The Cha'alt X-Card Contest

 

I'm surprising y'all with a contest, motherfucker!

Last night, talking to my wife and eldest daughter about the nature of meta and manifesting one's will into the universe (an aspect of the Living Ultra-Cosmos), I suddenly came upon an idea.  Yes, the contest comes AFTER the revelation.  Sorry, not sorry.

You know that weird veiny, super-colorful flesh pattern that I paint onto the Cha'alt X-Cards?  You can also see a similar pattern at the top of the cover art for the first Cha'alt book.  Well, listen up, hoss, because this is now official canon of Cha'alt - ibrexia is the name of the dimensionally sashaying, hive-minded, thought-form species whose somehow-physical skin adorns the Cha'alt X-Cards we all know and stimulate during our games.  Due to the nature of their strange witch-flesh, such cards have the power to alter reality.

I know what you're thinking (aside from when the fuck will he start talking about the contest), since the Cha'alt X-Cards (free PDF, btw) are game mechanics, why would their appearance be something that exists in the eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalypse, humor, sleaze, pop-culture, grindhouse exploitation campaign setting?  Because meta... that's all I got for ya.  ;)

Ok, now to the contest (see, that wasn't so bad).  From now until October 1st, if you use the Cha'alt X-Cards in your game - doesn't have to be with either Advanced Crimson Dragon Slayer or Cha'alt - literally any TTRPG and setting, and blog, vlog, or write-up a session report including their use on social media, you will get a free PDF from Kort'thalis Publishing.

That's right, you could incorporate these cards with DCC, MCC, LotFP, Hyperboria, Paranoia, Toon, Call of Cthulhu, Monty Python, Alpha Blue, Encounter Critical, AD&D, B/X, ShadowDark, Deadlands, the Red Room's Wretched New Flesh, etc... pretty much all the games we play at VENGER CON. Part of this contest is to show people that Cha'alt X-Cards can be usable with a lot of different TTRPGs.  The other part is just to get people using them and to showcase their use at a variety of tables.

Additionally, all submitted entries will be in the running for the ultimate, singular prize - a tentacle-made, wooden and painted set of Cha'alt-X-Cards shipped to you anywhere in the world.  This is a little visual taste!  Of course, this set will be weaved with ancient meta-sigil magic of Kort'thalis, shining luridly with the gross, yet enticing flesh of the ibrexia.

How will I determine the winning session report?  My criteria - the most entertaining and fun to read with best showcasing of the cards.

That's all I've got for you today.  Feel free to comment, share, and contribute your awesome content using my innovative and revolutionary Cha'alt X-Cards!  And if I'm wrong, and they suck, then accurately show their sucking in your session report so we can all see for ourselves.  Though, I'm pretty sure they'll improve the overall roleplaying experience. 

Enjoy, and good luck!

VS

p.s. Want some hardcover Cha'alt?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!  And in even BIGGER news, you can now buy an all-access weekend badge for next June's VENGER CON VI: Belief is Reality convention in Madison, WI right over here.

"The Ruin of A'agrybah" - CHA'ALT Campaign 4.14

 

Dark Sun has come home to roost!  

In fact, there's so much Dark Sun inspiration in Cha'alt that it felt relatively similar.  Sprinkled throughout, you'll see what I chose to include in my Dark Sun, and how all this could be picked-up and carried back over to Cha'alt.  Not the Cha'alt we're familiar with, but closer to the equator.

We had the usual four - Strum, Crane, Ug, and Beigizona (who soon became Mista Firestorm once the PCs were transported to Athas).

Leaving off with the PCs ready to head into the downward sloping tunnel leading from the outer edge of Ira'ad to the ruins of that once great kingdom, a sherpa made his presence known, telling the adventurers he was assigned to them by the "Oops, we need another guy" Temp Agency.  This NPC was named Twitchy because of his frequent twitches.

