Savage Eberron III: The Secret of the Forgotten Vault (Part 1 of 2)

This scenario had been brewing for a while as I waited for a gap in our gaming schedule; as a result it went through a number of rewrites as time went on, resulting in enough material for two sessions. Dave had long since returned to the sweeping tundra of Canada by this point, but we were rejoined by Manoj and his half-ogre vuvuzela-toting bard Jon Loger. Returning from last time were Stuart with his duellist Fibulon, Ben with the dwarf artificer Stone McGuffin, and Rick with both his private detective Edie Stone and the halfling dinosaur rider Galaxy Jones. Also returning was Sebastian, although he'd generated his own character this time, a half-orc battering ram called, I think, Asap.

Last time, the team had discovered that the mysterious "Jewel of Galifar" was in fact a young girl who seemed to have been held in a magical stasis for the entire duration of the Last War, and that her name was Jenna ir'Wynarn, which would make her a member of the pre-War royal family, perhaps even the heir to the throne of a united Galifar.

Jenna could remember nothing more than her name, but this name did not appear in the historical record, nor was there any known reference to a sixth child of the ir'Wynarn dynasty. Determined to find out more, the group got in touch with an academic at Sharn's Morgrave University, who promised to research the matter if they would track down the last resting place of a notable figure from the Last War.

The session began with the player-characters having found said resting place, and discovering that the Butcher of Breland was not quite as dead as was thought. I was hoping to start the session with a bang, but Asap waded in and took out the undead monster with one swing of his blade. To be fair, while the Butcher was powerful, I didn't want to kill the party off in the first scene, so he was only an Extra; even so, I was not prepared for quite how combat-tuned the half-orc was, although this specialisation would come back to haunt him later on.

After this brief warm up, the team returned to Sharn with the remains, and in return the professor told them that while he could find no record of Jenna ir'Wynarn in any historical document, he did find a reference to the iron casket in which she was found, in the journal of a servant of the ir'Wynarn household. The journal did not go into much detail, but it did suggest that the casket was due to be taken to a "Vault 13", with the number written as a dwarven rune.

They suspected that this was a reference to one of the vaults owned by the dwarven banking guilds of the Mror Holds, in particular the dragonmarked House Kundarak.

As narrative convenience would have it, the Bank of Kundarak in Sharn was due to host a dinner party for prospective new customers, so the party pulled some strings to get on the invite list. Their plan was to see if -- with the wine flowing -- they could get some information from Kundarak's employees and if not, take advantage of the distraction of the party in order to sneak about and look for clues.

I came up with a little mini-game to handle this, based around an alert level that would rise or fall depending on how stealthy characters were, whether the party-goers managed to cover for the absence of those sneaking around, and so on. I made counters with little Metal Gear Solid exclamation points on them and everything.

It didn't work very well, in part because I had expected that only one or two of the group would leave the dinner party to skulk about, only for the whole lot of them to tramp around; Jon even blasted his vuvuzela a couple of times as "a distraction", so they were anything but stealthy. In all fairness though, the mechanics of the mini-game weren't very rigorous either, so I can't really blame the players for breaking something which didn't work in the first place.

Although it was a bit of a disaster from my perspective, the team did manage to get the information they needed, learning that Vault 13 did exist, but was emptied in the year 867. The official House Kundarak story was that the vault was destroyed by the Jhorash'tar -- an indigenous orc revolutionary group -- so the team decided to follow that lead. They found a bar for Jhorash'tar sympathisers in one of the more middle class areas of Sharn and started asking the orcs inside about the group, only to discover that the local contact was an elf. I thought this was a bit of a corny double-bluff when I wrote it, but they did all seem generally surprised.

Their discussions were interrupted by a raid by the Sharn city watch, who seemed to be looking for the mysterious elf. The group decided to help him escape, getting into a brawl with the guards and subduing them without loss of life. In return, the elf promised to put them in touch with the Jhorash'tar; he gave them an unusual blue stone and told them to go to Krona Peak in the Mror Holds in a week and look for a person holding an identical stone, who would then take them to the Jhorash'tar.

We ended the first session there, not quite on a cliffhanger, but good enough. I was quite disheartened by the first session, as it didn't seem very exciting, the players seemed distracted and the stealth sub-system crashed and burned. To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to running the second half at all.

Part two is here.

Half-Term Blood Bath

Stuart at The Great Game likes to run a gaming day every so often during the half-term holidays; it's a canny way of keeping his kids entertained without him having to do all the heavy lifting, and he gets to get in some quality gaming at the same time. I tend to miss these days, as although I work in education I don't get the half-term break, but it happened to match up with a day off I already had booked, so the Stars Were Right.

The day began with a scenario from the Warhammer campaign Blood Bath at Orc's Drift, from back in the day when Warhammer had narrative campaigns, although we played it using the more modern The Lord of the Rings rules. I had no experience of these rules, as they were introduced long after I left the Games Workshop Hobby for more inexpensive pursuits, like polonium-210 trading, but the game was very easy to pick up and play and seemed to me to be a more streamlined and elegant version of the Warhammer ruleset, so I'm keen to play another episode of the campaign.

My side won the battle, slaughtering the elven garrison to a man, er, elf, aside from one pointy-eared coward who fled into the forests where my orcs could not follow. In fairness, Stuart's young son handled the opposing forces on his own, while I had both a larger force and a co-general -- although Ben surprised us all with the revelation that he'd never played a tabletop wargame in all his many years of gaming! -- and the scenario was weighted in our favour.

Oh, and we also had a giant.

After a lunch break, Stuart's son ran a bonkers freeform sandbox type of thing which -- despite using the Pathfinder rules -- felt much more old-school. We had a great deal of freedom, and the game seemed heavy on random tables and on-the-spot adjudications, all of which was a great deal of fun and felt very liberating. We did wonder later on whether it was worth using Pathfinder at all if we were going to ignore most of the rules, a subject with which I've struggled before, but the GM didn't seem to have any problem with it and ran a very fine game, so that's probably our answer.

While I enjoyed the Pathfinder game, the highlight for me was the Lord of the Warhammerings battle, which reminded me of how much I enjoyed playing tabletop wargames before I was priced out of the hobby. I'm half-tempted to buy a box of orcs, you know, just for old time's sake.

The Ministry of Blades : The Madness of Angels, episode 5

Prentiss flattens a steward; Curruthers shoulders the load.

Played

3rd February 2011.

Dramatis Personae

Lady Antonia deVore - a Heavily-armed Aristocrat (player not present).
Captain Benson Curruthers - a Military Policeman.
Doctor Zephaniah Pleasant - a Sinister Surgeon.
Miss April Sharpe - a Self-taught Inventor.
Jack Prentiss - a Dodgy Pedestrian.
Mr Erasmus Rooke - the Boss.
Henderson - a Dedicated Cryptologist.
The Chief Verger of St Paul's Cathedral.
Several Members of Staff at the Capitoline Club.
Lewis - an Unsuccessful Burglar.

Plot

Following their rebuff by the President of the Capitoline Club, Captain Curruthers and Prentiss determined to enter the premises by other means, opting for the hitherto-unheard-of disguise of workmen making a delivery. Acquiring some work clothes from a nearby shop, along with a long crate, they returned to the rear entrance to the Club. Knocking on the door, they informed the steward who opened it that they had a delivery for the Very Reverend Greenfield. When the confused young man disappeared off to confirm this, they sidled in and, using the crate as a cover, headed towards the front of the building. Finding their way up to the first floor (lounges and games rooms) and then the second (bedrooms), they were caught trying door handles by one of the stewards. Their attempt to explain that they were trying to make a personal delivery was justly ignored as they were ordered back downstairs. Prentiss lost interest and knocked him out. They dumped the unfortunate man in one of the bedrooms they’d discovered, taking his keys, but further explorations proved pointless as they were unable to discover anything new.

Curruthers and Prentiss returned to the Ministry just as Miss Sharpe and Dr Pleasant returned from their own excursion. Meeting with Lady Antonia, they found she had continued her research and had turned up some interesting information concerning Wren’s interest in sacred geometry, although it seemed he was less interested in using it for power, more as an architectural aid. They discussed the day’s discoveries and learnt of the collapse of another Wren church, before being interrupted by the somewhat manic appearance of Henderson, waving some paper about. It transpired that he had decoded some of Greenfield’s notebook, having solved a kind of enciphered shorthand. He had broken his usual habit of waiting until he had finished the whole job before reporting the results, realising that this was quite urgent. Looking at the most recent entries first, he had discovered that Greenfield had been suspicious of the activities of one Dr Jacob Sorenson, the Head Choirmaster, who had been appointed about six months earlier. While Dr Sorenson had acquitted his duties as Choirmaster admirably, he had also taken a very intense interest in the structure and history of the building. He was forever being encountered in obscure corners of the galleries, taking rubbings or drawing sketches; once or twice, he was found knocking on wooden panels and listening to the echoes. He did nothing that was actually inappropriate, at least by the [INDECIPHERABLE]'s standards, and Greenfield had been advised to wait and watch by his colleague 'ER', but then his name turned up authorising a docket for work on the walls: Greenfield had been a bit bemused by this, as that should have been the Verger's responsibility. The last entry in the diary mentioned his plan to investigate the site of the works after the masons had gone home to see if there was anything odd about them.

The team now realised that Greenfield had merely discovered the plot, not instigated it.

