Mysterious Qada'ath [Cha'alt campaign, session 5]

 

Sometimes, I run meandering, stream of consciousness sessions, other times they're dungeoncrawls or standard sandboxes of wandering around and the PCs find adventure where they can.

This was a linear (but not railroad, as the PCs always had a choice and I never forced them down, nor would I force them down a particular path) scenario.

Before I forget, in 2 or 3 days from now, I'll be asking for VENGER CON III: Revenge of the OSR GMs and players to give me their tentative schedules and wish-lists, respectively.  So, come back soon for that blog post.  I know a lot of gamers are already looking forward to this July's VENGER CON in Madison, WI.  Time to start planning in earnest.

Ok, back to the session report.  One of my favorite players returned after 2 months of dealing with personal matters, so he came in with a brand-new character... and now that I look back at my notes, I have no idea what that character's name is.  But he's a warrior and made entirely of crystal.

Nix the demon thief, Gorra the grog priest, and Ha'agly Morningwood the pixie-fairy sorcerer rounded-out the adventuring party.  4 is a good number of players, so away we go!

I meant to take a before and after picture of the 3D printed "dice display" thing, but I do have an older picture that I'll try to link or show here in a minute.  But you can see pics I took of the new paint job.  The color scheme is pure Cha'alt, and even one of my daughters, before the game, said "That's your aesthetic, Dad."

What's it for?  It keeps your dice in one place, so when you need to roll that d12, you know exactly where it is, perched atop its little spot upon slime-flesh mountain!  ;)

Anyway, I suggested the PCs should already be together, but asked the crystalline warrior's player how he would have met them.  In line at the leech store.  That must have been after explaining the method of getting high off blue glass.  You melt it down, have a leech suck it up, and then press the leech's mouth into your skin as it secretes the liquid blue glass into your system.  It's a debilitating and all-consuming euphoria not unlike heroin (whereas the Federation-made drug fuchsia malaise was more like marijuana... a mellow, feel-good laziness).  

As the PCs walked down the streets of the fantasy cyberpunk (i.e. Shadowrun) dreaming city of Qada'ath, they saw drones with mechanical arms drop down from the fuchsia sky (though beneath the Great Old One floating above the city), pluck humanoids from the orange labyrinth, and deposit them deep into the interior of the city.

Meanwhile, a dissident was shouting warnings to anyone who would hear, "Stop taking the blue glass!  The Supreme Council doesn't serve Uma'at-Allah (the Old One overhead) but themselves!"  

Before he could reveal any more about the blue glass drug, a black-clad city guard known as a sand-blade arrived to shoot him point-blank with a laser rifle.  As the crowd dispersed, another sand-blade asked the PCs where their wristbands were?  No wristbands?  Off to the Citizen Orientation Center!  They went inside a little hover-van that contained a couple other humanoids waiting to be processed.  

Skipping ahead... 

However, I do want to highlight a spontaneous exchange between Crysta'ar [I'm just going to start calling him that] and another guy in the waiting room who bought the deluxe Chevy-grade package of blue glass leeches with the full warranty - even though Qada'ath gives away free drug paraphenalia like it was 2022 San Francisco...

The PCs got inside a locked area of the facility where people were strapped down to a chair watching an alternate version of The Wizard of Oz with ultra-violence, suicide, and animal cruelty (remember, these are the bad guys) as a clipboard and lab coat guy occasionally affixed one of those translucent, neon-pink organic slimy things to the back of someone's head - which made them scream bloody murder.  Apparently, the lab coat guy explained, that little pink squidgy thing transferred dark emotional energy as if a nightmare was asphyxiating you... anally.  

The PCs convinced lab coat guy to give them wristbands so they could wander around, pledge allegiance to Uma'at-Allah, and leave the Citizen Orientation Center.  Everyone realized it was weird that no one was murdered and nothing was stolen, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

During the allegiance pledge part of the processing, I had each player roll a d20 for their character.  Both Crysta'ar and Morningwood rolled a Gilded Die of Satanis, and sure enough, the result came up a 1 or 2.  Morningwood started squealing like a fangirl at a Taylor Swift concert and Crysta'ar was uncontrollably vibrating which made his voice wobbly.

After, they were approached by a violet-skinned elf named Z'quiro.  He was employed by a guy who wanted to know how blue glass was made.  A guard at one of the manufacturing factories was already bribed, so all they had to do was slip in, find out, and relay that information back to Z'quiro.  The PCs asked, so the violet elf told them his boss wanted to create a competing product.

So, the PCs snuck into the factory through the door manned by the bribed guard - "The sandworm always sings thrice." - and they killed another interior guard, saw beds full of 32 people resting and watched as humanoids were taken to some ritual chamber.  3 priests used their spiritual powers to change humanoids placed upon an altar-stone into sheets of blue glass.  Cue one of my favorite actors Charlton Heston - "Blue glass is people!  It's people!"

