THE ALTERED DREAMS OF REGIMUND CRUFT

Reginald Cruft, my player character in Ben L’s Dreamlands game is a 19th century American veteran of Union side of the US Civil War, and by 1885 a 47 year old failed medical student and raving drug addict.  In his delirious and debauched state he has dreams, and these dreams have recently been very consistent - they have been of the Dreamlands. In the Dreamlands Cruft is a wizard, capable of some minor feats of charm and mesmerism (though at second level he has the spells “Charm Person, Sleep and Enlrage/Reduce - the last being hard for him to justify as mere mesmerism).

Below is a table for the effects of the various overdoses that push Cruft into the Dreamlands and how they change him during his travels there.  Presumably when Cruft dies in the Dreamlands, his body, wracked with overdose, will be found in his filthy New York garret or a dingy go down opium den.

D12	Drug of Choice	Dreamlands Side Effects
1	Morphine	Stronger and faster, harder in every way, a jarring transition from the waking world to the Dream. Within everything feels heavy and slow, a molasses of impossibility.  Dreamer will act last in party initiative order regardless of action for the rest of the session.
2	Taking the Cure	Painful body wrecking withdrawal symptoms. All Physical stats reduced by 3 for the session and spell slots reduced by 1 (highest level spell).
3	Raw Corn Spirits	Cheap searing alcohol in grand draughts leaves the dreamer with guts like water and a susceptibility to the slightest pain, body running with sweats.  For the rest of the session any blow to the dreamer will stun him or her for a round in addition to doing damage.
4	Cocaine Lozenges	Fractured and jangling, the good feeling of the waking world crumbles into totten bone and a searing pain behind the eyes, leaving the dreamer irritable and suggestible (-2 to all saves v. spells or paralysis) for the session.
5	Fly Agaric	It’s hard to know where the visions ended and the Dream began, but while the ‘real’ occasionally flashes back into the dream in the form of remembered faces, and glimpses of a dusty window, there’s no effect on the Dreamer’s functionality.
6	Nutmeg	The sailor's’ consolation, a gut ripping glass of nutmeg tea causes pleasant enough dreams after the vomiting subsides.  Within the Dreamlands, the sense of smell seems stronger.
7	Opium	The pestilential pipe, a daily pleasure, provides for a swift transport and brightly colored experience in the land of Dreams.
8	Gassy Lager	Despite a certain thickness of the tongue and a tendency towards flatulence the side effects of this tipple are limited, though everything in the Dreamlands resembles a cartoon version of itself from the pages of a cheap pamphlet.
9	McMunn's Elixir of Opium	Patent medicine for the toothache and the cramp, but to those in the know it’s a fine tincture of opium, and smoother than the raw stuff. The shift from waking body to dream body is smoother to, making the dreamers body a closer approximation of the ideal then the actual and providing +1 HP per Hit Die for the session.
10	Hashish	A dream within the dream, spaces retreating fractal and numberless, the mind of the Dreamer is open to possibility and may cast and memorize spells as if one level higher.
11	Whiskey	A good night drinking bonded rye whiskey lead to riotous dreams of superiority.  Dreamer’s melee attacks are at +1 hit.
12	Conditional Sobriety	Unable to soothe his fevered mind with more than a few scrapings of a pipe or the last finger of whiskey or two, the Dreamer has staved off withdrawal sickness, but is still sweating and paranoid.  Falling to sleep while cooing over a loaded 1851 Colt Naval revolver.  The revolver has slid into the Dreamlands, a weapon that may be used in two ear shattering fusillades before exhausting its ammo. It will fade after one session should the dreamer remain in the Dreamlands. 1851 Naval Colt: ATK as Explosive/AOE - Explosion Value 2 - Damage 1D8, may cause morale check, random encounter check.

ASE CAMPIAGN - SESSION XII - The Irrefutable Offer

Looking through an old folder I found some notes on the last few seven session of the ASE campaign that started this blog back in 2012.  I've decided to maybe write a few up and see where it goes.  This is the first, starting directly after this Play Report.  I think this season was played late 2012 or something, before Huxley's player had a kid.
 

Huxley McTeeth - (m) Fighter (Lvl 2) - Short, strong, grizzled, armored, and wielding a magic white saber from the tomb of a Rocket Man.

Grimgrim "The Seared of Monstcrom"- (m) Cleric (Lvl 3) - Recently extra fervent. pig masked.

Druizzilnax (aka Drusilla) - (f) Elf (Lvl 1), physically frail, spear wielding, hideous armor wearing and from a society of militarized cannibals.

Nell Hassenphafler "The Topstown Gore Bird" - (f) Assassin (Lvl 3), Scarred face, sinewy physique, fancy purple metal dress and poison hatpins.

Lemon Jackson, Evoker - (m) Magic-User (Lvl 2) Gun totting, hell-bolt flinging and heavily tattooed.

Gurgur, Greymol - (m,m) Moktar, Moktar Holy Tom, (Lvl1,Lvl1) Moktar henchmen , serious catbrawn. 

SUNDAY MORNING COMING DOWN

Geof Darrow - A Denethix Street Scene?