With time ticking on to their appointment with the employer of Lewis, they collected the luckless criminal from his cell and headed for the indicated tavern. Upon entering, they seated themselves around the lounge so as to have all fields of view covered. Curruthers then became aware that a familiar figure was trying to catch his attention from an inner doorway: it was Erasmus Rooke. Bringing them all into the private room, he paid off Lewis and sent him home. Sitting down, he explained that he had been the one that hired the burglar. Rooke and Greenfield, it appeared, were both members of a group dedicated to keeping the world safe from supernatural dangers, although Rooke refused to give any more information on this. Realising that Curruthers’ investigation would lead him to search the Dean’s home, and believing that the regalia associated with the organisation would cause an unnecessary and pointless diversion, he had arranged to remove them. Unfortunately, Lewis had been caught before he could finish the job, instigating the very situation his employer had been trying to avoid. With the most recent reports from the team indicating the scale of the situation, Rooke had decided to reveal what he knew. Between his information and what the team had discovered, they figured out the story.

It appeared that Sorenson had realised that an archangel was bound to the cathedral, in order to prevent its elaborate structure from collapsing. That archangel was also lending its strength to the rest of Wren’s London churches. Over two centuries of captivity, however, the archangel had become somewhat insane and was trying to escape. Sorenson wanted to release it and bind it to his own service, which would both collapse the churches and give him great power - assuming the archangel didn’t break free and lay waste to London first.

The team decided it was time to track down Sorenson. Heading immediately for the Cathedral, they contacted the Chief Verger, discovering that Sorenson had vanished the day the Dean died. Obtaining his home address, they gained entry to the premises, finding that they had been deserted. Curruthers did discover a map, with a crude pentagram drawn out on it, centred on Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

Suspecting trouble, they gathered weapons and headed for Holborn becoming aware of choral singing as they arrived. Venturing into the park, they saw torchlight at the bandstand, which was surrounded by choirboys, while two hooded figures were chanting in the bandstand itself.

Finding their lines of fire obstructed by apparently innocent choirboys, the team closed for hand-to-hand combat. Pleasant did his best to put the choirboys, who appeared to be possessed, out of the fight bloodlessly, while Prentiss found himself engaged in a fistfight with the larger of the two hooded figures. Curruthers brought down the chanting Sorenson with a double shotgun blast, in spite of his magical protection, but it was too late, as a misty figure began to form over the carved stone block at the centre of the ritual. Miss Sharpe’s orgonator now became useful as it wore down the spirit’s still coalescing physical form, allowing Curruthers to disperse it with a final blast from his firearm.

With the choirboys apparently safe and both villains under control, the team returned to headquarters with the stone, apparently the focus for the spirit’s bindings. The heroes passed on responsibility for the stone to Rooke who ultimately returned it to the church, in order to shore up the cathedral until it could be strengthened physically.

Notes

This episode started out fairly rushed, as I had promised to finish the whole thing this week. This meant that a number of investigations had to be completed in quick succession and I was worried it wouldn't be possible. Luckily, despite the vast amounts of exposition, the players put the details together very quickly. The final fight was nice and quick.

Next time, my investigative plots will be better planned: I'd got so far with this one, then dropped the ball, having to play catch-up. Given that the original idea was to not railroad the players, it came dangerously close towards the end.

The Ministry of Blades : The Madness of Angels, episode 4

April spies a spirit; Dr Pleasant meets an eccentric.

Played

27^th January 2011.

Dramatis Personae

Lady Antonia deVore - a Heavily-armed Aristocrat.
Captain Benson Curruthers - a Military Policeman.
Doctor Zephaniah Pleasant - a Sinister Surgeon.
Miss April Sharpe - a Self-taught Inventor.
Jack Prentiss - a Dodgy Pedestrian.
Mr Erasmus Rooke - the Boss.
Sir Colin Mortimer - an Eccentric Architect.
Henderson - a Dedicated Cryptologist.
Lord Abergavenny - an Irritable Noble.
William Body - a Timid Workman.
Charlie Body - another Timid Workman.
The Chief Verger of St Paul's Cathedral.
The Distraught Vicar of St Ninian's Church.
Several Members of Staff at the Capitoline Club.
Lewis - an Unsuccessful Burglar.
The Corpse of Martin Geffey.
A Young Constable.
Two Athletic Bobbies.

Plot

Following the examination of Martin Geffey’s body, the heroes reassembled at the Ministry. It was late, but before turning in for the night, Curruthers wrote out his report of the day’s events, while Lady Antonia and Dr Pleasant both made attempts to decipher some of the Dean’s books.

The following morning, Curruthers led the charge to the breakfast table where news was spreading of the sudden collapses of St Ninian’s and St Colstan’s churches in North and South East London, respectively. Rumours were also circulating of paranormal events at the Cathedral. Accordingly, they decided to pay a visit to St Paul’s, pausing to deliver Greenfield’s enciphered diary to Mr Henderson, a somewhat unusual, but very talented, individual.

Arriving, they found the building empty, with staff, worshippers and onlookers surrounding it in a big circle. They were hailed by the Chief Verger, who explained about strange figures in the aisles, mysterious shrieks and whispering in the galleries and odd lights under the dome. They decided to enter and, despite their efforts to avoid notice, were cheered on by the crowds.

As they entered, they became aware that the building was much darker than it should have been. It was also cold and, as they left the porch, the main door shut with a loud bang. Prentiss and Miss Sharpe were somewhat shaken by this, but decided to press on. They were greeted by odd noises, but were unable to trace the source and, advancing to the space under the dome, they caught a glimpse of a faint figure just beyond the range of their torchlight. Miss Sharpe turned on her Detecteronatron and saw a demonic face screaming in the smoke, bearing a similarity to the face she had seen the morning before in the roof. They became aware of a shaking in the floor and dust began to fall from the arches. A brief attempt to investigate the upper levels was thwarted by the sudden appearance of a huge crack across the floor and they decided discretion was the greater part of valour, resisting the urge to flee outright as a sudden cackling emanated from the air around them.

As they emerged from the South Door, they were hailed by the Chief Verger, who immediately introduced them to the Bodys. The workmen had finally emerged from hiding and were desperate to relate their tale of uncovering a stone block bearing a carving of a Green Man. Not long afterwards, a number of odd events had occurred, culminating in the appearance of a ghostly figure in the cavity within the wall. They had fled, although Geffey had attempted to face down the entity before chasing after them. They had seen him collapse in the alley behind them and had assumed he’d been attacked and killed, hence their hiding.

Returning to the Ministry, Curruthers sought out Mr Rooke, asking him about the Capitoline Club. Rooke expanded a little on the establishment, explaining its status as a gentleman’s club, and told him that his Ministry status wouldn’t get him in. Curruthers and Prentiss decided to try anyway and, after briefly calling in on Henderson and getting the impression he did not want to be disturbed, they headed for Kensington. They were invited into the lobby and were shown to a side room, where they were met by the President of the Club, a curmudgeonly noble known as Lord Abergavenny. He flatly refused to help them, so they left, circling around to the rear of the building, where they debated forcing an entry.

The other three heroes opted for library research. After a brief and unsuccessful investigation of possible rituals that might prevent the collapse of St Paul’s, Pleasant joined Miss Sharpe in examining the history of Green Man carvings. They discovered that they were common in medieval churches and were apparently placed by professional masons. Theories connected them to a pagan underground and they may have had some ritual purpose: either protecting the building from vengeful local spirits or possibly binding the church with the power of those same spirits. Interestingly, they discovered that Christopher Wren flatly refused to include such carvings in any of his buildings, regarding them as pagan abominations (a not uncommon opinion in the aftermath of the Commonwealth). Lady Antonia investigated Wren’s career and the building of the cathedral, unearthing his connections to Isaac Newton and to a more mystical intellectual tradition.

Miss Sharpe and Pleasant then visited the site of the collapse of St Ninian’s, one of Wren’s other London churches. Talking to the vicar, they found out that the building had no history of instability, but were then approached by a somewhat crazed individual who informed them that Wren had been up to no good, using “occult practices” to shore up impractical designs. Despite his introducing himself as Sir Colin Mortimer of the Imperial Institute of Architects, Pleasant dismissed him as “odd”.

Notes

This game was a lot of fun from my point of view, despite the lack of actual action. For some reason, I was finally able to over-emphasise the peculiarities of some of the NPC’s (Mortimer and Henderson especially), which seemed to go down well. I intend to try this more often, it’s frequently offered as a way to make sessions more memorable.

On the downside I didn’t get as far through the investigation as I would have liked. This led to some compromises in the effort to finish the story the next week.

The Ministry of Blades : The Madness of Angels, episode 3

Dr Pleasant shows his power; Prentiss is nearly brought down by a garden implement.

Played

13^th January 2011.

Dramatis Personae

Lady Antonia deVore - a Heavily-armed Aristocrat *.
Captain Benson Curruthers - a Military Policeman.
Doctor Zephaniah Pleasant - a Sinister Surgeon.
Miss April Sharpe - a Self-taught Inventor.
Jack Prentiss - a Dodgy Pedestrian.
Rodney Marsh - a Partially-reformed Thief *.
Lewis - an Unsuccessful Burglar.
The Corpse of Martin Geffey.
A Young Constable.
Two Athletic Bobbies.

