Road Crew Event - Shadow Under Devil's Reef, Part 2

"We fight the fish with the fish." - Steve James

This quote from our player Will is so very, very important. Embedded in those words are the heart and soul of our Road Crew campaign (that is increasingly becoming NOT a Road Crew campaign but just a regular store game... which is totally fine with me.) If that quote doesn't seem to make sense don't worry. It doesn't make sense to me either, and yet it totally does. 

During today's session of Jon Hook's Shadow Under Devil's Reef, our party finally completed the adventure using a combination of quick thinking, fishy spell-casting, froggy clerical magic, and high die rolling. A very well cast Paralysis spell from Turd Fergeson essentially one-shotted the boss encounter. That was the kind of day I was having as a Judge. 

At the end of the session, I made a comment that the party beat me quickly with the high rolling. All the players seemed surprised that I would take an adversarial tone against the them in my games.

Sorry guys, I'm here to roll dice and kill characters. Unfortunately I didn't kill any characters today, but I came close a few times.

And there's always next time. 

As an added bonus, Robert brought a whole mess of Dwarven Forge for us to use for the game. I had SO MUCH fun with the caverns and dungeons, and can't wait for my own swag to come next year! I've gotta wait a long time, but after seeing the stuff in play, it's gonna be worth it. 

Prior Sessions

• Session 1: Beyond the Silver Scream
• Session 2: Sky ov Crimson Flame, Part 1
• Session 3: Sky ov Crimson Flame, Part 2
• Session 4: Shadow Under Devil's Reef, Part 1

Cast of Characters

• Larkin, Elf, played by Shannon
• Glassblower by trade, whose magic is derived through careful use of lenses, crystals, and light. 
• Native of the Eastern Forest.
• Owns a prized hen.
• Seeks the Great Pumpkin as a patron
• Turd Fergeson, played by Ryan
• Faithful servant of Amon-Tor, goddess of mysteries.
• Originally from Earth. 
• Has possession of an endless suite of one-liners to fit every occasion.
• Marco, Thief, played by Cody
• Born and raised in Black Sand Port.
• Tried to join the Thieves Guild, but was too rebellious. 
• Learned several alien alphabets from his former Guildmaster's secret library. 
• Partially possessed by the soul of a magic door named... Door. Door can grant Marco aid in dealing with other doors, at a cost. 
• Steve James, Wizard, played by Will
• Earth native who left home, joined the French Foreign Legion, fell into the DCC Planet, and became a great wizard.
• Father of Steve James II (evil Cult Wizard, RIP) and grandfather of Steve James III (lost teen who wanted to discover his family, RIP)
• Specializes in all-fish magic (Ichthyomancer).
• Tonya, Warrior, played by Robert
• Badass figure skater from Earth. 
• Wields a big-ass sword, and not afraid to cut you with it. 
• Lars, Dwarf, played by Rob
• Human from Earth who was transformed into a Dwarf after traveling to the DCC Planet.
• Seeks entrance into the CCPR (Card Carrying Punk Rockers) but needs to complete three acts of legendary vandalism.
• Wielder of the Demon's Claw, an enchanted scimitar from Fu-Lamia. 
• Bueno, Cleric, played by Evie
• Gender-shifting villager from Reed who was a simple hireling trying to save some of their friends from the Crimson Flame before gaining Clerical powers. 
• Twisted worshipper of the froglike Bobugbubulz.
• Extremely chaotic.

Adventure Overview

(Judge's Note: I'm going to take full advantage of the Dwarven Forge, and use the pictures to illustrate this tale of danger.)

The party opened the great onyx door leading down into the depths of Devil's Horn Island. Time was of the essence, because the more time the party spent on Devil's Horn Island, the more they mutated into fish/amphibian beasts. 

The sloping passage was super cramped. Halfway down there was a four foot gap spanning a pit. Seemed easy to cross! Marco played scout throughout the adventure, and during this first segment he easily crossed the gap. Unfortunately, the tentacle beast at the bottom of the crevasse wasn't thrilled to see a meal get away. 

