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Railing Kill posted:The above line just reminds me of a running gag in Behind the Bastards where the host has noticed that sometimes you can just, like, yell at bootlickers and they'll just do whatever, sometimes nonsensically. A big, loud, assertive rear end in a top hat can sometimes just... brute force social challenges that game systems like to think are more subtle and less stupid than they are sometimes in real life. Ah, the Wallenberg gambit
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Feb 26, 2024 14:51
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Ichabod Sexbeast posted:Ah, the Wallenberg gambit 
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Feb 26, 2024 15:01
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We spent a full loving hour and a half arguing about keeping this goat we fished out of an outhouse. We started shouting at each other.
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Feb 26, 2024 17:21
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Railing Kill posted:I also love adventures where everyone in the party is ill-equipped, mechanically. Stealth missions with no stealthy characters is the typical one. We just had one in 7th Sea that I might write up because it was a well-composed whodunit, it was hilarious, and it ended with a banger of a cliffhanger. "Might" nothin'. Now that you've announced there's a story you can't not tell it, and indeed the whole thread will be howling for your trip report. "Might" makes "write!"
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Feb 28, 2024 18:17
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Feb 28, 2024 20:18
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Almost had our entire group taken out by a statue last night. The players are exploring an underground labyrinth. They come across a statue of a goddess which has an altar beneath it; on this altar is a small scroll and a key. The scroll reads, "When in need of a key, offer your prayers to the goddess. Do not resist whatever comes your way." So the first player says a quick prayer. I ask, "Do you choose to make a Willpower check?" and he does. I tell him nothing happens. He tries to pick up the key and instantly falls unconscious. Next player comes up and prays. Again, I ask, "do you choose to check Willpower?" He does. Nothing happens. Touches the key, falls asleep. Now comes the third player. I ask, very clearly, "Do you CHOOSE to make a Willpower roll?" Looks at me funny but does anyway. Touches the key. Snooze land. Along comes the fourth and last player in the group, stepping over the magically sleeping bodies of his compatriots. I lean forward, eyes bulging, and say in my best Chris Tucker "do you hear these words coming out of my mouth" voice: "Do. You. CHOOSE. To make a Willpower check." The other players instantly get "Ohhhhhh" looks on their faces. Fourth player, picking up dice: "I do --" Everybody frantically shakes their heads and waves their arms. Fourth player, realizing: "... nnnot?" Grabs the key, no problem. The sleeping characters were supposed to need magic to awaken, but the last character was a fighter, so I just let him kick them awake.
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Mar 2, 2024 03:33
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Mirage posted:Almost had our entire group taken out by a statue last night. Stoney tarts distributing warnings are no basis for a system of party decision-making.
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Mar 2, 2024 15:27
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Mirage posted:The sleeping characters were supposed to need magic to awaken, but the last character was a fighter, so I just let him kick them awake. lol It's what they deserve.
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Mar 2, 2024 15:32
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Cooked Auto posted:Oh yes, I'll admit I've missed these a bit.  Hard agree
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Mar 2, 2024 18:12
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Golden Bee posted:The girls from Brazil! Teenager, mentalist, millionaire… lazybones?! Devika Velyapur refused to attend Lord Matthew’s annual black-and-white bash, simply because she was unconscious and poisoned. This wasn’t what stuntwoman Lala Santinella needed. She was at the end of her rope after her failed wedding, And had come to apologize to her adoptive daughter, only to find her unresponsive due to a paralytic neck dart! Complicating matters were her ex (but not her former fiancé) Penny An’Te, Hawaiian gambling queen…and Lord Simon, Devika’s adoptive parent the girl actually liked! Unfortunately, the best place for safe medical care and Manhattan was the Century Club! The group had made many enemies among the elite adventurers of the CC… And none of the trio were particularly charming. They hastily recruited Florence Zee, who probably would’ve preferred performing at the black-and-white party… And with the help of Gertie An’Te and Bebe Broussard, convinced crimefighter Gregory Goyle to house and care for the comatose desi. Luckily, Lord Simon made himself scarce; Goyle still wanted him and irons for the assassination attempt on " King Solomon" all the way back in Park slope snipe hunt! The group followed their lead, a thin gold coin Devika had clutched in her palm, to the NYC Natural History Museum. Simon felt a pang of guilt. It was this museum that he, Javid and Devika had robbed together that had set her down a path of "relic acquisition." The group found a relevant historian, Walter W. Chenoweth, and told him a much simpler story about the source of the coin and poison. He gestured with his glasses, explaining that it was all simple really, when his left frame was shattered by a blow dart! In the doorway of his office was a real-life Aztec warrior! The group gave chase. Lala was fast on her feet, Penny understood the criminal mind, and Florence was able to deal with the packed crowds. (At least somewhat well; when asked by a nun for a donation, the Aussie gave her entire purse!) But it was Lord Simon’s knowledge of museum security that helped the most… He was able to clandestinely trace the invader to the basement. Unfortunately, Lala found the crate the Aztec was hiding in… and with her pistol, put an air-hole into his forehead. *** After the initial shock, art thief Simon solved two problems at once. He found the crate the Aztec was shipped in… and changed the purchase order so the corpse would be returned to sender. Not only that, but the group knew the logistical core of their enemy… A little warehouse in the Bayou. Hopefully the volatile Italian stuntwoman remembered how to fly a DC-3… After a brief consult With Marie Laveau, the players had a full picture. The coin wasn’t a unit of currency… It was a mystical focus from the deadly spider cult of Tzmitze! And if they wanted a cure for the poison, they needed venom direct from the spider Goddess. Simon snuck into the cult’s warehouse, raided the filing cabinets, and found a web of addresses that crossed the entire southern United States and Mexico*. The center of the web? A temple in the jungles of the Yucatán! Penny hit the tables in New Orleans, Racing the clock to afford the group’s most desired piece of equipment…a gasoline-powered, top-of-the-line Stihl chainsaw. The group picked up the trail in Mérida. Florence’s contacts among the ranchero-set helped the group pick up the trail… With their guide noting it was weird to see so many foreigners lately. The trip was a multi-day trek up the river and into the unmapped wilds. Despite the natural beauty, the trip was mostly quiet, interrupted only by sarcastic questions from Devika’s tag-along teenage pal Ava Astor. Ava was rude, and unlike Devi, was to fascinated every time Lala engaged in the old ultraviolence. Who knew how many jaguar-dressed men they could make history of? *** The territory of Tzmitze wasn’t subtle. Rocky outcroppings were blocked with walls of webs. Torch and chainsaw helped to get through, but woke up the local spider population, from ones the smaller than nickels to speedy red ones the size of dobermans. It took every bit of Lala’s athletic talent to get the team through without deadly bites, and they were making great time… Until they reached a white bridge over a chasm. Wait a minute, that wasn’t rope… It was spider silk! The players fled through the smoke and flame, waiting until their enemies were on (and below) the bridge… Then chopped it to pieces with the Stihl! A short time later, the players emerged into an ancient Aztec city. There were murmurs of activity all over… Apparently a sacrifice, a white woman. It couldn’t be…it was. Trudy Truman, Florence’s “roommate” And international reporter extraordinaire! Simon snuck to the rescue. Florence used her observational skills to direct traffic, and Lala took out the warriors with her electric-axe. Ferocity and home-field advantage were nothing against a chainsaw. When the priest died (due to Penny’s persistent bullets), there was a rumble from the central pyramid… And slowly, from the center, emerged an arachnid the size of a semi-trailer! Lala was able to distract the thing, barely, but her chainsaw barely scratched its hide. And a splash of its venom sent Penny into a psychotropic freakout! Simon took charge, asking how much gas the chainsaw had. Turns out… A lot. Florence tricked the creature back into the pyramid, where jerry cans of fuel combined with ancient braziers. The spider cult had outlasted Pancho Villa and the conquistadors, but nothing could beat a five-gallon Molotov cocktail. *** Back in New York, Dr. Herbert W flicked his glowing syringe. Penny and Devi were brought conclusively back to the land of the living. What followed was a lot of heartfelt admiration and scolding, with Devika explaining how she wanted to prove her independence and take down a “relatively minor” cult. She gave Florence a present (a stuffed kangaroo with a hobo bindle) and asked for some privacy… After all that time in a coma, she could really use some sleep. In the hallway, Lala stopped the Grey Gargoyle. She was looking for a job to keep her in town… And he told her that he had a brilliant idea. He needed someone willing to take on “glamorous” crime… in the new Gargoyle radio show! *In the initial adventure this had a fight scene, which I intended to cut… But the players also snuck their way past a fanboat chase!
