probably helped that he knows me.  If he had approached this news with an attitude like "How dare the GM describe something that negatively impacts my character!?!" like another friend of mine (West) might have, I'd keep giving him both barrels because that's just human nature + universal law.  But no, Strum's player roleplayed it to the hilt.  Vomiting into the toilet where all could see the zoth that had absorbed into his system.  

Strum went into the school bus to take a nap while the rest of the party made Spoons' acquaintance.  Naza'akul helped Spoons take some parts out as they were looking for Federation tracking devices.  Spoons used to drive the school bus for A'agrybah children before they fired him.  The demon believed the Federation were still trying to take his bus away.

They didn't find any tracker, and put back all the parts the best they were able.  Deciding to ride rather than walk, even though the speed was comparable, they all hopped in and drove 5 mph towards that sorcerer's tower.

An hour or two into the journey, they came across 111 priests wearing fuchsia and chartreuse robes, each carrying a page from some book of demon resurrection passages (probably a knock-off Necronomicon).  They were headed towards Kra'adumek to revive the purple alien demon-worm that had recently been slain.  

Elijah Crane had an idea to derail their agenda.  The PCs offered the priests alcohol and some of them a ride on the school bus.  During the next couple hours journey, the adventurers borrowed a page from one of the distracted priests.  By this time, Strum was feeling better and was able to alter a passage of the page in order to miniaturize the demon-worm as they resurrected him.

Now, going their own way, as the paths to Ja'alette and Kra'adumek diverged, it was night when the PCs arrived at the tower.  While it was still a couple miles away, they saw a single guard just standing in the sand as if he was waiting for something. 

They got out to talk to him and discovered that a woman was sent down into the fuchsia flesh-pit next to the guard.  She had likely murdered the sorcerer Vromka'ad, and her being down there was a sacrifice, as the flesh-pit contained weird creatures that Vromka'ad had manifested via genetic experimentation.

Deciding to see for themselves, while hearing a female yell for assistance, the PCs jumped down after throwing the guard down first to cushion their fall.  In quick succession the following transpired...

• The PCs made their way around a flesh corridor of tendrils dripping a violet goo that almost burned through their flesh.
• They saw some skeletons being devoured by an aqua slime - Strum blasted it into salt with his wand, and they looted a silver scroll tube containing a letter warning Vromka'ad of doom awaiting him from a loved one.
• They talked to the woman, La'ala, who admitted to murdering Vromka'ad on their wedding night as she was jealous of the attention her sorcerer fiance and then husband showed some of the serving girls.
• They investigated a cube that had run out of energy.
• They talked to some priests of Xa'atan who apparently was a Demon-God slumbering below the flesh-pit.  The priests were gathering crustaceans for some ritual.  The PCs attacked and killed them, but not before taking heavy damage from the head priest's ruby-red eye-beams.
• Strum's player stimulated the GONZO Cha'alt X-Card to make the blood spray in a ridiculous, over-the-top manner.  This, after Naza'akul burned-up one of his seven lavender demon-moon dice representing the seven souls that humanoids are believed to have on Cha'alt.  And he did it to finish off a wounded guard, but that +1 to XP helped him level at the session's end.  I did caution him to maybe save it for later, but he said that's what his character would do.  Fair enough.  
• They found a dead warrior wearing strange plastic armor (which Spoons decided to wear) and a high-tech device attached to his head.  The device was an intellect enhancer, and the party decided to see what would happen if they attached it to Ug's head.  Hilariously, he became an articulate British gentleman complete with top hat, monocle, and cane.  That lasted for the next hour before someone removed it, preferring the old Ug (but it's still with them, in case they want the lizardtaur to be brain boosted again)
• Oh yeah, all the way through the flesh-pit, the PCs were subjected to dark, loathsome whispering that made them feel like a foulness was polluting their soul.
• They made their way past a flesh-tunnel of giant clams (possibly bearded).
• Eventually, they came to the big bad of the flesh-pit.  Unfortunately, the evil susurrations affected the PCs to the point of self-harm.  Only a few eluded the creature's defense mechanism.  But before those who failed their save were able to suicide themselves, one of the adventurers convinced the rest that the best and quickest way to die would be to try and kill that tentacled thing growing out of the back wall of the flesh-pit.

