Greetings,
It’s Mike here, coming to write a post on some of the most recent happenings in our 4e campaign. I play Antillia (Tillia) the albino minotaur warden. I wanted to start off by summarizing some of the recent events that will have a bit of a role in some of the events that happen here.
If you’ve been keeping up to date you’ve probably read this post here, which details how Tillia is currently in a dream state with a bunch of liches. They are all asleep in a long-sealed circular catacomb, each lich in its own niche’. There are 6 liches and 7 places along the walls, dominating the center of the chamber is a giant pearl-like black sphere. This sphere I will refer to as the Dream Sphere. Each of the liches has projected themselves, via dream, into the artifact in order to become deities in the world. You will also realize that Tillia managed to wake up one of these liches in the last session, who happened to be the God of Lightning and Thunder. He wasn’t very happy to be awoken. He was confused and to make things worse he discovered that the priests that had built their temple around the sleeping chamber were harnessing the liches for their magical energy. This was causing damage and corrupting their original setup and being as I was the only other thing in the chamber, he turned his wrath upon me. Tillia still being hopped up on all kinds of psychotropic drugs to increase her arcane skill managed to relay that it wasn’t her, she just opened the door and stepped in. The lich immediately realized that Tillia didn’t have the skill to form such a complex network, and let her go. After dealing a wicked amount of lightning damage by grasping her throat and holding her aloft. I felt pretty good about opening the door until he dismissed me so easily! He then released Tillia and began trying to undo some of what had been done. Tillia offered to help and this sealed the deal that she wasn’t an enemy, but an ally of circumstance. This came about when the lich tried to do an arcane check to get a better view of all the shadow circuitry that had been used to drain energy from the liches. He wasn’t doing so hot Carl rolled a 1 and groaned from behind his screen. and so Tillia jumped in using her song hekura which allows her to perform rituals via song, and make them take less time by increasing the DC and allowed him to make another arcane check, with a +20 bonus from the ritual. Needless to say, he didn’t fail this one, and was grateful, if still not pleased. He at least stopped trying to kill her.
At this point Tillia also realized that the Nightmare Beast we had found behind a different iron door much newer than the one to this chamber was sealed in by energy from this room. To top it off, its nightmare powers were being used to cause the dreaming liches massive problems inside the dream and as the temple was closing, it was being unleashed into their dream to the point of causing them to release more power from the increased suffering. This was being siphoned off to power the sealing temple, the reanimation of the skeletons, and the opening/domination of the bati-batis. The lich, obviously, wanted to jump right in and sever all the ties to the liches, thus unleashing this VERY powerful and VERY angry Nightmare Beast. Tillia managed to talk him into letting her release it and she ran to the dark crystal chamber that allows projecting rituals and used it to put her drugs to good use, sealing the beast in a circle of protection and then sending it back from whence it came. The lich then jumped back into the dream world to set things right, and managed to fail miserably Carl rolled another 1 at releasing any of the shadow ties to the liches.
You may ask, why is any of this important? Well, because this drove Tillia to want to help the liches. It also made the dream landscape a little less…painful by removing the Nightmare Beast from the equation. However, this still wasn’t a light decision for Tillia. Nor was it a light decision for me, the player, because Carl made it a point to let Tillia know that entering the dream wasn’t easy and IF I returned, it would change me. This put a lot of pressure and stress on me, because failure could be catastrophic and not acting could be just as bad.
One other thing I should point out that makes an impact later on, is that after defeating the intestine/boar heart beast in the ritual projection chamber Bob sacrificed it to link Gootie and Tillia, so that Tillia could see through Gootie’s eyes without Gootie knowing. After having forced him to go into deep shadow during their last encounter, having an early warning system would be helpful.