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Mar 4, 2024 18:45
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A game of Everyone Is John ended with John, naked in a dark ally devouring a human leg (uncooked but fresh!). The policemen decided to go with the time tested strategy of of "just shoot, questions never" which ended the game but that personality managed every single goal it had!
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Mar 4, 2024 20:10
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had a campaign get totally swerved. running a game of DIE with my friends, kieron gillen's collab with the rowan rook and decard (spire, heart) people to make a game based on his comic (also called DIE). DIE is an isekai/jumanji fantasy where your characters get pulled into the world of their roleplaying game for real and have to find their way home while contending with enemies that are thematically and visually reminiscent of their character's personal problems and media interests. this post will have a lot of spoilers for both the RPG and comic and might not make sense without them, just as a heads up. DIE is also very dramatic and violent and is designed to basically force intra-party conflict that may or may not rise to the level of pvp, because (spoilers for both game and comic because this detail is intentionally hidden from players until play starts) everyone has to agree unanimously to go home or to stay in the fictional world, or the fictional world will end killing everyone. dead players arise as zombies, but they don't get to vote. if the party returns home, dead players appear to return as a corpse, but (double spoilers for the comic here:) their zombie remains behind in DIE. our particular plan for this game was to have a party that goes to the DIE world as teens in 1999 for a set of prologue sessions, gets out, then has to return as adults for a full campaign reasons we'd concoct during the teen prologue. we're running DIE in a slightly modified way because it's mostly designed for limited play and I don't love some of the calls made for a campaign-length game, but these don't matter unless you already know about DIE: player fallen get to retain their special abilities in this game because playing a literal zombie with no advancement is lame at campaign length, they just can't go home and are steadily losing their sense of self. also, the Master in the teen session was being played not as an intentional villain but as a kidnapped member of the party, whose henchmen had basically seized the reins from her. the DIE classes are all very heightened takes on standard D&D fare, and the ones that matter particularly here are the Dictator (the bard turned sour, a walking mind control machine that NPCs distrust) and the Master (the in-universe DM and also the actual game DM's special DMPC villain, which is generally a riff on arcane spellcasters). also, as mentioned, the NPCs in DIE are explicitly supposed to echo both real world and fictional influences on the PCs; an early riff in the comic features the hobbits from LOTR in a nightmarish eternal verdun as part of the game world. It was supposed to be a very light-hearted session! The isekai'd teens were in the middle of an errand for the villain (the Lady of Pain, who had been the in-game villain of a prior normal D&D campaign their PCs played as part of their background) to try to save the Master, who had part of her soul stolen and stuck in a phylactery which was preventing her from returning home. in this particular leg of the journey the party had gotten to a spooky castle that was actually pro wrestling themed (....yes it was named wrestlevania), which was a chance to just do some silly fights and also play with one character's issues relating to being bullied by the wrestling team. the party engaged in some wacky fights against enemies like "a slime that mimics you" and "your character's AD&D character, resurrected as part of a skeleton tag team," while the bullied character had a main event no DQ match against a mysterious black knight and ghosts that looked like the wrestling team. he proved victorious, and the black knight turned out to be (this didn't end up being relevant but it's another DIE spoiler) a player zombie from some past fictional iteration of the game, a woman who died in DIE and so was never able to return to her daughter, who was supposed to be a little plot hint about the nature of some of the zombies they were fighting and what would happen to them if they died. she dropped a photo that would have, and probably still will, been an important lever the players could pull during the time skip to learn more about DIE. out of the five players, three had finished their matches and were still standing, the main eventer had finished his match but got knocked out as it ended, and the dictator had gotten pulled along on a side thread away from the action. the dictator's wrestling match opponent was a certain beloved fictional starship captain (it was Kirk) who had been captured by a green-skinned alien space pirate queen and forced to fight for the freedom of his crew. the captain ended up pretty seriously wounded due to their match, and the dictator followed him to the medical tent because he was being played as a teen with sincerely heroic intentions who couldn't just ditch a pit fighter he seriously injured. this got him locked in a standoff with a third party, a robed mystical warrior with a blade of light who apparently had come to buy the captain from the pirate queen (it was qui gon jinn, a running player in-joke in this game is that the phantom menace trailer has come out but the movie hasn't yet, and trying to get back to see it is one of the group's motivations). he distrusts the dictator because DIE NPCs are aware of the player classes as in-universe concepts/powersets and distrust the one with mind control for understandable reasons. then all hell broke loose. I had mentioned off-hand that the lady of pain and the Master (the kidnapped NPC party member) were actually also there in box seats to watch the wrestling. so the three conscious PCs decided that this was a great time to try to ambush the lady of pain, steal back the phylactery, shortcut the adventure, and return home. i stressed that this was an extremely risky plan given that while this version of the lady was definitely altered to fit DIE, she was still capable of godlike things and this was probably a bad idea. nonetheless, they went with it, committing so hard that they attacked her before they even healed their KOed teammate to consciousness, so he woke up with absolutely no idea what was going on. after a series of disastrous rolls and literal in-game cheating by the Master, they succeeded by the skin of their teeth, with one player knocked out in the process. The Master cheated to summon them all to her side, then cast Wall of Force to give them a breather and a chance to chat and maybe try to return home now that they had the whole party. The lady of pain basically just pulled up a chair to wait out the timer on the spell (because I as DM realized the conversation they were about to have was way more interesting than any possible fight). while this was all happening, events proceeded in the medical tent to the point where the mystic killed the Dictator. So the Master summoned back his corpse to the rest of the party and panicked. unlike everyone else in the party, she knows that death in DIE means that you rise as a zombie with the certain knowledge that you cannot return home while dead but can return to life, and therefore