As the rest of the party tried crossing, he beast would try to devour Lars and Turd Fergeson. To distract the horror, Bueno summoned forth a feast of food, and dumped it atop the creature. While the thing ate the food of Bobugbubulz, Tonya charged forward and skewered. 

One shot. One kill. 

Moving into the next chamber, the party discovered six mutated Fu-Lamians. Five of them were only slightly mutated, much like some of the party members. But one was huge, much further along than his associates. The lead mutated Fu-Lamian didn't want to let the non-mutated party members past. Tonya wasn't about to be told what to do. 

The two troupes threw down. Before too much blood was spilled, Steve James cast Sleep on all the mutants. What a peaceful way to end the combat!

That's when Tonya walked up and lopped the head off of the lead mutant. 

The next chamber featured a small portal leading further down, with a rather large pool to the right. Each party member who entered the chamber was psychically "called" by something in the water. Marco and Larkin easily resisted the call of this unknown evil, but Bueno and Tonya were not so fortunate. As soon as they entered the chamber, they dropped their weapons and headed for the pool. 

Realizing that it could be dark magic at work, Turd Fergeson ran into the room while casting Protection from Evil. The spell worked, breaking the hold on both Tonya and Bueno. That's when the evil arose from the water. The massive shambling mound of tentacles, eyes, and human mouths was truly terrible to behold. The slap of its limbs caused terrible acid burns, as Larkin realized when she was attacked. 

Tonya collected the party, and had them evacuate from the chamber, while Steve James cast a Sleep spell in retreat. The spell worked! The monster collapsed into the water. Earlier, Marco had chucked a dagger at the beast, so he tried to collect it from the pool. Unfortunately, there was enough acid in the water that he burned his hands when he tried.

Ouch!

Thirty feet down the corridor, the party came to a door. A magic door. The Judge revealed that the locked door was "humming." The players made fun of the humming, and mocked the Judge. They made sounds as if the "humming" was musical in nature. So the Judge complied.

"Door" was a jovial sort, very eager to see the rest of the dungeon. Door offered Marco a means to open him. If Marco agreed to take Door with him, Door would open up. 

Marco agreed.

Door then possessed Marco.

At first Marco didn't realize that his soul fused with that of an intelligent magical door, but after a while he caught on. Fortunately, Marco was mostly in control of his own body...

... that'll change with time.

Even though it cost the party's thief part of his soul, the team let Marco lead the way down a long hall to another door. Door made Marco wave at his "friend." This was when the party realized that the possession had taken place. 

The next hallway was bizarre. A series of chambers, some holding tentacles, others holding imprisoned Fu-Lamians that were being transformed into tentacles. 

There were a few open chambers, and the most mutated of the bunch - Steve James - had to struggle to not throw himself into the vacant room. Actually Tonya did the struggling, as she wrestled the party's wizard away from an attempted suicide. 

Once at the end of the hallway, there was a locked door. Marco tried unlocking the portal but failed. That's when Door offered to help. Marco agreed to let Door take control of his arms. This unlocked the door, but again... at a cost.

I should point out that the mechanic I used for this was a simple percentile system. At the beginning of their arrangement, Marco was in control of 80% of his body while Door was in control of 20%. Every time Marco gives in to Door he will trade 2d10% of control. This act cost him 19%. 

The current scoreboard is now 61% to 39%. 

As the party moved into the chamber, they found a pair of Elder Things working a control panel. Three great, glass chambers were attached to the central room, each holding weird creatures floating in water. One held a large, injured starfish thing. The other held a dead starfish thing. The final chamber held a fully transformed, amphibian Princess Kaeko, along with her attendants.

The Elder Things weren't about to let the party rescue the princess! The two aliens charged the party, met quickly by Tonya.

But Turd Fergeson wasn't in the mood for a long, drawn out battle. He cast Paralysis (and got a 25) and both aliens were immediately stunned and on the ground. 

