ASE: Session Nine

Date: Lapin 15th - 16th
Weather: Overcast

Party:
Cedar (Warrior / Beastmaster)
Cloud Nine (Invoker)
Firion (Warrior / Thought Noble)
Mars (Thought Noble / Healer)
Nanashi (Warrior / Expert)

Cohorts:
Jenny
Raymond (Axebeak)
Rex (Wolf)
Zord (Zard)

Summary:
With Chelmsfordshire being a bustling hub of activity, the party decides to start splitting up jobs. Laguna and Celica rent a workshop to work on both modifying Aria's sword and repairing the hurlants. While the seven rifles are unusable beyond repair individually, their spare parts can still be fixed up into a single working rifle. Aria, in the meantime, looks around for leads on any places that could be fixed up and used as a hideout. This left the rest of the party to take the trip to Mt. Rendon... Until a curious creature started to talk to them about joining up on the expedition.

With Mars (and his cohort Jenny) in tow, they make their way up the mountain. In the cave to the gatehouse, the group runs into a familiar duo trying to fleece a mysterious stranger. The former caravan guards, Phil and Terry, run off after being threatened, leaving the party to introduce themselves to the wandering bird Nanashi.

Rex is left to guard the wagon and the group heads in, discovering the destroyed bodies of two automatons. They decide it best to hurry along, heading down to the first level. As Cedar is the only one who had been down there before, he has to get his bearings and guide the party. They open up a door only to find a red monster staring back at them, that soon climbs onto the ceiling and scurries into the darkness. The room they open is found to be newly trapped because of this, which they leave well enough alone. Checking to the south, a hallway full of bones is found. Intimidated, the party instead retraces their steps as best they can, coming across a goblin corpse and grabbing the necklace off of it, avoiding disturbing some mushrooms that seemed to want to shriek, and finally finding themselves in a dimly lit throne room. There they find one of those odd oily-skinned dogs. Cedar manages to befriend it and bond it as a companion and a guide.

Treasure:
-Gold necklace worth 15 gp

Rumors:
-Odd cultists are gathering in the nearby forest
-A hole has opened up in a large oak tree, with a lot of strange things within
-There's a strange bottle being sold with a sandy coastal beach trapped inside
-A few adventurers are planning on raiding a cloud giant's castle for treasure

Crafting:
-Quick-Draw Mechanism for Aria's Sword (Progress: 1/14)
-Hurlant Repair (Progress: 2/7)

Experience:
Aria (lv 3, 7 xp)
Cedar (lv 3, 10 xp)
Celica (lv 2, 5 xp)
Cloud Nine (lv 2, 4 xp)
Firion (lv 1, 2 xp)
Laguna (lv 3, 8 xp)
Mars (lv 1, 0 xp)
Nanashi (lv 1, 0 xp)

My Thoughts: This session had to end early. We're bringing on quite a few characters now! Unfortunately, group B fell apart, but it was a good experiment while it lasted.

ASE: Session Eight, Group A

Date: Lapin 14th
Weather: Overcast

Party:
Cedar (Warrior / Beastmaster)
Celica (Necromancer / Skinshifter)
Cloud Nine (Invoker)
Firion (Warrior / Thought Noble)

Cohorts:
Raymond (Axebeak)
Rex (Wolf)
Zord (Zard)

Summary:
The party figured things had settled down just enough to go back to Mt. Rendon. They didn't. They met back up with Laguna and realized that things were ramping up even harder. Despite being gone for a few days, adventurers, survey teams, and people just wanting to try their luck have all arrived alongside the Unyielding Fist troops.

After checking in with Laguna, Celica tries to poke around for information and ends up finding an adventuring group calling themselves the Divine Comedy. Choice words are exchanged as their leader determines the party seems to have their own entrance to the megadungeon, but an exchange of information does not occur as he had hoped. Regardless, Celica does get information that what seems to be the third level of the dungeon has also opened up - as long as people are willing to brave the moktar hordes that have shown up.

The current members of the Divine Comedy crew.

After the meet and greet, the party heads up the mountain to try to get to the first level once more. They see the lobby to the gatehouse is now empty, with an X painted over one of the doors. After a bit of deliberation about what it could mean, they head to the stairs of the first level before realizing the place was completely empty. No robots or anything. Getting suspicious, they start to search the Gatehouse, suspicious that the abominations may have gotten out. To their relief, they found a robot guarding another door, but they also learned that the abominations react mostly to sound. With that information, the party decides to utilize the blueprints they found to access a secret area. Within the secret area, the party finds multiple rusted rifles and ammo containers and decide to loot it.