can go home again, if you kill another member of the party. since the Dictator has access to mind control, she believes that if he rises again, they will not be able to defeat him. So she immediately spills the beans to the entire party about the implications of this and the fact that if they want, they can all vote now to go home since the dictator no longer gets a vote, which will mean when they get back the Dictator is just dead. I am still DMing here but since I am supposed to play the Master directly i am very focused on this party conflict. at this point the Dictator's player asks how long wall of force lasts and pulls out a physical timer to make us all have the conversation in 10 minutes. I tell them that at minute 8 they will rise as a zombie. I explain the stakes of the choice to the rest of the party: vote to leave now, and the Dictator dies. he will not return with everyone else. if the party stays, he comes back as a bloodthirsty zombie, might want to kill us more than he can resist, and probably none of us can stop him on account of the mind control. and for him to come back to life he'll have to murder one of us, or we'll be taking the slimmest possible hope that there is some other way to figure this out, which the character couldn't guarantee and i as DM was trying to indicate would be exceedingly difficult and maybe mean instead of doing the timeskip we just do a whole campaign as the teen PCs. which would have been fine! but just a different choice narratively. in one of the more shocking moments i've had in a game i've run, they all pretty much immediately decided to abandon their friend to his fate (for what i think are going to end up being compelling in-character reasons but there literally wasn't time to break it down). the PCs voted to leave. the Master couldn't decide. she stalled for time until the zombie player woke up. still in shock about his own death and coming to terms with everything, but wanting to be a hero, he told them to leave him behind. so she voted to leave too. time froze, the world turned strange colors, and two massive blue holograms, representatives of DIE (comic spoilers obviously these are the fair but the party hadn't really had a chance to deal with them yet) appeared before them. They told the PCs that with votes cast, the game had ended, but they offered a chance to say goodbye. the party....really seriously botched their farewells to the dead character. the PC who got woken up mid-final fight was still in shock and didn't say anything. the PC rogue awkwardly gave him all his equipment in case some of it might help. the PC sorcerer (in one of the most painful moments of character-accurate thoughtlessness i've watched in a game) straight up expressed her jealousy that he got to stay behind in this magic world. the Master apologized over and over and promised to find a way back. the PC cleric just wept, piteously, until the Dictator offered to take her pain away. She agreed, and he mind-controlled her into agreeing to leave him behind and into believing this was the right choice. One of the great blue holograms put a benevolent hand on her shoulder and smiled at her. "Thank you for playing DIE," it said, and then they all vanished, leaving the Dictator behind in the ruins of Wrestlevania. now i'm making the surviving players talk about the length of the timeskip until they return to DIE as adults and start thinking about just exactly how badly this ruined their lives and when/why they'll return. then they'll get to be surprised next session when instead of timeskipping we immediately snap to the moments after they teleport back, when the police will undoubtedly have a lot of questions. meanwhile the dictator and i are figuring out what it all means.
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Mar 4, 2024 22:33
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That's bleak. But it sounds like the players don't fully understand the rules of how the world works, by design? Or is this an OOC you know what it means, but IC you do not?
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Mar 4, 2024 23:10
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yeah the players are denied OOC knowledge of how death works intentionally until the first player dies, and then when the dead player decided to slap an actual 10 minute timer on it so that everyone else would intentionally not get a chance to digest the consequences of the death before they decided, everyone was like oh okay i guess we're doing this! at a couple points i considered stopping so they could get their bearings but checking back in today everyone was like "i felt confused but in a way that seemed accurate to what my character would have felt in the moment so i'm happy with it"
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Mar 5, 2024 00:11
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Last Friday was the culmination of the first major story arc in the 13th Age game I'm running for my friends. The campaign opened with the party waking up in the heart of a ruined temple; they each knew who they were but didn't know who the others were or why they were there. All told, they were missing about two weeks of memories. When they got back to civilization, they learned that they'd been hired to clear out the temple, a job at which they had incidentally succeeded. They also learned that every hellhole in the empire - basically rifts where demonic energy leaks in, and a staple of 13th Age's setting - had disappeared overnight, and that a massive gray pillar or tower had appeared in the middle of the sea. Also, the major demon-killing figure of the setting, the Crusader, was gone without a trace. Fast forward to the finale. With the help of the Lich King (whose identity was revealed at the 11th hour and who is somehow alive again), they make it to the tower and enter. After a lengthy descent through the dimly-lit structure and a major fight with a dragon at the bottom, they're granted an audience with its master: the god of death. The god revealed the truth: the world in which they'd been adventuring was a simulacrum, created when the Crusader was betrayed to the demons, who used him as a sort of magical battery to set the entire mortal world on fire. The god, a merciful being, created the false world to help humanity pass on more peacefully. But the PCs intrigued him, because they alone were still alive, having been somehow thrown forward in time when the world ignited. It now falls to them to find a way to reach the goddess of time and try to find a way to travel back and prevent the demonic apocalypse. I love being able to surprise my players, and this did the trick. I managed to work most of their One Unique Things into the reveal, and after the session ended I had the added pleasure of watching them piece together all the foreshadowing I did - everything from little oddities in descriptions to the names of the magic items i gave them. And now I have to try and top that for the second half of the campaign. gently caress.
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Mar 5, 2024 19:57
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5-Headed Snake God posted:Last Friday was the culmination of the first major story arc in the 13th Age game I'm running for my friends. Looking forward to it! These kinds of tightropes are always tough to walk, because if the time deity can just rewind everything your actions feel pointless but getting a chance to defy fate is inherently badass. Seems you did a good job! Ask me about how my DM handled a similar concept (not well).