Pulling out a suggestion from the Black Skull of Secrets, I had La'ala show her true face, ripping off a mask in true Scooby Doo style to reveal that she had been Taylor Swift all along... just in time for the beast to blast her with its eye-beam that shot a 9-inch hole right through her.  I did manage to roleplay TS a bit before her demise.  She started singing a sad song about breaking up with her mean boyfriend.

The rest of the team hacked away.  Elijah used his lavender beam, Strum his wand of lightning, Ug his magical sword, and the thief and survivalist did their best with simple melee weapons.  It almost killed the party, but they eventually slayed it - finding a sphere and black crystal segment to something with glowing topaz veins behind the creature's eye.

That brought the cricket-ball sized spheres they found up to 3 (azure, gold, and chocolate-brown).  They also had both magical gloves - the crimson could create a bubble around something or someone.  The purple glove allowed the wearer to manipulate whatever was inside the bubble.

Coming back out of the flesh-pit, they made their way to the tower.  The door was open, and they saw a black gateway surrounded by a dozen or so spheres hanging in mid-air.  Eventually, they figured out that if a sphere was touched, the black gate would take them to whatever dimensional-room corresponded to that orb.

But before getting to involved with that, Ug touched a glowing white cube in the corner of the room and released a psychotic manticore that almost killed the party (again).  Luckily, Spoons used the unconscious Strum's lightning wand to deal the killing blow after most of the part had been rendered unconscious.

They found a bedroom along with a sexy female demon with yellow and magenta fur and horns.  She wore a maid outfit and was down for whatever, but Naza'akul decided to rest, instead.  Asking her which rooms she wasn't allowed to enter and clean (after finding out she didn't know where the demon-slaying sword was) provided them with enough info to locate the magical blade.  It was in the fire room.  Elijah tried to grasp it, but the flames rose up, preventing him.  Since Spoons was a demon with partial resistance to fire, he tried, only taking a couple points of damage doing so.

Before the fires sphere, one of the PCs touched the gold sphere and found Vromka'ad's treasure room (Strum's player gave me an idea about a gold Trump-glyph).  Luckily, the maid told them a safe-word to use so they wouldn't get zapped by security protocols.  

The sword Kaltha'alax came alive and spoke to the wielder, telling him to prove himself worthy, he should strike down the first demon he sees.  The PCs decided to keep the sword sheathed until needed, as they didn't want to kill the female demon maid or Spoons.

We learned that syvra'atch means mercy in the ancient tongue, that demons like to talk during movies (but it's usually helpful commentary and fun-facts), and Ug prefers women that are salamander-esque.

Playing right up until the end of our time, I just gave everyone max XP and the nefa'arius Naza'akul was awarded the 5th quadrant which allowed him to reach level 2.

If anyone's curious, I've been making video responses to what the RPG Pundit vlogged about immersion and emulation here.  My videos in response are here and there.  Just a couple of hardcore gamers ranting, raving, and sometimes talking past each other about Game Master theory and practice.

Comment if you've got something to say, hoss! 

VS

p.s.  Yes, weekend badges are now available for July 2026's VENGER CON V: The Will To Power.  Want a great new TTRPG community where you can hang out with other gamers, get ideas, advice, and training in order to improve?  Look no further than the fastest-growing group on X - it's the Kult of Kort'thalis.  Want the hardcover Cha'alt trilogy?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!  

PSYCHOCOSM, Visceral Non-Mechanics, & Running Non-D&D

 

It's been awhile since I blogged about something other than session reports or the announcement of a new PDF, book, convention, or whatever.