Before I forget, we have the convention page for VENGER CON VI: Belief is Reality.  Here it is.  Grab your weekend badge now.  It's the last weekend of June in Madison, WI.

“You know, if you play your cards right, I’ll take you to the old presidium with the secret entrance to The Electric-Banana Late-Nite Sanctuary of A’achenshablefishtkorrid-dorna’achtbraunschweiggertenz von O’ohm.  It’s a real trip, man.”  

FYI, I wanted to tease that location which will probably come up again at a later point in the campaign.  I had just finished watching that one Monty Python's Flying Circus episode of the German philosopher with the crazy long name.  This doesn't come anywhere close, but it's an homage.

As Twitchy mentioned the various noteworthy aspects of Ira'ad's ruins, the PCs noticed a foreign-looking glyph.  This glyph was drawn with an accent, a dra'awl from the southern-reaches.  Translated, it means "solar eclipse" and could be traced back to Athas, a neighboring dimension.

Interestingly, 3 of the 4 players rolled natural 20s when searching their mental history for information on the Athasian-glyph.  Bemoaning their good-bad luck with such a wasted roll, I allowed them to "bank" their 20s to use later in the adventure so they could re-roll for the current skill-check.  They all agreed.

Hearing a hundred Kha'alestinians approach with wormskin shields emblazoned with purple severed penises, Ug traced the zoth he just purchased from Twitchy upon the glyph as Strum shot flames from his magical fingertips.  Rolling on a d100, the sorcerer immolated 16 of them - which is a lot, but not nearly enough when there's 100 infidel-slaying jiha'adis in front of you.

Finding themselves in the open desert, on the other side of that portal, with a tangerine sky and obsidian city in the distance, they began walking.  This was after being introduced to Mista Firestorm who, it turned out, was a child inside the body of a hulking assassin droid.  Think Adam Sandler from that Waterboy movie.  It was as strange as it was humorous.  Firestorm was also a dimensional traveler, and had somehow followed the adventurers to Dark Sun by getting there before they showed up.  I'm sure all that will be explained next session.

At any rate, Firestorm wanted to help the other PCs hunt down and kill demons just as his parents had done and showed him how to do.  And so they walked...  

Soon enough, they ran into a couple of escaped slaves named Tik and Tak (half-siblings) who were on their way to a slave auction near the city-state of Tyr.  The young natives were hoping to rescue their friend who can sometimes see future events in his dreams.

"Metal is rare, there are no gods – they were either driven out or murdered a thousand years ago, the sorcerer-kings rule Athas with an iron fist, and are served by the cruel templars and mouth-sewn psions (psionic-users, but if they had their full power of speech could command or destroy men at will).  Most of the inhabitants are poor and many are slaves.  Athas is a desert due to the defiler sorcerers who drained the world of its magical energy.  Oh, and you hear that barely audible sound like the back and forth smacking of violin strings?  That means thri-kreen are near.  Hopefully, it’s not a rape-gang.  If we keep moving, we should be alright."

So, if Cha'alt didn't have the Great Old Ones and their ichor replenishing the planet's magical vitality (but was still a radioactive desert wasteland due to the apocalypse), it would look a lot like Athas.

Almost to the slave auction, they came across an overturned slave caravan with several slaves trapped underneath the bone carriage.  A gigantic black beetle was trying to eat them all, but the PCs watched as the first was devoured.  Long story short, they eventually killed the beetle, "freed" the slaves by allowing them to take the party the rest of the way to the slave auction, and Ug made black carapace armor out of its outer shell.  Additionally, a gland in the beetle's interior had the equivalent of sunscreen oil, which they rubbed on their skin and took the excess with them.

Soon enough, they arrived at a small, man-made ziggurat with raised stone steps that terminated in a wide platform where slaves were auctioned off.  The first of three rounds included the dregs, of which there was a one-eyed ex-whore who Strum took a shine to and ended up convincing the sorcerer-king Jethryk to buy for him.

