House of Pestilence Playtest 2 Session 2: The Daemon You Know

In the last session, five mighty masters of the universe met in the drow citadel of Erelhei-Cinlu, traversed the underworld, and finally arrived at the threshold of the House of Pestilence, an exiled drow house turned to the worship of the daemon lord Anthraxus. They came into conflict with the House's guard dog, a wicked mage named Eastler and his umber hulks, and forced his surrender. The party seeks immortality, and it lies within the deepest recess of the House. Will they be able to make their way inside and find their quarry, or will they be forced to fight? Join them to find out...

The Party

Stribor, the Devil of Bukosevač, human bard 11 played by Cao Linh

    Helefres, Magician of the Far Shore, human mage 11

    Tork, the Tower and Key, ratling thief 12

Shirin the Wastrel Empress, human mage 12 played by Finn

    Sisiphre, Who Has Tempted Death, elven mage/thief 10/11

    Skour, Night's Justice, human assassin 11

Haught Taupik the Blood Sword Emperor, elven fighter/mage 7/11 played by Ali

    Aodhan the Reborn, human druid 12

    Soo Meri, Elder of the Moonstone Sect, human monk 10

Casualties

Probably everyone

Loot

Purchased from the auction:

    Purple ioun stone (5000gp bought for 13000)

    Silver Serpent Armor (10000gp, brought for 14000)

Taken from the Umil-Da vault:

    Ring of protection +6

    22kgp in gems

    18k in platinum bars

The Game

On the second day...

• Where last we left off, the party had arrived at the doorstep of House Umil-Da, fought its outer guardians, and reached a truce with the wicked wizard Eastler. In exchange for his advice in gaining the compound, they helped him fake his death and escape servitude, with both Celine and Liu Feng joining him in getting the hell out of dodge. 
• Following Eastler's directions, the remaining party pressed forward through the winding tunnels and reached an ornate steel door bearing the image of a welcoming goat-headed daemon. They announced their presence, and the party's roguish members felt a prickling on the backs of their necks: they were being scried.

You again!

• Pale mist filled the tunnel, and out of it stepped a fiery infernal steed bearing a rider clad in mail and bearing a wicked black lance. The party called to parley, and (primarily thanks to Stribor) managed to convince the drow warrior that they had been extorted by Eastler and fought back, but had no hostile intent against the House of Pestilence. By carefully avoiding (most) direct falsehoods, they secured safe passage within. 
• Beyond the doors lay a great and high cavern lit by a globe of glowing ore hanging from its zenith, with great exotic gardens of violet grass and a high-walled fortress bathed in the perfume of night-blooming flowers. The party remained at the entrance for some time, gave the guards their expected 'gift' and took up the glowing-green cloaks of foreigners and their visitor passes. Soon, a drow servant named Malrux came to welcome and guide them. She pointed out the House's many delightful and gory features, and conducted them into the fortress proper. 
• After leaving behind their riding lizards, the party came to a great marble altar of Anthraxus, before which guards, bugbears, and slaves alike prostrated. It became clear that the entire cavern was bathed in a foul aura which interfered with non-evil priests. The party did likewise, and were permitted to pass further inside. At the visitors quarters, they ran into one of Shirin's old rivals, the archmage Neroë and his two apprentices, Orbix and Snake-eye. 
• After lobbing insults back and forth at one another, the mages depart for the bazaar, while the party accepts Malrux's hospitality and visits the menagerie: a great hemispherical pit in the ground riddled with caged exotic beasts, from albino lions to chimera, velociraptors and intelligent apes, even a colossal purple worm and a crippled hollyphant. 
• They elected to visit the bazaar next, boiling over with all the most exotic merchandise purloined from realms infernal and supernal, but most intriguing was the auction house. Within, they found Neroë's apprentices, a pair of mind flayers, and a huge, drunk demon, all bidding on items presented by a night hag. The party outbid the mages for both a purple ioun stone prized by Shirin and a magical bracelet which could expand to cover the wearer's body in plate mail. They manipulated the mages into overbidding for a gem of true seeing, and afterwards spotted the apprentices worse for wear, likely paying the difference with magic items of their own, and noted that the mind flayers had certainly also been bidding up prices in exchange for a cut. 

The ultimate fashion accessory

• After the auction went on hiatus, the party sent their sneakier hirelings to follow the other guests. Tork and Soo Meri followed the mid flayers to the gate of the compound's inner palace, where a high-ranking male drow with an acid-scarred face allowed the illithids entry. Sisiphre and Skour, meanwhile, followed the apprentices, though they split up on the way back to their quarters. Sisiphre followed Orbix to the drow servant quarters, where he was greeted by a pair of servant women. She was prepared to stop following when she heard a scream cut short, and sneaking invisibly into the quarters, spied the unconscious mage having a foot-long black centipede inserted up his nose: thereafter, the drow woke him up and told him in no uncertain terms that if he disobeyed the matriarch's commands, the centipede would melt his brain from the inside. 
• After reporting back to the party, Shirin and Haught Taupik met Orbix on the path back to the visitor's quarters, and further blackmailed him into helping them get access to the inner palace. 

On the third day...

• After recuperating somewhat, the party awoke early to view a sacrifice and celebration conducted by Thirza, the matriarch's eldest daughter and heir. They gained some insight into the feuding factions and royal family: the younger daughter Xalyth, a powerful warrior spurned for her inability to call upon infernal powers, the elder son Crovad, a great hunter who was evidently half drow and half something from the pit, and the matriarch's reclusive consort, the mage Iuzekar. 
• After the gory sacrificial ceremony, the party was unexpectedly approached by Thirza herself, who engaged Stribor to come to a party in the palace and entertain the court with some songs. They enthusiastically agreed. 
• After wandering around the gardens and visiting the bazaar again, 'evening' led them to the celebrations in the outlying manor of Knight-Commander Schezalle, the matriarch's second in command. After some verbal sparring, Stribor entertained the partygoers with two new songs of his own composition: 'The Devil Came Down to Umil-Da' and 'Hedge-Maze Improvisations.' Between Stribor's great skill and the magic of his golden fiddle, he was able to charm many of the guests including, by incredible luck, Knight-Commander Schezalle and Xalyth. Schezalle even offered him a pick from her curiosity cabinet: he picked a black dog statuette, which he found was a figurine of power.

Wrong one!

Stribor: Every devil needs his hound.

Shirin: That's not a saying. 

Stribor: It is if I make it one. 

• As the party wound down, Haught-Taupik wound up n conversation with Xalyth and, remarking on their shared love of violence and greatswords, as well as their mutual frustration with cowardly scheming, enjoined a duel on the Umil-Da training grounds for the edification of the young drow soldiers. 
• In the course of that duel, both opponents got a critical hit on their first attack, with Xalyth narrowly resisting the Bloodsword's lifestealing curse, and Haught-Taupik suffering under Xalyth's experienced feints. They called the duel after the first round, with HT and 5 hit points and Xalyth at 1(!). Both refused healing by the matriarch's handmaiden, and Haught Taupik snuck off to the bazaar to chug (suddenly overpriced) healing potions. 
• At the same time, Shirin is secretly approached by Iuzekar, who asks to buy the purple ioun stone off of her in exchange for various treasures, including a selection from his research library. Though tempted and cautious of refusing a drow noble, Shirin finally declines.