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Mar 7, 2024 03:08
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After three weeks of cancelled sessions, my online group finally had Session 2. The group (all level 3) debated whether to travel along the coast or through a spider-infested forest, but the prospect of shipwreck treasure put stars in half the group's eyes so we took the coast road. Upon seeing smoke from a bonfire, we snuck up and saw a clearing with a group of 10 Thri-Keen hunters. After some argument about what to do, we decided to quietly go around, but the stealth check to leave went badly. We were quickly surrounded, but luckily they had a translator who spoke Common, and it turned out they wanted an escort to the next town. Some large creature was hunting them and it had killed several. They described it as something which disappeared and re-appeared, and I couldn't help but smile at that, having a hunch what it meant. We were already traveling that way and agreed. Needless to say, it found us. The Druid had wild-shaped into a Panther. I opened the combat by casting Faerie Fire onto the (Wounded) Acid Behir, which not only completely negated its Invisibility ability, but also granted advantage on all attack rolls against it. It might have been wounded, but it was still very dangerous. 17 AC, 118 HP and +10 to hit on attack rolls, and its acid attack was 3d10+4 (or +6? I forget which). It knocked the Druid out of Panther form and wounded it, and did 25 damage to the Ranger with 15 HP (they may have been incorrectly rolling for HP instead of taking the average). The constant advantage to hit was really important with that high AC. After a few rounds, it was down to 10 or 11 HP when my turn came up, so I rolled to hit with advantage. Natural 20. With a full 10 on my Eldritch Blast die (+4 for Agonizing Blast), my character spun his revolver and fired the eldritch blast right between its eyes to finish it. We rolled d4's for special loot. I got a 4 on mine and claimed a Behir Eye, which gives a once per day use of See Invisibility. The DM also calculated that we each got 1800 XP which was precisely enough to hit level 4. I merely took the ASI to boost my CHA to 20 and WIS to 12. We escorted the grateful Thri-Keen to the village, who said that our rooms at the inn for the night were on them. Good session.
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Mar 10, 2024 04:36
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"It was legal until surprisingly recently to electrocute someone to death, but there have been very few times in American history when it was legal to burn someone to death." "I prefer to sidestep the issue. It has never been legal in America to kill someone with a sword!" We decided the theme of the night was "technically more ethical". I also, in an unrelated scene, that one of the other players has been reading the Bible specifically to make up insane conspiracy theories.
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Mar 10, 2024 11:59
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give them a link to the massive Mesopotamian/Biblical CYOA that's been running on these very forums for over a decade.
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Mar 10, 2024 12:13
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By popular demand posted:give them a link to the massive Mesopotamian/Biblical CYOA that's been running on these very forums for over a decade. You mean this one? 
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Mar 10, 2024 14:34
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Has your faith in EL ever lead you astray?
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Mar 10, 2024 14:36
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I'm running classic Cthulhu campaign Masks of Nyarlathotep and my guys just got to London and are poking around trying to discern the cult before it notices them. They go visit one of their leads and drop some subtly relevant information (a hieroglyphic they got off an artifact from new York). The lead, who is an incredibly evil lady who runs a spice shop, is like nope, no idea (lying, which she is extremely good at). The players roll all their dice and get a great result! It's not quite good enough, but spending a couple of points of luck (a trivial amount) will put them over and reveal one of the villains! One of the other players suggest doing this and i carefully remove all expression. Then they forget about it, decide she's fine, and go somewhere else 
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Mar 10, 2024 19:51
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There you go with your methodically illustrated spider's web of an adventure only for the players to completely fail to spot your cunning knots and threads. Meanwhile imma running tomorrow's session with nothing beyond "send players on bullshit mission, let them gently caress with the world, throw something crazy into the mix when it gets boring" 
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Mar 10, 2024 20:21
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By popular demand posted:There you go with your methodically illustrated spider's web of an adventure only for the players to completely fail to spot your cunning knots and threads. Lol yep. This is very much part of the campaign though, they managed to extricate themselves from new York after kicking/dynamiting the hornets nest, so they are hyper alert with the next phase, it's basically cat and mouse.
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Mar 10, 2024 20:35
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I should really write a PARANOIA inspired Cthulhu mythos thing, I feel it would work great.
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Mar 10, 2024 20:39
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bbcisdabomb posted:"It was legal until surprisingly recently to electrocute someone to death, but there have been very few times in American history when it was legal to burn someone to death." Duelling was legal for quite a while, the time Abraham Lincoln got challenged to a duel is pretty fun history.
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Mar 10, 2024 20:53
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And Abe chose broadswords as the weapon to duel with because he was massive and didn’t want his challenger the chance to kill him with a ranged weapon. It worked. history stuff posted:As the two men faced each other, with a plank between them that neither was allowed to cross, Lincoln swung his sword high above Shields to cut through a nearby tree branch. This act demonstrated the immensity of Lincoln’s reach and strength and was enough to show Shields that he was at a fatal disadvantage. With the encouragement of bystanders, the two men called a truce.
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Mar 11, 2024 01:59
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Golden Bee posted:Web Of The Spider Cult! by Paul "Wiggy" Wade-Williams But the GM had a migraine, which caused a cascade of players leaving. With two hours left of the four-hour session, the remaining players were Kulfi and Wilcox. So enjoy… The Doom of the Lost Library! by Peter Schweighofer. The author and photographer were relaxing in beautiful Ruratonga. It was too relaxed, in fact…Querida’s publicist Dolores kept pointing out their “work” for Ziegler Security Services was going to put them behind schedule. Luckily, a new client arrived on the supply boat! Yale orientalist professor Carter Dudley needed help traveling to an abandoned island. According to legend, it was settled by an Indian fleet long ago, but was destroyed in the squabble between Kali and Ganesha worshipers. Miss Wilcox took the gig and flew the group to the island. It wasn’t until they landed that she discovered sneak-thief Lord Simon, napping on the seaplane’s supplies. More importantly...It turned out the rumors were true! The overgrown jungle concealed an ancient city, with two temples visible from the air. Shortly after they landed in the central lagoon, horrifying ape-men ambushed the party! But apes were no match for the blue-collar brawler and the Afghan militiaman. Unluckily, the Ganesha temple’s guardians were mightier. Lord Simon accidentally activated and distracted the stone guardians, with Carter Dudley chasing after. The writer and the photog braved the inspiring temple, carved out of a giant cave with care. Trapped with care, too. Cunning and experience help them avoid a seesaw hallway and crumbling stairs. A disregard for tradition and curses allowed them to loot several historical artifacts. Querida explained that they weren’t stealing… They were furnishing proof that this place even existed. Smart. The greatest treasure was a 3-foot-long piece of embroidered ivory. “Ganesha’s Tusk”, explained Javid. Dolores sighed. Carter Dudley appeared when they reached the temple’s library… Just in time to steal a sacred book and cause a cave-in! The group easily guessed his destination: the Kali temple! Unfortunately the Yalie had a massive lead, and they didn’t have a way to catch up… Until