Finally, the adventurers get some satisfaction the old fashioned way, killing everyone who stand in their way.  The first two priests died quickly as Crysta'ar and Nix had blasters (Gorra's player had to leave 20 minutes before the session's conclusion).  The third priest gesticulated in an eldritch manner and a supernatural light emanated from his hands as a factory worker was turned into a Lovecraftian abomination.  

At one point, Crysta'ar's player rolled another gilded die and got the result he wanted, sliding across the freshly mopped floor - face first straight into the open robes of a dead blue glass priest. The pixie-fairy sorcerer who's afraid of casting spells rolled with his mini-blaster accompanied by a gilded die - that came up 6.  So, he succeeded, but then a ceiling vent blew him into the tentacled creature, and Morningwood's pants got stuck to the tentacle slime, ripping off and leaving him half-naked.

Morningwood got another decent shot off, but was 1 point away from hitting.  I hadn't mentioned it before, but this idea was swimming in my head for weeks... if players made the sign of the tentacle while intoning "By His loathsome tentacles," they'd get a +1 on their roll [usable for each player, once per session].  So, the pixie-fairy's player did that, and that resulted in a hit... for 2 points of damage. Before the creature was blown apart by the others, it slapped a massive tentacle at Morningwood, putting him down 10 HP and Nix 6.

On the way out, they broke-up sheet of blue glass and filled their pockets.  That's where we ended the session.

No one stimulated a Cha'alt X-Cards, unfortunately... but at least the Gilded Die of Satanis got quite a bit of playtesting - and it was all positive.  I have another idea for some far-fetched meta-narrative mechanic, but won't reveal that until next session.

Below are some great quotes from the game...

• "That might be poetic justice, but the real poetry is in the bloodshed."
• "In this version, the flying monkeys are the good guys."
• "Sausage Candy giving out sandy handies."
• "Chili's baby-back leeches."
• "I yearn for something weird!"
• "Yes, that ceiling vent has always been there."
• "Sand powers, activate!"
• "Please, leech responsibly."

Now that the PCs are aware of a major secret of Qada'ath, the supreme council, and Federation, things will start heating up.  I'm also experimenting with campaign arcs, a concept I heard about on YouTube where you break up the campaign into three-session chunks, rather than running it episodically or as one continual season.  

Looking forward to the next game on Saturday, January 27th.  Thanks for reading.  If you enjoyed this, please comment and share with others!

VS

p.s. Only 6 days left to go on The Cha'alt Experience: Designing Worlds Like A Fucking Boss Kickstarter.  If you haven't already, grab your weekend badge for VENGER CON III: Revenge of the OSR right over here!

Lore24 Like A Fucking Boss

 

I noticed that Lore24 was something the RPG bloggers were doing this year.  Last year was the megadungeon-23 project.  So it goes...

And it just so happens that world building is the subject of the book I'm working on right now - the kickstarter still has about 2 weeks, and it's almost funded.  Check out The Cha'alt Experience: Designing Worlds Like A Fucking Boss.

Coming up with ideas is one thing (it's amazing, really, and I'm not trying to downplay that); however, synthesizing those ideas into a world that's going to be your campaign setting for the next few weeks, months, years, or decades is another matter... and that's where I come in.  I'll show you how.

Now, I'd like to turn my attention to a product I just released on DTRPG called Gilded Die of Satanis.  It's a genre and system-neutral game mechanic sort of inspired by the gilded dice in Candela Obscura.  But I Vengerized it beyond recognition.

If, like me, you're a degenerate weirdo who sometimes wants his sword & sorcery to include moments that could only happen in sit-coms like It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia or movies like Step-Brothers, Beerfest, Waiting..., Dodgeball, or Tropic Thunder, then Gilded Die of Satanis is for you.

It's quick and easy, and players always have the choice if they want to engage with the gilded die or not.  So, check it out and see for yourself.

Well, it's a new year.  I don't know what 2024 will bring... but it will most assuredly be a wild ride.  Hopefully, this will be the best year any of us have had for awhile.  A lot of it is beyond our control, but we can still strive for excellence.  

Onwards and upwards, hoss!

VS

p.s. If you want the Cha'alt trilogy in glorious hardcover (before my wife burns what's left in the backyard come 2025), get them through The Cha'alt Experience kickstarter.  If you want to game with me, Diversity & Dragons (the guest of honor), and dozens of other hardcore old-school, OSR, and traditional gamers in Madison, WI this July, get your weekend badge for VENGER CON III.

Mysterious Qada'ath [Cha'alt campaign, session 4]

 

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.