On the fourth day...

• The party fields invitations by both Thirza (inviting Stribor and Shirin) and Xalyth (inviting Haught Taupik) into the palace proper for private meetings. Thirza gives her guests the run of the place, taking them up to the little-trafficked second floor, where waits a tiny, cramped shrine. Stribor and Shirin stepped in at her urging, and her soon covered in crawling and flying pests of every kind. Then a flea crawled into their ears, and spoke directly into their eardrums with the tiny voice of a daemon lord: Anthraxus himself, offering the two of them power in exchange for serving him in mind, body, and soul. 

Most certainly a bad enough dude

• At the same time, Haught Taupik was invited into Xalyth's private chambers, containing only basic amenities and a weapon and armor rack. But then the drow unveiled a hidden niche, filled with documents and plans, all plotting the assassination of Thirza. Xalyth offered Haught Taupik payment and great favor in exchange for helping her carry out this plan. 
• When the two groups reconvened on the second floor, something had changed. Shirin had exited the shrine without any changes, but Stribor was... greater than he once was. At the same time, Thirza was bowing to him and accepting his orders. It turned out that, as part of converting to Anthraxus' servitude, Stribor had been offered power, wealth, and a boon of his choice. For that boon, he asked Anthraxus to give him authority over Thirza. Seeing the difference in power between these two servants, the daemon lord agreed. 
• At the same time, Haught Taupik had accepted Xalyth's deal and the two were now acting in concert... only to find the situation had suddenly changed. 
• Thirza summoned the matriarch, who looked at the bard that had taken away her heir with contempt, but with Anthraxus' order opened up the fortress' vault. Stribor took away a great deal of wealth and magic items, and had Thirza guide the group up to the (formerly) forbidden third floor. 
• Thirza guided them past the many security mechanisms: a space-warping pillar guarded by a twelve-headed hydra, a demiplane of rot and pestilence, an illusory village guarded by dancing daemons, and then a hidden stairway descending for miles and opening into the peak of a ziggurat in a colorless world choked with thick, gray muck. 
• At the center of the ziggurat was an egg-like stone, and sitting upon the stone was a scrawny, hairless man with a midnight-blue body and a massively oversized goat head: the Seed of Pestilence, the divine shard of Anthraxus taken sentience and form. As the party prepared to fight, they found that Stribor and Thirza did not join them: having vowed to serve Anthraxus in mind, body, and soul, he had brought the party here to feed the Seed. 
• That was when Stribor got a nasty surprise: the Seed offered the other intruders a chance to join it, help it break out of this demiplane, and become its high priests once it attained its full power independent of its progenitor. 
• And... that was when the session ended. Had we continued further, a showdown between Shirin, Haught Taupik, Xalyth, and the Seed vs Stribor and Thirza would have broken out. I expect that Stribor and Thirza would have lost, but the remaining party would probably still try to kill the Seed, and would likely lose. I'll never know for sure what would have happened, but the upcoming session will be a parallel-universe boss fight with the whole party to calibrate the difficulty/practicality of this encounter. 

Takeaways

With that, the main playtest of the House of Pestilence winds down, with another session to test out the final boss to come. Once again, I'm somewhat struck by how quickly it was possible to get to the end (though given how I expect the fight would go, it likely would not have been a victorious ending). Taking command of Thirza was an outcome I did not expect at all, but made sense in context; in fact, it worked even better than the players expected, since she is one of only three characters with the means to safely traverse the demiplane. 

One of my goals with House of Pestilence was to create an adventure location that, in addition to being a high-level one-shot (which is what these sessions tested), could also be integrated into a campaign world. Obviously, it's easiest to work it into the D3 underworld, the locations even have hex coordinates meant for that map, but you could also plop this down in the Forgotten Realms or any homebrew world that already has the drow in it. 

Despite being designed as a high level adventure, I think it also functions as a much lower level encounter if we assume different PC objectives. Evil characters in particular can interact with it as a refuge, as a source of great wealth and magic, or as scheming sometimes-allies. It can exercise influence upon an underworld campaign well before the players are powerful enough to defy it directly. 

To that end, the fact that playtesters didn't see much of the content and did sequence-breaking is not a downside. It tells me that the open-ended design is working and players were able to make plans within its structure. 

I am somewhat concerned about the very light loot the playtest groups recovered. Group 1 got almost nothing at all, and group 2 acquired what they did through (mostly) above-board means. Rest assured, there's a great deal of treasure in this module, but most of it is either concealed or out of the way. Groups like these, which were laser-focused on completing their respective objectives and on not offending their drow hosts, didn't go out of their way to find treasure. 

On reflection, I don't think this is much of a problem. The major prize at the end (as of the playtest 2 revision) is much bigger than almost any amount of xp if the GM actually runs with it, and has the potential to completely change the campaign. You know, I should probably add a warning about that up front. However, the fact that group 2 didn't pick up treasure on their way over meant that they couldn't buy very much at the bazaar or auction. Once again, I don't think this is much of a problem, at that point it's on them. Players who want treasure can definitely find treasure here.

The one thing I wanted to tets but didn't was the degenerative curse in the demiplane. The characters bypassed it thanks to Thirza, but as a result they didn't even know it was there. The version of this curse I wrote in the original submission was, on reflection, pretty much unusable, and I was hoping to figure out just how bad the revised version was, but no dice. 

Another possible weakness of the playtest was that I wasn't really using the document as a regular GM would at the table: with so many revisions, I've got the damn thing nearly memorized, and outside of the actual monster stats was able to mostly run from memory with the text as a prompt. A regular GM is going to be reading from the page and trying to construct an understanding of it mostly in the moment, and I wrote the text with that in mind, but this form of playtesting doesn't effectively test that. In particular, there were places where I knew the situation, but wanted to refer back to the exact phrasing I wrote down, and couldn't easily find it in my own text. Those parts have to be fixed in the last revision. Testing your own stuff is essential, getting someone else to test it goes the extra mile. In the future, I would like to go the extra mile. 

------

Thank you all for reading and coming on this journey with me! I'll be writing up a much shorter post about the final test combat we did a while back (this post has been heavily delayed, but I've now come into some free time) and within a couple of weeks we will be right back to our adventures in Cascabel! Until then, have an excellent week!

House of Pestilence Playtest 2 Session 1: The Road to Immortality

Last time I playtested House of Pestilence, we found that killing a pseudo-lich was not as hard as expected and that it was possible to speedrun the module. Now I have returned, running my regular party through the module from the beginning, with a new premise, which I shall replicate below. 

The world you know is an arena for powers that lie beyond mortal understanding. Each of you: hermit masters, archdruids, sorcerer-kings, and witch-queens, stand close to the peak of human power. But the more powerful you become, the clearer it is that there is an unbridgeable gulf between mortals and immortals. Between powers and principalities and your meager flesh and blood. 

Until now. 

One of the most powerful evil gods, triumvir of Hades, lord of the pestilent land of Oinos, the daemon lord Anthraxus, has a secret. Hundreds of years ago, he cut out a shard of his divine power and hid it in the material plane. There it has taken root and flowered. Anthraxus plans to consume it to bolster his own divine power once it has fully ripened, but if you were to take it for yourselves, it would pave a royal road. Deities of every plane would burst down your door offering gifts and boons in exchange for it. And if you were to consume it, you could become gods in your own right. 