FYI, the standard greeting has changed from "By His loathsome tentacles" in Cha'alt to "May the sleeper never awaken" on Athas.

Speaking of Jethryk, the PCs were eventually invited to his crimson and gold tent and asked about an irregular metal box stained tyrian purple etched with eldritch-glyphs that meant something in particular.  The reason why they didn't open the box is the sorcerer-king's seer saw doom and horror accompanying its opening.  Failing their rolls (and having already spent their 20s during the previous combat), we used a relatively recent game mechanic known as Fairy Dust...

Strum regaled the table with tales of his coming across a scroll-case with similar glyphs during a visit to Hell, and with his zoth fueled delirium when the rest of the party was fighting to protect the bastard-princess from being torn apart, he finally had time to read the scroll whilst hallucinating, providing him with understanding of subtle eldritch mysteries once attuned to such glyphs.

 The sorcerer learned that opening this box is to usher-in the possible doom of Athas, which they pretty much already knew.  That within this box is the location of the sleeper who shall one day awaken, and centuries ago, they came from beyond the stars, a race of gods known as the Void-Black Succumbing.  These gods were ancient... great and powerful.

This was the Scroll of Riva'an and it spoke explicitly of a Great Old One known as Keelta'anpadra'aj.

Having relayed all that, the sorcerer-king's templars opened the box as Strum poured over the scroll, only doling out the barest of details.  Needing a portal back home, the PCs agreed to journey to the temple of absent divinity, find the sleeper, one of the Void-Black Succumbing, and place a creature that would suck its ichor whose benefits would immediately transfer to Jethryk.

Since the sorcerer-king was going to purchase the slave who dreamt of the future to tell him about the box, but now didn't need him, due to the PCs illuminating Jethryk, Crane asked if he'd buy and release Tik and Tak's slave friend so they could be reunited.  The sorcerer-king was in a generous mood and did as the priest requested.

First, of course, they all went back to the palace in Tyr where they enjoyed the royal treatment.  Strum had as much fun with the one-eyed whore in the palace as he did earlier within the privacy tent.  I asked Grok to come up with a suitable name, and from its suggestion, we chose Nyla Blindside.  We also determined that her fake eye was just a painted rock that she wedged in there to keep up appearances and also doubled as a cavity-opener to keep it wide enough to fit other things in there, as well.

Leaving the next day with Jethryk's templar, Junar, they rode giant lizard mounts.  Halfway into the first day, they encountered a floating entity with tentacles hanging, a hundred eyes, and singular, hungry mouth all cracked and scabrous, resembling the fur of a deadly spider.  This thing was coming towards them slowly, but Junar warned that in combat, the entity is fast.  Apparently, it's called a zyrek, which means "punishment for failure" in their land.  It eats people as a means of natural selection, or so the rumors go.

Bishop Crane was hoping his eldritch beam wouldn't fail him in this godless land.  Luckily, it was there and blasted the thing before Ug with his magical sword Orin, the droid's knives, and Strum's magic missiles (with the help of a slave's blood - Jethryk told the sorcerer that unless he used the magical chartreuse syrup they came with, he'd have to spill blood to fuel his spells).  They eventually killed it, but not before the zyrek attacked Junar.  I rolled randomly as I normally do for who got targeted, and then rolled a natural 20 of my own which resulted in double damage - 2d20, ouch!

That was enough to kill the templar, which, as the PCs admitted, would probably save them the trouble of having to kill him later if the sorcerer-king planned to betray them.  Speaking of which, Jethryk gave Strum a little insectoid-parasite to swallow that would allow him to use the benefits of zoth (or other potentially harmful substances) without the ill effects.  Mista Firestorm asked aloud if that was such a good idea, as it came from a 300+ year old despot who wanted nothing more than continued power over his city-state, and perhaps all of Athas.  Strum acknowledged the possibility of danger, but ate it anyway.  