Back in their dingy apartment, covered in the tiny scabs of grunkie inflicted wounds, Huxley, Nell, Lemon, Grimgrim and Drusilla wake to another day, stunned and sore and for the first time cannot begin an immediate debauch, the last bottle of hooch purloined from the depths of the Old Brewery having been spilled down Lemon's sweaty torso the night before. 

The booze brought back from their last adventure may be gone, but the desperation lingers. Nell's arm set in a crude cast, but clearly broken to the point where even Grimgrim's divinely aided ministrations won't quickly restore it to functionality.  The band needs a rest, a long rest, preferably somewhere peaceful, but it seems doubtful that their enemies will allow them one.  It's been a week since the raid on the Old Brewery's lower levels and each of the adventurers knows there will be a price to pay.  It's not clear who will come to collect, the Unyielding Fist, drug running gangsters, the death cult of Furter, or even Drusilla's anthropophagic relatives - but a debt has come due and payment is going to be rough.

HMS Apollyon Recent Play Reports

Below are smaller play reports from the last several sessions of the HMS Apollyon game, mostly concerned with the party's efforts to explore and loot an ancient industrial node on the Port side of the vessel.  It's always nice to open up a new area, and this one is basically just a dungeon crawl with minimal relation to any overarching setting concerns.

THE GREAT SIMIAN MASSACRE

Starring:
Flashy – (passenger)
Rabut the Frogling – (battlemage)
Price – (academic sorcerer)
Lady Pillar – (officer)
Vonlumpwig – (necromancer)

A huge hatch blocks the way Port from the vault beyond the Rust Gate, the vault where far too many lives were recently lost in both infighting between Sterntown’s factions and the battle against the War Dead Minions of the still unaccounted for “Brown Surgeon”.  The area presents a great deal of resources for whatever faction controls in, and currently the undisciplined bands of the Scavenger’s Union lounge about, still ebullient from the the success of their double cross and mass murder of Thief Taker and Bevard Family forces.  Only time will tell if the Union can hold the vault (also known as “The Buried Vault”, “The New Lands” and “The Mushroom Farm”) or the hamlet in the vault beyond.  Currently the area bustles with scavenger activity as riotous drunken bands strip the former undead stronghold in the hamlet down to its deck plating, carting out huge loads of useful items and a wealth in decorative stone.

The hatch leading Port is an unknown, opening and closing on some strange schedule known only to the ship itself, it is a giant wheel of 4’ thick orichalcum, designed to stop flooding and locking into place with massive hydraulic driven bars.  The hatch has remained unlatched for several month however and was opened briefly a year or more before by a band of scavengers who reported the area beyond was some sort of storehouse or forge.  Deeming the chance of the hatch sealing again to be small, the band of scavengers once called “The Black Cloaks” seeks to explore the area beyond, expecting it to be full of plunder and rich in industrial supplies. 

With a laudable caution the scavenger gang moves beyond the great hatch and discovers only a small bare room, a few smashed crates, shredded bit of thin metal, scattered about and a large peeling mural of some sort of wrench carrying and hardhat wearing rodent painted on the Port wall.  Close examination and light dusting reveals that the mural welcomes the scavengers to “Port 5S Supply and Fabrication”.  Sternward from the entrance room is a great multi level chamber that stinks of coal and smoke.  A massive forge stands at its center, and a cautious, candle aided exploration reveals hulking industrial machines, lathes, cannon molds and workbenches fill the space.  The forge at the center still glows, but the room is simply too big and too strange to investigate thoroughly and the scavengers decide to retreat and open the door leading fore from the entrance. 

As the door creaks open to reveal a narrow hallway the party is startled to meet a band of four spear and crossbow armed flying monkeys.  The magically transformed simians are clad in red rags instead of uniforms and wear poorly enameled brass buttons and copper electrical wire as decoration.  Almost immediately the monkeys start to demand money and threaten the scavengers and combat quickly commences.  Soon only once monkey survives and he is captured, but the fight has drawn additional flying monkey reinforcements and a true battle begins to rage, with the monkey flank attack blocked by a prophetic use of hold portal and several waves of crossbow and spear armed simians knocked unconscious by magic.  The monkeys pepper the scavengers with bolts and bombard them with firebombs until a new threat emerges – a hulking monkey in a welding mask carrying a flame thrower. The scavengers, out of sleep spells, target this new danger with a variety of weapons, but it is Price’s use a fire magic that saves the day, causing the monkey’s flame weapon to explode.  The detonation kills most of the monkey front line and scorches the scavengers as well, but in the rain of flaming debris and seared fur the battle ends with the surrender of several monkeys.  A truce is worked out between scavenger and monkey allowing the party to explore any area not marked with a red flame symbol and exchanging peace for information about the dangerous “clawed ones” to the Fore, God of Fire aft, and Haunted Offices Port. 