Querida decided to lasso and ride an elephant! They arrived at the Central Lagoon just in time to see Carter Dudley steal their seaplane… And putter it slowly the other half of the lagoon. The group would’ve swam for it… Except the water was filled with sharks! Sharks that were willing to eat aggressive, evil ape men, turns out. The group was forced to leave the elephants behind, and trudged through more of the ruined city. Lord Simon helped them sneak into the crumbled side of the Kali temple… But Carter’s third eye had opened, and they were discovered before they could get a shot off! Querida Wilcox was an expert at fighting outnumbered. As the apes climbed at her, she stomped the fastest in the eye, sending him onto his fellows. The crack of broken spines reverberated through the temple, which seemed to glow in satisfaction. Javid shuffled backward, using his pistol deftly. Kali may have created these monsters, but she didn’t prepare them for Nagant. Too bad fighting the British didn’t prepare Javid for mystic attack! Professor Dudley snickered as he emerged from a secret passage, his eyes purple. He called upon the goddess to paralyze the man, and the Afghan felt his arms and legs lock in place! Luckily, Dolores and Simon had been carrying around the massive Tusk. Simon tried to make the stiff Javid carry it… Which cured the paralysis magic completely! But this sent the tusk tumbling to the floor, where the apemen were able to grab it. Freed of malicious intent, they carried it back into the jungle out of sheer curiosity, with Lord Simon chasing after them and yelling. “Hey! We stole that first!” The sorcerous New Havenite whirled on his opponents. This was academically dishonest, a complete violation of their escort contract, and heresy! His blood magic would’ve made a mind-slave of Querida… But her brain was rescued when publicist Dolores demanded she snap out of it and stick to the schedule! Despite a small amount of boxing training, Carter Dudley was ill-prepared for the blue-collar brawler and ex militia sniper. His wounds turned into purple vortexes of energy. The Temple rumbled. In a moment of desperation, Querida lassoed his stolen tome… And threw the book at him, literally! Kali took her toll from the academic, his blood snaking through the air and splattering all over her statue. His bones rattled to the ground… And the group fled for their lives! Although Querida rolled her ankle, everyone escaped before the temple collapsed even more. Now all they needed to do was steal back a mystic artifact from a group of monkeys. And hopefully no one saw them leave with Carter...
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Mar 11, 2024 05:45
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This eve's game: Party comes across a triangular headed triple eyed vermin. Vermin is caught and restrained with human skin straps (long story). Vermin named Prince Franz Ferdinand. Vermin is foolishly released from it's mouth muzzle and bites off PC's fingat. PC smashes the poor rodent(ish) thing to death and sticks the regurgitated fingat up the carcass butthole. PC later extracts fingat, washes it and attempts to reattach it as only an untrained moron could. Later on all the characters awake from the VR experience they were unknowingly subjected to. Player askes about his fingat, I inform him it seems he mangled it with his mouth while in the VR. Also, it now starts to hurt.
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Mar 11, 2024 20:59
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By popular demand posted:give them a link to the massive Mesopotamian/Biblical CYOA that's been running on these very forums for over a decade. the_steve posted:You mean this one? I don't think he has an account but I will absolutely link him, he'll love that. Tunicate posted:Duelling was legal for quite a while, the time Abraham Lincoln got challenged to a duel is pretty fun history. JUST MAKING CHILI posted:And Abe chose broadswords as the weapon to duel with because he was massive and didn’t want his challenger the chance to kill him with a ranged weapon. It worked. I did not know about Abe Lincoln's broadsword duel but I feel I am a better person for now knowing it.
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Mar 11, 2024 21:44
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Read more about it, the duelers became friends after.
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Mar 11, 2024 21:59
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According to DM, every Darklord in Ravenloft is cursed to use the Imperial measurement system.
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Mar 16, 2024 02:21
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CobiWann posted:According to DM, every Darklord in Ravenloft is cursed to use the Imperial measurement system. Players must mete out justice and defeet the evil rulers.
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Mar 16, 2024 03:22
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Tunicate posted:Players must mete out justice and defeet the evil rulers. My DM - "Not just any unit of measure in the Imperial system, but all encumbrance must be calculated in Stone. All temperatures are in the Rankine scale. Length must be in Hands."
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Mar 16, 2024 13:20
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Me standing over Authentic Measurements GM: You'll be happy to know that all these weights I'm about to hit you with have been thoroughly adjusted to pre-revolution French standards!
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Mar 16, 2024 13:57
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Emissaries of the Old Ones, Book One Chapter 2 - “River of Dreams / The Apprentice and the Book” X X X X X "That which we call substance and reality is shadow and illusion, and that which we call shadow and illusion is substance and reality." - HP Lovecraft X X X X X Previously on “Welcome To A New World of Strange Rules and Eldritch Monsters”... A group of travelers to the city of Fallcrest becomes a newly minted adventuring party when the city is attacked by strange creatures pouring forth from an ancient temple uncovered by an earthquake, while a mysterious sage becomes their patron and directs them to obtain the means to destroy a forbidden sword whose purpose is to sever the seals holding the Old Ones from Tanicus. X X X X X In order to destroy the Apocalypse Blade known as “Gruulshahn the Aberrant Nail,” the Greencloaks need to recover the Librum Escorpus (or the Book of Dooms) from the wizard Theodûir who lives south of the city along the Brandywine River. Our patron Zorah, however, hasn’t heard from the wizard or his apprentice, Tam Everland, in over five years. Deciding that a boat would be the best option, the party heads to the docks and hires one Emmaline Yeardly, captain of Laurence, to take them downriver on her way to dropping off cargo at Woodlawn Keep.   Our DM was happy to have these tiles as they represent a navigable river and are wide enough to move the boat without the model clipping the shore. As Yllestria explains the nature of her Kineticist powers and how she draws metal and wood directly from their respective Elemental planes, Iteru notices Captain Emmaline talking to a shield with a familiar symbol on the backside - the symbol of Istishia, primordial deity of elemental water and the deity that Iteru pays homage to. The trip to the Wizard’s tower will take two days. In order to pass the time Piran asked if anyone would like to take part in a Harrow draw (Pathfinder’s counterpart to a Tarot draw). Velia asked about the Wizard’s apprentice, and in turn pulled the Betrayal card - a card that can speak to selfishness incarnate or self-sacrifice.  Iteru asked for a draw and got the Courtesan - intrigue, politics and the masks we wear, and may speak of powerful figures in our future.  Poppy pulled the Empty Throne - it may speak to those who trained and influenced the party, but also represent restless spirits. At the party’s behest Piran did a full Harrow spread. The end result? There is deceit in what’s to come, but also a chance to avoid danger while events move as they should.    (Really I’m showing this off because the artwork is beautiful) As Laurence continues downriver, Iteru saw bubbles dropping into the water, quickly followed by bubbles rising from the water and floating into the air as the boat hit a patch of wild magic and it began to rain in reverse, which threatened to lift the boat out of the water. A trio of boggarts compounded the problem.  