Plot

Prentiss was running as soon as his feet hit the path, chasing after the burglar he had seen dropping past the study window. Unfortunately, it was dark in the yard and an unseen rake nearly knocked him out. The thief took the opportunity to try and climb over the back wall, but his initial leap fell short, squandering his advantage.

Curruthers, having ascertained that the thief was being chased, headed for the front door, intending to cut the villain off at the end of the alley. Dr Pleasant and Miss Sharpe followed, leaving Lady Antonia to keep an eye on the study. That they might not pick the right end of the alley did not occur to them.

Hitting the ground on the far side of the wall, Prentiss doggedly renewed his pursuit, catching the burglar in a bear hug after he skidded in a puddle. Curruthers and his team appeared at the nearest end of the alley, having made the right decision, just as the thief broke loose, sprinting in the other direction. Pleasant reacted immediately, calling on Malphas, the Tower Builder, to intervene: a burst of blue light and an accompanying thunderclap nearly stunned the villain, but he shook it off and ran on. Curruthers calmly put a bullet in his shoulder, slowing him down enough for Prentiss to catch him again.

The team assembled and examined their captive: a shabby looking little man with oddly rodent-like features. They found themselves reminded of Marsh, although this was definitely not him. Attempting to get some information out of him, Curruthers attempted to persuade them that things would go better if he talked. All the while, Prentiss loomed over them in an intimidating manner, although this was compromised somewhat as Dr Pleasant attended to his developing black eye, muttering about tasks that were “beneath him”. Eventually, offered a deal, the criminal, Lewis, admitted to being hired by a mysterious figure. He had broken into the house to steal several specific objects and had been permitted to take anything else he wanted in order to muddy the picture.

He produced a bag from under his coat and revealed a number of odd objects: two sets of elaborate black robes, an elaborate chain of office (although not for any recognisable organisation), a private journal. He also had jewellery and other items of value. He was supposed to locate a small silver key, but had been unable to find it.

Extracting the location of the pub where Lewis had met his patron and where he was due to hand over the loot, the team headed back towards the West End. As they passed the Cathedral, they were accosted by a constable, who informed them that they’d found the body of Martin Geffey. Pleasant and April went with him while the others took Lewis on to the Ministry. The body lay in an alley near St Paul’s, at the end of an increasingly wild set of tracks, as though he had stumbled the final steps. Like the good Dean, it bore an expression of terror. Pleasant rapidly came to the conclusion he had died of a seizure, probably brought on by fear. Miss Sharpe used her Detecteronatron, to hunt for spirits, but was unsuccessful.

As the pair returned to the Ministry, they caught a glimpse of Marsh. As they attempted to hail him, they heard whistles and the pounding of heavy boots. Looking wildly around him, Marsh fled into the fog!

Notes

This was the first time I had attempted to use the chase system, widely touted as one of Savage Worlds’ more useful features. It was a little confusing at first, as the whole thing is written in terms of car chases, even though it was explicitly for foot chases as well. I found myself having to decide exactly what “Seriously Out of Control” meant for a pedestrian (stumbling) and exactly how climbing a wall might affect proceedings. I’m still not sure the system reflected Prentiss’ superior pace well enough or the effect of attacking while running, but it’s another system that will benefit from practice. Next time, there will definitely be more obstacles!

Had Marsh been present, he would have recognised Lewis as a former associate and probably have gotten more information out of him. As it was, it was largely irrelevant.

(* - player not present.)

The Ministry of Blades : A Frosty Reception at the Ministry (an Untold Tale of the Ministry)

April blows up a door; Antonia kills a chair

Played

16^th December 2010.

Dramatis Personae

Lady Antonia deVore - a Heavily-armed Aristocrat.
Captain Benson Curruthers - a Military Policeman.
Miss April Sharpe - a Self-taught Inventor.
Jack Prentiss - a Dodgy Pedestrian.
A Bad-tempered Norwegian Sprite.
Assorted Notables and Minions of the Ministry.

Plot

It had been a warm, wet winter and it was particularly foggy as the team returned to the Ministry on Christmas Eve. Delayed by the wrap-up for a persistent case, they were anxious to get back into the warmth, where the annual Christmas Dinner was being held. They were somewhat bemused to discover the building dark and locked-up.

Trying the front door, they became aware that it was much colder than the outside air. It was locked. The windows were dark and, on close examination, seemed to be frosted on the inside. Finding the main gates to the yard locked as well, the team ventured to the alley behind the building with the intention of climbing over the wall. The yard itself seemed fine, if quiet, and the horses in the stables were wrapped up warm against the cold. Checking the carriages and other equipment, they uncovered some warm clothing and blankets and, assuming the cold extended throughout the building, undertook appropriate preparations.

The back door was locked, but Prentiss had little difficulty forcing it open, letting the group into the kitchen. The room had been abandoned, although half-prepared food lay on the tables. The oven was cold and there was no sign of the staff. Everything was covered in frost. Choosing a door at random (this not being an area any of them were familiar with), they ventured into the central lobby of the building. Everything was covered in a thin layer of ice and the carpet crunched underfoot. The gas lights were turned on, but no gas issued from the tubes and they were cold and dark.

Curruthers took the lead as they headed for the main staircase to the first floor and was the first to be attacked by the zombies. Prentiss, at the rear, found more and battle broke out. The walking dead were frozen solid and difficult to damage, but tended to shatter when a solid hit was made. Making short work of the corpses, one of which was recognizable as the werewolf they killed in Highgate Cemetery, they reached the balcony. The ice was thicker here, coating the doors, walls and other woodwork. It was several inches thick on the doors to the Library and Council Chambers, which is where the dinner was to be held.

Deciding they needed heavier tools, they headed for the basement stores, getting distracted momentarily by the possibility of getting gunpowder from the armoury. Unfortunately, the doors were too well secured, so they fell back on the original plan of making use of picks and hammers.

Returning to the Library door, they set to work. Prentiss smashed a lot of ice off the door, fatiguing himself, but allowing them entry. The ice inside was thicker towards the door of the Council Chamber, but nothing could be heard. They spent some time examining the room for signs of summoning or of other dodgy books, but it seemed Madame Delgal had been tidying with her usual efficiency.

They began taking turns hacking at the Chamber door. After a couple of attempts, a head formed from the ice and, after giving them all a disdainful look, told them to stop making so much noise and go away. Further attempts to remove the ice resulted in the arrival of a four-foot tall figure of ice, which they smashed. This was followed by a series of lethal eruptions of ice shards. Dodging the bursts, they managed to remove a panel of the door and Prentiss packed it with black powder from his blunderbuss. Miss Sharpe then ignited the powder with a blast from her gun, blowing the door off its hinges.

Inside, they found the rest of the staff frozen at the table and covered in thick ice. While they stared at the scene, Miss Sharpe used her detecteronatron to locate a spirit sitting in a frozen chair watching them. She pointed it out to the others and large chunks of ice began to fall from the ceiling, narrowly missing several of the heroes, as Lady Antonia unloaded her LeMats at the chair. While the chair was completely demolished, the spirit appeared to be completely unaffected; worse, it was audibly cackling at them!

While various weapons discharged around him, Curruthers looked for the thickest concentration of ice, spotting it on the specially-imported Norwegian Spruce. Assuming a connection, he led the others in launching a hail of fire at it, eventually resulting in its destruction. The spirit promptly dissipated and the ice began to sublimate into the air.

Sensing an opportunity, the heroes started to decorate the frozen staff in a comical fashion, intending to blame the spirit when they woke up…

Notes

As a mostly-improvised session (I had a basic idea of the plot, plus a rough idea of the layout of the building), this worked very well. I hadn’t planned how they would defeat the spirit, but I love the solution they came up with and just ran with it.

This is the first time I’d ever run a seasonal special and, although Christmas is particularly important in a Victorian setting, I didn’t want to fall into the usual cliché of the Christmas Carol rip-off. If it’s not clear, the spirit was the Scandinavian equivalent of a dryad, connected to the imported Christmas tree; it wasn’t happy with the noise and heat and decided to freeze all involved.

One thing I discovered with this game is that sometimes miniatures are very important, even in simple fights. Confusion rained during the fight with the zombies as to who was where and next to whom…

Savage Eberron II: The Jewel of Galifar

Last summer, my regular group decided to devote a weekend to gaming. The event came to be kown as "BenCon", because who can turn down a good -- or bad -- pun? Over the two days, we played a big game of Twilight Imperium, were introduced to the wonderful Cold City, and got in a couple of sessions of Savage Worlds, one of which was my experimental mash up of that pulp-flavoured ruleset with the pulp-flavoured setting of Eberron. While the two seemed to work well together in terms of tone, I wasn't satisfied with how the game went.

As it became clear that our schedules would align to enable another gaming day, we decided to have a Winter BenCon during the Christmas break. This slipped back as real life got in the way, but we managed to organise one solid day of gaming to take place in the new year, and three games were arranged: Stuart was set to run a RuneQuest scenario using Mongoose's samurai sourcebook, and I'm sure he'll be reporting on that soon enough, while Dave was going to run us through a Trail of Cthulhu investigation, and I had planned a sequel to the earlier Savage Eberron adventure. As it turned out, Dave had decided to move back to Vancouver and so was neck deep in packing, unable to devote time to preparing a game; as a result, the schedule for the day was curtailed and became a simple double bill.