Trust The Random Encounter table

When one cracks open the hoary spine of the “Underworld and Wilderness Adventures” (well not spine, they are zine like pamphlets, stapled together) one almost immediately finds a set of dungeon encounter tables.  They look 'normal' at first, table 1 contains low hit dice dungeon vermin (giant rats, centipedes, spiders) and sniveling humanoids like kobolds.  Table 2 starts to get some real opposition on it: hobgoblins, gnolls, berserkers and ghouls.  By the time you’re on table three and four there are the sort of monsters that can really spell danger to a low level party, such as wights, wraiths and giant animals.  This might seem reasonable, even conservative if these tables were broken down by dungeon level, but they are explicitly not by dungeon level.  On the first level of the dungeon there is a 1 in 6 chance of encountering one of the horrors off of table four, and this includes ogres (which are reasonable enough) but also wraiths and gargoyles.  I focus here on gargoyles because they are utterly immune to normal weapon damage in most versions of the rules, including silver weapons.

HMS APOLLYON - New Campaign - Play Report II

BRINEY MEETS HIS END

In which Briney the netfighter, Mr. Groob the incendiary, Nelson the Academic, Von Lumpwig’s Son the Reanimator and the disgraced passenger Anzio venture again into the Fetid Pit, lay waste to its denizens and face tragic consequences in a brutal melee.

Again into the Humid Jungles of the Fetid Pit

An expedition of scratch scavengers down the great airshaft marking Sterntown’s Port border gave up fine treasure on the last expedition and success draws imitators.   A smaller band of scavengers, most now proudly wearing the green arm band of The Scavenger’s Union (Groob, Von Lumpwig and Briney), and having recruited a stilt walking scholar by the name of Nelson, A fallen passenger caste elementalist called Anzio resolve to seek more treasure deeper in the pit.

Groob manages to talk a punch-drunk pit fighter the party decides to name “Punchy” into joining them as an equipment bearer, the addled fighter believing that the pit will be an excellent place to “Find flowers for a pretty lady”.  Before they disembark Von Lumpwig reveals his true nature as a dabbler in the cursed necromantic arts, though only up to raising an animate mass of chicken skin and soup bones cunningly wired into the form of one of the red worms the party battled in their first expedition.  Von Lumpwig names the creature “Kissy Face” much to the disgust of Mr. Groob who’s face is still bruised and scabbed from encountering the actual red worms.

HMS APOLLYON PLAY REPORT - New Campaign, Session One

A RETURN TO THE FETID PIT

A new pack of scavengers, some still salt and sunburned from being pulled aboard the Apollyon and others with the hollow eyes of gaol habituates are escorted through the bustling central market of Sterntown, a neighborhood normally denied to them.  The destination of the armed and armored scavenger gang is the Steward ramparts above the “Fetid Pit”.  The revetments are sparsely manned, but bristle with flame sluices, spiked barricades, organ guns, arc lamps and volley darters all aimed down into the yawning air shaft that serves Sterntown as a sewer and chemical dump.

Never Trust a Slime Mold

Told that they must descend by climbing a great chain dangling above the pit to recover valuables the scavengers look down.  The ramparts are a tiny brightly lit and protected refuge in the wall of a vast shaft.  Gray light trickles from far above, cut by the slow progress of titanic fans and dappled by a veritable jungle of fungus, molds, lichens and plants reaching for the light.  Below the first hundred feet have been cleared to the oddly terrace hull metal, likely by the application of chemical and other industrial wastes, but beyond the vertical jungle begins again: pale spiny bromeliads the size of trees, dense tangles of black vines spouting tiny leaves, and a lurid variety of bright fungus.  The grey light fliters down only 200’ feet revealing some sort of installation near the descent chain, but beyond is only blackness and flashes of bioluminescence.

Play Report - fairytale reskin of B3

I recently ran a game of the re-skinned B3-Palace of the Silver Princess setting it in a fairy tale land, with anthropomorphic animals and whimsical elves.  It went well, and the adventure proved a couple things. First, those 80’s modules loved their combat, second that a story with hints to discover motivates players to explore and third, re-skinned goblins can be really scary.  I redrew the map of the first level of the dungeon, because the original is very linear and lacks any organic sense – including things like putting the Princesses’ dressing chamber next to a butcher shop and placing military style traps in a school room.  I based my reskin on the ideas in this review: B3 - Palace of the Silver Princess

B-3's first level, redrawn for sense.

A WEDDING RUINED

The berry wines and honey-mead have been flowing for a week now, and even the lowliest hired labor from the terrestrial sphere and the less respectable outlying villages have been basking in the absurd plenty that the impending wedding of the fey Queen Azure to the mysterious Scarlet Dragon Knight trails in its wake.  Azure in her typical grandiose way, only to be expected from a self-proclaimed “Daughter of the Earth Goddess”, “Ever Truthful Oracle” and “Czarina of the Peaceable Forest Peoples” has invited every being with even the slightest connection to the fey courts.  The small hamlet of Bobble, in the lee of her great castle is overflowing with intelligent animals, gnomes, lesser fey, dwarves, the more civilized goblin folk and even occasional humans.  Every low roofed toadstool hut has been crammed to its musty rafters as the more enterprising crofters take in guests, or rent their homes to traveling artisans while they camp in the woods.