Here is what you know: the prize is hidden deep underground, in the domains of the drow. It is protected by House Umil-Da, drow aristocrats who turned away from the worship of Lloth the spider-queen, were banished from the drow capital, and found new offices under Anthraxus’ wings. Their headquarters, the House of Pestilence, attracts the wealthy and powerful from the material world and the lower planes alike, bartering for the rarest and most valuable treasures the infernal realms have to offer. It is very secure, and very dangerous, but if you can infiltrate it and gain entry to the deepest part of their palace, you can steal the prize from under their noses. 

 

Are you a bad enough dude?

Thus you five, sharing neither creed, country, nor alignment, each bringing only two of your most powerful and trusted lieutenants, have allied. Whether to take it for yourselves, offer it to your patrons, or simply deny it to your enemies, this grand prize calls to all of you. How long this alliance will last is another question. You have one shot at immortality. Don’t waste it. 

The Party

Liu Feng, The Fool Drifting on the East Wind, human monk 12 played by Jackson

    Kore, the Vision of Temperance, human illusionist 11

    Vindictus, the Hand-Chopping Judge, beetlefolk fighter/thief 9/11

Stribor, the Devil of Bukosevač, human bard 11 played by Cao Linh

    Helefres, Magician of the Far Shore, human mage 11

    Tork, the Tower and Key, ratling thief 12

Shirin the Wastrel Empress, human mage 12 played by Finn

    Sisiphre, Who Has Tempted Death, elven mage/thief 10/11

    Skour, Night's Justice, human assassin 11

Celine, le Sphinx du Averoigne, elven druid 13 played by Anne

    Carter, the Hermit Underhill, ratling thief/illusionist

    Saumur, the Hangman of Orscea, goblin fighter 11

Haught Taupik the Blood Sword Emperor, elven fighter/mage 7/11 played by Ali

    Aodhan the Reborn, human druid 12

    Soo Meri, Elder of the Moonstone Sect, human monk 10

Casualties

None

Loot

Information

A treacherous ally

The Game

On the First Day...

• The party, all of them lords upon the surface world, convened in the underground citadel of Erelhei-Cinlu, the capital of the drow, city of diabolism and debauchery. In the Greencloak Boarding House, an institution catering to surface-dwellers traveling through the underworld, they acquired information: rumors about the House of Pestilence, and secret maps showing the way. 

By Tomas Giorello

• Several of their number indulged in moondrops, small colored pastries baked with amphetamines, and in various alcoholic concoctions with spider venom. Liu Feng established that he did not own a shirt. 
• After purchasing supplies through the Greencloak's factor, they set out on their riding lizards under the radioactive moonlight, across the velvety purple river and out of the Vault of the Drow. 
• They made good time down the Slaveway and then turned at a little-used intersection, crawling through caves and tunnels until they reached a great cavern, the outline of haphazard buildings and fungal farms backlit by the ghostly glow of a geothermal vent. This was Seeker's Shanty. 
• A patrol of raggedy soldiers, drow and duergar and various other underworld species, met them and established they were only here to trade and then pass through. They learned that the House of Pestilence lay in the tunnels beyond, and that the shanty was populated by three groups: first, the myconids led by the Great Decomposer; second, the cultists seeking transcendence through their mind-melding spores; third, exiles, criminals, and assorted riff-raff claiming asylum and working under the auspices of the myconids. 
• Liu Feng and Haught Taupik visited a myconid leader, High Lecturer Weoga, as it delivered awe-inspiring metaphysical lectures to an enraptured crowd. Awe-inspiring... but totally without philosophical substance, in the Blood Sword Emperor's estimation. 

Shirin: I don't care to learn what mushrooms know about life. 

• Meanwhile, the rest of the party searched for information about the House of Pestilence, and landed at the oversized, barricaded door of Grismolt, a colossal cave troll. He was a former war-slave to House Eilserv, and fought against House Umil-Da prior to his escape. Their battle tactics followed from the drow noble playbook, but the party learned a good deal more about the path to the House, especially about great monsters with fearsome glowing eyes that still struck fear into the colossal troll. 
• After a short delay to top up their supplies, the party pressed on, and soon reached the Singing Caves. Their maps and notes had warned them to wait until the singing had begun and ended: otherwise they might be stuck traversing the caverns when it began, and they would surely die. 

On the Second Day...

• So they waited, making camp amid the stones. After a time, they heard the singing: more like a colossal whistle, joined by another voice, and then another. It continued for hours, but always just slightly off-key, maddeningly incomplete. At the climax, the singing itself sounded as frustrated as they all were, and suddenly ended. 
• They then picked their way through the caverns, many dozens of limestone pockets from the size of a cottage to a goose egg: some of the passages between the caves bore pick-marks, and all those were just wide enough for them and their riding lizards to pass through. 
• They rushed through to the exit without delay, and continued following their notes. Along the way, they discovered a gap in the rock, apparently created by a recent earthquake, from which a gentle, soothing scent emanated. A small handful of party members squeezed through, and found a strange scene: the scent blew from a pool of water, gently glowing. Above the pool hung a stalactite, with a charred human corpse nailed to it by 22 silver spikes. 

Haught Taupik: I want them to do that to me when I die. 

• Feeling wigged out, they left the cavern untouched, but when Vindictus (who was holding up the rear) emerged, he screamed 'Ghost!' and started running. Hearing phantasmal moans nearby, the party joined him in flight. 
• Putting distance between themselves and the ghost, the party soon reached the entrance to a network of swiss-cheese caves riddled with fungal forests: the Undernesse. All their maps ended here: they would have to search around and find the way to the House of Pestilence by themselves. 
• Liu Feng and Soo Meri interrogated the surrounding fungi, and learned that several kinds of two-legs wander the area: one of those are furry and stink, and come from the southeast. The party determined that these are likely bugbears, servants of the House of Pestilence. 
• In searching them out, the party encountered a clan of pech living in an upside-down pyramid, who warned them about the rulers of the Undernesse: the Lady Tempestuous and Lord Tectonic. They also came across a camp of sycophantic deep gnomes, clearly terrified, who advised the party to follow the path and take the next cave on the right.

Source

• Finding such a cave, Liu Feng and Vindictus sneak in, and find it scattered with offal and the bones of both rothe and humanoids. Within is a six-legged monster, somewhere between a cat and a bear, slumbering. They turn back, but find another one, even larger than the first, entering the cave behind them, but the pair are able to escape and are not pursued for long. 
• Though distrusting the advice of the gnomes, the party pressed on, and among crumbling slate shelves did in fact find a tunnel leading away from the Undernesse. Their lizards waded through the dank secretions of luminescent algae, until they reached a steep, uneven chimney. They picked their way up slowly but surely, and reached a flat landing with a tunnel stretching forking before them. Their lizards acted strangely, yet still further they pressed. 
• Before they knew it, they were surrounded by hulking beetle-like figures with glowing golden eyes, blocking off several tunnels! A cackling voice spoke directly into their minds 'Surrender to House Umil-Da!'
• The party did not do this. 
• They swung into action, meeting the monsters in melee. Several took injuries, and Haught Taupik in particular suffered a pair of nasty bites, but numbers and magic were in their favor: with one tunnel webbed up to block entry and the monks throwing stunning fists, the party eased the pressure. The hulking beasts focused their baleful gazes on several members of the party, but all managed to avert their eyes and keep fighting. The battle turned when Haught Taupik scored a critical hit on one opponent, draining its lifeforce with a single thrust.