Oh yeah, the blood of this creature was slime-green with just a hint of yellow and the faintest glow.  Upon investigation, it was the equivalent of zoth-lite, diet-zoth, or zoth-zero, having approximately one-seventh the potency of the real stuff back home.  Also, they searched the templar's body and came away with 30 ceramic pieces, 3 Athasian pearls with a tangerine-purple iridescence, a jeweled bone dagger, and a papyrus scroll written in code that the PCs were determined to decipher.  

Junar,

While I believe these are the adventurers from another world prophesied to save Athas from itself, I intend to use their knowledge and efforts to make me the most powerful sorcerer-king in the entire world.  What they call zoth could revitalize our world, but in my hands, I would become unconquerable.  

See that they secure the lashbetta'aq to the Void-Black Succumbing but do not let it awaken.  Our combined sorcery keeps it slumbering, and that must continue.  

If the otherworlders betray us, kill them once their task is completed.  If you must, finish their task before their blood is cold.  Otherwise, bring them back to the palace at completion so I may learn more of their world before sending them home.  It would suit me to have resources on Cha'alt.  

The ithqueka I gave to the sorcerer will keep him under my control.

Jethryk, Sorcerer-King of Tyr

As night was falling, they were about to make camp.  We ended it there.  This session was less gonzo than usual.  Notice that I didn't draw any suggestions from the Black Skull of Secrets.  I wanted this session, and probably the next, to resemble Dark Sun, or how I envision it, rather than just be Cha'alt 2: Less Metal; No Gods.  

I expect the PCs will be out of Athas by the end of next session, but you never know.  Also, I'm not sure on when we'll play next.  Will have to check availability of the players before making that determination.

Thanks for reading, hoss!  Feel free to comment and share.  Perhaps my version of Dark Sun will inspire others?  

Oh, I finally got the promotional artwork for VENGER CON VI: Belief is Reality, and now the convention's landing page is up - you can check it out here.

VS

p.s. Want some hardcover Cha'alt?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!

Lost and the Living Story

 

I think this image sums up my theory, my philosophy on the Living Story.  Don't know what I'm talking about?  Here you go.

Even before the writers knew what the show was going to be like, the nuts and bolts, they had an idea, a foundation, a go-to grab-bag of concepts that infused and inspired the show, influencing its direction in strange and straightforward ways.  

I've been watching YouTube videos on Lost as I've just started rewatching the show.  This is, I think, my 4th time watching it all the way from the beginning.  You can learn a lot about gaming by watching Lost.  I remember a short-lived discussion I had with that Grognardia guy.

In all ten-thousand of his blog posts, there's one thing they have in common - none of them have anything about me (including my OSR work) or the show Lost.  I can't remember exactly why he refused to watch it.  Some unconscious or apocryphal hesitancy and then force of habit + stubbornness.

As I told him then, I'll tell you now, it's definitely worth watching for many reasons.  One of them being its push, its drive towards something both clear and nebulous, vibes and specific moments that move things along in a certain direction.  

The Living Story is not a screenplay or novel, it's an outline that keeps the GM mindful of what's happening now and what's likely to happen in the future, regarding conflict, agendas, passion, aesthetics, milieu, etc.  Plot-points keep the story undefined enough so what unfolds is character-driven.  

The interplay between the world, story, and characters provide the most freedom without throwing the baby into a void of chaos.  "Go anywhere, do anything" is not a solution; it's tyranny of the blank canvas come to life.

Two sides, one light, the other dark.  From the very first episodes, there was a theme which laid the groundwork and carried the show's narrative resonance until the end.  This blueprint shows that a Game Master, like a writer or showrunner, can have aspects of a story in mind as events, outside the GM's intention, are fully realized in play.

If you would like your campaign (or one-shot) to have narrative resonance, provide it.  Prepare for it, introduce it, explore it, harness it, nurture it, exercise it, and close with it.  All those moments where there's a pause in the game, that's opportunity.  Insert those blank spaces with whatever your theme is, built upon the aesthetic-keys and milieu-nodes that underpin the campaign setting.  