To Dream a Little Dream…
So began the dream session. Carl started the session off by asking me some questions about Tillia’s background. I hadn’t discussed her back-story much from the time I had first made the character, and I was honestly surprised that Carl even remembered most of it. It was just a concept I had come up with when creating the character and giving them life. I always like to have something to draw on when making my characters, to flesh them out, even if I do enjoy pouring over feats/abilities for hours finding cool and interesting ones to use. To fill the rest of you in, Tillia came from a tribal culture. Her father was Chief of the tribe and her mother was a Shaman of the tribe. Tillia is one half of a pair of identical twin albino minotaurs. She was named after her father Antilles who was a previous minotaur character of mine a LONG time ago in another campaign and followed in his footsteps. Both Tillia and her sister were highly spiritual, but upon growing older Tillia spent more time training with her father, while her sister trained with her mother. As she aged the weight of responsibility came down upon her shoulders and she realized that only one of the siblings would be chosen to lead the tribe, and that their husband would be Chief after their father. So with the blessing of her family she handed leadership over to her sister to avoid fracturing the tribe loyalties and causing a bitter rivalry. Her father had two great axes he fought with and when he stepped down as a warrior he handed one to each sibling. Upon declaring her faith in her sister, she gave up her family axe to her sister. By giving up her rights, she also gave up her place in the tribe, so this left Tillia in a very awkward situation. Her family would have gladly had her stay, but there was little left for her in the tribe. With that in mind Tillia set off on her own, prepared to travel and find her place in the greater world around her. A lot like her father before her. Her mother cried, her father put on a proud face, and her sister hugged her. Those are the last memories Tillia has of her tribe and family.
Carl then asked me various questions about Tillia’s fears. Would I fear losing my health or sanity, strength of body or strength of personality, my intellect or my reflexes. This of course did nothing for the anxiety that this could have been a very, very, very bad idea for Tillia. After that quick fleshing out, we sat down to the most amazing D&D session I’ve ever been a part of.
Unable to lucid dream right out of the gates, Carl narrated what I perceived and then allowed me to make a check to do things in the dream that I wanted to do. This did a few things: For the first it made me really think about what I wanted to do before I asked to do it and for the second thing, it took away all my normal skill bonuses. This is a lot more stressful than it sounds, when you’re used to skills you’ve come to rely on and worked to master. I have also grown used to the luxury of being able to roll twice on some of my major rolls due to a feat and my nature hekura. The only bonuses I had on any rolls in the dream were my Wisdom modifier (+6), a focus if I had one (which I did with the artifact black orb +6), and half my level (+8). I also got a sliding bonus depending on how much I stayed with the dream (up to +4), or fought against it (-4). Carl also informed me that besides trying to do things, I was also in a large multi-tiered skill challenge. He then showed me a wicked awesome drawing I hope he posts some version of, and pointed out where I was on the path. On my right I had the “Sea of Dreams” no matter where I went, it was always directly to my right. I could jump into it and try to navigate my way and skip ahead at a very high failure rate or return to the shore I left if I got washed into it a relatively lower DC, failure meant being lost in the endless “Sea of Dreams”. On my left was Deep Shadow, of which, I knew a little… but seeing the effects it had on Old Man Gootie, I was not exactly too thrilled to try out. I also felt a current pulling me in the direction of a castle I could see in the distance. I felt the liches were in this castle and following the stream was the lowest DC, and also where the skill-challenge came into play. In the beginning I had the leeway to fail twice a third fail meaning I’m done, but must make three successes to move forward. As I progressed along the “path” towards the castle, the leeway got smaller with one failure and two successes to move on. Anything I did outside of moving forward, didn’t count as a success or failure for the skill challenge itself, but might help me succeed overall.
In the first stage of the dream I was standing in a swamp as a young girl, the only visible structure being a hut on some very tall stilts. It was surrounded by mist otherwise and all beyond it was shrouded in mist as well. As I approached the hut I made a “dream check” for my perception and noticed that the stilts were moving and squirming like snakes. I continued my approach and some abomination emerged from the inside of the hut like a hermit crab emerging from its shell. Four snake heads moved towards me and opened their mouths wide, their throats and the inside of their mouths inflating out to make four identical faces. The faces looked like the pale, waterlogged faces of an old woman. She had milky white eyes and spoke with a watery voice. “Umsala, is that you? Come closer so I can feel your face.” Needless to say, Antillia has been around and in Carl’s universe that is saying something. To her this was more every day, frightening as it may be, than a rarity. As a player this was some chilling imagery, but I had to decide how Tillia would see it. She has stared a gods in the face, studied giant sentient plants, and come toe-to-toe with the end of the world.