The eve of the wedding finally sees the tiny town at rest, though late night preparations continue in the castle, with the windows of its towers and enchanted bowers ablaze with multicolored light and the sounds of revelry.  Yet not long after midnight this relative peace is disturbed when a huge explosion, and cacophony of unearthly howls, rumbling earth and cracking rock tears through the night.  Man, elf, dwarf, gnome, boggin, sprite, badgerman, rabbitwife and mushroom people dash into the small fountain square at the center of Bobble and stare up at the castle bluff where the towers have shifted and a sulfurous light creeps downward like slowly dripping oil from the tangled bows of the castle’s living woods. An enormous tower of black smoke fills the sky coming from the collapsed central dome of the castle, it’s silver filigreed roof fallen.

Dungeon of Signs Plays Torchbearer - A Play Report

So a largely OSR GM (who is likely the best minimalist rule-cruncher I know) and a mixed selection of OSR(LBB, B/X), 4E, Pathfinder and Story Game players attempted to play Torchbearer using a pack of pregens and some sort of introductory module.  I was both baffled and enjoyed myself – now this might just be because the fellow players and GM were cool folks, but the system was interesting in many ways.

The pregens were boring. I’m sorry, I like a gonzo game or at least something that feels a little different from Tolkeinesque Beardy Scotch Dwaves and Whimsy Elves. Torchbearer is a consciously ironic nostalgia based game where the fantasy archetypes aren't just strong, they seem necessary to the game. Now this isn’t to say the game is snidely ironic, it’s clearly a homage to old school games trying to capture the gritty feeling of nebbishes crawling about in a miserable underworld. The problem for our game is that Torchbearer is a complex and convoluted system that appears mechanics focused - and we weren’t prepared for it. Not that we didn’t try to prepare, I mean the GM and some of the other players had clearly poured over the rules. Due diligence was preformed, and yet this session was very limited and a lot of time was spent flipping about through the rules.

Yeah - this was the party ... yawn

Occurrences Beneath the Dungeon Moon

The Great and Powerful Human Spirit Protect me from the wrath and clutching hands of the unworthy and false creatures that have claim divinity and dominion, for I am now a Godkiller. May my Sisteraunt, Fleesin NoHells, anointed speaker against the alleged gods, confirm this statement and ratify our acts as correct within the eyes of the spirit of humankind, which resides within all.

 – Makepeace NoHells, ‘Paladin of No Gods’, upon his return to the surface from the last foray beneath the surface of the Dungeon Moon.

The exploration of the Dungeon Moon has continued a fair bit since last the deeds of the town of Stockton’s adventurous youth were recorded, some have died, and some prospered.  All have witnessed the depraved wonders of the Motherless Warlock and his cabal of sorcerers.  Notable events are related as follows, pieced together from the stories told by the returning band.

Killsin NoHells, henchwoman and 1st level cleric
of atheism

“A pack of stunted creatures, orange and wizened, with enormous side whiskers have been encountered along the street of slumbering villas. The creatures, who call themselves the ‘Kobalds’ were impressed when the band of Stockton explorers spoke to them peaceably and then battled a strange and frightful creature at the gate of their compound.  The fantastical beast, referred to whimsically by the rusticated Kobalds as “A Horse That Thinks He’s a Spider”, spewed webbing and bit with envenomed fangs, but was dispatched due to the skill and ferocity of Stockton’s own sons.  A gift of meat earned much respect and valuable directions from the Kobald compound.”

“Also among the slumbering villas a trove of several paintings was recovered.  These depict many exciting scenes, and strange personages from the world of green grass and can be seen at the old grange hall where they are on exhibit for the price of a single silver penny or one jot of strong drink. Younger patrons are advised to bring an elder to explain the strange landscapes depicted within the works.”

ASE - Onward to the Obelisk - Play Report

ASE SESSION B 1 – Return to Mt. Rendon

The Party

Mungo Stroot – CL 2

Jane Dill – IIL 2

Raymond ‘Numbers’ Gamma – SCI 2

 ‘Bee Bot’ – ROB 1

Darth Acne – MU 1 (necromancer)

Yana of Cithras – CL 1

After spending a few weeks going about their own business in the newly booming town of   Grain doesn’t grow in the mold patches of Chemfoldshire and the demands of the Certopsian  War to the South East have meant that grain shipments to the new brewery are frequently getting hijacked by troops, including mercenary bands and private militia heading to the front.

In Denethix Mungo can’t even get a meeting before the magistrates and the Boards of Proper Apportionment won’t honor most of the brewery’s scrip for refund as they are on the wrong form or misspelled.  A clerk suggests that Mungo and his business partners retain a lawyer to travel with each grain shipment to make sure that the brutish mercenaries and angry Unyielding Fist Sarjents fill out the right paperwork.  With this setback Mungo wanders into a nice bar near the Street of students and begins to realize that the life of a business priest is perhaps less certain and more cutthroat then wandering into the darkened lairs of eldritch horrors from ‘before time’.   He soon meets up with his old nemesis/adventuring companion Ray ‘Numbers’ and finds the scientist equally glum, as his reports on opening the subsurface environment were received only with threats from Ray’s advisor who wanted to know about the secret entrance and where the gold Ray had found was, far more then he wanted to hear Ray’s theories about subsurface life cycles and robot ghosts.