As the title of this post would suggest, I'll be diving deeply into advanced immersion, opting-out of standard RPG mechanics, and what you need to start GMing stuff that's not D&D (aka stuff I wish I knew back in the day).

There's gonna be some theory, but not a ton of jargon, and all my theorizing should have a practical application.  I don't just theorize to hear myself type. 

Faith Alone

First off, I want to talk about PSYCHOCOSM, recently mentioned here.  This is the blending of reality and fantasy in the minds of Game Master and players alike.  As I've been describing and discussing, PSYCHOCOSM is one step beyond immersion.  Immersion being the passive feeling like you're surrounded or ensconced in the world, your character, the genre, and current situation (this will come up later).

PSYCHOCOSM, on the other tentacle, is an active move towards blurring those fantasy and reality lines.  You're supposed to use your imagination to go further into the fantasy, making it seem real by taking the game seriously (though, you don't have to be serious), visualizing what's happening with focus and concentration, and believing that in the imagination (both individual and collective), what's happening is real, having its own reality.

What exactly do I mean by each of these?

   *  Taking it seriously: Attend sessions when possible, show up ready to play, leave outside BS outside, pay attention during the game, etc.

   *  Visualization: Don't just let the details fall from the sky onto your head and lay on the ground next to your feet like so many dead pigeons.  Catch them as they fall or at the very least pick them up when they land... examine them, interact with them, breathe life into them (just as the GM does for his campaign setting), fold them into an origami unicorn - use what's provided to create future details that enrich the ongoing narrative.  If you don't use 'em, you lose 'em.  "All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in the rain."

   *  Make-believe: Same thing as willful suspension of disbelief.  You must decide that it's true, in the context of our imagination, and act accordingly.  Only you can make that leap of faith.

When you intentionally do all 3 of these things, you enter what I call a magical state.  If that's too "out there," then let's just say it's an optimized flow-state where all things are possible.  

The only barrier?  You've got to realize the potential is there, you've got to want it, and you have to go after it.  If you can do that, your active immersion has been self-actualized to the level of PSYCHOCOSM, which is the true and final goal of roleplaying games.

Visceral Style of Play

This came from messaging back and forth from a friend and supporter of Kort'thalis Publishing, particularly The Outer Presence.  My stuff is minimalist, and my approach to game design is rules-light or don't even bother with a system at all, I'll just wing it (describing stuff, asking what the PCs are doing, and then describe what happens next).

He mentioned that approach or play-style favors a visceral experience rooted in immediate and cinematic results with zero book-keeping.  Don't look at your character sheet or consult the rulebook.  Describe the situation with "making a strong impression" on your mind.  If the success or failure of the attempted action is up in the air, roll a die, but then give a fast, decisive, and impactful resolution that has significant consequences.  You know, something visceral.  

If someone has a gun pointed at your head, I don't want the player, his character, or me (the GM) calculating the hit-point to damage ratio.  I want them worried they're going to have their head blown-off.  This situation doesn't call for mechanics, it calls for removing mechanics so you only have the situation.  

When discussing this on X, I said it reminded me of Obi-Wan telling Luke to turn off his targeting computer and just feel the force.  We don't want more automation, we want less.  Manually handle the situation as you might describe the sequence of events happening in a movie, taking the game aspects out of it.  That's right, no mechanics (or at least minimal mechanics).  Trust your instincts and just figure out what happens viscerally.

In fact, if you saved the energy by ignoring mechanics and instead spent that on coming up with something awesome, you'll almost always be farther ahead. 

Rather than "if this doesn't go your way, you die," what I'm looking for in my own gaming is "if you don't do something proactive right now, you will die."  That puts the ball in their court (the player) while giving you a clear conscience to put the dice and rules and system away.  The mechanics are there to help the GM adjudicate outcomes so adventurers aren't dying left and right simply because the monsters got lucky.  As long as the PCs aren't choosing to jump into a swarm of swirling blades, they aren't going to die when I go visceral (unless it's a fairly dark one-shot).  Jumping into swirling blades is example I've used so many times it should become a meme at this point.