The Bloodsword: Blood for my master! Blood and souls for my master Haught Taupik!

• With the battle turning against them, the remaining monsters attempted to flee, but they could not outrun Liu Feng and Soo Meri, who swiftly cut them off and pounded the survivors into the dirt. Aodhan and Celine healed the most seriously wounded, and the party heard the sound of a tunnel collapse from the right fork. They searched the tunnels and found a blocked-off passage, which Vindictus, even further empowered by a spell of strength, began to clear by hand. 
• Then the party heard a voice speak into their minds once more. "Cease! House Umil-Da will strike you down if you continue!" 
• Vindictus did not stop. 

Wait, let's talk about this

• The telepathic voice began pleading, and the party opened parley. It just so happened that these were not the forces of House Umil-Da proper, but a wizard, Eastler, and his umber hulk minions contracted to guard the entrance from those who trespassed without properly declaring themselves. Just then, he had sent a telepathic message to his superiors requesting reinforcements against the party, but had been refused and left to his fate. 
• They cleared the rubble and the two groups came face to face. Eastler offered information on the House of Pestilence, and asked the party to help him fake his death in order to escape his contract; by pretending that Eastler had exceeded his duties and attempted to extort the party, they might still be able to enter the House diplomatically. However, the drow were already preparing their defenses, and little time remained to put this scheme into action before their scouts made their way into the tunnels...

The session ended there, with the party hatching a plan with the treacherous wizard. Will they be able to deceive the drow and infiltrate the House of Pestilence, or will it go down in a storm of violence? Find out in the next session!

Takeaways

This party was pretty focused on reaching the House, and as a result missed a bunch of stuff along the way, especially in the Undernesse. Indeed, there is no loot for this session! I wonder if that will continue: the promise of immortality might be enough to get them to give up on treasure. 

I screwed up the combat a little bit: not only were all the players supposed to be mounted, part of the battlefield was a layer of sticky moss which... I totally forgot to apply. Speaking of, the combat was considerably slower than usual, with each round taking around 15 minutes: mind you, there were 15 characters on the player side and several umber hulks opposing them, but I was surprised by how much time was taken up just rolling attacks and damage. Maybe I was feeling the time more keenly than the players were. I expect combat will speed up a lot more once the players get more familiar with their characters and all the options at their fingertips. 

Alas, nobody in this group has read Elric, so everything about Haught Taupik outside of his silly name is going over their heads!

All in all, I feel that the session went well, though I wonder if I was rushing the scene in the Greencloak too much and didn't give enough description or space to act. Though maybe the party wanted to get on with the adventure. It's really striking me how different a game can be depending on the players and the overall attitude of a table: this one is generally jokey and goal driven, not prone to distraction and not too driven to roleplay. I want to run this module again for other groups and see how they interact with it differently. 

AD&D Session 9.5: Stonehenge Showdown

In the last... ish session, the party chased after the anticleric Corby, following his trail to the edge of the Roaming Forest. After making a pact with the wicked spirit of the forest, they delved into that strange otherworld, discovered a diabolic guardian and a portal to a castle suspended above Hell. Making yet more pacts, they received guidance on defeating Corby and rushed, injured and exhausted to meet him. Now standing across from the villain and his protectors, what will they do? Shall they turn tail and run? Shall they fight? Shall they win, or die? Join this week's journey to find out...

The Party

Agatha, human paladin with a smiling-masked samurai helm, played by Anne

Ingvar Duram, human cleric with an extravagant tricorn hat, played by Jackson

Nachman, human mage with an open-faced plain helm, played by Ali

    Sidonius of Willow Creek, very buff fighter

Dany Mossé, human ranger with a spike-and-plumed helm, played by Finn

Sir Hulodrin, and Sir Vertoful, knights of Chamrousse, played by Cao Linh

Casualties

None!

Loot

Map to the Tormentor

Helm of Opposite Alignment (sealed by the church)

The Joyhammer+2

Plate+1

The Game

28 High Summer 1113 (Team Holy)

• The party stood just feet away from Corby and his gnoll minions amid the shadows of the henge. Seeing their enemy right across from them, words did not delay action. 
• The gnolls sprang into action, launching javelins and closing with polearms, but failed to land more than a scratch on the party. Corby prepared a spell, but Dany and Agatha broke past the gnolls and reached him, injuring the anticleric and canceling his spell. 
• Corby retaliated with his magical dancing hammer and healed himself with a potion, but the rest of the party likewise managed to reach him. Nachman smote him with lightning, and even under the gnolls' continued assault, Corby was downed, reaching exactly 0 hit points and knocked out!
• Seeing their leader incapacitated and realizing their enemies were still combat-ready, the gnolls retreated into the woods. 
• The party swiftly trussed Corby up, crushed the oak leaf and returned to the threshold of the Roaming Forest. 

3 Reaping 1113

• They sent a messenger pigeon to Chamrousse, and within three days, and extremely bedraggled church delegation arrived. By that time, Corby was still firmly incapacitated, and with the aid of the prelate, the helm of opposite alignment was removed from his head and secured in a sigil-carven chest. 

Finally!

• Corby, returning to his old self after ten years of evil deeds, was both joyful and distraught. He told them many things about the inner workings of Hell, the various plots of evil, the new hiding place of the Grayl of Good and Bad Destiny, and the plot to awaken the great demon known as the Tormentor... but that must wait for another day...
• The Cascabel campaign is briefly on hold, but during this time I am playtesting the House of Pestilence with my regular group! Expect an update soon. Until then, have an excellent week!

Takeaways

You know, I really thought I had them this time. 

For a while now, I've persistently underestimated what sort of combats are sufficient to challenge my players. I think this is at least in part because two characters have very high exceptional strength, and thus punch well above normal expectations in combat. I figured increased numebrs would do the trick, but the gnolls kept missing! 

I suppose I have to update my expectations and include large numbers of foes, each of which is more powerful individually. This needs some mulling over. 

It's also rather cathartic to have this plot thread from several years ago at least partly resolved. The story of Corby the Joyous now has a happy ending!

AD&D Session 9: Return to Castle Xyntillan

In the last session, the party pulled a fast one on some gnolls with a fake wand, tracked them to their lair, rescued a pair of knights without facing the wicked anticleric Corby, and got a whiff of some odd happenings with their old pal Captain Fen. Now the crusade against Corby's mountain lair has gathered and is prepared to set out. Will the party join this mission? What will come of the stone giants and their forbidden zone? Join this week's journey to find out...