Of course, there's something worse than blank spaces - filling them with THE MESSAGE.  Whatever you do, don't do that.  The woke agenda effectively killed Dungeons & Dragons, RIP 2024.  Luckily, no one from Wizards of the Bro can determine how your own individual game is played... cue tightening grip and star systems slipping through fingers.

As I'm watching Lost again (currently on episode 7 or 8), if anyone wants to chat about it here, on X (the Kult of Kort'thalis TTRPG group on X should have been shut down, but somehow still exists), or wherever, let me know.  Watching Lost is a fun and informative challenge, but it can suck to do it all on your own.  Let's watch Lost together!

Got something to say?  Comment down below, hoss. 

Enjoy,

VS

p.s. Want some hardcover Cha'alt?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!  I'll do a big announcement when I have all the promotional images, but I'm excited to announce that VENGER CON VI: Belief is Reality will be happening next year (June 25th - 27th) in Madison, WI. 

The Living Ultra-Cosmos

 

I wrote this on X the other day, and wanted to put it down here for posterity.

There's even a level above the Living Story and Living World... it's called the Living Ultra-Cosmos.  But so few GMs are ready for it we may as well not even chat about such things.

When asked what I was on about, I wanted to make sure that the one guy who asked me what the Living Ultra-Cosmos was felt he was ready to receive these unadulterated black pearls of wisdom.

He assured me he was ready.

When your gaming life strangely intermingles with your real life, that is the Living Ultra-Cosmos. 

If you're having troubles with the lady in your life, and you prepare an encounter involving a hyper-critical tavern wench, warping and twisting it to suit the established campaign setting. Then, something happens in a session and you do your best to introduce whatever that is into your own away-from-the-table reality, such as drawing pictures of monstrous things that exist in Cha'alt.

Eventually, you go farther, using in-game rituals and real life symbols, cults, and agendas to increase the power of immersion, as well as, your true will (heart's desire, if female) in both realities. If you're thinking this is a type of left-hand path, black arts, chaos magic, you're right. Occultism in TTRPGs is what all those Mothers against D&D tried to warn you about. 

Most guru / warlock / High Priests would charge you $9.95 for that kind of insight. All I ask is you give Cha'alt a go, and try some of the other books by Kort'thalis Publishing, maybe post a 5-star review.

Oh, and here's a follow-up post I made the next day... 

In that Living Ultra-Cosmos state, a Game Master can visualize his campaign setting as if he were there, witnessing the strange marvels that seemed to already exist before the GM arrived.

If anyone wants to discuss the Living Ultra-Cosmos, post a comment below... or somewhere on social media where I'll see it.

Enjoy,

VS

p.s. Want some hardcover Cha'alt?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!  I'll do a big announcement when I have all the promotional images, but I'm excited to announce that VENGER CON VI: Belief is Reality will be happening next year (June 25th - 27th) in Madison, WI. 

"The Ruin of A'agrybah" - CHA'ALT Campaign 4.13

 

First, you've probably heard that WotC is bringing Dark Sun back out of retirement - even when many old-school experts believed that would never happen.  

While I don't intend to give any money to corporations that hate me (and other normal gamers), it's aesthetically the most inviting move D&D could have made.  Not at all gay-woke-commie fodder which 5.5 has become known for.  Whenever folks mention new Dark Sun on social media, I hope you'll help me in mentioning Cha'alt, as Dark Sun helped inspire my campaign setting.

I also want our next session to be a Dark Sun / Cha'alt crossover that celebrates the dying world of Athas!  If anyone wants to comment their suggestions, I'm all tentacles.  FYI, I've already got Thri-kreen rape-gangs written down. 

Normally, we wouldn't have gamed yesterday (as we're on an every-other-week schedule), but the wife and one of our kids is on vacation.  Since I'm not a teenage boy in a John Hughes movie, I decided to GM our Cha'alt campaign rather than throw a raging kegger.