Running Non-D&D

I was reading a post in the Dead Games group on FB, and someone was asking about the FASA Doctor Who RPG from the 80s with Tom Baker as The Doctor and Leela on the cover (one of my favorite pairings in the entire series).  

From the day I bought it, I loved that boxed-set.  I read through it constantly over the years, only managing to create a slew of weird alien species via all the random tables included.  Even with its introductory scenes (I won't call it an actual adventure), I never really understood how to use it.  And this was after I'd discovered D&D and learned to play.

How do you Game Master an idea, a genre, or bunch of tropes and aesthetics?  I ran into similar roadblocks with other RPGs during my formative years, like CYBERSPACE.  I loved cyberpunk and knew what it was about, same with Doctor Who (I can still remember our 5th grade teacher asking all of us individually, going around the room, what our favorite TV show was and I said Doctor Who, but she misheard me and incredulously asked if I really that into "Doctor Ruth" and everyone laughed). Yes, Doctor Who was, indeed, my favorite show.  

What introductory scenarios did was become a helpful crutch to start walking (or playing in this analogy), giving you an idea of what roleplaying this particular thing should be like.  What non-D&D roleplaying games needed to do was clue us in to what RPG sessions were really about - laying down the foundation for a story that involved aspects related to the type of RPG we were supposed to run.  

If I had known that I needed to craft the beginning of a narrative that started out with a location, characters, vibe, and situation that would soon become a full-blown scenario when the PCs intersected with it, I could have started coming up with my own adventures.  But since I didn't know about that stuff when I was young, my mind defaulted to the adventuring loop of D&D (have a reason to explore, go explore, encounter people and monsters, talk to the people, defeat the monsters, loot the treasure, and repeat) or it just went blank - leaving me with no idea how to start playing Doctor Who, CYBERSPACE, and all the many RPGs I bought over the years but never played.  

Dear Skyrealms of Jorune, "work at becoming a citizen" might be the initial reason for adventuring, but it is not, in fact, a viable scenario!!! 

Now that I know this stuff, it's still tricky to come up with an appropriate adventure for something like Rocky & Bullwinkle, but at least I have the framework - location, characters, vibe, and situation - the very same thing a Doctor Who story needs to engage viewers.  

Thanks for reading, comments encouraged!

VS

p.s.  Yes, weekend badges are now available for July 2026's VENGER CON V: The Will To Power.  Want a great new TTRPG community where you can hang out with other gamers, get ideas, advice, and training in order to improve?  Look no further than the fastest-growing group on X - it's the Kult of Kort'thalis.  Want the hardcover Cha'alt trilogy?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!  

"The Ruin of A'agrybah" - CHA'ALT Campaign 4.5

 

After a long break, due to the festivities at GaryCon, we resumed our face-to-face Cha'alt campaign.  This is the 5th session of year 4.

We had 4 players... Strum the human sorcerer, Deacon Elijah Crane (priest), Ug the lizardtaur warrior, and Eldrad the blind v'symm warrior searching for his 7 eyes (I have a feeling that the player will be keeping that character, but that's for him to decide).

Oh yeah, if you want to attend VENGER CON V: The Will To Power this July in Madison, WI... now's the time to grab your weekend badge!!!  You won't want to miss the most hardcore RPG con of the year - all we do the entire weekend is just roleplaying! 

The adventurers were trying to make their way out of the tunnels and caves so they can arrive in A'agrybah in time for the Night of Too Many Tentacles party and the saba'ath the following evening.  

Right out of the gate, something was whispering to Eldrad.  Though everyone in the party could hear it.  Eldrad went to investigate only to find an Easter egg.  Full of something, he took it with him.

