Children are Like People but Smaller: White Box hangouts 10

Mole men. Dem claws.

Brian; Roc the Literate/Butcher, lvl 1 fighter

Paul; Alvis of the Blessed Horn, lvl1 mystic

A session in which there was discussion of hunting the mythical white alligator or returning to the abandoned mansion from session 1, the return of the Old Woman, her hut being located in the stilt district, reckless children had entered the sewers to hint mole men for the bounty on their ears, cheese magic was performed once more and a sense of a malevolent, pulsing force detected beneath the streets. Reinforcements were hired from the House, Asha the Greatswordswoman and Orric of the Deer Horn Knives stepped up.

Entry to the tunnels was found via a well, Orric's stories were long winded and painfully detailed. Tunnels connected to sewers connected to caverns, a one armed toy bear was rescued, Alvis explored a strange crack in the wall and came face to face with the carved stone likeness of some three eyed, shark toothed entity, a choice of three tunnels presented itself, one marked by the carving of a stone elephants head, a child was found, she had curly hair, the mole men struck from ambush and were in turn ambushed by the vicious and scarily competent children, ears were taken, Orric bored a mole man to death on a natural 20, players rolled well, the GM did not, three strange pillars from a bygone age were investigated. 

A further mole man dressed in a blue robe was discovered speaking in hushed tones with a patrician male, a further battle ensued as more mole men burst from their burrows, a demon mole mask was employed to breathe poison gas onto Alvis who was rendered unconscious but survived with a permanent loss of constitution, Roc slew many mole men and they were were defeated but the blue robed one and the patrician escaped. Alvis used his pack of playing cards depicting political figures from ten years ago to identify the patrician as bearing a family resemblance to the Von Valians. 

On the return to the surface the Old woman was nowhere to be found so all returned to the House of Mercenaries, Sellspears and Blades for Hire to divvy up the bounty on mole man ears, including the children taking their share, and receive a pouch of silver and a strange gourd each containing a bizarre liquid that smelled ever so faintly of cheese.

Enough XP was earned that both Roc and Alvis finally achieved the lofty heights of level 2 and much rejoicing took place.

The Mausoleum Break In

Played over 2 sessions

Brian, Roc level 1 Fighter

Mick, Vayne level 2 Bard (1st session only)

David, Pithe level 1 Thief

Chris, Cormac level 1 Magic User

In a break from my usual format I'm quoting from Brian Wille's posts to the G+ Grim North community  about both sessions and tacking on some GM commentary at the end. 

Mausoleums. Creepy.

Session 1

"Some good quotes from the night:

"Those dead people don't pose themselves. Quite the opposite actually!"

>PowerrrVaxx, Lesser Demon, Least of His Kind, tugging on the robe of Cormack, the Mighty Sorcerer:  ...I'm going now.

>Cormack: Good.

It was snowing heavily in the Grim North, it pretty much always is. In the House of Mercenaries, Sellspears and Blades for Hire it was dark and smoky. The place is run by Dek, an ex pit fighter and mercenary, so when we showed up looking for work he offered us a few jobs. We took:

Investigation of a mausoleum that had been broken into.

We also learned there had been an increase in trouble from the Mole Men, and there is currently a 2p/per ear bounty on them!

Informed by our patron for the job, a rich merchant from a good family named Envolio, that he'd seen the door to the mausoleum broken in. He wanted us to find out who had broken in, and why.

We traveled from the Docks District, to the White Weasel Tavern in the Merchant District. Then through the Bridge District, to the Dead City. Every trip took about 45 minutes, and we had to pay a toll to cross the bridge.

We passed a circular stone table in the cemetery with odd, ancient runes on it. Our hardcore investigation of the mausoleum revealed a secret door in the back, but we couldn't figure out how to get it open.

On the way back to report to Envolio, we passed some mangy wild dogs chewing on a corpse. We foolishly irritated them and had a big fight on our hands. Finally killing them, we found a good-quality map of the entire region, in a nice wooden box.

We only got partial payment, so we're resting and gearing up for another assault on the House of the Dead."