My scenario was a loose sequel to the earlier game, not a direct continuation but a new adventure featuring the same player-characters, although the format did allow for new characters. As such, we welcomed Galaxy Jones, a halfling dinosaur rider with the personality of a Blaxploitation character, complete with afro hairstyle and leopard-skin coat. Galaxy turned out to be something of a glass cannon, dealing out massive damage from the back of his mount, Shep, but proving to be quite fragile when unseated. Stuart developed Fibulon, a professional duellist, and passed his previous character, warforged soldier Tactica-206, to his son Sebastian. Aside from Tactica-206, also returning from the previous episode were Dave's half-elf bushwhacker Kawa, and Ben's deaf dwarf artificer Stones McGuffin, while Manoj was unable to attend due to illness, so his half-ogre vuvuzela-toting bard stayed at home.

The party had been hired by a self-titled "collector of curiosities" named Jobar Lenskin, who had heard rumours of an item called the "Jewel of Galifar". This was a treasure of which he'd heard nothing before, and his regular sources and contacts were also baffled, all of which made him want this Jewel even more. As such, he tasked the player-characters with finding out more about the item and if possible to retrieve it for his collection. The characters followed their leads to the gnomish nation of Zilargo, and the canal-crossed city of Trolanport. There, they headed to the home of a local businessman named Arno Salvatore, as they'd heard that he might know more about the Jewel.

The game began with the player-characters in a boat outside Salvatore's front door. They knocked and, receiving no answer but hearing the sounds of someone running within, broke the door down. Inside was a courtyard with what looked like some disused boats covered with tarpaulin, and steps heading to an upper level on which could be seen an open door. The team went for the stairs, only for the tarpaulin to be flung aside, revealing a huge warforged with four spider-like legs and massive stone axes instead of hands. A short fight ensued -- despite its high stats, the warforged was an Extra and required only two hits to incapacitate -- and the party rushed upstairs to find a small library on fire and a tall, athletic man standing by the window. He smiled at them, gave a mock salute, then leaped out the window, across the canal outside, and on to the roof of the building opposite.

I had designed a fun parkour-like chase across the rooftops which would then evolve into an elemental speedboat chase along the canals of the city. What in fact happened was that every single character who attempted the jump made it with ease, and they caught up with their quarry in short order. A quick tussle on the roof ensued, but with no way out, the man surrendered, and the complex map I'd drawn out on the tabletop went unused. Sigh. During the brawl a crowd had gathered in the piazza below and Kawa decided to pose as a member of the Trust -- Zilargo's secret police agency -- in an attempt to explain the party's unusual behaviour.

Dragging their captive -- who claimed to be Arno Salvatore -- back to the house, the player-characters went through the documents he had attempted to destroy, and also had a go at interrogating the man himself. He proved resilient, and it seemed as if he was more frightened of someone else than he was of the characters, but they did manage to find out that while he did have the Jewel at one point, he had passed it on to his associates, who had either taken it to, or were based at, a location in the forests to the south of Trolanport. It was also implied that he did not know what the Jewel was, as it was sealed inside some kind of container.

Dave then attempted to derail the adventure further when an agent of the Trust came snooping around and his character Kawa decided to not only threaten said agent, but knock off his impressive stovepipe hat to punctuate said threat. The players were convinced to allow the agent to speak to Salvatore, and although the captive attempted to paint the player-characters as villains, the gnome seemed to know that not all was as it seemed. He indicated that he had some previous connection to the characters' colleague Eddie Stone -- Rick's character in the previous game, a changeling private eye with a shady past -- which was enough to save their lives, but that they should leave town if they valued their ongoing health. A couple of the party members had spotted evidence of what might have been snipers surrounding their current position, so the group decided that the gnome's advice was sound, and leaving Salvatore in his custody, they headed to the docks and boarded a ship heading south.

A day or so later, the characters were dropped off at a nondescript stretch of coastline and headed into the forest. After a while they found the tracks of a group of humanoid travellers and followed them until they picked up the sounds of loud voices talking in the goblin tongue; McGuffin knew a little bit of the language and thought that the goblinoids seemed to be drinking and having a laugh, and were not on high alert. There was some brief discussion on whether or not to rush the camp, but in the end the party decided that the goblinoids were not an immediate threat and that since their own destination was in a different direction, a fight would be an unnecessary diversion at that point.

The trees began to thin out and ahead of them, across a stretch of featureless terrain, was a small two-tier fortification. It appeared to be a remnant of the old hobgoblin empire and despite being thousands of years old, was still in fair condition; McGuffin assured the rest of the group that no goblinoiod structure could possibly last so long and that dwarves must have had a hand in its creation, but it sounded to them like the typical ravings of a Hobgoblin Denialist. The player-characters didn't think running across all that open ground in broad daylight was a good idea, so sat down in the cover of the treeline to observe the tower, picking out a number of green-clad guards patrolling the battlements.

Night fell and a rain storm swept in from the coast, all of which was deemed enough cover to make a move on the tower. Galaxy and his dinosaur went first and made it to the outer wall of the fortification, then the woodsman Kawa followed, but something about his approach alerted a guard and a crossbow bolt flew out of the darkness, striking the half-elf and bringing him to the ground. At this, the rest of the party abandoned stealth and charged up to the walls.

The outer walls were ruined in places, allowing easy access into the yard within, where the team discovered a group of guards -- I described these as wearing green ninja-like pyjamas, because a horde of ninjas is almost as good as a bunch of Nazis when you're running a pulp game -- and a handful of snipers atop the battlements of the tower itself. The party tore through their opponents -- as expected, as they were Extras -- with Galaxy Jones and Shep proving quite deadly, and gained entrance into the tower. More of the green-clad warriors were stationed on the stairs and landings within, and so began a running battle up to the roof, with only a brief pause to block the door to the battlements, trapping the snipers outside in the storm.

Up on the roof, the party encountered more of the warriors, as well as one who wore a carved metal facemask instead of the cloth masks of his followers, and who stood alongside an iron casket covered with runes and decorative carvings. By this time, the rain had become torrential, and in a bit of an old-school touch, I threw in a bit of randomness by declaring that when the four of clubs was drawn from the initiative deck, a bolt of lightning would strike the tower, centred on the character of the player who'd drawn the card. I did not expect this to come up much, if at all, but it happened four or five times during the battle. Apparently, it was quite the storm.

This became something of an epic confrontation, with bennies being spent left, right and centre, and the player-characters' luck failing them at key moments. Highlights included Kawa's knockdown brawl with a bog-standard mook, a fight which lasted the entire length of the battle and beyond; the arrival of a manticore just as the player-characters thought they might have the upper hand; and Fibulon sliding along the rain-slicked stones of the roof, between the legs of the combatants surrounding the casket, tripping up the leader, and just catching himself on the edge by one hand. In response, the masked figure used the Havoc spell -- from the Fantasy Companion -- to knock the player-chracters around and send the duellist over the edge. Fibulon survived the fall, landing on the lower battlements, right behind the snipers the party had left trapped there! There was a brief moment of uncertainty as Fibulon and the surprised crossbowmen eyed each other, then the duellist leaped off the lower battlements -- again suffering no damage -- and began his ascent back up to the fight above.

Reaching the roof, Fibulon got his revenge on the masked mage by running him through, but the manticore battled on, as did the nameless minion tussling with Kawa and, by this point, Stones McGuffin. Fearing defeat, the player-characters changed tack and got the casket off the roof and down the stairs; the manticore, too large to follow, took flight and disappeared into the thick cloud cover, while the lone henchman dodged through a number of attacks to follow the casket. He would likely have followed the party all the way home had Tactica-206 not shoulder-barged him off the stairs to his death two storeys below.

Safe if only for a moment, the party stopped to catch their collective breath. Galaxy Jones' dinosaur mount had been killed, he had suffered serious injuries, and he'd laso been blinded by the manticore's venom. The half-elf woodsman attempted to administer first aid, which resulted in the halfling bleeding out and suffering permanent organ damage, losing one level of his strength attribute. Nonetheless he survived the medical attention and was just about fit enough to make the mad dash across open ground to the relative safety of the forest. Luck was on their side, as the crossbowmen remained occupied with their attempts to get off the lower roof, and while the manticore had returned to track them from the air, it lost sight of them as they got deeper into the forest.

The team made it to a small village, and from there obtained passage back to their base of operations, where the injured could recover and McGuffin could examine the casket. The old dwarf figured out that it seemed to be under the effects of a permanent Time Stop spell, and rigged a device which would interrupt the magic long enough to open the container. Inside they found a girl, little older than ten and in a deep sleep. She seemed familiar somehow, and some of the party members thought she had a noble look to her features. When the girl woke, she seemed confused by her surroundings, and claimed she was Jenna ir'Wynarn, the oldest child of King Jarot, the ruler whose children's disagreements over the proper order of succession had led to the century-long Last War. All of which was very interesting, as there was no historical record of a Jenna ir'Wynarn.

If her story was true, then the girl would be a person of great importance to the whole of Khorvaire. The party decided to keep her existence secret until they knew more, so sealed up the now empty casket and delivered it to Lenskin, who seemed disappointed that the Jewel turned out to be a unique but unexciting magical item.