Rather than a great, magnificent clash of blades and spells, the boss battle was finished like a bar room brawl. The party encircled the aliens and bludgeoned them to death with fists, pole-arms, and Tonya's crowbar. Because blades didn't work that well. 

With the Elder Things dead, the party used the central console to release the princess. Unfortunately her mind was not her own, and the same went for her attendants. Steve James cast Sleep on two of her attendants while Lars slew the other two. The princess's precious PsiSpider, carried by Larkin, then freed the mind of her mistress.

Together, the party fled the dungeon before anything else terrible could give chase. Once back in Black Sand Port, the team received their reward with a healthy dash of glory!

Quotes

"They're not fish! They're cephalopods!" - For some reason this made a different to Lars.

"We fight the fish with the fish." - Steve James being the Steve James. 

"Run!" - Tonya grabs the party, and pulls them out of the dungeon before more eldritch terrors could ruin her day. 

Open Story Points

• With Princess Kaeko saved, would the party's good standing in Black Sand Port be of any benefit?
• Now that he was possessed by Door, was it only a matter of time before Marco lost his own soul? 

Character Crematorium 

• None this game!

What's Next?

I think our adventuring party will be headed back to sea for Moon Slaves of the Cannibal Kingdom!

Save Against Fear 2018

(The alternate title for this excursion could be "James & Evie Hang With Brendan Con")

To continue our quest to help spread the good word of Dungeon Crawl Classics, Mutant Crawl Classics, and all things Goodman Games, Judge Evie and I joined forces with Brendan LaSalle at the Save Against Fear convention in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania this past weekend. This little boutique con featured just about everything you'd see at much larger venues, but in cute, smaller doses. 

Except for Pugmire. There was a crap-ton of Pugmire at this con! But it only makes sense, since Onyx Path Publishing was a big sponsor for the event. 

But I wasn't at Save Against Fear to be a spellcasting terrier... I was there to spellburn and glowburn my way into glory!

Here's how things went...

When we arrived at the Harrisburg Mall, Evie and I were a bit confused. I think we were expecting a more obvious "gaming scene", but Google Maps took us to an entrance near a Bass Pro Shops. We could've rolled initiative with the stuffed animals, but instead we decided to keep hunting around.

Our first view of the convention... a convention being held in an abandoned Boscov's. Weird! So, so weird! But it kinda worked. Actually, it would've been a great place to run some zombie games. 

Our first game Saturday morning was Mutant Crawl Classics. I decided to run my oceanic hex crawl Nothing's Free in Oceanworld. Here, Judge Evie helps me set up my table.

I had a great group of players for this event, including a pair of folks from Canada and a brand new, first time RPG'er. WOOT! 

While I ran MCC, Judge Brendan was busy running DCC nearby. Since she had played in my adventure before, Evie decided to hang at the cool kids table.

We had a two hour break between sessions, so we checked into our hotel across the street from the mall. Here was our view of the mall from our room. If you see the department store entrance at 9 o'clock on this picture, that's the entrance to the con. There was also an RV convention going on at the same time. We debated checking it out.

I was scheduled to run Children of the Fallen Sun at 4:30 on Saturday. But there were a lot of open seats at a lot of tables, so I wanted to show off a bit. Hence this swank display of awesomeness.

Unfortunately the swank display didn't work. Here's the busiest our table got. Zero players. ZERO! This was only the second time that I had ever been stood up at a convention. The first time was way back at my very first convention in 1996 (EpiCon at Lehigh University). 

Even Judge Evie's sweet dance moves couldn't attract players.

At least Brendan had a full table, and was busy running a rousing game of Xcrawl. 

The scene from the con, right about when we called it quits and packed up.

We needed to find something else to do!

Holy crap, is this The Long Dark? 

Phew! It was just Bass Pro Shops.

It was here that Judge Evie discovered the love of her life. 

After bouncing around the mall a bit more, we scooped up Judge Brendan and headed for the Lancaster Brewing Company pub. Wow, that was a great meal! The pretzel was great. The edamame were great. The pizza was great. Brendan said his salmon caesar salad was great. The bread pudding was knock down, drag out phenomenal. 