The Party

Agatha, human paladin with a smiling-masked samurai helm, played by Anne

    Sir Hulodrin, knight of Chamrousse

Ingvar Duram, human cleric with an extravagant tricorn hat, played by Jackson

    Sir Vertoful, knight of Chamrousse

Nachman, human mage with an open-faced plain helm, played by Ali

    Sidonius of Willow Creek, very buff fighter

Dany Mossé, human ranger with a spike-and-plumed helm, played by Finn

Casualties

None (yet)

Loot

Golden sickle and bowl, 450gp

1200gp

Golden snuff box, 400gp

Gem-encrusted silver goblet, 1000gp

The Game

17 High Summer 1113 (Team Holy)

• Where last we left off, the party spent a week resting in Chamrousse while Count Claude Malevol gathered a force to assault Corby's hidden lair. At last, joined by the Count's inner circle, two rangers of the Order of the Swan, and two dozen experienced knights, including the recently return Sirs Hulodrin and Vertoful, the party set out into the mountains. 

22 High Summer 1113

• They arrived, weathering unseasonably cold rain and hail, at the illusory mountain spring. The party showed them the way through and the force burst into the grove... but found it deserted. In the deepest part of the lair, they found a rune-convered menhir and golden implements, a scythe and bowl. These, they determined, were the ingredients in a druidic ritual, likely one being perverted to sap the land of vitality. 

Arrest that rock, officer!

• The rangers determined that Corby and his gnolls decamped a couple of days prior, and found the tracks led in many directions. However, Dany found that many were illusions and fakes strewn with shreds of goat fur. The true tracks led northeast, further into the mountains. 
• The assault force disbanded, returning to Chamrousse, but the party, including Hulodrin and Vertoful, determined to follow the tracks and find out where Corby had gone. 

27 High Summer 1113

• They followed the tracks for five days, delving deep into the mountains. As evening came on, they heard a familiar loud stomping, but this time there were many pairs of footfalls. 
• Agatha stepped out to greet the new arrivals: five stone giants dressed in reds and browns, the colors of the Stoneclaw clan. Though wary, the two groups conversed civilly, and the party learned that they were quite close to the Roaming Forest: a mysterious pocket dimension that periodically relocated throughout the region, trapping anyone who crossed its threshold. It first appeared within the last decade, and the Stoneclaw giants, led by their elder Granny Elm-Walker, a powerful druid, had come to make an offering to the Roaming Forest's genius loci to prevent it from approaching closer to their territory. 
• Realizing that Corby and his gnolls must have gone into the Roaming Forest, and showing Granny Elm-Walker the ritual implements from the hidden grove, she became convinced that Corby wanted to slay the spirit of the Roaming Forest and take control of it himself. 
• The giants were not wholly opposed to this: it was an evil and avaricious spirit, but hearing the party's description of Corby, they figured he would be no better a neighbor.
• That night, the two groups camped together. The stone giants allowed the party to join their ritual and confer with the spirit, in exchange for the party bringing Count Malevol to the bargaining table to set up a treaty between the Stoneclaw giants and Chamrousse. 
• It also turned out that Sinead's ex-lover, Kethlîn, was with this group, and Agatha got to hear her side of their (not so) sordid breakup. This had little impact on the wider session, but the players were very enthused. 

28 High Summer 1113

• As midnight fell, Granny Elm-Walker lit the bonfire, buried a pouch of jewels in the earth, and called up the spirit of the Roaming Forest. The flames burned high, and an angular face topped with a crown of thorns and holly appeared in the fire as Granny invoked the spirit of Runcius Malevol. 

WHO SUMMONS THE GREAT AND POWERFUL
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRUNCIUS?

• The party spoke with the druidic spirit, and informed it that the anticleric Corby had entered its domain. To their surprise, the spirit knew Corby, and had a great deal of enmity for him. The spirit confirmed that Corby was within, and declared that it would slay him for his impudence and past offenses. 
• The party was happy to hear that, but still wanted to make sure of this death themselves; in addition, of course, to leaving the Roaming Forest alive. Runcius offered them a deal: he would allow them entry and exit once, and permit them to aid in hunting down and slaying Corby. In exchange, they would spread the name and glory of Runcius Malevol upon their return. The party agreed, and the pact was writ in fire upon oak leaves. 
• So the party walked down the forest path, the intertwining canopy making it as dark as a subterranean tunnel. Then they stepped out into the light: the sun shone high, illuminating the colors of early autumn as they stood in the middle of a great clearing. A flock of sheep grazed nearby and a shepherd dozed under a lonely tree. 
• On closer inspection some of those sheep were literal wolves in sheep's clothing, and the party was certain not all was right within this realm. They determined to get through it and find Corby as swiftly as possible. 
• Along the way, they encountered creepy lawn gnomes, a gazebo (this completely went over the players' heads) and a river that appeared to wind through itself without regard for physics. They despaired of finding anything in this wilderness, until the sun suddenly dipped in the sky and the scent of sulphur filled the air. 
• The party followed the scent to a hermit's cave, a dead end. Within, a hermit in haircloth rags welcomed them... but this hermit was too large, with a strange, bulbous head and the suggestion of metallic wings sprouting from its back. The scent of sulphur was strong here, and the back of the cave was like a muddy shadow obscuring something beyond. 
• This fiend set upon the party, raking Sir Hulodrin with life-draining claws and deflecting Ingvar's spells with a word. Nachman smote it with lightning and Agatha and Dany cut it down, and it turned to foul smoke, promising to see them in Hell. 

• The cave beyond was bare, but the muddy shadow on the far wall intrigued them. The sulphurous scent emanated from it, and, with Agatha leading the way, they stepped through.

????????

• They felt as though they were moving through quicksand, and then all of a sudden thye felt fabric rustling against their faces. They emerged out of black curtains and onto a stage, with a packed audience of skeletons facing them. 
• Luckily, the skeletons didn't animate. They all appeared to have been watching a performance when they were struck dead. Nachman pilfered their valuables, including a golden snuff box from which he took a sniff. Whatever was within was dramatically more potent than expected, and for a few moments he felt that a great weight was lifted from his shoulders... but then it was back, and he was suddenly keenly aware that he was experiencing an acute, subtle pain with every moment he remained in this place. 
• The party left the auditorium, exploring and looting storage chambers and a tap room, all abandoned. Soon, they found a stairway leading up, and followed it.
• As they crested the top of the stairs, they felt an ominous presence behind them, that cried out pitifully, 'I didn't kill them! Not... technically...'They bolted, running far from the stairs and bursting outdoors. 
• A great castle surrounded them, ancient stones under a red sky. A well-cultivated garden of blooming, gigantic thorny roses, sharp-toothed gargoyles, and an ornate banner over two great double doors: THE GREAT DOMAIN OF SERPENTINA. 
• At that moment, sparkling clouds manifested around them and started draining their blood! The battle was over swiftly, but several members of the party were injured. Then the great doors creaked open, and a beautiful, pale woman in an ornate wedding dress stepped out, followed by a swarm of dozens of black cats. As she went over to water the rose garden, Agatha stepped out of hiding to make contact. 
• This woman was Adelaide Malevol, and she was most interested to see a newcomer to the castle. Agatha learned that this was none other than Castle Xyntillan, the same castle which Corby had cast down into hell a decade prior. In reality, it had gotten stuck, sandwiched between the planes, a little slice of nowhere which the Malevol family was unable to leave. 
• When Adelaide learned that Corby was nearby, she grew furious. She too, apparently, had beef with him. She promised to help Agatha hunt him down, if she did a favor for her first. Cautiously, Agatha agreed, and Dany went with her while the rest of the party remained behind to catch their breath. 
• Adelaide led the two deeper into the castle, past a torture chamber, clambering up the side of a crumbling tower, and into a cramped chamber with a crystalline coffin. 
• Within the coffin rested a woman in an elegant gown, like an older, nobler Adelaide. This was her elder sister Aurora Malevol, once among the most powerful members of the family, until she was imprisoned by their uncle, the former Count of Chamrousse, for her defiance. She made a pact with Agatha and Nachman: only one pure of heart could break open the coffin, and both of them qualified (and were very, very strong). If they broke it open, she would aid them in finding Corby and provide them with his weakness. 
• Though conflicted, they agreed. Agatha shattered the coffin, and Aurora awoke, the stench of undeath filling the air. She tore at Adelaide and only narrowly restrained herself from attacking Agatha and Dany. In accordance with the pact, Adelaide summoned the Beast: a hulking wall of fur and muscle in a velvet doublet, crowned with a halo of hellfire: he showed them a vision of what might come to pass: Runcius Malevol and his anti-druids slain, sacrificed upon a altar amid a circle of stones, as Corby took control of the Roaming Forest and used it to cast the castle further into Hell. Along with instructions for reaching that stone circle, they provided an opportunity: Corby received his magical powers from Serpentina, the current ruler of the castle. With Aurora awakened, they had the strength to fight back. During their fight, Corby's magic would be greatly weakened, so if they wanted to fight him head on, he would soon be more vulnerable than ever. Then with a snap of his fingers, the Beast sent the whole party back to the stage. 