What followed was a display of Yllestria’s player’s dice luck as she (male player, but gotta keep recap pronouns accurate!) proceeded to roll a natural 1 on her attack roll. The card from the crit deck was Not My Pony!, which meant her attack hit Sir Kerien, for which she rolled maximum damage on the eidolon. As Emeline struggled to hold the boat over the water, Yllestria’s next round saw another natural 1. The crit deck called for her to be moved ten feet, so the DM ruled that the rising water grabbed her and held her in the air. Of course, this meant Yllestria’s next attack was a ranged attack, for which… she rolled a natural 20 and perforated a boggart with metal shards to the point where the body could be recycled. quote:Velia - “You let the water grab you so you could be put into a more advantageous position!” The crisis passed once the boggarts were defeated and water returned to finding the lowest point possible. As the party assessed the damage, Velia realized how desperate Emeline had been to keep the boat over the water. When asked… quote:Emmaline - “I can explain. I can’t cross onto dry land.” Emmaline explains that her papa had been cursed by sirens (or maybe naiads) to always need water under his feet, lest he become horrifically sick and eventually die. When he died, the curse was passed onto her. As such she had to spend her entire life on the river or tied up at dock and paid homage to Istishia for guidance and safety while on the water. As a follower of Istishia himself, Iteru sympathized with Emmaline, especially since he is under a compulsion of his own. quote:“My tribe lives on the shore of a large mountain lake, and we have a genie patron, a marid named Alq. She is powerful and mercurial as all genie are, but she seemed to take a particular delight in my misfortunes. I was strumming my lute at the water’s edge when she joined me. After listening for a bit, she said that it had been ages since she had heard a song that stirred her heart. At the sorrow in her voice I said “I wish I could write a tune that would stir your soul.” In an instant she smiled and boomed, “GRANTED!” Next thing I knew, I was on a boat heading for the Eastern Continent. And I’ve been trying to write that song ever since and coming up dry.” Later that day Iteru and Yllestria are fishing off the side of the boat. Yllestria got a nibble, only for her pole to be yanked from her hands into the river. Iteru helpfully retrieved the pole using    The defeat of the critter came as the sun dipped low on the horizon. Emeline pulled Laurence close to the shore to allow the party to disembark and set up camp. The initial survey, however, revealed something off about the site.  A large, metallic-but-transparent crystal grew near one of the trees, in which Piran noticed a shadowy form, while Yllestria noticed that a nearby tree had a figure in plate armor draped over a branch in such a manner to suggest that it had been hurled onto the tree.   The crystal contained a creature transforming into an akada which was guarded by three of the beefy dog-like creatures, which hail from the Far Realm/Nightmare Lands like creatures with long tails and tentacles lining their backs. Tied to Saracco (the eldritch point of origin where Piran’s dream visitor hails from), a bite from their creatures risk implantation of their young and eventual cocoonment.   The party managed to defeat the creatures without becoming impregnated.The armor belonged to the corpse that wore it, a desecated lwnasidh knight from the Order of the Silver Swan. Hailing recently from Aelu Derai, the Silver Swans were once questing knights based on the archipelago of the Faerie Isles. Many of their number remained on the mainland when the Faerie Isles were closed off nearly two centuries before and only recently rejoined their people when the lwnasidh emigrated from the West to Ceilar. Poppy took the armor, planning to use it for the time being, but would return it to the Silver Swans at the first opportunity, then the party settled in for the night. While in the midst of her reverie, Yllestria has a dreamlike memory of something that didn’t happen to her. quote:You are running through a dark tunnel, foul-smelling liquid splashing around your feet. The footsteps are still behind you, growing louder as the fatigue begins to set in, the backs of your legs burning. Yllestria awoke, noticing that the same silver scales she'd seen in the dream was emblazoned on Poppy's shield, but chose not to discuss it with the party. X X X X X   It was raining heavily, with lightning touching down in the distance when the party disembarked from Laurence within sight of Theodûir’s tower. The tower appeared abandoned as the party approached. Atop a rocky crag is a statue of what appeared to be a young man in robes, leaning forward slightly, arms out, and an expression of shock etched on his face.   Combining their esoteric knowledge and skills, the party determined that the statue was under the effects of Conjuration and Enchantment via a curse channeled through a glyph on its forehead. Velia and Yllestria work together to break the curse. As the young man falls face first to the ground, however, a trio of strange creatures crawl out from the rocks.    Appropriately called chokers, these creatures used the suckers lining their fingers and their palms to choke Piran and Poppy, but from the newly unstoned caster, a series of quote:Tam - “Based on what you say is today’s date, roughly five years ago Master Theodûir was visited by an envoy from the Duchy of Highspire. Her name was Adrienne Ash, and her mission was to invite my Master to return to the duchy and end his exile. Instead, she slit his throat during dinner, and as I tried to escape, I heard a distant whisper and felt my skin turning to stone. The next thing I recall, I was face down on the rock at the feet of your gaudily clad colleague.” After finding a silver necklace adorned with tiny knives amidst the chokers’ trove, Tam unlocked the tower and carefully made his way inside, the Greencloaks following close behind. Furniture strewn throughout the ground floor spoke of a hasty flight. Near the steps leading higher up the tower stood a stone statue of a Saerasi warrior (akin to a Greek Hoplite armed with a shield and spear) from the Western Continent - a statue that was a new addition to the tower according to Tam.   Tam took the opportunity to climb down into the basement where the living quarters were located in order to change into some dry, blood-free clothing. His room was as he left it five years earlier, save for a new portrait of Theodûir hanging on the wall. When he finished changing and turned around, however, the portrait was now on the opposite wall. Tam turned towards the door to make a hasty exit, only now the portrait sat on the wall next to the door. One brief gesture later, Tam’s dry, clean outfit was drenched with fresh paint from the living graffiti.    It’s a messy fight, but the party broke the graffiti down to its primary colors before it faded to gray. quote:Tam - “That was an experience I don’t care to repeat. Hopefully I won’t have to get rid of these walls to prevent its return - they look load-bearing.”   After changing clothes yet again Tam led the party to the second floor dining room, which reeked of decay and rot and also boasted a mirror that Tam did not recognize. Before the party could investigate, however, a swarm of disembodied hands emerged from underneath the stairs and tried to choke out the party.   quote:Piran - “What do we call a swarm of disembodied hands? Once the clasp of hands were defeated, the party turned to deal with the mirror. When Iteru began to study it with Read Aura, he saw a distant figure within the glass playing a song. He only picked up a few notes, but realized it was the song he needed to fulfill his ill-phrased Wish, if he only watched until he learned the tune… Luckily a success on a Will save snapped Iteru out of it, and the party dealt with the trap by covering the mirror with a tablecloth and turning it towards the wall. The Greencloaks safely make their way to the tower’s top floor, the library, where several small bugs and a large glowing bug are waiting for them.    quote:Bug - *done in a chittering voice by the DM, which was unnerving*“I see you’ve awakened, apprentice. Lady Ash’s plans continue unabated. From the earthquake last year, I see your master’s work served her well. But my children have hatched, and it is time for them to feed.” The glowing bug (a d’ziriak summoned from the Nightmare Lands) proved tough for the Greencloaks, as it dropped Piran, Tam, and Iteru in rapid succession. quote:Poppy - “I don’t think they like your music.” The party eventually exterminated the bug and retrieved the Librum Escorpus from its possession, along with a strange mask carved from bone. While the party recovers from their fight through the tower, Piran asked Tam what exactly his master had been researching. To summarize, Theodûir had been studying volcanic eruptions. He had designed an orb that could safely absorb the energy of such an eruption, or possibly generate one by releasing the absorbed energy inside a dormant mountain. And there had been a volcanic eruption one year prior that had caused Velia’s eidolon Kirian and the paladins with him to go mad as a result of exploring an uncovered ancient temple within the mountain that would eventually become that volcano. After a long rest, the Greencloaks returned to the statue on the ground floor, believing it might be another petrified victim of Adrienne Ash. However, it was only a simple stone guardian that Tam once again quote:The Aberrant Nail can be destroyed only if shattered by Judgment’s Measure while frozen in the First Cold.