---

I enjoyed this session much more than the game I ran at the summer event, I think because I managed to better capture the pulp feel of the setting. I was disappointed to lose the chase sequence, but the battle up and atop the hobgoblin tower was worth it, with the tide shifting a number of times, and all sorts of unexpected and unique events occurring over the course of the fight. The players were challenged, and there was a serious danger of characters -- perhaps the whole party -- being killed if the team hadn't made the wise decision to get the casket -- and the focus of everyone's attention -- out of the picture. This caused the manticore to withdraw to reconsider its position, and allowed the party the breathing room to escape.

The big fight atop the tower did go on a long time, and the session ran over by ninety minutes, in part because the manticore was so difficult to hurt. Its Parry score was not impressive, but it had a Toughness score of eleven, which soaked up all but the most damaging effects, although in fairness it had used all its bennies and had suffered a wound by the end of the fight. The players, Dave in particular, were cursed with poor damage rolls in the later stages of the battle, and found themselves unable to put down a nameless mook, let alone the big boss monster; as such I'm reluctant to put the grind -- I say "grind", but I don't know if anyone really felt like that, as everyone seemed alert and interested -- of the fight down to a flaw in the Savage Worlds system. In the previous adventure, the players chopped through all their oppenents at great speed, so I'm almost certain it was just bad luck. We'll see how Savage Eberron III goes!

What a Carrion

Last night, we wrapped up the Pathfinder one-off we started last week, with the player-characters successful in rooting out the cult activities in Carrion Hill and defeating the eldritch abomination the cult had summoned.

As I mentioned before, I found the Pathfinder ruleset to be far less intimidating to run than I had anticipated, but even so I think it's too bitty -- in the sense that it has a lot of working parts -- for my liking, and if I were to run a D&D variant again in the future, I think it is likely to be something a bit more loose and interpretative like Swords & Wizardry or Labyrinth Lord. The move in D&D3 -- and thus Pathfinder -- to codify everything has I think led to a situation where exploitation of the rules has become more possible, rather than less; a good example of this is the idea of an optimum character build, something which is almost unknown in earlier editions. I don't begrudge the playing of the system in this way -- indeed my monk in Ben's game is an example, with his five attacks a round and his inability to be hit -- but I do wonder if the game as a whole is unbalanced in loading all this on the players' side. Much as I hate to admit it, but the Unmentionable Edition is perhaps more robust in this regard.

I'm sure it is possible to head off the exploits and level the playing field, but I suspect it takes a familiarity with the game that I am never likely to have, and that it would be easier to achieve in a simpler system. We shall see, as I have already been asked to run something under Swords & Wizardry.

I also wonder if these issues would have been as prevalent if the adventure had been better. I was quite impressed by Carrion Hill as I read through it, as it has a clever time-sensitive element as well as a neat modular structure reminiscent -- perhaps deliberately -- of the classic Masks of Nyarlathotep. The players are thrown into a situation, but can tackle the next sections in any order they please, which in turn can affect the climax of the scenario. The problems arose in the details, and these only became apparent in play.

The adventure suffers from a lot of glaring bottlenecks in the plotting. For example, the vital clue which lets the players know what to do next and unlocks that modular structure is written in Aklo, a language most characters are unlikely to have, and which is not even represented among the included pre-generated characters; the party got around this by having the cleric spam Comprehend Languages for a whole day, but that led to them falling afoul -- if only a little -- of the time limit. On a similar note, there are far too many sections where high skill values in Knowledge (Arcana) and Disable Device are required to progress, which can end the scenario right there and then unless the GM fudges things. The scenario more or less demands that a wizard and a rogue are in the party, but nowhere is this mentioned, and again the pre-generated characters don't measure up and are unlikely to hit the numbers required.

Furthermore, nonsensical situations abound and only exacerbate the bottlenecks. A building with an epic-level lock on the front door is bad enough, but for the same building to be made of thick stone, to have no windows and for the doors to be made of the same thick stone stretches credibility. Is this a fortress, perhaps? Or a gold depository? No, it's a brick factory. The whole adventure seems to be designed in this negative, passive-aggressive fashion, where everything is there to hinder the players, as if this were not a game, as the whole point of it was not for people to have fun. That said, some faults lean in the players' favour, such as the villain who occupies a room too small for the whole party to enter, which would be fine if he were a close-quarters fighter rather than a magician. Or the big final monster of the scenario, which is so big that by the rules as written it should not be able to get out of the first location, let alone get close enough to the player-characters to menace them at the climax.

I have bought two of Paizo's adventures. One was so awful that I knew it from a read through, but Carrion Hill surprised me. If I am to use their scenario materials again, it will be as a source of ideas rather than something to be run as is, as the convenience of a pre-written adventure is outweighed by the poor writing.

Found

With our regular Pathfinder campaign paused in order to give GM Ben a bit of time to recharge, we've been taking the opportunity to try some new games. Last week Stuart blessed us with another excellent Cold City scenario -- it remains a brilliant game -- and last night I picked up the baton and ran a one-off Pathfinder scenario, as Ben had mentioned that he was keen on seeing what it was like to play the game from the other side of the GM screen. I picked Paizo's Carrion Hill, as all my games seem to turn into Call of Cthulhu at some point, and this gave me an excuse.

I think I ended up running the thing by default, as no one else was in a position to volunteer, and I have to admit I was a bit concerned. My tastes in game design are for more simple rulesets, not the five hundred page monster that is the Pathfinder rpg, but I think it turned out okay. While the game does seem to have a rule for everything, in most cases you can get away with picking a target number, and getting the players to roll a d20 and add the result to whatever ability you just decided on a fraction of a second before.

One might think that having a prepared scenario helped, but I've discovered that Carrion Hill, which seemed so strong on a read through, has some real problems. I won't go into them now, as we're only half way through and I don't want to spoil anything for next week, but suffice to say that it has some serious design flaws, some of which a half decent editor should have spotted.

All that said, my first attempt at running the game didn't seem to be as huge a disaster as I'd imagined it would be, but I'm still not sure it gave Ben the experience he wanted! He has been nudging me into running Swords and Wizardry or Runequest though, both of which are much more my kind of thing, so we'll see what, if anything, happens on that front.

The Ministry of Blades : The Madness of Angels, episode 2

Dr Pleasant is introduced; Prentiss chases a burglar.

Played

18^th November 2010.

Dramatis Personae

Lady Antonia deVore - a Heavily-armed Aristocrat.
Captain Benson Curruthers - a Military Policeman.
Doctor Zephaniah Pleasant - a Sinister Surgeon.
Miss April Sharpe - a Self-taught Inventor.
Jack Prentiss - a Dodgy Pedestrian.
The Chief Verger of St Paul’s Cathedral.
The Foreman of Burland’s Contractors.
Mrs Geffey, a Worried Wife.
Mrs Bodie, an Unconcerned Wife.
The Very Reverend Greenfield's Valet.

Plot

The team descended to the central area under the dome, where they found a tall, dark figure waiting somewhat impatiently. Introducing himself as Dr Zephaniah Pleasant, another Ministry agent, he demanded to know why he had been dragged out of bed at such an ungodly hour. While Marsh ducked out into the streets to pursue some leads of his own, Curruthers brought him up to date on the mystery and their discoveries so far. Pleasant requested access to the body and proceeded to carry out a more thorough examination; although he was able to learn little new, he was able to confirm the others’ suspicions.

The team decided it would be helpful to examine the Dean’s office. Taken upstairs to the west wing of the building, they found a smart but somewhat sterile room. A detailed examination of the furniture and window frames and a search for secret panels discovered little of interest. Musing that he would have kept anything of interest at home, Curruthers realised that the key in the pocket book was for the front door of a house. Deciding to investigate this later, they asked the Chief Verger about the works in the roof.

The Verger took them to the Records Office, situated in the Chapterhouse nearby, where he pulled out a ledger and tracked down the works order for the job. As the office of the contractor was close by, they headed there first. Upon arriving, they found the foreman looking rather annoyed: it seemed three of his workmen had failed to report in this morning, and while he expected this kind of behaviour from Bill and Charlie Bodie, he thought better of the senior mason, Martin Geffey. It didn’t take long for the team, posing as a Metropolitan Police investigative team, to discover that these were the workers from the Cathedral project and to obtain their addresses. They moved on to Geffey’s address, a decent, if small, terraced house in the East End, where they found his wife beside herself with worry: he had failed to return home last night and she was worried something had happened to him. Asked if he ever stayed late at the pub, she told them that he was not a heavy drinker and was devoted to his family. Mrs Bodie, meanwhile, wife of Charlie and daughter-in-law of William, was completely unworried; while both men had failed to come home, this was hardly unusual and she was much happier when they weren't cluttering the place up.

The team decided to move on and investigate the victim’s private residence in Islington. Once more presenting themselves as members of the Met, they were admitted by his valet, who they questioned with care, discovering that the staff were very upset by the news. He agreed to let them examine the Dean’s study, leaving them to take their time. Carrying out a thorough search of the room, they turned up a bundle of personal letters, a series of personal journals, a collection of reference works on the study of the angelic hierarchies (from several different traditions) and a pair of hefty looking tomes in Hebrew. Miss Sharpe tried her Detecteronatron again, detecting a faint aura around the Hebrew works, which Dr Pleasant now took an interest in.

After they had searched for half an hour or so, several of them heard noises from upstairs, not unlike furniture being moved. Curruthers reacted immediately, heading out and up the stairs at the double. He found the door to the room above closed and knocked, listening for a response. He heard the sound of footfalls, moving away from the door, and tried to open the door, planning to give chase. Unfortunately, the door was locked but Prentiss, currently standing idle, was looking out of the window and saw a pair of boots descending from above. Wrenching the window open as their owner dropped past him, he sprang out to give chase…

The Ministry of Blades : The Madness of Angels, episode 1

Marsh follows his nose; Miss Sharpe tries out her new toy.