This session definitely felt more subdued, which on the one tentacle, makes me long for the truly fucked-up craziness that Cha'alt can bring.  But given enough perspective, the realist in me knows that they can't all be bat-shit insane fever dreams.  

Our 13th session in the 4th year of this campaign was a sort of mid-campaign reset, just coming off the big finale the last time we were all together (minus Strum).  The stage was reset, exposition was doled-out, and travel plans arranged by a helpful NPC, the Royal Vizier of A'agrybah.

Weeks passed as the adventurers rested, recovered, and trained for whatever lay ahead.  I had each PC come up with at least one thing they've been working on, and if that thing comes up in the next few sessions, they'll get Advantage on it.

Strum was managing his battle with addiction - the party's sorcerer had gone down the z-hole, as in zoth (chartreuse gold, Cha'altian tea, or the effulgent ichor).  And that's also where he was during his absence - wrestling with personal demons and in treatment.  His player also asked me to come up with something to "game mechanic" his zoth addiction, so I'm going to put this right here...

Roll on the following random table when a zoth addict uses this uncontrollable substance...

1. He goes into a zoth-induced coma and will awaken in 1d30 hours.
2. His addiction has reached a fevered pitch; he must use zoth again within 90 minutes or fly into zoth-rage where magic is pain and everyone shall be made to suffer.
3. The sorcerer's magic items become... 1) unattuned, and must be reattuned at a rate of one per hour; 2) one item must make a saving throw with the same chances as the sorcerer himself, and if that save fails, the item self-destructs; 3) 1d3 powers are taken away from his collective magic items; or 4) one magic item gains a strange new power.
4. Nothing happens
5. The sorcerer has wild mood swings ranging from depression to mania to stoicism to obsession with something arcane or cheese (yes, in that order).
6. He must make a saving throw; if he fails, the sorcerer has zoth poisoning (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, body aches, etc.) lasting 2d4 hours.  But if successful, the sorcerer's spells are super-charged for the next 20 minutes, followed by a 40-minute crash where he can't cast anything at all.  
7. The Great Old Ones speak directly into the sorcerer's mind - telling him to drop all prior quests that do not actively pursue resurrecting a slumbering Dark God.
8. ???

Bishop Crane is in the process of building the church and another temple for the righteous redeemers, believing that the Old Ones have always been the Lords of Light.  He's also keeping tabs on Vromka'ad's tower (which, for a very short period of time used to be their tower).

He discovered that the Federation have phase-shifted the tower slightly out of this reality, enough so that no one can go in or out.

Ug spent the majority of his time using the metal titan (so far unnamed) as a sort of Chat GPT, asking it questions in order to learn more about the world, while not fully realizing that it just tells him what he wants to hear and confirms any and all biases the lizardtaur warrior already had.  

From our last half-session, Tinker has sort of evolved into Beigeizona, a valley-girl pixie-fairy who's looking for the missing pages and/or scrolls of a shadow assassin's guild book of dark magic that only the last survivor of the tontine gets to keep.  How the completed or even separated tome knows what to do and where to go when someone in the tontine dies is anyone's guess.  It's possible there's a "magical discord" handling all the behind the scenes stuff.  And perhaps Beigeizona is tinkering with such a system.

If the Tinker / Beigeirona player wants to create a new PC for the Cha'alt / Dark Sun crossover session, maybe he can play a mul, half-giant, thri-kreen, or cannibal halfling?  ;)

Speaking of behind the scenes, so the whole tontine thing came about in that previous half-session where I had the two new PCs (Beigeizona and the Golden Girls type character that temporarily replaced Ug) roll on the backgrounds table in my old How To Game Master Like A Fucking Boss, and she got the shadowy assassin book prize for being the last to die in the tontine - the tontine being a major plot-point in this old movie (The Wrong Box) that I watched with my Dad a couple times over the years.  It was one of his favorites, and watching movies and tv shows together is a fond memory (everything from Doctor Who - Tom Baker was really the only Doctor as far as he was concerned - and the original House of Cards to Blake's 7).