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Mar 17, 2024 23:13
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Today’s Shadowrun game started off with the characters having a heart-to-heart with one another about morality and violence, and to not take (meta)human life unless absolutely necessary. Everyone agrees. In the very next scene, a ganger tough flashes the handle of a gun when approached by the team’s Face. Instantly the troll street samurai punches the guy for 17 damage, leaving a crater where his chest was. A fight ensues, including more lethal punches, plenty of stabbing, and the hacker unloading a full-auto burst into another ganger’s chest from point-blank range. The scene which caused the heart-to-heart had one NPC death. The scene following had 8, including someone who was trying to get away being picked off “to clean up loose ends.” The protective, motherly spell caster who thought everyone was on the same moral page as she was nearly apoplectic.
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Mar 18, 2024 04:10
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Golden Bee posted:The Doom of the Lost Library! by Peter Schweighofer. Based on characters from Pulse-Pounding Pulp by Garnett Elliott. New York, May 1935. Raucous applause in the Cotton Club. Madame Valeria, formerly Valerie Schmidt, gave her all to introducing one of tonight’s stars, Florence Ziegler. The Australian songbird was competing with Bebe Broussard in a “friendly” competition. Soon, the applause-o-meter was exactly tied, a tie broken by the late arrival of some rowdy staffers from the Australian embassy. They, along with music agent Bert “the Beast” Wilde had messages for Florence… But someone else was sending a message, too. By burning down Ziegler Security Services! Luckily, butler extraordinaire Aldous Bingen was on hand to rush the team to Fifth Avenue, where the smoldering clues led to a hobo camp in Central Park*. At first, there was no sign of an arsonist. But Madame Valeria had a talent besides theatrical introductions… Speaking with the dead! It turns out, their arsonist was also a killer, and not just any killer…But ZSS’s foe Peck, the Swan Street Slicer. And he was ready to slash the party to pieces, cutting Florence and terrifying Bingen. Luckily, the players had an ace in the hole: photographer/gunman Javid Kulfi! He found secret passages through the man camp, and was able to wound the killer in the kneecaps and the stabbing arm. A brief interrogation followed. The miscreant was hired by America’s richest man, Doc Midas, whose office was the top two floors of the Empire State Building. The town wasn’t big enough for Doc and Florence, but a coffin would be the right size. Additional questions were silenced by a sniper! Peck took one right through the eye, and more shots followed. Valeira panicked, fleeing the hobo camp into open ground, getting a hole in the rib cage for her trouble. She faked death. Aldous helped the rest sneak to safety, rescuing Valeria under the cover of Emergency Services. The group regrouped. How could they hope to take on the Midas organization? He was beloved, wealthy, and surrounded by corporate titans. The question was answered with good old detective work. Midas was aided by his Fearsome Four, and they were arrogant enough to be featured in Forbes. I’ll give the summaries below: Pulse Pounding Pulp! posted:“Happy” Herman Haas, war vet and sniper. A dour man who wears elaborate suits and has a passion for fencing. Hap represents Midas Industries as its main White House lobbyist. Gobbler Gottlieb was a victim of his own ego. The players had friends and family call him at all hours of day and night, promising prestigious events and canceling, or rebooking. A scheme that could only work a few days, but that’s how long it needed to. For Todd, they tried a legal option. Madame Valeria took a boat onto the East River, searching for and recovering a disappeared body. Todd fought back by clobbering Javid outside of the club. But the bruiser overplayed his hand. Indian millionaire Devika bribed his secretary to turn state’s evidence, and the next day, the bruiser had to trade French cuffs for handcuffs. Happy was easier. The players snuck into his apartment and faked an urgent telegram from Washington. Aldous chuckled from a nearby shoeshine booth as the mark headed up to the nation’s capital. Florence tried the personal touch with Esther Crane. Flo found her prey belittling a sales girl at the Macy’s beauty counter. Florence argued from naked self-interest: did Crane really want a scandal she couldn’t 'cover up'? The argument was half convincing…but not fully. Luckily, Florence moves indirectly. She riled up the shopgirl under her breath. Esther continued berating. When the 17-year-old slapped the cosmetics giant in the face… SCANDAL! Crane swore she’d fire everyone in the store, everyone on the block! Florence took the raging chemist outside, leading her to a taxi...and telling the driver ‘pronto to Poughkeepsie’. The next day, the gang pored over newspapers. Their tricks had worked. The only wrinkle was the front page of the Tribune, reporting that a Nazi zeppelin had docked at the Empire State Building! The party loaded itself for bear. It was easy enough for Madame Valeria to lie them into the building. But she was the only master of disguise: the others would be found out soon enough. Another complication arose when she got into Midas’s office… and heard the loud flapping of an oxygen machine! Midas’s alchemical innovation, the one who wanted to sell to the Reich, had given him terminal cancer. Worse, Florence’s nemesis, Klaus Adler, was sitting in the buyer’s chair! But only a fool would count out our gang when their back’s up against it. Selling chemical weapons to foreign powers? The response wasn’t gunfire, but journalism! Florence and Valeria stole janitor disguises so they could break into filing cabinets. Javid and Aldous pretended to be window washers, secretly snapping pics of the conversation. It pained Kulfi not to blow up the zeppelin, but he couldn’t risk metal debris raining over Midtown. But hadn’t they forgotten something? Oh, Bert and the embassy! Both barged into Florence’s dinner party. And they both had amazing offers: Bert promised a world tour, the first of its kind. Florence could dine with queens and sing for sheikhs. She’d be a more common household word than “window”. The Aussie Rep had a much more subdued itinerary. She was a hero in Australia… It was time for her to prove it. Bookings up and down both coasts, bringing joy and hope back to a beleaguered nation. Mutually exclusive from the other offer, and not as lucrative… But she was needed. Florence, once obsessed with fame and glory, a former hobo who had bartered her soul for financial success, chose her country. Bert was utterly irate, and so was Devika (who had accepted a large deposit on her personal jet). But there was no arguing with her: Not money, not fame, not hordes of beautiful women, could overcome her loyalty to the grand old land of Oz. A great send-off to a great character. (The player will stay, luckily.) *(That was a real thing, look it up.) Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 01:48 on Mar 19, 2024 |
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Mar 18, 2024 05:33
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Our Lost Mines of Phandelver group, which was level 3, nearly killed Venomfang, a young Green Dragon. It's supposed to flee once under half-health, and it did, but it got away with just 5 HP left. I did get a critical hit and spent a superiority die to double that. It's too bad my Action surge attack hadn't missed. But still, apparently getting it nearly dead is an accomplishment in itself. (It rolled really, really badly to hit in the battle.) (Later on I also rolled two natural 20's when getting advantage for flanking a giant spider with my rapier attack, technically only hitting it for 25 of its 26 hit points, but the DM ruled that it died anyway.)