Pithe: "We ignore them"

Session 2

"A  Surfeit of Lampreys!

Words of Wisdom from our Thief:  "Better ridiculous than dead."

We got right down to business and arranged to meet the Dockside Boys in a nearby bar to hire some muscle. Some muscle for to knock down the secret door that we, with all our advanced degrees in rpgs and accumulated years of experience, could not figure out how to open.

The Grotesque Caw was a dive but you could volunteer to grapple & box for beer and bets. So I volunteered and it was fun, exciting, and cracked me the hell up! Also, I won, but it was a close thing. I think the rules were thus:

1)  Roll initiative

2)  If punching, roll to hit vs AC 12, for 1hp subdual dmg

3)   If grappling, roll UNDER your STR, but as high as possible w/out going over

4)  If successful grapple, roll again OVER your STR (a saving throw) to keep your hold. State your cool wrestling move!

5)  Grapple successfully next round, and you win! State your cool finishing move!

In practice there was a lot of back-and-forth, and your friends (and his) can throw beer to influence the fight. A lot of beer got thrown, I was soaked the rest of the night.

It turns out the City of Nox Eterna has no Thieves Guild, but it does have gangs. Kind of like in the movie "Warriors" but the outfits not so extreme. Supposedly, because we met the Dockside Boys, and they were dressed in children's versions of seaman's uniforms, like Little Lord Fauntleroy.

They looked insane but they were pro, and we soon had our wrecking crew hired. Before long we had them smashing at the secret door in the mausoleum, and lo a stairwell was revealed. The crew was irate from working hard so our Thief gave them a rest and they broke out some biscuits.

Down below was horror and writhing lampreys and dark ichor and infected living and embalmed corpses and the temple of a hideous entity. It was bad. After some investigation and experimentation by our mad-scientist Sorcerer, we decided to burn it with fire, all of it. The memories remain though.

It was enough to get us paid up in full, although the fat merchant Envolio gave us a hard time about not tracking down the cultists and burning down his family's mausoleum, with all his ancestors inside. We we did the right thing though. Oh yes we did."

My notes on both sessions:

The Secret Door

This was frustrating for the players. They found the door but couldn't find the mechanism by which it opened. There were a number of ways they could've solved this issue and they chose to hire some big, strong lads with pick axes to break through it. This would be more of an issue in a dungeon environment when it would involve trekking back to the nearest town or whatever but in the city it meant finding some local disreputable types with access to breaking gear.

The Dogs

Despite the attempt of the party's thief to walk past the four feral dogs chewing on the corpse in the alleyway, curiosity got the better of one of his companions and it turned into a scrap. Inventive use of flaming oil to try and ward off the attacking dogs left me having to make a ruling: How effective was it? I got the player to pick a die of his choice and roll, the higher the roll the better the result. Brian rolled a one on his d12. Dave's thief ended up getting bitten and also failing a saving throw, leaving everyone believing that he has contracted rabies although as yet he exhibits no symptoms. They did loot a sweet map of the area outside the city in a nice scroll case from the corpse though.

Like this but with beer throwing

The Wrestling

Wrestling and grappling rules are often a huge pain in the arse. I think this is because either no one really cares how they work so they seem unrealistic; or they care too much how they work, having some real life experience in the field, and they become too complicated. As this was a sporting contest rather than a fight to the death it seemed appropriate that the rules reflect this i.e. To win you must knock down your opponent. 

Then the mechanics.:

Punching resolved as a hit roll against AC 12 to reflect the duelling nature of the bout. Damage is 1 hit point per punch, and is sub dual rather than lethal. Reducing your opponent to zero knocks them out and wins you the bout. If you win initiate and strike your opponent before they attempt to grapple, they roll to hit at -1 that round. You may not strike once grappled.

Wrestling resolved as a hit roll again against AC 12 but then decided by contested Strength rolls in a roll high under fashion. So if you have Str 12 you need to roll on or under that, closer to 12 the better. Both wrestlers roll, if both succeed the highest roll wins. The initiator of wresting gets a one round +1 to Str for this roll. 