Coming back to their cart, Firion soon realizes the door had been opened. They rush to the cart, followed by multiple smaller abominations. One of them opens up an ammo canister and drops it to buy some time, the abominations all stopping to consume the bullets. As all the loot is quickly loaded into the cart, the abominations catch up and a fight ensues... Only with the corroded ammunition the abominations are slightly more explosive than usual. Despite this, the party succeeds in dismantling all the abominations, putting the broken scraps in the cart.

They go back to further clean out the secret area. Cedar finds a room full of mold, wakling in to pick up a shield-looking object he found. The mold spores erupted all around him, leaving him choking and unable to speak. A brief moment of panic ensued before Cloud Nine cast the Decree of Ligneous Dissolution, eliminating the spores choking the kobold (as well as most of his equipment). They decide to head home instead of going deeper, leaving to figure out what to do with the old rifles they found (and replace Cedar's equipment).

Treasure:
-7 rusted-out hurlants
-2 drums of corroded bullets

Rumors:
-Odd cultists are gathering in the nearby forest
-A hole has opened up in a large oak tree, with a lot of strange things within
-There's a strange bottle being sold with a sandy coastal beach trapped inside
-A few adventurers are planning on raiding a cloud giant's castle for treasure

Experience:
Aria (lv 3, 7 xp)
Cedar (lv 3, 10 xp)
Celica (lv 2, 5 xp)
Cloud Nine (lv 2, 4 xp)
Firion (lv 1, 2 xp)
Laguna (lv 3, 8 xp)

My Thoughts:  Hope nobody minds me using parties from previous games as the basis for all the rival adventurers. Also, this is the closest I've gotten to killing someone in Group A! Good thing they had that spell handy.

ASE: Session Six, Group B

Date: Lapin 7th
Weather: Drizzling rain

Party:
Jace (Expert)
Kla'ir (Warrior)
Sebastian (High Mage)

Cohorts:
Alucard (Warrior / Vowed)
Melzgar (High Mage)
Gil (Axebeak)

Summary:
Jace and Kla'ir meet back up with Sebastian, who has been talking with the academics. They learned that the goblins are trying to move their hive mind here, along with the existence of a shroom lich possibly lurking deeper within the structure. They decide to deal with the cleaning robots, heading further into the complex. Their plan was to get the robots to chase them so they could fend them off at the stairs, but it didn't work out so well as Kla'ir was caught and left bleeding out in the ensuing chaos. The rest of the characters ran, and only Sebastian could get to Kla'ir and try to resuscitate her. Thankfully, Sebastian has the Lucky focus, and once per session he is able to avert the tides of fate and possibly even make sure everyone gets out alive! Just so long as he does not roll a 1.

Unfortunately, his plan to stay invisible while doing so didn't work. The party was split up, and while most of the robots got scrapped by Jace and Alucard, Kla'ir perished and Sebastian was found hiding in the corner of a room, beat up and scared. The party decides to retreat from the Molybdenum Tombs and go back to Lugosi to lick their wounds and figure out their plans for another day. That obelisk looks interesting...

Treasure:
-None

Experience:
Jace (lv 3, 6 xp)
Kla'ir (Perished)
Sebastian (lv 3, 6 xp)

My Thoughts: First PC death of the game! A combination of bad luck and risky tactics spelled doom for one PC and almost killed a second. The short session length means I may have to speed things up and go for shorter adventures in the future.

ASE: Session Seven, Group A

Date: Lapin 10th-13th
Weather: Overcast, with drizzling rains later on

Party:
Cedar (Warrior / Beastmaster)
Celica (Necromancer / Skinshifter)
Cloud Nine (Invoker)
Firion (Warrior / Thought Noble)
Laguna (Elementalist / Healer)

Cohorts:
Raymond (Axebeak)
Rex (Wolf)
Zord (Zard)

Summary:
With research done on a previous day, the party starts to set up their trap for the man with no shadow. Celica starts to scout out an abandoned building with where they will lay the trap, Cedar starts to work on making sedatives to hopefully knock the murderer out, and Cloud Nine does more research on how to contain and banish shadows. Laguna is a bit nervous, deciding to leave the city for a little bit and go rumormongering in Chlemsfordshire. While the party deliberates on their next action, a new critter emerges to provide assistance.

A self-described himbo.

With Firion's help, they assemble the ritual components and the trap. Celica assumes the shape of a goblin merchant to trick the murderer into walking into the empty building they repurposed into a shop, but the man felt it too good to be true and kept walking. Cloud Nine still manages to lure in the shadow with the promise of blood, to which the party manages to trap the shadow in a well-lit room with very few shadows. The shadow feels like it's been lured into a trap, and gets very violent.

I originally drew this for a Shadow of the Demon Lord adventure parodying Garfield.