Finchbox Play Report II - A tower of moleratmen

Back to the old wizard tower, looking for plunder and violence.  It’s not as if there’s much else to be done – a few caves, and old lightning shrouded temple (which a few of the companions from last time were lost to), some kind of stone circle that eats religious men – but really for a curious redcap like Scabgrinder, there’s nothing like exploring deeper into the cracked and crumbled ruins of the wizard’s tower. It’s not really the money the items recovered from the tower, though money buys drink and more metal, it the sense that one is changing the behavior of other thinking things.  As a root, one doesn’t have much chance to do this, maybe try to choke the neighboring root where it gets in the way of one’s expansion, but that’s rather intimate – tendrils grasping in the dark and squeezing for months or years.  The world of men is changed by a casual and distant word – every action can be like a brush fire, rewriting the landscape in a moment.

Finchbox Play Report - Session 1 - A Tower was Crumbled.

Scab Grinder. A Red Cap

Below is the bragging story of Scab Grinder, about his exploration, with several other destitute wanderers and castoffs, of the newly fallen tower of Grimsgate's lord protector .  The Scab Grinder is a forest spirit that stumbled into Grimsgate recently.  The entity seemed harmless enough, and since the lords are vanished and the capital has fallen, there is no one to say it should be driven back into the woods. Worse there is no one to drive the foul intrusion of the magical back into the woods,but it seems willing and even delighted to do menial labor (especially butchering) for table scraps and stale beer. Scab Grinder is a Red Cap, a twisted elemental brute of animate burl and root that crudely copies the ways of man.  As a PC Scab Grinder is a Lvl 1 dwarf played in Brendan’s “Finchbox” inaugural session.  He acquitted himself well, but did little besides acting as a guinea pig for gasses and spotting hidden doors.

There was sun above the rich earth, and the vibrations of the people below, the questing touch of growing things.  This was.  Then there was movement and the light of sun amongst the forest, and it was good to be inside the growing thing.  Time existed and also self.  Self begat knowledge of that outside self, and such knowledge is not quickly found standing still.  The ambition for more knowledge of the world cannot be served by standing alone in the deep dappled woods.  That is how the root wandered.  The root found others and others were different then the root, softer and loud, calling themselves men.  The root took a name, Scab Grinder, as those were in the words of the others and sounded strong. Scab Grinder was brought most powerful sensations in the test of the Root’s form against those of men.  Squashing, pulping and looking at their inner workings – such color, worthy of a hat for Scab Grinder.  Still ambition demands more than simply wandering the woods and crushing the men found there, dipping his hat in the red water that runs from their still forms.

Tomb of the Rocketmen - 1st Playtest Report.

Tomb of the Rocketmen Playtest - I ran a playtest of Tomb of the Rocketman the other night, the party was fairly successful, losing one member to a trap and most importantly they showed me that the Tomb isn't instantly deadly (as I had feared) or impossible to enter.

THE PARTY

A crack team of skilled graverobbers, killers and antiquarians assembled at the personal orders of the Grande Vizier of Denethix.

Grisham Everyman – A perfectly mundane man of middling years, with mud brown hair and hard brown eyes.  Only his armor, a suit of white ceramic plates, marked with blue designs is remarkable. Fighter 6

Dogrok – A cyclone of anger from the beleaguered tribes amongst the Feasting Trees.  This warrior wears elaborate fluted armor made of the finest steel and his hammer is the living heartwood of a Feasting Titan. Fighter 6

Mo-Mo – Moktar Warrior from the Certopsian, Deadly with a black Zweihander from a dusty serpant man tomb and favored by his ancestors.  Moktar 6

Marina Cleric of Theosaurid – Worshipper of the gilded god of dinosaurs, a devotee of the most savage faith amongst the orbital gods (or so they claim – Rarge God of Savagery disagrees).  She is always accompanied by her Doberman convert and guardian, Lt. Dog. Cleric 6

Gamma Ray – Sorcerer of the Sword, a well built warlock who is fond of  grandiose gestures.  His past is unknown to any but himself, and he hints at retaking a tower somewhere in the Worthless North.  He carries a powerful artifact of lost sorcery. Magic-User 6

11 – An ancient machine of rust and impenetrable armor plating, unearthed near the home warrens, 11 destroyed the foolish dwarf nobles that thought he could be bound by chains of compound interest.  Its drills and magma cannon still function, and now 11 is a heartless bounty killer. Robot 6

The Absurdites of Wizards.

I have a feeling all Pahvelorn's wizards
are the spiritual successors of this guy.

Wizards, they are all crazy.  The random table of horrible wizard affectations listed below has been inspired by the variety of mad wizards encountered in Pahvelorn.  So far the Pahvelorn party has done in the following wizards:

1. Some chump necromancer with theatrical aspirations (he had a skeleton acting troupe), wore a three horned headress.

2. His would be successor, an even less intelligent necromancer, killed by Beni because the clerics in the party wanted to torture the poor touched soul.