Ariccia Sunset, JMW Turner

28 High Summer 1113

• The party emerged from the muddy shadow in the sulphurous cave. Following the Beast's directions, they rushed along forest paths to reach a circle of great moss-covered menhirs. 
• And at the circle, they found Corby, heavily armed and armored and bearing the ram-horned helm of opposite alignment, a dozen gnolls stepping out from behind the menhirs. 
• That was where session ended. The party is greatly weakened, Ingvar wholly out of spells and many are injured. Can they defeat Corby? Will they run and leave the Roaming Forest and the castle to his machinations? Will I have my first real TPK? Join us for next week's session of Cascabel!

Takeaways

This session was, at once, very unexpected and deeply nostalgic. 

For those unaware, the events of this campaign, especially the events of the last few sessions, follow from my Castle Xyntillan campaign back in 2020-21. My current batch of players are dealing with the fallout from the end of that campaign. 

My plan for this session was that the players would find the abandoned grove, loot it, and return to civilization, where I had some hooks waiting for them down the river. Rather foolishly, I did not consider what would happen if the players just decided to leave behind the rest of the force and follow after Corby. 

As a result, the last three quarters of the session was swiftly improvised. I first considered using the Wandering Glade, a module by Melan (the last two dungeons have also been adapted from Melan modules published in Echoes from Fomalhaut, namely Temple of Polyphema and Gorge of the Unmortal Hermit), but right before the players got there I realized that I really, really didn't know what was in there and hadn't read past the opening page. 

At that moment, I realized I was being stupid, because my setting already had a strange, druidic pocket dimension wandering around the surface of this exact region: the Indoornesse from Castle Xyntillan. 

So after rolling up the stone giant encounter and working it into the running plot, I called back my knowledge of Castle Xyntillan to run the invocation of Runcius and exploration of the forest. The metaphysics wound up being important, but luckily I had already thought those through. 

And then the players wound up in the hermitage, the same place where a recently turned-evil Corby was given a suspicious silver coin ten years ago in-game (and almost exactly three years ago in real life, just a day off!). That was the dwelling place of the sinister Father Chlodowig, who had been turned into a Styx Devil. Now, I also knew that this location was a portal to Castle Xyntillan in the original, and so put a sulphur-spewing portal at the back of the cave. 

I did not consider that the players would try to go through it. 

I had to take a few minutes to figure out what to do, and it soon became obvious. The players, entirely by accident, were going to go into Castle Xyntillan. And by even greater coincidence, they wound up making their way up to the western entrance. At that point, I couldn't help but replicate the first encounter with a Malevol my party had, with Adelaide, which occurred in the same location. 

From there, half-remembered strands from three years ago and plans which never same to fruition appeared clear as day. Of course Adelaide would try to use the party to free Aurora. Of course they would rebel against Serpentina. If course this would weaken Corby temporarily. 

By the time they reached him, everyone was eager for a fight and the energy at the table was high. But we also hit our usual stopping point at that exact moment, and I needed some time to prepare that confrontation.

The battle with (or possible flight from) Corby will come at the beginning of the coming session. Whatever comes of it, we will drop this campaign, and start playtesting House of Pestilence. In the event of PC deaths, I expect being able to play new, high level characters will cushion the blow, as we still haven't had any, despite billing this to my players as a deadly game!

I suppose we'll see what happens soon, so expect a Session 9.5 report. Until next time, have an excellent week!

Draft: Simpler AD&D Psionics Rules

Previously on this blog, I've expressed some fascination with the AD&D psionics rules. They're an unintuitive mess, technically playable, but doing so in practice requires automated spreadsheet technology not available in the 1980s. It's a side of the rules that the system seems not to want you to use, and it makes you go through a whole lotta hoops in order to even have psionics in the first place. 

Yet it calls to me. The evocative ability names, the implication of a weirder, sci-fi edge to what has become an ossified fantasy genre, this strange, lopsided addition of a whole new subsystem to characters nearly at random. Even though I haven't used psionics in my AD&D campaign yet, they're deep in the bedrock of my worldbuilding, and the House of Pestilence, which is gearing up for another round of playtesting, has multiple psionic-capable encounters in strict adherence to the AD&D rules. There's even a psionic pregen!

I managed to get through the playtest one shot without having to use the psionics rules, but this next round is going to (hopefully) run through the module from the beginning, so I can't be as confident that this will remain the case. Plus, I'm running this for my home group, which does not have prior AD&D experience, and I'm not prepared to saddle one or more of the players with this subsystem on top of learning how to run high level characters. 

So after dragging my feet for... Jesus, four years... I have to figure out how I'm actually implementing psionics in my campaign. 

So I threw basically all my prior notes and made something up on the spot. Here goes.

So You Want To Be Psionic?

Any character that rolled a 15 or higher (before species or age modification) on any one of Int, Wis, or Cha has a chance to be a psionic. 

If they meet this minimum threshold, they have a 5% chance to be psionic. 

For every point in each ability above 15 (not including 15), add another 5%. Thus, a character with all 18s in Int, Wis, and Cha would have a 50% chance to be psionic. 

 If the percentile roll succeeds, this PC is now psionic. Players may elect to forgo this roll. 

Next, we calculate psionic power and abilities. This section is unchanged from AD&D (not because the rules are good, just because they're not the objectionable parts I prioritize changing). You'll get some amount of psionic points between 1 and 172, probably on the lower end. You will also get some number of minor and major abilities. 

Note: the psionic points are calculated using current ability scores, not those originally rolled. The number of psionic points can thus grow or drop as ability scores change, including thanks to magical effects. A feebleminded psionic isn't going to do much, and a circlet of intelligence is going to help! 

Do not roll for attack and defense modes: these no longer exist. There is, consequently, no longer a distinction between psionic ability and psionic strength. You only have to track one new number. 