Pretty much everything, including the beers, were incredible.... with the exception of the Shoe Fly Porter. Brendan ordered a flight of different beers, and both he and I sampled the hot mess that was the pie-inspired beer. Steer clear of that one!

After going to sleep at 9pm and waking up at the crack of 7am, Evie and I lounged around and played on my SNES Classic. Mostly Street Fighter II, but a little Super Castlevania IV, a tid bit of Secret of Mana, and some Mario Kart.

Uh oh... another day, and another empty table. I couldn't get any players for Shadow Under Devil's Reef. Evie tried super hard to recruit, but we just couldn't get anyone to stick around longer than to have a brief chat. 

Actually, this was a bit of a trend at the con. There seemed to be more GM's than players at times. 

But what Save Against Fear lacked in DCC players, it made up for in breakdancing Brendan LaSalle's. 

Look at him go!

Holy cow, he's doing a flip!

After packing up our DCC stuff, I did a bit more shopping. I found a slightly used copy of Lamentations of the Flame Princess at a used bookstore in the mall for $15. Sold!

I also bought a whole set of Chrono Trigger bead art to put up on my wall or shelf. Big purchase of the con!

Then it was time for Brendan's DCC session, an adventure call the Tavern at Five Points. It was also time for a heaping mess o' Taco Bell. 

I've been hanging with Brendan at cons for several years now, but this was the very first time that I've ever been at his table as a player. All I've got to say is "WOW, you need to get your self to one of his tables!" 

I played a lawful Dwarf named Vengefulio, who carried a bunch of weapons that were also named. Like his battleaxe "Gwendylin" or his crossbow "Elsa" (let it go!)

Unfortunately we figured out early on that "Vengefulio" is Italian for "friendly fire." I sure hurt a lot of other party members during our session with some truly poor rolling.

In the end it all worked out. If my 10:30 game hadn't been cancelled, I never would've had the opportunity to play in Brendan's 12:30 session. 

After the game was over, we called it a day. We said some goodbyes, grabbed some Sheetz coffee, and took Brendan back to the airport. 

Although 2/3 of my games didn't get off the ground, I think we learned some valuable lessons at this small, regional convention:

1) There is always good gaming to be had, you just have to find it.

2) If possible, bring a posse with you to the convention so that you will have a few extra gamers on hand.

3) Schedule your games at the same times as those of your friends. That way, if one of your games cancels, you can join the other.

4) Whatever you do, if you are at Save Against Fear in the future, and its at the same abandoned Boscov's in the Harrisburg Mall, DO NOT use the bathroom in the back of the area. Take the long walk to the Bass Pro Shop and use their bathroom instead. 

Happy gaming folks!

Road Crew Event - Shadow Under Devil's Reef, Part 1

Damn, I love this module!

Back at Gary Con, my wife Jennifer and I had the opportunity to play Jon Hook's Shadow Under Devil's Reef with the incredible Judge Jeff Goad. The other worldly creepiness of this adventure was so, so good, and I knew that I wanted to run it for my own group at some point. While I never felt rushed during Judge Jeff's four hour event, I knew that there was a lot more to the adventure that you couldn't explore in a short convention setting. Fortunately I had a group that was looking for yet another challenge: our monthly DCC Road Crew Group!

I remember how nervous I was back in June about moving back to the Philly area. Would I be able to continue running Road Crew events, or would I only be able to play online games? How lucky we are to have found the Games Keep, and such terrific players! Our open table now includes seven players, and we're four sessions into something that has transformed from a one-shot into a full-fledged campaign.