The winner gains an advantage in grip or whatever (which they can name with whatever ridiculous label they wish, Namibian Reverse Nelson, Peruvian Leg Tie etc.) 

This contest is repeated. Two consecutive wins means you throw your opponent and win the bout. If you have the advantage but lose the second contest, you lose the advantage.

Audience participation: Your friends and supporters may legally interfere by throwing beer either on you or your opponent. They must purchase the beers before the bout begins. They roll to hit against AC 12 and a success indicates they may allow either +1 to you, -1 to your opponent (in an opposed roll this applies to you Str rather than the die roll), or a saving throw to break your opponent's grip if grappled.

Hook Worms. Nasty.

The Shrine

When the main focus of the secret shrine you discover underneath someone's family mausoleum is a statue of a man who has a long, winding hookworm instead of a head then immediately judgements are made. When you add in a huge brass bowl full of worm infested black slime, moaning catatonic people locked in a room, another side room where weird grape like objects are hung from racks then the general response was that something bad was going on. This is not to mention the rows of pews that feature the embalmed corpses of the poor, now fixed into place as a silent congregation.

Rather than make this a set piece encounter with whoever populated this place I randomised their chances of being there prior to the PCs, arriving while they were snooping around etc. The dice were rolled repeatedly, and the shrine remained deserted.

After some rather cautious investigation, it was decided that some sort of nefarious evil was taking place. The PCs concluded it was better to live to collect their fee rather than disturb something awful and die in the pursuit of phat loots. So the expensive silk wall hangings were used as fuel for the fire that gutted the shrine and the mausoleum above.

I strive to stage my games so this balance between risk and reward is an actual thing. If you spend hours turning the chaotic shrine upside down in the pursuit of silver then chances are you will find it but it won't be the only thing you find. Playing it safe might yield less treasure, and therefore less XP, but also you increase your chances of living to spend it and maybe even level up. There are other considerations too. When a slightly different group encountered Otter cultists in the sewers they attacked immediately and ultimately gained a decent haul out of it. However it cost one character death and perhaps earned the survivors the eternal enmity of the remainder of the cult.  

What is the Salt Hulk? [Actual Play]

"Being adrift after a shipwreck, my companions and I found ourselves washed up on this strange, alien vessel. Tired, emotional and starving we made our way below deck.

It would seem that the ship was crafted entirely of a peculiar, unnaturally coloured stone. The thing was run by some form of artificial intelligence, known as Ironchild. I say was..

There are fixers on board. They're weird things with gruff, northern accents. They have rat like faces and sprout multiple mechanical arms from their backs. There are big ones and little ones. I didn't like either.

A picture that I stole from Chris McDowall

One of my companions, Will, drank a phase tonic that allowed him to reset his personal timeline after a few seconds of activity.

I myself bore a brace of pistols, steel wire, a grappling hook and a fetch pearl.

We found a sailor who had been immolated  on a pair of steel spikes. Another companion, Darius, performed strange and possibly forbidden surgery to remove his dead brain and place it in a steel jar. Somehow through his arcane knowledge he could then speak with the brain, a traveller from a strange place named Hellion.

The Salt Hulk seemed keen to host us as guests but there was no food. As we explored we encountered the disembodied head of a fixer being taunted by its fellows. We bargained with it; a new body for answers.

The sailor's body now hosted the rogue fixers head. We learned there were two groups of fixers, those at odds with Ironchild and those that wished to restore it to control of the ship.

We travelled deeper into the body of the hulk. There were pools that seemed to lead down to a raucous underwater party. I used my fetch pearl to bring something up from the depths. It seemed I had caught a giant eel being and it appeared neither tasty nor friendly. I was able to return it to whence it came but not before it struck our tame fixer with its pale staff and blasted from his mind the knowledge we needed most: the location of the food..."