3. Lovitar the bleak eyed - madder then a rat living in an outhouse.  Enjoyed turning people into beastmen while hiding invisible - an ineffective tactic when faced with killer war dogs.

4. Some crazy old alchemist type (looted and exiled, not actually killed, because he proved not to be a wizard...in retrospect however.)

Cannibal Ax Killers - Session II - Warlock Moon

Food is scarce, not so much food as flavor.  There's plenty of grey pablum to go around, but just like vistas of grey stone, beds of grey stone, square grey stone buildings, wind that only brings the taste of distant burning and the grey light that filters through the orb's black, black sky, pablum is boring. Boring onto death for some.  Suicides are common on the Warlock Moon, though that's a waste really as there are plenty of other ways to die, and almost all of them are from boredom.  Madmen a perhaps more common, frankly so common that it isn't wise to call another man mad unless he is actively trying to eat you.  That's the main reason Makepeace NoHells leaves the safety of the village wards.  He may talk about proving the innate superiority of the human spirit and bringing the light of reason to the dark places of the sphere, but this is lies and dogma, MakePeace is hungry for flavor.  It's for the best really, especially if the rumors about Makepeace's people's "burial practices" can be credited, and really beside salacious rumors what else is there to do?

Grey Vastness of the Warlock Moon

Dungeons and Dandies - HMS APOLLYON - Uptown Session Play Report.

The Uptown Follies – Casino of Torment – Session I

“Treasures”

• Sea-mongrel head (taxidermied) and shark jaw club – minor curio – 50 XP each party member
• 4 theater masks – minor curio – 50 XP to each party member.
• Ancient Carcosian dice – major curio – 300 XP to each party member

Group XP

• First into the Crystal Cavern – 100 XP each
• Well-mannered negotiations bonus – 50 XP each
• Total XP – 550 XP each PC – 275 XP to Gaspar the Valet who is now 1^st level (pick a class when he returns to town).

Individual XP bonuses

• Daring-do with trident – 100 XP to Efrin
• Standing up for the moneyed classes 50 XP for Ignatz

Invitation to Ruckus

After the ‘entertainment’ incident and the ghost actress massacre, things have been slow amongst the fourth sons, spinster daughters, wastrels, bastards and wealthy layabouts of Uptown.  Yet, Devin Hare – man about town, mistress of the duelo, and survivor of the pigeon tower massacre, has come across an opportunity for social advancement that simply cannot be ignored.

Play Report - Warlock Moon

Nick of Paper & Pencils ran an inaugural session of his Warlock Moon setting with the Pahvelorn core group.  We set off to explore the moons bleak grey wastes in a lively and fast paced session. Now this was a pretty well schooled group of tactically minded players who all have a fair amount of experience, but Nick managed to make it an interesting, challenging, and strangely almost combat free (We avoided beasts, got lucky and ran), session despite our caution and experience.

The Party
A Chimney Sweep (Thief) - Played by Ram at Save vs. Party Kill
A Warlock (Elf) - Played by Brendan of Necropraxis
A Paladin of Null (Fighter) - Played by Gus L. of Dungeon of signs.

Makepeace NoHells - LOTFP Fighter (Level 1)
A full character sheet - rather Science Fantasy I think.

The Town doesn't really have a name, well it has one: Stumberg or Stovell or something with an 'S', but even those who've lived in it their whole lives don't really remember it as there aren't any other towns.  The traders in their flowing orange robes who appear and disappear by their own whims say there are other towns, and Belina the town elder came from somewhere else.  It's an intellectual fact that there are other towns, but for the residents of The Town there is only the one - a circle of square stone buildings, flat roofed, mostly empty except for dust, and surrounded by a ring of ancient protective sigils.  The catch basins are usually filled with rain water, and the food continues to appear twice a day in the huge metal bowl at the center of 'town'.  There is enough food, the warlock saw to that before he left the townsfolk's grandparent's here.  Perhaps there is even too much food, as the town once held many more dwellers then it does now, but there is nothing else.  No craft, as there is no need and only stored materials. No business, except for the visits by the traders.  Nothing for the townsfolk beyond the petty betrayals, endless gossip, pointless vendettas and mindless lusts that come when a people have no future.

The Mountain Comes to Efulziton the Unseen - Pahvelorn Play Report

"So the extraworldy army is destroyed, and we get a reward, well I want you to promise not to attack the other ... uh ... civilized cities.  Well no I can't see why you'd do that, and I trust you'll keep that promise?  I also want to be a knight, I mean Duke of Trolmun.  Wait, there aren't any nobles in Trolmun, but I can still have a scroll that says I'm a Duke - a patent of nobility - make it written real fancy, on good paper, with ribbons, and seals, and some illuminated letters.  On a big heavy scroll, with carved knobs, yes bone is fine.  It's not worth anything though, you're sure?  Well then I also want my weight in gold - all 136 lbs." - Beni Profane, when offered his heart's desire by the Necromancer King Efulziton the Unseen