So, to anyone who thinks my Living Story approach to running the game isn't full or random weirdness that takes the game into unexpected quarters, yeah... random tables rule.  I use them, and I run with them, completely changing the nature of the campaign, from one session to another.  That's why it's called the Living Story - it's alive and moving all the time, like a reflecting serpent.

On the downside, I totally forgot to have the players determine what was different about this Cha'alt prime dimension, than where they were in the half-session.  Next time!

While heroes who helped save Princess Lyssa (formerly known as the bastard princess), they're still considered newcomers to the royal court and even have a direct supervisor in the palace named Damask.  As soon as they reported to him, he called them dumbasses and asked if they'd filled out their TPS reports yet, cleaned the palace gutters, and defenestrated the black centipedes.  

Bishop Crane stormed out saying that he saved the princess and had better things to do than wash the worm shit off the winery floor.  Ha!  While working on his own projects, one of his fruitie servants came to him with news - that fruitie has a friend within the CRD (colony resources department).  He has information about the gigantic statue head of Da'agoth the dreaming god that the Federation found while scanning the desert belonging to the sand-swallowed Kingdom of Ira'ad.  In exchange for finding and transporting the statue head all the way from Ira'ad to A'agrybah, the Federation asked for limited zoth rights, but then at the last moment switched their zoth rights to rare Cha'alt minerals which is much less profitable and requires big excavation machines for mineral extraction.  

Speaking of Princess Lyssa, they were asked to visit her before leaving the palace.  She is swollen with child, and made the adventurers beaded bracelets and her very own home-made double-filtered worm wine that tasted of strawberry, cactus-pear, and tentacle.  Oh, because of Strum's zoth addiction, he's become even more devoted to the Old Ones and wants to help Crane with his new church.  Strum is also very protective of the tentacled litter that Lyssa has in her belly.  She also told them a dream she had last night about a glowing-tangerine dust that mutated and corrupted anything and everything it came into contact with.

Oh yeah, one last thing - the party's priest has that infernal glyph from the artifact Pa'azuk.  It told hm the Archduke of the Black Flame declared an infernal jiha'ad on Bishop Crane and dispatched a Hell-worm to destroy the priest and retrieve his demonic magic items.

Upon leaving the palace and walking down the street towards the Z-Hole, a place for blatant zoth abusers and sorcerers who believe they have it under control.  They saw dozens of protestors shouting and holding signs with empathy for the demons, kha'alestinians, and even the Federation.  A few of them believe Princess Lyssa and her unborn spawn should be put to death.

Ug went to tongue-slap a few of them, and mostly missed.  Meanwhile, Strum fireballed the lot of them, immolating every protestor there, and singing the lizardtaur for being so close to the rabble-rousing throng.

By the time they reached the nearest cantina, the Royal Vizier spoke to them on their wrist-communicator.  The Federation has moved their biggest sand-mining burrower to the perimeter of sand-swallowed Ira'ad.  It must be a big mineral deposit, but the vizier wants the PCs to spy on them and find out all they can, as something is definitely up.  The vizier booked passage on the Orient Express, a sand-piercer class high-speed hover-train that crisscrosses the S'kbah desert.  With the Orient Express, the trip would only take 6 or 7 hours; that would be approximately 22 or 23 hours by reptilian riding-spider.

The vizier also granted the adventurers diplomatic immunity.  Not quite sure what that means in this context, they were pleased, as surely their newfound status would be thoroughly abused in the name of bureaucratic authority.

Their train was leaving in a couple hours, so they wandered over to the golden city gates of A'agrybah.  Overhearing a man cry out that his money pouch was stolen by a demon, the PCs went after him.  The demon ducked into a mostly empty Federation warehouse and saw the demon waiting for them.  He was standing in a circle drawn with infernal-glyphs of blood. 