Played

4^th November 2010.

Dramatis Personae

Lady Antonia deVore - a Heavily-armed Aristocrat.
Captain Benson Curruthers - a Military Policeman.
Miss April Sharpe - a Self-taught Inventor.
Jack Prentiss - a Dodgy Pedestrian.
Rodney Marsh - a Partially-reformed Thief.
Mr Erasmus Rooke - the Boss.
The Chief Verger of St Paul’s Cathedral.
A number of Industrious Cleaners.

Plot

Shaftesbury Avenue, October 1888.

Returning from Highgate Cemetery with the corpses of the werewolves stowed in the Ministry’s own hansom cab, the group were asked to produce their reports as soon as possible. Once this was completed, they were asked to come into Mr Rooke’s office.

Their superior informed them that he had just heard about the apparent suicide of the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, the Very Reverend Reginald Green. As the Dean was a good friend of his, he wanted to send his best team to investigate; unfortunately, they were occupied with the Ripper case at the moment, so he was having to send Captain Curruthers’ team instead. Rooke did not believe it was a suicide, so they were to take special care to confirm that this was a murder and find the culprit - starting immediately.

Picking up Marsh outside the Quartermaster’s Office, the team headed for the City. Entering the Cathedral, they were introduced to the hassled-looking Chief Verger, who said he had been expecting them, immediately raising some suspicions given the lack of Police on the scene. The Chief Verger was somewhat surprised when Lady Antonia and Captain Curruthers complained about the removal of the body to the Crypt and subsequent cleaning of the floor. He explained that early services would be starting soon and that this couldn’t be allowed to disturb the congregation.

Curruthers dismissed the cleaners while they attempted to divine what they could from the blood stains between the tiles. The body had landed almost directly beneath the open central occular of the dome: either the Dean had made a prodigious leap from the Whispering Gallery or he had fallen from the walkway around the occular Inspecting the body, they confirmed that he had indeed fallen from a great height (and rather messily). The Dean had been a very tall, thin gentleman in his sixties, bald, with a fringe of white hair. His face appeared to be locked in an expression of extreme fear and there was a fresh, horizontal wound across his forehead, such as might be inflicted by a club.

Proceeding upstairs, they investigated the Whispering Gallery, confirming that there was no evidence of him jumping from there. Curruthers spotted a staff doorway leading to a spiral staircase up into the dome, so they made this their next destination, discovering a five foot wide walkway around the occular at the top of the dome. It was little-used and covered by a thin layer of dust, showing up footprints clearly, and they found a scuff of the right size on the ballustrade, which seemed to indicate he had jumped. Miss Sharpe, meanwhile, decided that this was an ideal opportunity to test her new device, Sharpe’s Detecteronatron, designed to detect spirits and other magical emanations; she did not detect anything, other than an odd glow from Marsh, indicating a need for further tinkering, perhaps? Taking a copy of the footprint, they located more prints on the stairs, indicating someone running up them, a prodigious feat for an elderly minister. Marsh remained on the walkway, planning to shapeshift into his rat form and sniff around. Distracted by a strong smell of cheese and nearly killed by a powerful rat trap, he abandoned this approach rather quickly.

The remainder of the team followed the footprints back out onto one of the walkways above the false ceiling of the Church, winding in and out of a series of low beams and rafters. Locating a bloodstain on one of them, indicating that he may have hit his head, the found that the trail ended at a fenced off area at the far end of the roof. Some maintenance work had been taking place here and stonemason’s tools were scattered around an opening in the facing of the wall, which revealed the rubble infill. They determined that something (a block about 18 inches square) was missing from the infill, but were unable to locate it. Miss Sharpe tried her gadget again and, momentarily, thought she saw a screaming face in the mists inside, but was unable to get it to come back. Shaken, she switched the device off, turning to see Lady Antonia and Marsh extracting what appeared to be a pocket book, complete with a key ring, from under the eaves.

On the Boil

I can't recall ever having so many gaming projects on the go at once. Back in my wayward youth, I'd concentrate on one game or setting for months, before moving on to the next game and doing the same, all of which often came to naught as the group decided to play something else anyway. I'm sure this is not uncommon within our hobby.

I am working on three unrelated projects at the moment, but on the plus side, much of the work is already done for two of them:

• Our Pathfinder GM has expressed a desire to experience the game as a player for once. In fairness, this situation has arisen because he's always so full of enthusiasm for running his latest idea for a D&D-variant game, so we let him get on with it. Even so, I've volunteered to run a scenario so he can try the game from the other side of the screen; I have chosen Paizo's Carrion Hill, which is rather appropriate, as whenever I run something it seems to end up as Call of Cthulhu, and now I have an excuse.
• In the summer, I finally got a chance to run an Eberron game, albeit using Savage Worlds as the ruleset. At some point in December, I'll be running the sequel to that: Savage Eberron II: The Jewel of Galifar. Most of the work is done, but I've taken Stephen King's advice and have put the scenario away so that I can come back to it with fresh eyes in a few weeks. My plan is to run these once or twice a year, as a series of linked adventures, but not quite a campaign.
• Most recently, I've been brainstorming ideas for a return to my Rogue Trader game. I now have a good outline for the plot of the next chunk of the campaign, which will be a bit more linear before returning to the sandbox of the first "season". Players being the special snowflakes that they are, I expect it to be nowhere as direct a journey as the word "linear" implies.

In other news, we hit seventh level in our ongoing Pathfinder campaign last night, although since I've been blessed by Nurgle I decided to stay away and play via Skype. Which was fine until the camera cut out at their end and the microphone cut out at mine -- so I could only hear them and they could only see me -- and communication consisted of me attempting to figure out what was going on from their discussion and holding up handwritten notes to the camera in response.



From what I could tell things got a bit hairy, with at least two characters into critical condition -- perhaps Stuart can provide a more detailed synopsis -- but the party emerged from the troll caverns victorious and with a sizeable haul of treasure, including a +2 thundering great sword for Stuart's barbarian Artemisia, further nudging her towards the Weapon of Mass Destruction prestige class.

The Ministry of Blades: The Werewolves of Highgate

Curruthers scores a bullseye; Antonia takes the charge.

Played

21st October 2010.

Dramatis Personae

Lady Antonia deVore - a Heavily-armed Aristocrat.
Captain Benson Curruthers - a Military Policeman.
Jack Prentiss - a Dodgy Pedestrian.
Miss April Sharpe - a Self-taught Inventor.
A Bloodthirsty Werewolf.
An Unfortunate Wolfman.

Plot

As the leaves began to fall in the autumn of 1888, London was gripped by the lurid tales of the exploits of Jack the Ripper. The Ministry, suspecting a supernatural involvement, assigned its best agents to the case.

Captain Curruthers's team meanwhile, was assigned to investigate an apparently unrelated series of attacks in North London. Taking place on the nights around the full moon in late August, the assaults had been bloody but not yet fatal. They were centered on Highgate Cemetery and were reportedly carried out by a “large man-like beast”. Judging that a lycanthrope was involved, the team, excluding Marsh, who was suffering from an unknown malady, and Miss Spit, currently assigned to work with the REG's Psychical Research Team, went loaded for wolf.

Arriving at the South Gate of the cemetery not long after nightfall, Currruthers and Lady Antonia began scouring the mud for unusual tracks, while Prentiss warmed up for a fight and Miss Sharpe fiddled with her latest equipment. Curruthers discovered the fresh prints of a large dog leading into the cemetery and, on further investigation, noticed that there were no front paw prints - the creature walked upright like a man! Now convinced that their target was a werewolf, the team ensured their weapons were loaded with silver bullets and pressed on into the dark graveyard.

Despite the fog, the tracks were easy to follow and led straight to the far corner of the enclosure, as yet unused for burials. As the silver fog snaked between the bushes, they spotted a powerfully-built humanoid figure ahead of them. As it raised its muzzle to sniff the air, it became obvious it was not human, and Curruthers fired a single bullet. The figure fell and, as they drew closer to the body expecting it to rise and attack them, it became clear that he had pulled off an amazing shot, hitting it between the eyes with a single shot from thirty paces - in the dark.

Unfortunately, they did not have long to congratulate each other on their immediate success, as a snarling sound preceded a rushing attack from the bushes to one side. Lady Antonia was clawed from behind and stumbled, saved from a mortal wound only by her heavy coat, as the attacker rushed on towards Curruthers. More shots were fired, and shrugged off, before they were able to surround it. Miss Sharpe finally got her Orgonator working and opened fire, catching the beast in a crossfire with Curruthers and Lady Antonia. It continued to fight, finally going down only when Curruthers hit it in the back of the head from near point-blank range with his pistol.

Both werewolves had reverted to human form upon death and, while one of them was naked in the traditional manner, the second wore a wolfskin as a headdress. The team decided to take both corpses back for further examination.

Notes

As before, this arc began with a simple fight unrelated to the rest of the story. In part, this was necessitated by the award and expenditure of experience at the beginning of the evening and it also provided an opportunity for us all to refamiliarise ourselves with the rules before we got in with the main plot.