Pron - fighter, and huge, heavily made-up, hairy child

With the last notes of the magical flute echoing in their minds, and the earth around them buckling as uncounted legions of undead clawed towards the surface from their cursed graves the adventurers of the sometimes "Order of Gavin" rushed to the surface up the deep well that had led them to the heart of the doomed mountain.  Uri the Hook, a sadistic brute of a deserter from the Zorptah town guard who possessed an inexplicably sweet singing voice had fled previously and by the time the first of the party emerged from the stone well his armored form was fleeing across the writhing graveyard in exaggerated leaps that flung snow in every direction.  Lau Taxan, Beni Profane's dour shamanistic 'spiritual advisor' was the first to emerge from the ground, his ascent aided by the power of his fecund goddess to transform his hands and feet into the clinging claws of a rat.  As Lau forced his now human feet back into his armored boots, Beni also emerged from the hole, having scurried up the side of the shaft with no rope to slow his natural agility.  The two waited, and soon Eariyara the sorceress also climbed from the hole, her childish pinched face red with exhaustion from the rapid 50' climb.

10 Random Questions, and a short HMS Apollyon Play Report

Random Wizard*, a fellow who thinks a lot about systems and game history posted 10 questions.  They are today's old D&D blog post of choice - so below are the answers for HMS Apollyon, and the questions in general.

(1). Race (Elf, Dwarf, Halfling) as a class? Yes or no?
Generally I like race as class - it makes race a distinctive choice and emphasizes the rareness of and stagnant cultures of Demi-humans in the world.  I don't use Elves Dwarves and Halflings on the Apollyon - rather Froglings (Halfingish MU/TH, Passengers (devil tainted MU/F), Flying Monkeys (F/TH), Merrowmen (Th or F or MU depending on stats).  Ultimately there are also dwarf analogues as well on the vessel, but they haven't been 'unlocked' yet.

(2). Do demi-humans have souls?
Sure, well some passengers likely had their souls sold at birth by their power hungry families, but otherwise of course.

(3). Ascending or descending armor class?
Descending, but only out of habit.

(4). Demi-human level limits?
10 I think - but I would like to impose a level limit of around 10 on everyone. Maybe 10 +1 per prime requisite bonus (Max 13).

(5). Should thief be a class?
Well thief as written is kind of silly, but specialists are key I think - most adventurers aren't fighters or wizards.  Most are some sort of skilled skulker and jack of all trades.  I want my thief/specialist class to represent a huge variety of skills though: Safe crackers, Animal Handlers, Archers, Assassins, Hunters, Academics, Doctors, Con Artist Preachers, Skirmishers, and even Martial Artists. 
 
(6). Do characters get non-weapon skills?
Yes, see above.  It's hard to balance, but I like PC to feel different and have strange proficiencies as they level. I want to change from apoint buy system to something more organic, but haven't gotten it all written down yet.

(7). Are magic-users more powerful than fighters (and, if yes, what level do they take the lead)? Depends on the player, depends on the Fighter, depends on the enemy.  I don't worry about power much.

(8). Do you use alignment languages?
 No, everything talks common - even the undead.  I love factions, and digging about on the sheet to see who speaks Sasquatch is boring.  I like social interaction with monsters - even if they mostly shout "I'm gonna eat your eyes!".


(9). XP for gold, or XP for objectives (thieves disarming traps, etc...)?
 XP for Gold, XP for Exploration, XP for player decided objectives


(10). Which is the best edition; ODD, Holmes, Moldvay, Mentzer, Rules Cyclopedia, 1E ADD, 2E ADD, 3E ADD, 4E ADD, Next ?
I use B/X via Labyrinth Lord mostly - quite fond of Little Brown Book D&D, and will convert Apollyon to that someday.  It's not important though - I think the system matters, but only so far as it determines the feel of a game.  Whatever system I'm using I have modded it a fair bit.

PLAY REPORT! HMS APOLLYON - Higher Level Campaign Session 1.
A party of seasoned adventurers decided to again brave the tangled gangways and vaults of the great vessel's stern.

Semm, fighting priest of Lyris
Quartle, mutated frogling sorcerer (with his loyal water elemental Skeetum)
Charlie Ogg, tattooed magsman
Fist of Grok, renaissance orc (formerly elf)
Mister Mister, numismatic foreigner

Best Haunted Armor I could find

Following a map provided by Charlie Ogg's organization (the possibly revolutionary Krab Brother's mafia) the adventurers obtain passage through much of the Sigil Maze behind the fortress of the Marines (The HMS Apollyon's almost defunct order of quasi-religious knight-like protectors).  The map suggests heading Northwest to find a hidden entrance to an ancient (an possibly unplundered arsenal), but the marine patrol will lead the adventurer's no further than an ancient riveted iron hatch.   Beyond the hatch is a series of tombs.  A  crystal clear pool is tested with a coin, then almost poisons Mister Mister as he reaches after the coin, only to be purified by Quartle's water elemental companion.

Beyond the pool are tombs - niches in the walls, sarcophagi both free standing and supine and even piles of bones.  Almost all the male dead are clad in white ceramic armor, with patterns like a china plate, but seem unmoving and still.  Other (female) mummies wear brown wrappings and long brown robes.  Quartle deduces correctly that this is a Marine tomb complex - filled with honored and holy dead marines, and their female auxiliary, the Umber Brides (marine widows and orphans who are highly feared assassins).