As she stepped beyond the house she began drifting into the mist. She felt herself becoming light, but the first step still gave her a bit of a shock as she stepped out into nothingness. This gave me the first chance to become more lucid, but I rolled terribly and did not succeed Feeling so light and weightless like she was flying, she started to zoom down the path excitedly. I felt that this was probably one of the times she felt safest in a long time and carefree. I’ve also felt quite happy and carefree while flying in my own dreams This was until I rolled a 1 on my second check to move along the dream path. Suddenly something swooped out of the mist and took a bite out of Tillia, draining her sanity and willpower and leaving her hurting. Carl rolled a nat 20 on the dice and the creature drained 4 Wisdom from me, one of my greatest fears and also the stat that helped me navigate the dream. Now, minotaurs in 4e are constantly waging a battle against their bestial side and their more humane side. This loss of willpower, this sudden fear that the pristine and careless mist is full of predators, and the shock of it all cause Tillia to give in to her bestial side. She stomped her hoof, her horns twisted and grew in wickedness, and she bellowed out a challenging cry to the Dream Hunter. Charging forward she felt the mist coalesce and tore through an image of Old Man Gootie that seemed made of paper, and burst forth from the mist. I had succeeded on my third check and passed on
I would also like to point out that at no time did Carl ever tell me what form Antillia was in unless she looked around or took notice, and even then she had the greatest influence on herself by expecting to see herself as something in specific when she looked. As Tillia plummeted through the edge of the mist she found herself falling over the edge of a cliff. Having been in a few dreams over the years where I’m falling, I had a pretty good idea how this would go down, but Tillia isn’t me. This also gave me my second chance at lucidity… I failed. She started to panic at first, but long ago Tillia had learned how to shapeshift into a Gadoro. A Gadoro is a four-armed white ape, highly spiritual and hanging out on the sacred island at the confluence of all the rivers. The major benefit being that the form is immune to falling damage. She had done this before on an occasion when falling from the air ship, so it came naturally to her. This also took her mind off of falling and allowed her to calm down, making the fall go much slower. During the fall she was passing backwards through her life, seeing the most recent things she had done, then middle years, then childhood. This coincided with making the 3 checks to pass through this area. Because Tillia had managed to calm down, she had the option to influence an event in each stage of her life. This may not have a direct affect on her current reality outside of dream, but it would increase/decrease the multiple realities that follow in a similar choice. Basically, she could choose one terrible thing to reverse, or one good thing to enforce upon the multiple realities that exist. This was amusing because thinking back, I had a hard time thinking of anything GOOD Tillia had done. She always TRIED to do good things, but they often seemed to backfire in some way. I mentioned this and all had a good laugh about it. I did eventually think of a few things. Needless to say there were a few things that weighed heavily on Antillia’s conscience. The first was when she unleashed Kariki-Kalos the jellyfish god and it sank the continent she and her party came from, presumably killing millions of people. The second was when she trapped Old Man Gootie in the shadow realm for the first time, sucking the energy out of the whirlpool he had created in the confluence of the rivers.
In the grand scheme of things, she had mostly come to terms with having trapped Old Man Gootie. She felt terrible about his insanity derived from his stay in deep shadow, but she had corrected a large disturbance in nature that he had originally created there. She also went on to help Akili and keep Slotek, the abomination of a river god, from being born out of the corrupted union. Given the chance she would have saved Old Man Gootie from being trapped, but she wouldn’t have reversed removing the unnatural whirlpool. She chose to do her best in the dream world to reverse releasing Kariki-Kalos. This hit her harder because it meant the deaths of her family, tribe, Beautiful Bob’s past, and millions of others for no reason. Simple destruction. This pained her the most of the two. She then slowly drifted downward into her adolescence and began seeing flashes of the time before she left her tribe. She latched on to a particular point in her life when her father first bestowed his axes upon Antillia and her sister. She reached into the dream, drawing out the axe, remembering happier times. Remembering her family and what she had left behind. Feeling happiness and sadness at the same time, but she did not regret her actions. At this point Carl said that by drawing out the axe I had a sort of dream “wild card” that I could use at any point. At this point Hammer and Bob piped up about how it was kind of like a game show. Presumably the wild card would grant me a boon in the dream at a later time. With visions of her life flying by, Tillia slowly drifted down into her childhood. Here she spent a lot more time with her sister and chose to strengthen that feeling of the bond between twins. Both children spent a lot of time with their mother at this point in life and so it was filled with time spent outside, playing, exploring, and generally enjoying exploration of the world.