A psionic character now has: Their mental ability scores (which already existed), their psionic ability points (the new number) and their minor and major abilities (new toys).  

Citadel Mentalist, by Psycha Durmont

Psionic Conflict

What is psionics, really? I think psionics is the development of an inner world. 

We all have inner worlds. At least, that's a term we use to describe our subjective experiences. For psionics, this is a much more literal expression. 

In my setting, every sentient being is connected to a subjective world, located in the astral realm. The comparatively larger subjectivities of humans and other sapients roll across the astral sea, the foam of which is comprised of the innumerable micro-subjectivities of animals, plants, and even microbes. But even the most creative, intelligent human only has a really, really tiny one: if you were sailing across the astral sea and picked one up, it would be smaller than your fingernail. 

Psionics are the exception. While regular sentiences visit these worlds in their dreams, psionics can do so at will: moreover, they can mold and change them, and expand them. The lifetime work of a psionic is to develop this inner world, transforming an ethereal and ghostly existence into a solid and pliable one. A psionic's ability points are a numeric expression of this world's mass. At will, a psionic can change its appearance and form, spread it out into a landscape or crush it into a dense core, and back again. 

But the key ability of a psionic is to make their inner world influence the outside. Whenever a psionic uses any of their abilities (devotions and sciences, in AD&D parlance), this is what they are doing: they are reshaping their inner world and using it like a tool, to manipulate the outside. 

At the same time, a psionic can interact with the inner worlds of other psionics. This is a great way to learn about another person, but it requires a great deal of trust: it's a two way street. 

Psionic conflict involves one psionic using their subtle, miraculous subjectivity in much the same way they might use an especially sharp rock. By overlapping their worlds, a psionic can:

• destroy another's inner world, by leveraging the inconsistencies and flaws in its construction to tear it apart at the seams
• dominate another's inner world, by forcing it into submission through fear and intimidation
• change another's inner world, by molding it oneself into a form that seems more real

These three modes of interaction are associated with Int, Wis, and Cha respectively. 

A psionic can declare a psychic battle with another psionic at any time. These occur in regular combat rounds, though always on segment 0 regardless of rolled initiative. 

Each round, the psionic may choose to attack with one of their attributes. They must roll 1d20 equal to or under that attribute, and if they succeed, they may deal 1d6 psionic damage to their target. 

Psionic damage can be soaked up on a 5:1 basis by psionic ability points. If I deal 2 psionic damage to you, you lose 10 psionic ability points. These are regained over time, more quickly by resting or meditating, as in AD&D. 

However, if there are no psionic ability points remaining, or if the target has used one of their psionic abilities this round, that damage instead goes directly to the same ability score used to make the attack. If I used Int and dealt 4 points of psychic damage, you lose 4 points of Intelligence. 

If an ability score drops to 3 or lower, the target experiences an effect depending on which method was used:

Intelligence puts the target in a coma for 1d4 hours

Wisdom dominates the target for 1d4 days

Charisma charms the target for 1d4 weeks

If any ability score drops to 0 or lower, the target dies. 

Note that whenever a psionic engages in combat, the target psionic may retaliate as well. Reduction in power points and ability scores occurs at the end of segment 0, and their turns occur simultaneously. 

Psionic Advancement

Each level, the psionic can improve one minor ability by 1 level. Every 2 levels, they can improve one major ability by 1 level. A level 1 psionic can choose one minor ability to start with at first level, and the others are at level 0. 

It should probably be possible to increase psionic power points, but I don't know how to do this yet. 

A psionic can choose to suppress their psionics, becoming, for all intents and purposes, a non-psionic. However, this comes at a cost. So long as their psionics are suppressed, they act as if they are 1 level lower than actual, for all purposes including hit points, class abilities, spells, etc. They can continue to advance, but will always be a level lower than they would otherwise be. 

They can undo the suppression to unleash their abilities and regain their lost level at any time, but the lost level takes a week to come back (though psionics are back online immediately). 

Design Notes

Why did I make things this way?

For one, I want the rules to be simpler, the sort of system you can hold 100% in your head, without needing to reference tiered cross-tables. 

I also want to minimize the number of new mechanics a psionic PC has to deal with. We're adding just one new 'ability score' and a few spell-like abilities, everything else runs through existing mechanics. 

This is super hacky and simple, and yet untested. Some problems with the system as written include:

Why would a psionic not just spam their highest ability score in combat? Wouldn't this get extremely boring very quickly?

Why is damage always 1d6? Is there no way to change this, on either end?

What happens if the relevant ability gets so high they can't miss? Is there no way for a target to resist?

I don't have good answers for these right now. Maybe, since psionic combat occurs in tandem with regular combat, this super-simple system is actually fine and we don't want to make it more complex. Anyway, there's no substitute for playtesting. 

Until next time, have an excellent week. 

AD&D Session 8: Ye Olde Switcheroo

In the last session, the party ventured into the mountains, befriended a lovelorn stone giant, plundered a ruined temple beset by gnolls, and got a lead on the schemes of the anticleric Corby. Now having made a great ruckus in the temple, how will they get away? Will they track down the anticleric, or will they let this opportunity slip out of their grasp? Join this week's journey to find out...

The Party

Agatha, human paladin with a smiling-masked samurai helm, played by Anne

Ingvar Duram, human cleric with an extravagant tricorn hat, played by Jackson

Nachman, human mage with an open-faced plain helm, played by Ali

    Sidonius of Willow Creek, very buff fighter

Dany Mossé, human ranger with a spike-and-plumed helm, played by Finn

Dra'kon Deznitsz, beetlefolk cleric with a spiked, tasseled helmet, played by Felix

Casualties

None

Loot

Ancient grave goods, 375gp

Two brothers-in-arms

Some suspicions

The Game

24 Mid Summer 1113 (Team Holy)

Where last we left off, the party had just acquired the Wand of Circe, but the destruction of the marble statue in which it was hidden created a whole lot of noise. They swiftly climbed back onto the roof, and narrowly avoided detection by a group of gnolls also coming onto the roof. As they snuck away, however, they were discovered by a trio of gnoll guards. 

Putting two and two together, the gnolls realized the party were responsible for slaying their fellows within the temple (but did not yet know the party had found what they were looking for), but were unwilling to fight in that moment, with numbers against them. They instead demanded a weregild of 100gp per dead gnoll. 

The party feigned acceptance, but instead launched a surprise attack, with Dany's great skill in defeating humanoid enemies coming in great help. They tossed the dead gnolls in a nearby hole and scampered off to their camp, split ways with Sinead the stone giant, and made the three day journey back to Chamrousse without gnoll pursuit or dangerous encounters. 

27 Mid Summer 1113

Back at Chamrousse, they decided to hand the Wand of Circe over to Inquisitor Michel for identification and safekeeping. It turned out to be a variant wand of polymorph: it could transform humans into animals or bestial creatures (like gnolls) and vice versa, and could do so for large groups with a single casting, but only until the time of the next new moon. The party speculated that the gnolls, and through them the anticleric Corby, was trying to infiltrate human society. 

Nachman jokingly suggested making a fake wand and planting it in the temple so that the gnolls would leave and lead them back to their lair; this quickly stopped being a joking matter, and with a loaned scroll of Nystul's magic aura from Idred's library, they set out for the temple the next morning, once again arriving without hazard. 