A trail of footprints in the still dust leads through a broken wall and into a smashed tomb, where ceramic armor lies shattered amongst dismembered and burnt mummified corpse bits.  Port from the broken tomb is a hall of four doors.

The Northern most door is picked easily by Ogg to reveal a tomb, where the sarcophagi begin to shift almost instantly open and a form made of hanging fire coalesces above the center tomb.  Dead scavengers (likely from an aborted expedition by the still missing Rangvar the Crowbar) are scattered about.  Fist banters with the fiery geist that materializes over the central carved alabaster tomb.  The creature appears to be a small withered corpse, suspended in the center of a suit of antique looking boiler mail - armor made completely from fire. The dead refuse to let the party pass without battle, so the adventurers close the door and head South.

To the south they find a chilled and misty tomb almost identical to that of the fire giest, and decide to avoid it. Beyond another Southern door (bronze and sculpted with a romantic scene) is a despoiled double tomb.  A rubble filled hole in the Northwest corner shows where looters (or worse necromancers) dug into the tomb.  Before it can be explored fully, Ogg is cursed by an ash covered skull levitating from the floor - apparently a farewell gift by the tomb robbers.  The tomb is defaced with black graffiti (mostly necromantic symbols and circles) as well as candle stubs around the central tombs.  The adventurers decide to dig out the hole, and soon find it magically sealed.  Fist dispels the magic with the brutal power of Grok, orcish god of slaughter and battle rage, but digging through the rubble is a slow process.

On guard, Semm spots a trio of spectral figures - women in brown robes that float amongst the hall and nearest tomb (the one filled with dismembered bodies) and begin to rearrange the corpses there. The spectres notice Semm and stare him down but continue to go about thier business until the priest retreats back to the party's diggings.

The party has managed to dig almost through the blockage before the brown robed ghosts suddenly appear and one touches Quartle, possessing the wizard.  Unsure how to fight the ghosts (protection from evil fails to stop them) the party keeps digging, and is startled again when Quartle looses a fireball directly at the floor.  Luckily only Fist's hired torchbearer is killed.  Before additional ghost related injury occurs Semm is able to use the power of Lyris to halt the ghosts and they agree to parley with the adventurers.

After extracting a promise to bring the spirits the heart of "plague King - Serkat, the King Scorpian" within six month, the ghosts manage to pressure several magical items from the party in exchange for aid in negotiating passage by the fire geist.

The geist agrees to let the adventurers pass (into the ancient fortress beyond) if they will name a champion to fight him for five rounds.  Semm accepts and with divine protection and great aplomb manages to get the best of the geist in the short exchange of blows.

*I should add Random joined the 2nd Google+ game I played, a trip into some swampy catacombs with Joe the Lawyer's unkillable (though now orcish) triple classed AD&D elf thing "Sir the Fist".  Random played an unfortunate henchmen that was sacrificed to ghoul no. 2 by Bobo the Monkey Zouve.  He's also played in several Apollyon session and a game of ASE - most often as an understated warrior named "Red".

HMS APOLLYON - HIgh Level Rumors

Below Are Current Rumors for the HMS APOLLYON Year of the Fallen Star and the month of Brown Crabs.

 

War & Rumors of War

Within the oily smelling temple of the ship spirits, lit by the incense and candles at a hundred tiny altars, supplicants mill about under the wide glazed eyes of fanatical Ship Spirit Zealots.  Upon asking for an audience with the local priestess, Lady Stott, the adventurers are told that she is currently on the street of temples, pleading a case in the Central Shrine there.  Her crusade commander and factotum Brazen Gear will meet the party gladly and discuss the needs of the Spirits.

Gear is no longer the frightened drudge he was when the party healed him from the edge of death after a Merrowman ambush.  In the past year he has been filled with power by the Ship Spirits, and now overflows with their favor.  Still a smallish man, his scarred head seems tiny compared to both an extravagant beard and the heavy enameled bronze plate armor he habitually wears.

Gear is glad to see the party, especially as some of their efforts allowed his forces to break the siege of the so called ‘New Lands’ where the temple now rises in what was formerly a bloodstained chapel to the Cult of the Ravenous’ cannibal god.

1) Gear can offer the following leads on the undead menace beyond the buried vault.

The gate at the end of the vault cannot be forced, the Ship Spirit lay brothers and zealots have barricaded this side, as efforts to pass were met by revenants in decaying steam armor that slaughtered droves of soldiers with necromantic weapons before being driven back by the combined powers of Stott, Gear and a Brother Beedle (along with a circle of his fellow Priests of the Eternal Queen).  There may be a way around into the haunted village beyond, a central vault with quaint freestanding buildings and faux – wattle and daub cabin towers.  Likely the best bet is to go Port through the supply areas, but this is only Gear’s guess, perhaps going down or up and forward would work better?

2) He’s still interested in acquiring as many crew served weapons as possible – and will pay good money for them.  Gear and Stott even have authorization to trade ship relics for battle ready weapons.