There were two kinds of beasts involved here: the first was a wolfman, the victim of a werewolf attack, while the second was an actual werewolf, a human that actively seeks to become a wolf using magic. Rippers often provides different levels of monster like this, and it's handy when you want to have a boss and one or more minions.

Curruthers’ perfect shot was the result of an excessively high damage role - the lesson of this being that you should never get to attached to a villain in this game. Both sides spent large numbers of bennies to aid their survival during the fight and, for the first time, I finally felt able to try and actively kill the characters (and that I didn't have to pull my punches).

Kingmaker: DING!

Yesterday's Pathfinder game saw the party members getting to sixth level, after a rather cynical -- on our part -- bit of wandering about the map, fishing for experience points. A common criticism of Pathfinder's rival D&D4 is that its mechanics make it feel like a video game, but I think it's fair to say that our tactics last night were more than a little inspired by the grinding of many a computerised rpg. Which is not to say it wasn't fun!

Last week, the party investigated a series of ruined elven towers deep in the woods in the western part of our realm, but we ran out of time before we could tackle the large central tower. Picking up from where we left off, the party entered the building and discovered a rather obvious floor trap, which the changeling rogue Olban disarmed with ease, allowing the group to ascend the stairs to the upper level.

There things started to get strange, as the party entered what seemed to be a wooded glade under a sky lit by alien stars, and yet it was still a room within a tower, with windows looking out onto the courtyard in which the party had fought the quickling not a few minutes before. As if this was not disorienting enough, the room/clearing also contained a beautiful elven woman -- a baobhan sith -- who began a seductive dance as the party approached.

Alas for her, the only target she managed to entrance was the party's faithful warhound Cujo, and while the poor beast panted happily for her attention the rest of the team moved in for the kill. Sensing danger, the maiden unleashed an entangle spell, which was quite successful in slowing down the majority of the party, but only delayed the inevitable. A short scuffle later, and the strange thing was killed, fading away into nothingness as it died, and restoring the room to normal.

Having come out of the experience with fewer bumps and bruises than expected, the party decided to take the opportunity to explore the surrounding area, having been prevented from doing so beforehand by matters of state. Along the way a trio of grizzly bears were discovered, but the elven druid Cassie used her secret knowledge to calm the creatures, and the party managed to pass without a fight. Later, the heroes came across the lair of some kind of huge burrowing animal and were almost caught out as the occupants -- some kind of chthonic variant of the ankylosaurus -- returned home from an afternoon's foraging. These beasts managed to split the party but were unable to take advantage of the situation, and were brought down, albeit not with ease. Despite having rested, the ongoing fighting and exploration was taking its toll on the party.

The group decided to make one last push before heading back home, and ran into a pair of shambling plant things, each a mass of mud, vegetable matter and animated roots. The tengu monk Wu Ya found his effectiveness diminished as the extra little kick -- no pun intended -- gained from his amulet of shocking fists seemed to heal the creatures so he was forced to resort to basic attacks.

(Stuart has commented on Wu Ya's increased damage output of late, but I think it's easy to forget how much of it comes from enhancements. The amulet gives the monk an extra 1d6 damage per hit, but stripped of that, he was only doing 1d8+3 with each attack, and the plant-things weren't vulnerable to his stunning fist ability either.

On a more positive note, this week Stuart's character Artemisia dragged herself out of her low damage slump of the past few sessions. It's a recurring joke that Stuart does better when someone else rolls his dice for him -- his son exemplifies this best, rolling strings of 20's while Stuart himself barely rolls above a 4 when he picks up the dice -- and it proved to be the case this session, as he was absent this week, but his character was more potent in combat than she has been when he's been driving.)

Perhaps sensing weakness, one of the plant creatures grabbed the monk and began crushing him to death -- 42 hit points to 12 in one round! -- but all the while Artemisia the barbarian was hacking away with her greatsword and Olban was darting back and forth, stabbing away with his twin rapiers, and the creature did not live long enough to crush poor Wu Ya. As it was, the barbarian's warhorse dealt the final blow, crushing the thing to so much mulch beneath its mighty hooves. Battered and bleeding, the party decided to head home, but each of them felt stronger and wiser from the experience.

Level six! There was a bit of grumbling about this at the table, to the effect that sixth level holds little of interest for the other classes. The monk, however, seems to have something funky going on at each level -- Rick observed that the reason that Pathfinder monks don't get easy access to the game's prestige classes may be because the monk is already a prestige class -- so I have no complaints. It's a long haul to the next level though, as we've got to earn around 12,000xp. Each!

The Ministry of Blades : The Pyramids of Hertfordshire, episode 6

Antonia and Marsh play with really big guns; Constantina takes a tumble.

Played

17th June 2010.

Dramatis Personae

Lady Antonia deVore - a Heavily-armed Aristocrat.
Miss Constantina Spit - a Rebellious Debutante.
Captain Benson Curruthers - a Military Policeman.
Jack Prentiss - a Dodgy Pedestrian.
Miss April Sharpe - a Self-taught Inventor.
Rodney Marsh - a Partially-reformed Thief.
Mr Erasmus Rooke - the Boss.
Mr Chester - a Foreign Gentleman of the Scientific Persuasion.
Jackson - an old Associate of Curruthers.
Two Anonymous Scientists.
A Sceptical Commandant.
A number of Heavily-armed ‘Gamekeepers’.
A large number of Shambling Corpses.

Plot

Prentiss sprinted for the powerhouse, bursting through the door, then ducking at the last moment to avoid losing his head to a shovel wielded by a panicking stoker. Marsh arrived behind the zombie fighting Curruthers, returned to human form and, nearly decapitating it, followed up by bowing ironically to his combat trainer. Lady Antonia decided to try and help the guards while Miss Sharpe powered up her weapon and aimed it at the top of the mast, soaking it in a stream of corrosive liquid. Miss Spit followed Prentiss into the powerhouse, arriving just in time to see him pull a thick cable out of the steam-powered dynamo, causing a massive shower of sparks which made up for the lights going out.

Prentiss staggered as the engineer whipped a huge spanner across his throat from behind and attempted to strangle him while the dynamo sped up, its whine rapidly rising in pitch. He managed to turn his attacker to take the full brunt of the blast as the building exploded in a shower of flames and shrapnel…

Miss Spit was still standing in the doorway and was thrown in a spectacular arc across the square, landing with catlike grace near the transmission mast. Prentiss was apparently buried in the rubble.

All around them, the zombies pressed their slow but relentless attack; small groups of soldiers desperately trying to hold the gaps between buildings against up to twice their number. As the remainder of the team tried to decide what to do, several of the soldiers went down screaming and Curruthers and Lady Antonia leapt to help shore up the defences, closely followed by Miss Sharpe and Miss Spit, each heading for a different group. Marsh, spotting the collapsed guard tower, reverted to rat form and scurried out of the battle zone.

Lady Antonia grabbed up one of the large rifles used by the soldiers, a magazine-fed elephant gun, and put her marksmanhip skills to good use, blowing several zombies to pieces in quick succession. Miss Sharpe made similar use of her ‘ectoray orgonator’ while Miss Spit, using her deflection spell to avoid damage, charged straight into battle swinging a makeshift club. Curruthers arrived just in time to see three men fall and found himself holding the defence together, using the bayonet on the end of his elephant rifle.

Prentiss pulled himself out of the ruins of the powerhouse and, grabbing the huge spanner as a club, looked around to take in the situation. Spotting Marsh in the ruins of the tower, he burst through the line of zombies to join him, where he found the little thief attempting to set up a Maxim machine gun. Between them, they got it braced and proceeded to spray the nearest group of zombies with bullets, stopping frequently to unjam the weapon.

Gradually, the tide of battle turned, although by the time the zombies were all destroyed, so were all but four of the soldiers.

As a result of running out of time, the following was not actually played through.

Once the battle was over, the survivors picked through the bodies, separating the wounded from the dead and the undead. With his remaining troops securing the perimeter, the Commandant gathered the team together in the mess to thank them for their help in fighting off the zombies. Overcoming his pride, he admitted that they had been right and that there was obviously a link between the experiments and the zombies. Turning to the scientist, Mr Chester, he informed him that the experiments were over until they had been thoroughly examined by other military scientists. Chester, his temper flaring, stalked out of the room, swearing to take his ideas to the Americas where they would “appreciate the genius!”

The team were escorted back to London by the Commandant himself, where reports were made to Mr Rooke, and matters between the Ministry and the Royal Esoteric Guards were taken ‘upstairs’. The team were congratulated on their handling of the affair and Curruthers, Marsh and Lady Antonia were finally promoted to full Field Agent status.

Notes

The Royal Esoteric Guards are the military equivalent to the Ministry and form the sixth of the elite Guards regiments. As well as regular soldiers of the line, trained in combatting supernatural as well as mundane foes, their organisation includes a number of autonomous research and intelligence teams, enabling them to deal with most problems without help from other military units that might not be able to cope with the same kind of conditions. If Curruthers had remained in the Army, he may well have joined them. Obviously, they are still capable of making mistakes.

As mass battles go, this one actually went quite quickly, it just didn't seem like it.

Savage Worlds is definitely quite good at handling large numbers of battling characters; the “two hits and you're down” approach to Extras is much easier to track than hit points, just requiring markers for Shaken figures. The players quickly realised that ganging up on opponents is the key to success, both for the +1 multiple attackers bonus and for the guaranteed kill on a Shaken Extra. I was also able to hand groups of five soldiers to individual players to manage, taking some of the pressure off me.