Thus Tillia touched down and entered stage four of the dream sequence down the path to the castle. When she looked around she realized she was standing in a clearing that looked like home, but things were unsettled. Her father and tribesmen faded into view and a battlefield unfolded before her. It wasn’t a battlefield she had ever really fought on, but it was one she had encountered in her dreams before her first real battle ever took place. Her nerves were on edge and fear gripped at her heart. She looked down making sure she was equipped in her traditional war gear and paint. At this point I made a check, Carl pointed out that had I not, it probably would have been brought to my attention that I was naked in the middle of battle at some point. I think everyone has had a version of this dream at some point in his or her life. She wielded a large two-handed warhammer in a fashion mimicking her father’s preference for large weapons, having trained under him up until this point. She fell into line with her comrades and prepared to face the enemy tribe. With a battle shout they all charged into the oncoming enemies, Tillia swung her hammer and was failing. She seemed weak, scared, and her courage dwindled. She was forced back into a corner and surrounded. They disarmed her, and she let out a scream of rage and fear. Suddenly a wall of water from the “Sea of Dreams” rose up over the battlefield and Antillia gazed on in horror, as it was full of the waterlogged dead of her tribe. They screamed out her name and moaned in anguish, their bloated bodies and pale, lifeless eyes gazing into her soul. The washed over the field and consumed all of those in the dream, her father looking to her with fear in his eyes as he was washed away, his axes falling to the ground. Antillia broke free of her paralysis as the wave was closing in on her, arms of her dead loved ones stretching out to pull her down. She charged forward and picked up one of her father’s axes, using both hands to slam it into the ground and anchor herself from being washed away. As she swung the axe downwards it split the wave and it passed on either side of her and faded.I used my nightly d30 roll here to give me the best shot at success, rolling a 27! She turned to the oncoming army, alone. She reached down and picked up a shield and one-handed warhammer from the field, strapping them on. She gazed into the eyes of her enemies on the field and let out a roar, “YOU WILL NOT HAVE MY FAMILY!” and charged… the seemingly solid forms evaporating before her onslaught and the scene fading. Antillia was left panting heavily as she moved on into stage five of this landscape. Just some notes. This was changed to a 2 success 1 failure skill challenge and the DC had increased. I rolled a 5 on the first roll resulting in a failure, and then proceeded to roll a 1, so I was about to be washed away into the Sea of Dreams. I used the axe wild card I had been given earlier to buy myself a chance to re-roll with a +4 bonus. I succeeded and finished up the skill challenge to move on to the next phase. At the point where Tillia stood up to the army by herself I, as a player, was tearing up a bit. I’ll admit I get emotional at the sappy scenes in movies, but this was a lot more personal. We’re only level 18 now, but we’ve been at it for 3 or so years and I’ve grown attached to the character as a whole. Hammer’s player even admitted to feeling a little teary eyed at parts. It just goes to show you how emotionally invested we all were at the table, that’s how much this whole event gripped us. Not to mention the fact my heart was racing and my nerves were on edge with every roll of the dice to make a check.
Antillia emerged from the fading battlefield to find herself in a more recently familiar clearing. This clearing was full of trees and plants that had their roots weaved into the shadow realm by Old Man Gootie. All of the trees had large burls that made up the majority of the tree. These burls were hollow and full of Old Man Gootie’s shadow gardens, where he grew crazy herbs and plants to use in his magic and to feed Akili. This was our first meeting with Old Man Gootie and I believe is somewhat outlined here. She was afraid at first that he was there to come back into the world, but soon realized something wasn’t right because the link Bob had created to Old Man Gootie’s vision wasn’t showing him as being there. This just goes to show you that even when we’re split, the party is still there backing each other up. Bob’s earlier sacrifice of the boar intestine creature gave Antillia the chance to make a lucidity check with a high bonus, which she made with flying colors. Thanks Bob! At this point Antillia fought off some of the dream state and was better able to get her mind around things. She pictured herself in adult form and looked down. She gasped out loud as she realized she was pregnant! At this point everyone around the table groaned, I believe there was some cursing, and throwing up of arms in disgust. The reason being that Gootie often revives himself by impregnating someone and birthing himself through them, with some of their powerful traits, in turn making him more powerful each time. As a player I was wracking my mind as to how Antillia would handle this, having previously stopped Gootie from impregnating her and even trapping one of his “children” in a field. Antillia at this point could hear Gootie approaching, but she used her lucid will to ensure that a young Gootie came forward. He turned out to be even younger than she had ever met, and she smiled at him. Rubbing her belly as she also used her influence to make the child in her womb a normal baby, half minotaur and half human. She embraced Gootie and stepped back, her waters breaking as she went into labor. Thinking to herself, “This isn’t so bad… it’s kind of nice.” Then realizing, “Oh ya, it’s a dream.” She pushed out out of some fanciful shinning light came a clean and healthy satyr looking child. She held him in her arms and kissed him, handing him over to his father, Gootie, who smiled and took the child as that section of the dream began to fade. More notes! This is one of the points where your character manages to surprise even the player. I mean, at the risk of sounding crazy, Antillia did something that even I had a bit of trouble realizing before I had said it and it was done. Everyone at the table was shocked, and I think I even surprised Carl. Carl let me know that I would be seeing my child in my dreams and that I had given Gootie a hook point to return, without so much of the hatred and craziness if he chose it. He said by no means would this alleviate everything, but it was certainly a good start. This whole event and how it unfolded actually left me feeling pretty great for Antillia, and very happy. Hopeful for Gootie even.