The following cave contained 9 insect demons worshiping a golden pylon where the door was fluctuating between open and closed on account of the tetrahedral green crystal above the door being off-kilter.  Using a zoth-fueled fireball, Strum roasted them alive.

Ug used Orin his naturally curious sword possessed by the essence of Venger Satanis to hold the door open until they could gain entry, fiddle with the matrix table full of multi-colored crystals (to no avail), and Ug reached his arm out to rotate the crystal - which he did successfully. 

More crystal fiddling transported them to a purple jungle.  They got out to explore.  Ug climbed a tree and saw the top of a giant head while Eldrad reached out with his sonar-senses, locating a survey team nearby.  The PCs sought them out and discovered this team was looking for a fuel source in order to get their starship flying again.  

The two groups decided to join forces before encountering a purple crystalline baby doll head hovering in the air named Perplexo, believing something interesting and/or useful would be in or around the top of that giant head.

After some back-and-forth discussion between the PCs, the scifi survey team, and Perplexo, the adventurers reasoned that purple baby doll head was some kind of artificial intelligence, even though he proclaimed that his intelligence was organic and not artificial.  Perplexo wanted to find a hatch leading to the subterranean depths of this island, where he could reprogram the underground computers to prevent some sort of disaster involving candy eating the planet.

Did the PCs try to kill Perplexo?  Yes, they tried.  Unfortunately for them, he had a purple force-shield that prevented any of their blows from landing.

Regardless, all three groups made their way through the purple jungle to what turned out to be a gigantic, metallic, deep-purple sphinx.  Eventually, the PCs found their way inside by putting a couple of swords into the same hole, thus leveraging the main blast-door at the front.

At this time, the Easter egg was hatching and an Easter-worm wriggled out and slithered into the jungle.  Eldrad fared him well, believing the worm would find a new home on this purple island.

Inside was just a bunch of techno mumbo-jumbo clutter and junk.  Everyone searched for awhile, but the only thing of interest was a hatch in the floor.  By this time, Ug and Perplexo had series beef.  Each one accused the other of insult and passive-aggressive hostility.  Ug sat on the hatch until the others bade him walk it off.

There was a metal ladder going down, so down they went (one of the surveyers, Daniel-Day Lewis, stayed topside to guard the hatch, just in case).  they walked down a long hallway that turned once or twice before leading to a massive cavern (with several smaller tunnels going elsewhere).  This big cave was inhabited with at least 35 purple-skinned primitive humanoids.  These purple-folk allowed Perplexo to waltz right in and access a computer terminal on a cave wall.

This cave also had purple crystals embedded into them, big ones that could easily fuel the survey team's starship.  But the natives didn't like that idea, not that anyone could understand their "ooga booga" language.  Eldrad used his empathy ability to make friends with the biggest and baddest of the purple warriors in their tribe.  That allowed him and the others to walk freely, looking over Perplexo's shoulder to see what he was doing.  The screen flashed all sorts of numbers, phrases, and symbols.  

In the end, the friendship between Eldrad and Ock! could not prevent violence from breaking out.  Strum used the zoth to fuel a wish spell to blast all of them to handfuls of purple sand.  He did. In the wake of this devastation, several weird magical side-effects transpired (including Strum being transported to a black realm where an albino bard ridiculed his musical ability, but then also taught him a few chord progressions), eventually leading to an ice wizard forcing the PCs to either fight each other or his ice golem in MORTAL COMBAT (eventually, they killed it).  That was a black skull suggestion that I pulled out, which got me to thinking, our last session of the campaign (year 4, anyway, should be influenced by just continually pulling unused suggestions out of the black skull). 

Checking on Perplexo, he was successful.  The way he protected planet 109 from being eaten by candy was to blow up the island.  Everyone had approximately one-thousand seconds to leave.