The problem was basically with the number of players. We had an extra player this week, taking us to seven, which slowed things down enough to get in the way. The playing card initiative system can also cause delays, as players frequently forget to hand them back after their action or at the end of the round. Even handing the whole initiative system to a player didn't work as well as I'd have liked. Chatter amongst the players is always a distraction and the only way I can see around this would be to reduce the numbers - or start deliberately killing off characters!

One element that didn't get to play out was that Prentiss and Miss Sharpe's two-pronged attack on the electrical transmission system was successful: the zombies were about to collapse of their own accord when the battle ended for the evening. In retrospect, I probably should have upped the number of zombies to increase the apparent danger then had them collapse at a suitable dramatic moment, but I'm trying to avoid too much GM's fiat - even for effect.

We didn't quite finish in the main session, although the battle was virtually over, so the wrap-up was kind of assumed.

The game is now on hold until the autumn.

Hourglass of the Silver Sands: Session 4

STARRING:

Joanna as Mara, Travelling Monk
Jon C as Spectre, Sorcerer Supreme
Bill as Isandlwana, Travelling Matchmaker

Game Mastered by Krzyś

Release Date: ???

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As the diplomat of the group, Isandlwana took over talking to the major. Without releasing his bonds, she moved the chair he was on outside and leaned it over his blazing house. The distance between him and the fire changed according to the usefulness of his answers. The sight of Mara with her bow drawn up on the rooftop scared off anyone who wasn't killed or captured yet.

The (ex)mayor of Daiyu told the Eclipse of the horrifying ease with which the Wind-Cutting Whirlwind slaughtered the people of Maret. He told her that he was the True Prince of the Earth, a title currently used by the Dragon-Blooded who usurped it from the Solars many centuries ago. However, this man was no Terrestrial Exalt. The mayor revealed that like the townsfolk of Daiyu, he served Cecelyne.

Spectre's knowledge of demonology proved useful here. Cecelyne was also known as the Endless Desert, sister to Malfeas, the King of Yozis. The Yozis were the beaten and imprisoned Primordials that the Chosen of the Gods fought at the Dawn of Time. Yet he has never heard of the Yozis to create Chosen of their own for this power lied only within the Highest Gods.

The (ex)mayor said the Whirlwind always walked with his face covered and spoke very little. Similarly to Spectre, he carried a scimitar with him. Apparently, the massacre at Maret was part of a ritual to summon Bahamut, a demon closely tied to Cecelyne. A little singeing later he said he heard he was heading to the Temple of Zun and swore this was all he knew. Taking pity on the man, Isandlwana dragged him to safety. Unfortunately, neither of the Exalts knew anything about Zun or its custodians nor did they knew what happened to the mysterious Exalt that helped them fight the demons.

When they told Mara what they found they were surprised to learn she was actually from Zun. She grew up in the temple and knew its history. It was once an ancient fortress built at the top of an artificial mountain placed thousands of miles away into the Southern desert. As expected, the monks therein practised meditation and martial arts but also made it their duty to store dangerous artifacts left from the glory days of the First Age. Mara was very displeased knowing the people she considered family would face imminent danger while the other two Solars were worried what Whirlwind would get his hands on if he were to successfully attack the temple.

Velvet Fist, who until now was fighting on the other side of town, felt there was no time to waste. She jumped onto her horse and went off into the sunset!

The more composed Spectre drew a pentagram on the sand. He took a trinket giving to Mara by her mentor and proceeded to call out his name and chanting the Dirge of Shadows. After he said it 55 times and the moon finally set, he threw his knife into the centre of the pentagram thus pinning down the shadow of Mara's mentor. She told the shadow of the danger to the temple. The shadow was released from its binding and it flew back to its owner who may now have a very unsettling nightmare warning him of a demon attack.

Meanwhile, Isandlwana went from door to door, kicking each one open and giving the people a piece of her mind. She tore down any blasphemous icons, carvings and anything else that was even remotely connected to the Yozis and ground them under her heel while wagging her finger at the occupants. She lectured them on the wickedness and folly of bowing down to demons, particularly those that take the shape of vermin. She reminded them that their ancestors must be ashamed of them. Her condemnations were usually very effective in inflicting taboos but she wasn't sure if the Unconquered Sun's blessing was strong enough in this case.

The ritual was hard enough that after all was done, Spectre turned to his fellow Solars and said:
"Now I must rest," he crossed his arms in front of his chest and his body fell down. His bodyguard was quick enough to catch him before his back touched the desert sand.

The Solars went to bed at dawn to rest before the ardours labours of the next day. When they arose from their slumber, Spectre asked how far away was the temple of Zun, to which Mara replied it is located on the top of an enormous artificial mountain in the far South, very close to the border dividing Creation from the powers of chaos.

"It will take us a day to reach the temple," Spectre calmly said.
"It took me THREE MONTHS," Mara was simply astonished.

The Twilight summoned forth a chariot made out of a shard of the sky, pulled by steam-breathing steeds of pure white and manes of sunlight. They had to wait until Isandlwana finished her business. She was in the process of picking a new mayor for the town and making him swear an oath to uphold the law and to have no traffic with demons. Her anima burst into life, forming Old Realm runes sanctifying the oath in the eyes of Heaven. Fate itself would strike against oathbreakers. Although it was a strong measure, she felt it was a necessary step in ensuring the safety of Daiyu.

With the ceremony finished, Spectre, his bodyguard, Isandlwana and Mara climbed on board the chariot and the horses galloped across the square and up into the sky. The speed with which they raced through the heavens was four or five times as fast as the quickest horse on land. Between Spectre driving and Mara navigating, they reaches the temple in time for the sun to set. Interestingly enough, it wasn't hard to find a place of land at the temple. It had stone blocks in a square pattern near the centre of the temple grounds that was ideal for landing from high above. Fortunately, they did not met with any resistance from the monks who could have fired First Age weaponry that could decimate cities at them.

They were greeted by the monks, among them Mara's master. Spectre was quite surprised that her master seemed very stoic today. In his experience, the targets of last night’s ritual were left with disturbing dreams throughout the night. It is then that they noticed Mara’s master has an earthy scent about him. In fact, nearly all of the monks had a hint of one element or another about them. Spectre and Isandlwana were worried for a moment that Mara might not have told them everything about the temple. Introducing Solar Exalted to a group of highly religious and martially formidable Terrestrials may have been something they’d rather avoid.

Ignoring their concerns in face of Mara’s utter trust, they began to research the literature on Cecelyne and Bahamut. They found a passage in one of the demonology tomes about Bahamut. The demon had the shape of a giant fish and he is the foundation on which Cecelyne, the endless desert, lays. The Exalts minds gave them a glimpse into the past, to the times when they fought the Primordials for control over Creation. Cecelyne, the sister of Malfeas, was the Principle of Order. After the war she was imprisoned in the body of her brother that became the Yozi's prison. Her defeat caused her to bow to the Solar for they were strong thus she now enforces order through power, rewarding those with the strength to force their will onto others.

Meanwhile, Spectre was on the lookout for any potential traits beyond the temple walls. It is when the two women came back that the Copper Spider noticed someone crossing the desert. It was a lone woman, seemingly unarmed but he could not make out much else other than the rich and worn down clothing before she collapsed, most likely due to heatstroke. Mara and Isandlwana descended down as quickly as possible. Mara tended to her before moving her back to the temple while Isandlwana stood guard. They remained vigilant in case this was some clever trap set up by the Wind-Cutting Whirlwind.

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Bonus Material: Storyteller's Commentary

This session had some of my favourite moments. Isandlwana wagging her finger at the Yozi cultists and giving them a lecture, Spectre literally falling asleep and the reaction on Mara's face when she heard how long her journey back would take.

This session also explains what Velvet Fist was doing. Taking into account she was a Dawn, I decided she took on half of the town on her won... and then rode off into the sunset, in a very western way, because the player disappeared off the face of the Earth.

Another missing player was Whisper. A similar strategy was implemented here. He is a Night Caste so he simply didn't want to be found by the rest. They are the super-sneaky Solars.

Other than that, this session had a lot of exposition. I hope I managed to write up what's going on without confusing anyone who doesn't know the setting. I was quite happy to get the opportunity to add the Temple of Zun to the story, which is Joanna's creation. I love introducing player created elements into the plot only to let the player who created them describe them to the rest. I think it adds a certain realistic feel to the game.

I should probably give a little bit of info on the different titles the Solar Castes have. I am fond of using synonyms for them so here it goes:

Dawn - Ascending Sun, Child of the Dawn, Lightbringer, Bronze Tiger, Sword of Heaven, The Forsaken (derogatory)
Zenith  - Resplendent Sun, Pillar of the Sun, Solar Thunder, Golden Bull, Hammer of Heaven, The Blasphemous (derogatory)
Twilight  -Descending Sun, Child of Twilight, Solar Lightning, Copper Spider, Arrow of Heaven, The Unclean (derogatory)
Night - Hidden Sun, Concealing Shadow, Nightbringer, Iron Wolf, Dagger of Heaven, The Wretched (derogatory)
Eclipse - Crowned Sun, Harmonious Voice, Solar Wind, Quicksilver Falcon, Quill of Heaven, The Deceiver (derogatory)