Prior Sessions

• Session 1: Beyond the Silver Scream
• Session 2: Sky ov Crimson Flame, Part 1
• Session 3: Sky ov Crimson Flame, Part 2

Cast of Characters

• Larkin, Elf, played by Shannon
• Glassblower by trade, whose magic is derived through careful use of lenses, crystals, and light. 
• Native of the Eastern Forest.
• Owns a prized hen.
• Seeks the Great Pumpkin as a patron
• Turd Fergeson, played by Ryan
• Faithful servant of Amon-Tor, goddess of mysteries.
• Originally from Earth. 
• Has possession of an endless suite of one-liners to fit every occasion.
• Marco, Thief, played by Cody
• Born and raised in Black Sand Port.
• Tried to join the Thieves Guild, but was too rebellious. 
• Learned several alien alphabets from his former Guildmaster's secret library. 
• Steve James, Wizard, played by Will
• Earth native who left home, joined the French Foreign Legion, fell into the DCC Planet, and became a great wizard.
• Father of Steve James II (evil Cult Wizard, RIP) and grandfather of Steve James III (lost teen who wanted to discover his family, RIP)
• Specializes in all-fish magic (Ichthyomancer).
• Tonya, Warrior, played by Robert
• Badass figure skater from Earth. 
• Wields a big-ass sword, and not afraid to cut you with it. 
• Lars, Dwarf, played by Rob
• Human from Earth who was transformed into a Dwarf after traveling to the DCC Planet.
• Seeks entrance into the CCPR (Card Carrying Punk Rockers) but needs to complete three acts of legendary vandalism.
• Bueno, Cleric, played by Evie
• Gender-shifting villager from Reed who was a simple hireling trying to save some of their friends from the Crimson Flame before gaining Clerical powers. 
• Twisted worshipper of the froglike Bobugbubulz.
• Extremely chaotic.

Adventure Overview

The party left the village of Reed for the biggest little city on the eastern coast: Black Sand Port. After spending a few weeks resting up at Steve James' favorite inn and tavern, the Sleeping Salmon, the team awoke to terrible news. The Golden Sun, a diplomatic vessel from far away Fu-Lamia, had run aground on the cursed Devil's Reef just off of Devil's Horn Island. The ship had been carrying Princess Kaeko, daughter of Lord Takkeh-Luum, and betrothed to a member of Black Sand Port's most wealthy Merchant Lords. With storms on the horizon, no sane search party could leave until the following morning.

Fortunately for the princess, our brave adventurers are not a sane search party!

Steve James had a friend (the Shrimpmistress) with a ship (the Jumbo Shrimp) who could take the party to Devil's Horn Island. Marco forged a document from the city's Burgomaster granting passage, which was easily accepted by Captain Shrimpmistress. 

The party "knew" some interesting rumors about the Devil's Horn and Fu-Lamia:

• Sirens live on the island, and the sirens try to cause ships to crash upon the Devil's Reef.
• Fu-Lamian soldiers wield soul stealing magic curved swords.
• Devil's Horn island is completely inhospitable and craggy, and nothing lives there (hmm... doesn't mesh with the Sirens, right?)
• Lord Takkeh-Luum is a vampire who has lived over a thousand years. 
• Fu-Lamians eat the children of their enemies. 

After outfitting themselves for the excursion, Lars and Steve James needed just a few more items (most notably chum) before leaving port. The pair encountered a couple of tough sailors who questioned why they would be leaving with dangerous weather on the horizon. Steve James tried blasting the two with a sleep spell, but misfired and went into a coma. But Lars was able to produce the forged documents, which got the two out of hot water.

Once everything was prepared, the party set out to sea on the Shrimpmistress's catamaran. After several hours they came across Devil's Horn Island. Circling the rocky landmass, the adventurers found the wreck of the Golden Sun just off the northern coastline of the isle. As they approached they found five survivors floating in the water. Despite sharks in the water, the party saved three of the five Fu-Lamians. One was eaten by sharks, and another was killed when Tonya accidentally hit him too hard with a wooden life-preserver. 

The party brought the Jumbo Shrimp up alongside the wreck of the Golden Dawn. Everyone except Lars and Tonya boarded the foreign craft. Marco was first aboard, and the thief started searching the forward deck. At the tip of the bow was a great, wooden, six-armed, statue of a demon-woman. Rather than looking out to the waves, the statue looked upon the deck of the ship. When Marco went to pilfer some of the goods from the dead Fu-Lamians on the deck, the statue leveled one of its arms at Marco. The thief stopped, and the rest of the party started searching the vessel.