The pixie-fairy went in through a side window first, in order to get a sneak-attack in.  He did minimal damage, which was actually good because the circle turned attackers' damage back on them.  So, Beigeirona took 4 points of damage.  Strum then cast dispel magic which ended the demon's chicanery.  It wasn't long before the rest of the party destroyed him.

Additionally, all but Ug were interested in copying that infernal glyph for their own use at a later point.

Hopping on the Orient Express, the PCs enjoyed their luxury suite on the train as it soon went into a mild sandstorm.  Then, I took out 3 player suggestions from the Black Skull of Secrets - a blinding flash of fuchsia light, a 10-foot around steel spike fell from the heavens right before the hover-train and proceeded to dig its way through the desert floor, and a whole bunch of blue ewoks with little javelins demanded tribute before the hover-train was allowed to continue.  

Ug negotiated a trade, giving them a Federation soldier who he convinced the blue ewoks was the conductor, and knew the various trade routes.  The fuchsia flash of light was connected to a nearby psychic presence below ground - inside the hole recently dug by that giant steel spike that kept getting smaller the farther down it went.

Strum and Biegeirona were compelled to go down and investigate, as their mind was subtly dominated by a floating psionic orange.  

The orange was contained within a magic holding-field of teal-hued energy.  A total of 7 large floating amoeba, one of them being its blood-red leader, were contained within this stone floored temple with altar and tentacled columns.  

Braziers (note to self - create a Cha'alt X-Card for when someone says brazier so that players can play the Brazzers card and turn the scene into some kind of weird porn thing) pouring indigo and violet vapor into the air.  

Whereas the demon from earlier was dispatched relatively quickly, these things took awhile to destroy, paralyzing both Strum and Beigeirona (irony or fate... you decide).  

The transparent blooded creatures did not count as Lovecraftian abominations, even though they technically did had tentacles.  When only two remained, they double-penetrated the orange which Beigeirona had freed with his own dispel magic spell (in their minds, they could hear the floating psychic orange say that he wanted to take over Cha'alt himself, so probably not a good guy), creating an orange-hued ameoba that was slaughtered in a tangerine mist, along with the remaining enemies. 

Searching the entire temple, Strum found a strange and magical deck of playing cards adorned with women in various stages of undress.  The others gawked at a huge, eldritch mural on a temple wall (more about that next time, I'm sure).  Taking the deck of cards, they decided to get back onto the train (being held for them by the metal titan) instead of exploring the subterranean tunnels leading out of the temple.

After several hours of rest, healing from their wounds, a shadow assassin crept into Beigeirona's sleeping quarters, and stabbed her.  She then counter-struck, killing the creep.  It was a member of the tontine, and the party's pixie-fairy took his encrypted scroll of shadow magic, which would take time to fully decipher and attune. 

Finally, they arrived and hopped-on the food truck / tour bus belonging to Egg Chen of Qada'ath Chinatown.  He told them a few wild stories of the place, relayed a rumor of an old Federation facility deep underground that created and still housed (even though the facility was destroyed) nuclear dust.  

Realizing that might be what the Federation were after, they asked Egg Chen, after paying for some tasty eggrolls, to let them off near the mining machine, Federation basecamp, and rocky tunnel sloping down into the sand-swallowed Kingdom of Ira'ad.

That's where we ended the session.  Again, not a ton happened, and nothing that off-the-rails shocking or gratuitously weird, but I think it was a solid start to the second half of this season's adventures.

Saturday, August 15th should be our next game.  I'm looking forward to it!  Thanks for reading, commenting, and sharing.

Enjoy,

VS

p.s. Want some hardcover Cha'alt?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!  I'll do a big announcement when I have all the promotional images, but I'm excited to announce that VENGER CON VI: Belief is Reality will be happening next year (June 25th - 27th) in Madison, WI.