The game was run by the Oddfather himself, Chris McDowall, using his Into the Odd rules. Into the Odd is cool right now, lots of people running it on Hangouts and I can see why. The simplicity of the system and weirdness of the setting appeals to me. There was no combat, no traps, no treasure. It was just good old fashioned exploration and weirdness. This frequently happens in games I run so I was reassured that I enjoyed the session a lot.  It was good to give ItO a run as a player, plus it tied in nicely to my gaming resolution of running or playing all the games I own (in print) in 2016.

If the big fixers carry on the way they have been, there's going to be some shooting next time out.

Whitebox Hangouts 6: Of Prostitutes and Profit

Not your average street walker

Getting involved in the intrigues of Patricians and courtesans. Featuring: Trained pheasants that limbo and do tricks. A return to the sewers, an actual alligator (non albino), the re-emergence of the mole men, remembering they attack from above at the last minute, Vayne's critical miss destroying his violin, everyone else thought it was funny, he did not. Posing as professional mole man exterminators, new guy Steinar bluffing like the best of them, a trip to the posh market and the purchase of gifts, a fine cloak, the shortage of doodle sacks resulting in an artisan penny whistle (whittled by Devan the bone whistle whittler himself) a hyena skull valuation (believed by Ottsa to be used in summoning rituals sacred to Hyena God,) a meeting in the summer house. Not being fooled by gender ambiguous clothing. "Look are you or are not the prostitute who has been sleeping with my husband?" A sinister silver chalice. The acquisition of a distinctive ring, being followed, hiding out at the House of Mercenaries, Sellspears and Blades for Hire, fighting a pitched battle three stories up on a bridge, Alvis the mystic flailing away wildly, Ottsa the mystic macing with deadly accuracy. Possibly the first ever decapitation by mace, Vayne going down then making a 1990's pro wrestling comback, mystically aided of course. Ottsa smashing a man's knee then sparing him, interrogating him and healing him, before packing him off with ten silver pieces. It gets you a manservant for life it would seem. The successful delivery of the ring and collection of payment, left on the table by the door...

Grim North: Dragonmeet Edition

Beards: Cool until they want you dead

Rogues Gallery:

Pahn McDohl, lvl 1 fighter
Wister, lvl 1 fighter
Ottsa, lvl 1 mystic and former Otter cultist
Andy's lvl 1 thief who I can't remember the name of...

In which a team from the House of Mercenaries, Sellspears and Blades for Hire investigated the claims of Cilk Von Herrick. A patrician who having defeated a rival in a beard growing contest now believed his beard was sentient and trying to kill him.

A return to the butchers saw the PCs become freelance debt collectors for the Butcher's Guild. Each pinned a piece of chicken skin to their chest as a sign of office. The Fizzing Stone public house in the Patrician District was visited, where the owner keeps three pet wolves in the bar and yet it is still a high class establishment. Cilk Von Herrick turned out to be a drunk in possession of an enormous beard who would not deign to speak to the PCs directly but only via his manservant.

Ottsa used her mystic powers and detected hostile magic on the beard. Andy's thief cut a lock from the beard causing Von Herrick actual physical pain. In the stables the beard was combed for evidence, finding only a family of doormice, before being plaited for ease of transportation.

Religious instruction was sought at the Cathedral of the Aeternal Lords. A clandestine meeting with a priest in the crypts below lead to heading North across the city to the Necropolis, passing through the Merchant District and the District of Bridges on the way.

Fortunes were told. Von Herrick's movements had to be lubricated with the application of lots of wine.

In the necropolis strange, grey robed priests arranged the embalmed dead in scenes from life, such as a card game and watching a parade.

They met the wizard Oraculees, who was wizened but with giant eyes, and his stunted servant Maximillian. Some ate a turkey that had been served for a dinner party of the dead.

Wister paid the wizard's price of three cups of blood. Oraculees consulted the Book of Beards. He deemed that a demon should be summoned and a sacrifice was needed. Without hesitation Pahn offered the patrician's slaves but it turned out only a chicken was needed. One of the relieved slaves was sent off with some silver to buy a chicken.

And there we finished as time was drawing on.

Dragonmeet 2015

My first con.