There was a lot of great gear on the ship. Gold, treasure, gear, weapons, and lots, lots more. But every time someone went near any of the stuff with intent on taking it, the statue moved in a threatening way. Eventually Marco touched one of the ornate boxes on the ship, and the statue had enough. It resurrected all of the dead Fu-Lamians, turning them into raging, red demon-things. The party had no chance of facing off with twelve of the nasties, so they fled the ship. Marco managed to take a few pieces of treasure, including the enchanted Demon's Claw (a magic +2 Scimitar). But other than that, the party seemed empty handed.

Until Larkin introduced her new friend Wani.

Wani was a Psi-Spider, a telepathic creature that was bound to Princess Kaeko. Larkin discovered Wani hiding in the princess's quarters. It revealed that the princess was not on board the craft, and that she had been taken to the island. It offered to help the party, but it first it needed to feed. Marco introduced the Psi-Spider to one of the Fu-Lamians, and the creature sucked some of the poor screaming soul's intelligence away for lunch.

Eventually the party made landfall on the western edge of Devil's Horn Island. They set out through the dead coral forest, but not before feeling some alien intelligence reach out to them. The weird message first affected the cleric Turn, whose eyes started to bulge out in a bizarre fish-like fashion. As the party explored the island, the message would also affect Tonya, Steve James, and Marco. 

Speaking of fish-eyed weirdness, during their trek across Devil's Horn Island the team came across four disgusting fish-men. Covered in scales, spines, and other bizarre aquatic features, the four were on the hunt for "something" or "someone". Quickly, Marco and Tonya hatched a plot to ambush the fish-men. Marco snuck in and backstabbed one of the fishmen, while Tonya charged in brandishing her greatsword, swung at the air, and ran right out of the fight. Fortunately for the party's thief, the rest of the group waded into combat slaying the rest of the fish-men. By the time Tonya turned around, none of the beasties remained.

The next encounter on the island was a great onyx door attached to a massive coral tree. There was no handle or obvious knob on the door, just a pair of large, star shaped dials. Larkin consulted Wani, asking of the door led to the Princess. The Psi-Spider concurred that her bond with the princess was strong, and that she could sense her mistress on the other side of the door. Based on forbidden knowledge gained while studying at the thieves guild, Marco knew the runes on the dials: they depicted the stars "Celaeno" and "Polaris." But when Marco uttered the words, he was overtaken by alien knowledge, and had to struggle to keep hold of his mind. 

Thinking that they would need star shaped keys, the party left the door, and continued searching the island.

On the western edge of the island the party discovered a great, thirty-food tall onyx pillar. After a lot of fooling around with the pillar (and the ruby atop the pillar), the party made some very important observations:

• Touching the weird structure caused a loss of intelligence and stamina, but delivered insight on how to use the alien machines on the island, including the onyx door.
• It was next to impossible to steal the giant ruby, and attempting to do so would invoke lightning bolts. One of which nearly killed Steve James.
• No matter how hard you try to ram the obelisk, even if you are a really tough ex-figure skater named Tonya, you can't knock it over. 

With the understanding of how to open the door in the coral tree, the party decided to leave the pillar alone, and rest before their next task. 

Quotes

Crap I forgot to take any!

Open Story Points

• What is on the other side of the great, onyx door? 
• What kind of alien intelligence caused the party members to grow bulging, fishy eyes, and what is its ultimate goal?
• Does Steve James actually want to become a fish? Because with all this alien stuff and his own spell corruption, the party's ichthyomancer is headed down that path. 

Character Crematorium 

• None this game!

What's Next?

That's easy: Shadow Under Devil's Reef Part Deux!

Eastern Forest Campaign - Sky ov Crimson Flame - Session 2

Sunday meant another Road Crew event at The Games Keep, in West Chester, PA, with our party finishing Sky ov Crimson Flame by Thorin Thompson. Pretty sure this is going to go down as one of my favorite adventures that I've ever run for Dungeon Crawl Classics. 