Believing he was on a roll, Strum once again oiled the strings of his ukulele with zoth and teleported everyone back.   The survey team was back on their ship, with the purple crystal, and the PCs arrived back at that cave on Cha'alt, but without their pylon.  Elijah cursed his luck to be once again stuck on Cha'alt.  Just as the portal was closing, Eldrad heard an empathy-laden cry from Daniel-Day Lewis as he screamed "God no, the candy!"

Before leaving the cave system altogether, the adventurers overheard a conversation between a human and elf.  They talked about how beautiful and alluring Cha'alt women were - especially King Agamen's former wife (he's a widow, now).  Even he couldn't keep it in his pants and thus a bastard princess was born about 19 years ago.  They surmised she must be hiding (rumored to have found sanctuary in Ja'alette, the city-state matriarchy), and it was wise to do so as the demoness Channa, who currently had the King's wandering tentacle, would surely have her killed in order to prevent anything from coming between herself and the royal power of A'agrybah... as several prophecies have stated, A'agrybah will soon fall.

The PCs introduced themselves, asked if they could share the Cha'altian weed the pair had, and in exchange, Strum gave them each a magical leprechaun skittle from a session or two back.

Soon enough, the adventurers found themselves back in A'agrybah.  After a good night's rest and hearty meal, they walked the streets in the direction of the palace as this evening was the Night of Too Many Tentacles.

They ran into their old cantina boss who was catering the event in the palace garden.  He pointed out 3 faces that the PCs should probably acquaint themselves with - the Federation Archbishop who was Elijah's superior, Zarsden an affable noble, and the royal vizier.  

Long story short on the last two... Zarsden asked the PCs to retrieve a demon killing blade called Kaltha'alax located in a tower between here and Ja'alette.  The vizier took the PCs to the Yog-Soggoth temple and in the basement was a library full of sacred tomes.  All of them paled by comparison to the one and only Necronomicon.  The vizier showed them proof that demons were alien to Cha'alt, invited by the snake-men to the planet from the lavender moons, infested by them thousands of years ago.  

One day, it is written, demons will again take hold of Cha'alt's surface and make humans and elves slaves.  To prevent Channa from seducing the King and destroying A'agrybah, the vizier promised them each a templar-knighthood and as much gold as they can carry if they journey to Ja'alette, meet with his contact (Ta'ala), escort Princess Lissa to the Crimson Rock of Sacrifice, and make sure she bears her mark of Yog-Soggoth to claim her royal birthright.  Easy-peasy!

The big shock, however, was Elijah Crane's one-on-one with the Archbishop.  It turns out that the Federation recently had an election, and a new administration just came in.  All connection between the Federation and the one true church of the Lords of Light was now terminated.  The Archbishop told Deacon Crane he has two choices.  Give up the priesthood and sit behind a desk in some bureaucratic office somewhere in space, or preach on his own, independent of the Federation, continue to live on Cha'alt and "go native" for lack of a better phrase.

Elijah picked the latter, and his companions welcomed him to a life of crazy adventures on Cha'alt.  Oh yeah, and Eldrad acquired a monstrous eye, one of seven empty sockets, knowing full well that something wild would come out of this gambit. 

The session ended with the PCs tagging along to the noble Zarsden's afterparty where there were many, many naked women in a pleasure-giving mood.

Session 5 is a good place to introduce a world-altering event into your campaign setting.  With the Federation chucking religion, there's bound to be a lot of fallout and unintended consequences.  Speaking of which, using all that zoth to fuel a sorcerer's spells will not go unnoticed by the Dark Gods.  Let's see what zoth-mania and zoth-withrawl looks like in session 6.  ;)

Thanks for reading, hoss!

VS

p.s.  Yes, weekend badges are now available for July 2026's VENGER CON V: The Will To Power.  Want a great new TTRPG community where you can hang out with other gamers, get ideas, advice, and training in order to improve?  Look no further than the fastest-growing group on X - it's the Kult of Kort'thalis.  Want the hardcover Cha'alt trilogy?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!