So Antillia moved on to stage six of the dream walk. At this point my hands were shaking, I had come so far and come SO close to failure before this. Things were only going to get harder. Luckily I was now lucid, so that gave me a leg up, but it only allowed me to be more creative with my choices. It wasn’t a guarantee of anything. This portion of the dream was just before the “Gate House” to the castle. Immediately after entering this phase, Kariki-Kalos loomed before me, maw agape, heading right at me! He was enraged and ready to swallow me whole, I could see little more than his maw and the shadow eyes surrounding it. At this point I made a check to bring a dream version of Bob and Hammer on either side of me. I also summoned up the liches that had imprisoned Kariki-Kalos to begin with. I think put a Horn of Kariki-Kalos in Bob’s, Hammer’s, and my own hands. We all blew them at once and the deep bellowing sound reverberated throughout the dream. Kariki-Kalos represented all the doubt, regret, and pain that Antillia had been feeling over the years and she called upon her friends for help in that moment of need to overcome all of it. The horn mesmerized Kariki-Kalos and Tillia took advantage. Rather than proceed on she chose to mount Kariki-Kalos with her friends, now family, and the liches to ride him through the “Sea of Dreams” to the base of the castle. She envisioned him being re-imprisoned below the castle, much like he was below the original temple we found him in. She then dismounted as the dream faded and the session ended with Antillia inside the Castle of Dreams, which was crowned with the golden sphere where all the liches were. I think the move of riding Kariki-Kalos caught people at the table by surprise as well. I know Hammer said something along the lines of, “I wasn’t thinking that, but once you said it, it was like… Yeah, that’s totally the way it should be.” I made a strong success to navigate Kariki-Kalos and thus next session will bring the hardest challenges to date!
END
Words from the player…
I didn’t expect this recap to be so long, but once I got going… it was hard to stop. My notes throughout pretty much cover everything, but this entire night was a supremely fun night. I don’t think I’ve had a better session. Emotions were high and everyone was locked into every detail of the events unfolding before us. I think one thing that made this night a smashing success was that we kept swapping back from what I was doing with Antillia, and what Hammer and Bob were doing. It gave us all time to think in the interim without detracting from the ongoing stories. I was as much enthralled with what they were doing, as they were with what was going on with me. Plus it gave me a chance to wipe off the sweat from my palms and take a breath.
I am also amazed at how well the whole dream walk unfolded. Carl took the little he knew of my background, with my input as we went along, and made a very intriguing dreamscape. I felt that we both worked together to flesh out my character beyond anything I had previously done with her. It was like a brainstorming session that was enacting our ideas, as we had them. Roleplay at its best! I think basing Antillia’s father on my previous minotaur character from back in the day, also helped me quickly think of what Antillia might see in her past.
Bob and Hammer’s players did an amazing job keeping quiet when I was in the dream, not shouting out advice and giving me tips. Usually we are very discussion heavy when we are doing things as a group and I’m sure it was hard on both of them to keep their lips sealed and just listen. I know I probably would have done a much less fabulous job of keeping my trap shut.
I knew I was stepping into a dreamscape at the beginning of this session, but I had no idea it would turn out so crazy, and so defining for my albino minotaur. I’m probably just gushing now, but this goes to show what a creative DM can accomplish. It’s not an easy role to fill and even harder to fill well.
-Mike P.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Dream Session
Last night's 4e game was a dream session for two reasons. One, it was probably the most challenging and fun session I have ever run; a dream session. Two, one of the PCs (Tilia the albino minotaur) spent the entire session in a dream state navigating a dream landscape.
As explained here, the party is currently split up with Hammer the warforged barbarian and Beautiful Bob the half-elf/half-gibbering mouther in the upper levels of a temple looting a chamber of its sacrificial trappings and sacred treasures while Tilia is having fun with a bunch of dreaming liches down below.