Not even exaggerating. 

I think it was the blood & flesh magic that really sealed the deal for me. So many opportunities for fun gross-out moments. Great players really helped. Especially young Will.

Keep casting those fish themed magic missiles, buddy! Steve James the Ichthyomancer will never be forgotten. Can't wait to see where this goes in future adventures within the Eastern Forest!

UPDATE: Okay, this is a "version 2.0" edit of this blog post. I totally forgot to mention how there was a group of D&D 5.0 folks kind of pissed off that we grabbed our table. They were like "what game are you playing?" I responded "Dungeon Crawl Classics." Kind of a dumb question, since both me and Judge Evie were wearing our hats, and pretty much everyone at the table had a corebook. Well, it was around that time that Ryan started sass talkin' the D&D players. I thought we were gonna throw down. Pretty sure I said something like "are we gonna have a dance off, bro?" Crap was tense!

I may have also commented as to how our book was a LOT bigger than theirs. 

Prior Sessions

• Session 1: Beyond the Silver Scream
• Session 2: Sky ov Crimson Flame, Part 1

Cast of Characters

A few quick changes to this week's lineup. First, we were joined by Cody's friend Shannon who brought a trip of 0-level characters into the Eastern Forest. Second, Evie decided to level up Bueno the Mendicant as a Chaotic Cleric of Bobugbubilz.. 

• Turd Fergeson, Cleric of Amon-Tor, played by Ryan
• Perrin, Dwarf, played by Cody
• Steve James, Wizard, played by Will
• Tonya, Warrior, played by Robert
• Lars, Dwarf, played by Rob
• Bueno, Cleric of Bobugbubilz, played by Evie. 

Shannon had a full deck of 0-levels:

• Twiget the Corn Farmer
• Larkin the Elven Glassblower
• Mallin the Beadle

Adventure Overview

It's always a tough balance: take better notes during the game session so that I can have a more descriptive play report, or run the best game that I can. Honestly, I don't think I can do both, so lately I've been leaning on the latter. But even still, there were some great bright points during this session that I need to cover, and I want to make sure that I jot down enough of "what happened" so that the players can refer to this report later in the campaign.

Honestly, that's about 95% of why I write these things. Even back before I was blogging I wrote dozens and dozens of session summaries. For one campaign alone I've got well over 120 pages written, that I have no plan on ever posting. So if you find any of this kind of sloppy I apologize, but you may not be the designated primary reader. 

Here we go.

Continuing form our last session, the party was in the middle of debating how they were going to ascend to the next level. To put a little "bait" up there of them, I placed all three of Shannon's 0-level characters in the room directly above an already explored balcony. The whines and moans of the poor souls lured the party to climb up and investigate.

The room where Twiget, Larkin, and Mallin were discovered was also the lair of a terrible creation known as a Cherub Fusion. This massive, centipede-like, string of winged baby heads had already devoured three of the room's occupants while the remaining villagers listened to the agony. Tonya wasn't about to let the terrible creation eat any more villagers, and she initiated a dramatic battle that ended in sort of a stalemate. The party didn't defeat the Cherub Fusion as much as Bueno cast it away using a Word of Command. Knowing that they only had about an hour before it returned moved the party along.

The party mimicked the Cherub Fusion's voice to lure a singing torturer to the locked door. As soon as the torturer was at the door, Tonya and Perrin burst through. The next room was full of agonizing displays. Three villagers shackled to a wall with most of the skin on their legs dangling off. Stacks of skin on a table. A pair of servants armed with knives. The torturer had been dazed by Tonya's door-destruction, but was soon cut down by the warrior as the rest of the team flooded the room. The servants didn't last long either.

It should be noted that Bueno cast Food of the Gods during the battle, summoning a giant pile of cooked skin for everyone to eat. I don't think anyone else ate the skin. 

Two of the shackled villagers remained alive until Bueno the Cleric tried using cheese dip as a salve on one. The remaining villager was healed by Turd Fergeson. Glenn the Miller became Turd's henchman.