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Mar 21, 2024 03:49
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Golden Bee posted:Back In The New York Mood! Captain Semya Ivanova is different from many pulp heroes. She’s not a greedy ex-con. She’s not a square-jawed South Seas captain, or a Broadway celeb solving capers that resemble their greatest hits. Doesn't use eastern martial arts to stand up to crooks and cloud the minds of men. She has a cause, of course: international communism. But her methodology is all her own. The adventure started when one of her fans contacted her. James Shen, of San Francisco Chinatown, had a favor to ask: Could she help him bring unity to a divided community? Without it, there was no chance that they’d support rising communist factions in the Middle Kingdom. "Captain I" brought along her sometime pal, outsider Professor Winston Callahan. A scientific genius, well-studied, decent in a fight, and more importantly, someone with his own airplane. They met up with self-assured former Butler Aldous Bingen, who had invited stuntwoman Lala Santinella to the West Coast to get her away from family drama. Their sightseeing was short-lived. A funeral procession degraded into violence. The Hop Sing Tong (which James was affiliated with) was ambushed by the shady On Leong Tong. Soon, cleavers were out, bullets were flying, and Jackson Street was a war zone. Lala sped through the fray on her motorcycle, rescuing the overwhelmed widow, Madam Wong. The well-traveled Captain Ivanova called on some friends in the crowd, grabbing James Shen and brawling to freedom. Though it’s better to elide the gory details, here’s a life lesson: be careful when someone uses a whip to fling kitchen equipment. Unfortunately, the attack was just a ruse! The vile On Leong stole an amphora from the Hop Sing Benevolent Society. The well-read Professor Callahan explained that the stolen jar could greatly expand a person’s chi. Luckily, chi was baloney and science governed the universe. Outside, hot-pistol Aldous perforated some street thugs who were trying to give Lala neck tattoos. She tried to chase down the jar, but lost the thief in San Fran's winding alleyways. Luckily, Captain Ivanova always does her research on local languages. (Subversives might claim her instant language retrieval is based on hypnotic suggestion, perfected in her hometown of Science City Seven.) She hit the streets as Aldous worked over witnesses, and discovered the secret tunnels used by the On Leong. Unfortunately, after a well-deserved night of rest, the group had a new setback. Widow Wong had checked her husband’s coffin, currently laying in state… And it had been smashed open from the inside! The dark sorcerer Wu Zhi had corrupted the pillar of the community, turning him into a hopping vampire! According to lore, hopping vampires jump because their legs are incredibly stiff. On the plus side, they are tremendously strong, capable of draining human life force to power their own, and near bulletproof. They have weaknesses to peach-tree wood, certain rices, and fire. Callahan heard “fire” and went off to develop a flamethrower. (Mad science Isn’t any less dangerous if it’s predictable.) Lala offered to secure the Benevolent Society headquarters. Semya and Aldous cooked rice. The secret tunnels were cramped and dark. They didn’t smell much, not until Callahan unleashed burning accelerants onto Wong’s resurrected corpse. Bingen hurled bags of rice to confuse the creature. But its undead fury was boundless; it raced through the flames to grab Captain Semya. She couldn’t escape its grasp, so she jabbed it repeatedly with a peach tree staff, the wood passing through its flesh like pudding. The creature rotted and burned, until she was slamming parts of its chest against the walls. Evil sorcerer Wu was tougher, but easier on the nose. Semya interrupted his ritual by yelling random words in Cantonese, impressing her cohorts (who assumed she was knowledgeable in counterspells). Aldous stood back, and used one of his greatest skills: being judgmental. Despite his predilection for hurling globs of caustic gall, Wu was endlessly arrogant. No non-Chinese could ever mess with his plans. But no arrogance could predict Winston Callahan. When he wants to touch something, he will. And he wanted to figure out the soul jar! Ivanova punctuated her insults with lashings. Aldous knocked over ritual candles. Winston grabbed the device… And turned a knob while holding it to the black-tongued mage’s face. Within seconds, the artifact had absorbed Wu Zhi. It was hot to the touch, leaving a desiccated husk as the only proof someone had tried to siphon its power. There was only one thing to do: convince the On Leong Tong to abandon criminality in favor of community-mindedness and cooperative economics. The fact they had the former leader’s skull was a major persuader. EDIT: Some backstory I put into an earlier post. HOW KID SIDEKICK DEVI BECAME A MILLIONAIRE! Over the course of some adventures that I didn’t write up, including The Curse of Sekhmet by J.C. Connors, Devika became extraordinarily wealthy. The first was when she helped purge the ghosts from a Yukon gold mine and took it over. The second was the intro and outro of “Curse”. It starts with the players foiling a multiple-bank robber. Devika, unaware that Italy didn’t have FDIC insurance in 1935, decided to split the money recovered with her peers. One of her peers was a Russian journalist who despised money, so Devika became rich splitting 7 robberies two ways. "Curse" ends with the players a lost tomb, filled with golden statues, so … how else to spend a lot of money for a globetrotting explorer than buy a state-of-the-art jet? Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Mar 26, 2024 |
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Mar 24, 2024 08:13
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