I had met up with Mick Reddick and David Black for some breakfast prior to arriving at the con. There was no skulduggery involved in our entrance to the venue, none at all. No sir.

Mick Reddick knows absolutely fucking everyone. Not a joke. He couldn't go five feet or drink a cup of tea without bumping into some gamer buddy or other.

I bought nothing. I have to admit I was a bit bewildered by the trade floor. There was so much stuff on offer but basically nothing I wanted or didn't already own. I'm not a collector of rpg stuff, I like things I can use and when I own things I haven't used they gnaw at me... Mick bought some Lamentations of the Flame Princess stuff to round out his collection and Dave bought Stonehell, which he already had as a PDF but wanted a book of, and some ugly neon dice to play his Hivelife 1979 retro future D&D hack with.

Then we headed up to the bar to set up for some games. I ran a Grim North session with Oli Palmer, Kathryn Jenkins, Rachel Tew and Rachel's other half Andy. Rachel and Oli have played in the a Grim North before via hangouts and it was nice to meet up face to face and throw down in a tale of one man and his potentially evil beard. We didn't get to resolve the session due to time constraints. As is fairly normal for me I rambled aimlessly along and we finished up with the players looking to sacrifice a chicken in order to carry out some sort of divination on the evil beard while its owner was kept in a state of near constant inebriation by wine toting slaves. Good times.

With too many players for one game Mick had recruited enough random passers by to make up two games and Dave stepped up to run his rag tag bunch of plucky misfits through Stonehell using his streamlined retro clone Black Hack. I ran Mick's fighter for about 45 minutes while both Stonehell and Black Hack proved their worth. David is clearly cool with GMing a game with zero prep and his Black Hack system runs really smooth and easy. Stonehell is a great resource and it was handled well. Everyone at the table was having a great time, even if I nearly got Mick's character killed at the end. Still, what's a bit of crippling between friends?

Things I learned. David Black both writes and runs a good game. Seek out his work and enjoy it. He runs games via G+ UK OSR Hangouts community. His Black Hack rule set is available for free on the internet. Mick Reddick is a force of gaming nature, when a man says "I'll just nip downstairs and get two more players" even at a gaming convention I don't expect him to be back inside of two minutes! And last but not least the UK OSR Hangouts Community is a great place, filled with lovely people who I have thoroughly enjoyed gaming with so far, and long may it continue.

I'm going to write a quick session report for the Grim North game tomorrow.

White Box Hangouts 5: The Blue Otter Cult

In the terrace district Ram, the thief, picked the pocket of a victorious scorpion trainer in the Bell and Scorpion tavern (recovering 30 silver pennies and some minced hedgehog.)

Was the drunk old ex sewer watchman really telling the truth about the white alligators in the sewers? A white alligator skin could be worth a few silver pennies to the right patrician and a live specimen would fetch a decent price on the bizarre pets market.

So, willing to try their hand at anything that pays the PCs became sceptical alligator hunters and headed into the sewers.

They encountered the Sewer Watch. They battled cannibal mole men. The party's fighter, Pahn, coming so close to death that seasoning was applied to his unconscious body. Fortunately Vayne the bard stepped in with one of his many natural twenties. Decapitation and the hundred cut method proving the end for two of his adversaries.

No XP was awarded for puns.

Finding the secret idol of the Otter God, He Who is Both Furry and Yet Ferocious, they immediately attacked his cultists. Outnumbered, things were going ok until Ram took a sacrificial dagger to the chest on another Nat 20 and died. The cultists exclaimed this as a sacrifice to their God but her dying words were "I am not a virgin...."

Furious further natural twentying from Vayne and consistent spear work from Pahn left the remaining three cultists with no option but to surrender.

The cult leader unmasked and proclaimed herself an ex-cultist. She now wished to side with obviously superior mercenaries, and conveniently turned out to be a mystic and also Ram's player's new character. As a token of good faith she lead her new compatriots to the cult's hoard of otter themed silver jewellery.

They returned to the house of Mercenaries, Sellspears and Blades for Hire to fence the silver and divvy up the spoils and XP.