There were three ways out of the torture chamber. 

The first was a door to some sleeping cultists' quarters. After nearly disturbing them, Tonya tied off the handle to the door so none of them could flee.

The second was another door, leading to a giant egg. The egg had been formed from flayed human skin, and inside was a thin membrane covering a soupy mess of developing winged baby heads. Perrin doused the egg with oil and set it ablaze. 

Heading down the last remaining hallway, the team eventually found itself in the castle courtyard. Atop a nearby tower, a skinless witch with a villager's face sewn to her own was initiating a ritual, calling down red-blood fire from the skies above. In the center of the courtyard, eight cultists cut their own throats and fused together as a Shambling Flesh Mass.

Immediately the party split up. Steve James and Turd Fergeson hung back while Tonya, Lars, Larkin, Twiget, and Bueno went for the Shambling Flesh Mass. Realizing that the skinless witch was his Belesa, Perrin ran up the tower stairwell hoping to save the woman he loved.

The Shambling Flesh Mass had nine fearsome attacks: eight were whipping, regenerating intestine tentacles, and one was a bite. Tonya's two-handed sword, and Lars' axe/shield combo did great work on the mass, although the latter almost fell to the beast's wicked bite. Twiget wasn't so lucky. The Shambling Flesh Mass devoured the poor Corn Farmer, turning Henson the Hen into an orphan. 

While Belesa continued her ritual casting, she kept an eye on the party below. The blood witch, peppered by Steve James' fishy magic missiles returned fire with her own coagulated balls of rage. Steve James was felled by one of the bloody blasts, but Bueno's healing game was on point for the battle.

Unfortunately, there was no amount of healing that could fix Perrin's broken heart. When the dwarf reached the top of the tower, he was struck down by Belesa's blood magic. The dwarf collapsed, muttering a few last words before he died. 

Once the Shambling Flesh Mass was destroyed (Lars got the last hits), Tonya turned her attention to Belesa. The warrior lobbed a grappling hook up onto the tower, catching the witch in the shoulder. As Tonya pulled the witch against the edge of the tower, Turd Fergeson made it to the top and opened up the box containing Belesa's original face. The face flew out of the box, replacing the dead villager's face mask on the witch's head. Immediately Belesa's skin began to grow back. She regained some of her memories and was confused. Utterly confused. What had happened? Why was she hear? Why is there a grappling hook in her shoulder?"

At that point, just as Belesa stopped resisting, Tonya gave one final yank, pulling the woman from the top of the tower and into a forty foot fall to her demise. As she rolled over, the body of Perin slipped from the tower as well, landing right next to his lost love. 

The party took what they could, gathered up the few survivors, and headed back to Reed. 

Quotes

"Magical eels though." - Steve James doesn't need to cast his fish-based, Rope Work spell, but the allure of the eels is just too strong.

"How sticky is my cheese dip?" - Evie ponders using the congealed substance as "skin spackle" to heal one of the flayed prisoners.

"That's good, he almost croaked!" - Rob goes for the amphibian one-liners to describe Bueno's frog-based healing of Lars. 

"I'm breaking up with you." - Perrin's last words, as he was shot down with hardened blood bolts by Belesa. 

"There's always gonna be a face-off." - Ryan had a ton of these one-liners today. This one perfectly described the visage ripping theme of Sky ov Crimson Flame.

Open Story Points

• With Belesa the blood witch dead, what other threats lurked in the Eastern Forest?
• What were Lars' plans for Atma-khanjr, the demonic bone dagger that the dwarf had taken from Belesa? 

Character Crematorium 

• Twiget, killed by the giant fleshy, intestine-tentacled mass in the center of the castle courtyard.
• Perrin, nailed with a hardened blood bolt, cast by his lost love Belesa, blood witch of the Eastern Forest. 

What's Next?

We're either going to explore more of the Eastern Forest within Sky ov Crimson Flame, or perhaps, The One Who Watches From Below.