A scuffle ensues, the shadow flailing around and attempting to murder the party. The party manages to keep it away from Cloud Nine as she finishes the ritual, managing to banish the demon with the party sustaining only minor scratches. With the shadow removed, they chase down the murderer, finding him just in time about to murder Madame Verrona who had went out by herself, making poor decisions to head out without her guard due to sleep deprivation. While they fail to stop him in time, they manage to take the murderer out and revive her just in time.

Back at Verrona's manor, they receive the thanks of the noble lady, as well as an interesting trinket she meant to use against the shadow creature - a congealed paradox that can temporarily enforce the laws of mundanity in an area. Cloud Nine seems nervous about them, but the rest of the party takes them. Laguna comes back, giving news about all the adventurers heading into the mountain, the party deciding to head back to Chlemsfordshire, and the Anomalous Subsurface Environment.

Treasure:
-5000 silver
-3 strange bead-shaped objects called "Congealed Paradoxes"
-A favor from a minor noble

Rumors:
-Odd cultists are gathering in the nearby forest
-A hole has opened up in a large oak tree, with a lot of strange things within
-There's a strange bottle being sold with a sandy coastal beach trapped inside
-A few adventurers are planning on raiding a cloud giant's castle for treasure

Experience:
Aria (lv 3, 7 xp)
Cedar (lv 3, 9 xp)
Celica (lv 2, 4 xp)
Cloud Nine (lv 2, 3 xp)
Firion (lv 1, 1 xp)
Laguna (lv 3, 8 xp)

My Thoughts: I went pretty hard on the skill checks this session. I fear I might be leaning on them too much as a crutch. Regardless, the players all seemed to have a lot of fun solving the mystery.
I'm sprinkling around a few adventures I found or bought along the lands of Denethix. I enjoy adventures that are simply location-based adventures as it makes it easy to slot them in as side treks.

ASE: Session Six, Group A

Date: Lapin 8th-9th
Weather: Overcast

Party:
Cedar (Warrior / Beastmaster)
Celica (Necromancer / Skinshifter)
Cloud Nine (Invoker)
Laguna (Elementalist / Healer)

Cohorts:
Raymond (Axebeak)
Rex (Wolf)
Zord (Zard)

Summary:
The players wake up to see more of the Unyielding Fist troops amassing near Chlemsfordshire. They keep with their decision to Denethix, stopping by Retennis as Aria has other business to tend to. At Denethix, most of the party is appalled by the state of the city and its slums, but it's there they find a new party member, Cloud Nine.

She takes them to a convenient spot where the party can stable their animals and get a run-down of the city. They learn about the wizard Feretha, the vizier, and the Unyielding Fist. As they figure everyone else is distracted with the mountain, they decide to go rumormongering to see if anyone needs anything done in the city.

The party finds a majordomo of a petty noble's estate lamenting about his mistress' paranoia. They question him, finding out that a man with no shadow has been slaughtering nobles in their estates, and after a few negotiations they agree to see the noble in her estate about the issue. There they find out that petty nobles that meet to determine various taxes levied have been targeted for assassination.

 

Madame Valerie Von Verrona, heir to the Verrona fortune.

The party splits up, one half goes to research magical beings while the other goes to find information on the last person killed. The research team finds that there are shadow entities people pact with, and that they have hungers that must be sated with regular sacrifices. The investigation team manages to worm their way into the crime scene, finding that the killer had no other way into the room aside from being able to warp between shadows. They put two and two together and investigate the Bazaar Incomparable, as the recent taxes affected merchants from outside the city.

There, they find a gang of goblin merchants who dealt in recreational goblin substances and inevitably discover that their target is both a repeat customer and that he didn't seem to happy that the merchants had to raise their prices due to the new taxes. With all the facts gathered, all that's left is to lay a trap that can capture the man with no shadow, and hope that any creatures he made a dark bargain with aren't too much for them to handle...

Treasure:
None, so far.

Experience:
Aria (lv 3, 7 xp)
Cedar (lv 3, 8 xp)
Celica (lv 2, 3 xp)
Cloud Nine (lv 1, 1 xp)
Laguna (lv 3, 8 xp)

My Current Thoughts: This session was entirely off-the-cuff. I had to call for a 15 minute break for the hook they chose to pursue, as they had a choice between three rumors to investigate into and the man without a shadow was the most pertinent to them. I used the time to generate a few details from the Investigation Challenges and NPC chapters of the Worlds Without Number book and found myself impressed with how coherent the resulting investigation turned out. Even though I'd rather be running dungeon crawls, the advice for running other kinds of adventures is very welcome, even to a veteran referee such as myself.
The players are also making backup characters, I'm excited to see who they'll bring into the fold.