And then we'll switch it out for a fake one!

2 High Summer 1113

Coming back to the temple, they noticed the gnolls had tightened security: there were now more lookouts, including several on the roof. Nevertheless, when nightfall came, Dany was able to take the 'Wand of Circe' (a falsely enchanted willow switch) and hide it just under an existing dig. 

3 High Summer 1113

By noon the next day, one of the gnolls found it, and recognized it as a magical item. Within a handful of hours, the gnolls had packed up and left, carrying a great big chest of loot with them. The party decided to follow a couple of hours after them, and so had a couple hours to burn exploring what remained on the temple. 

They discovered a group of armored skeletons in a sealed, secret room, which Ingvar's turning revealed were animated. The skeletons, being outnumbered and likely outmatched, begged clemency, asking that the party take their grave goods, but not their weapons and armor. 

This led to a lot of discussion about metaphysics and the afterlife, but the party eventually agreed to the skeletons' request, and sealed the room behind them, feeling vaguely guilty about the whole affair. 

5 High Summer 1113

After a rainstorm on the 4th which nearly washed away the tracks (though Dany once again came in handy), the party followed the gnoll party's distinct, muddy trail through a cool, misty day along a tributary river ... and right into the side of a mountain. The tracks seemed to disappear right into the sheer stone right where the river welled up from an underground spring. 

The party debated how to break the suspected illusion, and Agatha cut the debate short by flinging a rock through the illusory cliff. 

On the other side was a tight pass through which the river ran, and beyond that a waterfall and a craggy grove. They passed statues of knights with gemstones for eyes, trapped in horrified expressions, and grew suspicious of the colorful butterflies and verdant garden ahead of them. Ingvar's augury confirmed their suspicions, they decided to instead climb up a steep rock face. They noticed several gnoll corpses in the nearby waterfall, and suspected that the gnolls' master had realized their deception in the short time since they arrived.

What could it be?!

Picking their way through the rocks in the thick mist, the party came across an altar and statue dedicated to the ancient goblin king Agak, who once ground many kingdoms beneath the heel of evil. A nearby cave of forboding appearance was just asking for Ingvar's find traps, and they learned to hail Agak lest a rockfall land on their heads. 

Deep within the cave, following the gnolls fresh tracks, they found a pair of enchanted statues which Ingvar realized would sound an alarm when unauthorized persons passed through. They decided not to call attention to themselves, and instead turned back down a fork. At a dead end, they found a shimmering mirror in which they appeared as grey silhouettes... and yet more silhouettes appeared, not corresponding to any of the party. 

They sought to communicate with the ghostly figures, which denounced the party as demons and tricksters. After some negotiation and presenting their holy symbols, they learned that the two figures were the knights Hulodrin and Vertoful, of Claude Malevol's court at Chamrousse. According to Marshal Boroth, these knights had gone out questing to bring back Corby's head some months before, and then disappeared. 

The party persuaded the knights to step through the mirror, beyond which lay an amnesiac realm of shadows. The pair were haggard and half-starved, but very happy to be back among the living and out of that ghastly trap. Though the knights wanted to storm the cave and take Corby's head, the party urged caution. 

Thus the party, with two new friends, departed the hidden mountain grove, learning all about the deadly garden from the knights, and began their journey back to Chamrousse to make a full report. 

That night, they spotted torchlight on the mountain not far from their camp; unusual for night-hunting gnolls. In fact, these were a group of beetlefolk, led by Septen Broadhsell, whom Ingvar had met back in Stonehell. 

These architect/engineers had quite a tale of woe: they were contracted via the Cobblers' Guild (a politically powerful organization in Cascabel, and a major front for organized crime) to survey this region of the alps and possibly do some demolitions in one area. But once their identified their (metaphorical) quarry, the beetlefolk were set upon by stone giants! These creatures expelled the beetlefolk by force, insisting that it was a 'forbidden zone', and blew up all their stores of smokepowder, along with the rest of their supplies! They had been wandering, hungry and lost, through the mountains since the 27th, a full week. 

7 High Summer 1113

The two groups shared their campfire and some supplies, and continued on their way back to Chamrousse. The party split off to seek out Sinead, whom they found camping beneath the stars. They inquired about the stone giants, and learned that those were Kethlîn's family; her grandmother was a great leader among the druids, and her line had guarded that mountain for centuries stretching out of memory. Underneath that mountain, Sinead was told, an ancient demon named the Tormentor had been trapped in ancient times, and would awaken if its resting place was ever disturbed. 

Hmmm, what could that be?

At first the party thought this was another of the shadowy demons they had encountered in Clifton, with letters and numbers on its body; but Sinead quickly disconfirmed. This was a much different beast, a creature the size of a mountain which tore up the earth with metal hands. 

10 High Summer 1113

The party returned to Chamrousse not long after Septen's group did, and cross-referenced what they knew. The beetlefolk were horrified to learn they had almost awakened a demon, and redoubled their insistence on collecting hazard pay from their employer: according to the Cobblers' Guild contract, this had to be collected from the original employer, not the middleman. 

The party was not happy to learn that the contract bore the name of Dragoon Captain Fen, who had so genially engaged the party to 'befuddle' the Ultraviolet Flame cultists just a few sessions ago. 

After waving the beetlefolk goodbye down the river, the party made their full report to the Count's inner circle. They resolved to gather a crack team of crusaders to scale the mountains and assault the grove. Whether the party wanted to join in or not, they had some downtime while the team got summoned. 

Dra'kon built rapport with Inquisitor Michel, Agatha gained a great local reputation for her generous donations and work feeding the poor, and Ingvar spent time going to the local cathedral and getting into theological arguments with the priests. 

Unexpectedly, a noble popped up a few days in and also got involved in these discussions, and afterwards went out feasting and drinking with Ingvar. This turned out to be none other than Count Claude Malevol, ruler of Chamrousse, who offered Ingvar a boon of his choice, which Ingvar elected to think over. 

17 High Summer 1113

With the party rested and recently leveled (as well as being much, much lighter on coin), and the crusade team formed up, we broke for the week. 

Will the party return to the grove and join the assault? What's going on with Fen and the demon? Join us for next week's session of Cascabel!

Takeaways

The weather tables are working just as I wanted them to: this session we had rain interfering with tracking, and atmospheric mist as they explored the grove. The players were surprised to hear that the latter wasn't a location feature, but a pre-rolled weather event. That, plus the players wound up asking lots of questions and discussing the setting's metaphysics after interacting with the skeletons. There's curiosity about the world and how it affects them, and some respect for it as something existing outside of the players. I really feel that the campaign is starting to come into itself, and I feel really good about this session in general. 

Also, if the exploration of the grove seemed a bit uneventful, that's because I failed to roll a single random encounter. Must have rolled at least ten times, not a single 1 on a d6!

I also feel that the campaign is coming into itself in another way. Thus far, it's been a lot of largely unconnected threads, but now they've begun to cross in largely organic ways (if not for a wilderness encounter, the party wouldn't have met Septen again and learned about this demon business!). Things are looking up, and I feel very vindicated in making this campaign the way I have!

That's all I have for today. Until next time, have a great week!