There were many challenging aspects to running this session. The awake PCs were dealing with a ticking clock. In 2 1/2 minutes the re-animated skeletons of the old temple priests and faithful would finish the trek up from the catacombs, and in 5 minutes the temple would finish being completely sealed away from the 4e dimension and the portal to the bati-bati world would be fully opened. Tilia's body, sleeping, was in a chamber at the end of a long tunnel that would take almost 2 minutes to run down.
And then there was the dreaming PC. Running an effective dream sequence in D&D is hard. As a DM you don't want to just narrate what is happening, but you don't want to allow the player to have as much of a feeling of control as normal. I want to write a whole post about just the dream sequence because it was probably the single coolest role-playing moment I have been a part of. For now I am going to content myself with a few of the highlights from the entire session, dreaming and awake.
Hammer opened his portal coin to the hovercraft and charged around the treasure chamber scooping loot into the portal with his axe. I made the Super Mario coin sound effect.
An unseen vampire sitting in a control room elsewhere in the temple dominated Hammer. Beautiful Bob used his telepathic link with Hammer to force the barbarian into a rage, using his nightly d30 roll to do so... and rolled a 30. Not only did Hammer's rage break the domination, the dominating vampire also flew into a rage and lost the ability to use the ritual throne to project his domination attack for 1d6 rounds. I rolled a six.
Tilia managed to latch onto a talisman during a falling episode in her dream journey, her father's great axe. I told her player to use the ax like a wild card, a dream symbol that could be conjured into another dream scene later.
Bob and Hammer moved the party into the dark crystal chamber near the treasure room, a chamber designed specifically to broadcast rituals out onto remote targets. Bob offered up a sacrifice of his own blood and called upon the storm he had summoned earlier in the evening a few miles downriver before the party abruptly left the river cultists in the wake of an attack by slavers. Bob painted a map of the temple in his own blood on the floor of the crystal chamber, centering it on the chamber that contained the raging vampire. Hammer has a lightning hekura (spirit demon creature) living inside his dark crystal heart and has gained a powerful lightning strike ax attack. Bob's dark ritual allowed Hammer to strike the map and a powerful twin strike of lightning shot from the storm and into the vampire's chamber. The vampire was holding a steel scepter with a crazy power that opens a portal to the inside of a star and causes a column of star fusion to exist in this world for a few rounds, and a series of unlucky rolls made me decide the scepter's power went off in the strike and incinerated the vampire.
Tilia nearly was washed away into the sea of dreams while fighting alongside her father in a battle dream of her youth. Tilia used the ax talisman to call the axe to her in the dream and sink it into the ground to prevent being washed away. The sea of dreams is contiguous to all points in dream but it is easiest to return to the shore just left. I gave her a +4 bonus to the check for the use of the talisman at a very appropriate time, and she just made her check to avoid slipping away from the liches' dream land.
The temple troll, unleashed several rounds earlier by the vampire, finally made it to Hammer and Bob and I lunged in with an encounter power that would have badly hurt Hammer and slowed him for the encounter. I roll a 1.
Bob ends up opening a small portal to the raging inferno of star fire that is still going off in the vampire's chamber (the party's hovercraft Curious George was providing an attentive eye in the sky view of the temple's exterior and had been very much enjoying the fire show) and blasting the troll with it, keeping his regeneration from working for just long enough for Hammer to bash it into enough submission that Bob was able to dominate it. Bob felt sorry for the troll after realizing that its living heart had been plucked from its body and kept magically sealed away under the floor of the treasure chamber, and its claws had been replaced with shadowy portals to necromantic realities that oozed necrotic poison. Bob took several precious rounds to restore its heart, remove the enchantments on its claws and heal as much of the psychic damage it had suffered through years of domination at the hands of the temple priesthood as possible. Bob then nervously released his domination of the troll.
I gave it a very slim chance of attacking the PCs and a much greater chance of running down after the oncoming skeletal priests who presided over all the denigrating rituals the troll had been forced to perform in. The troll booked it down the twisting tunnel to the catacombs, buying the party more time as the skeletons were only about five rounds away at this point.
Tilia entered a grove in her dream of twisted trees that she recognized as being the work of her first master in the shadow arts, Old Man Gootie. She also soon noticed that she was pregnant. This elicited groans of horror from Bob and Hammer's players, who of course knew that Old Man Gootie was famous for his ability to procreate with anything and birth new incarnations of himself instead of creating true offspring.
Tilia has always harbored a deep guilt for unintentionally trapping Old Man Gootie in deep shadow and forcing him to lose his sanity over eons of journeying to return to this reality. She used the dream as an opportunity to be glad that she had his child, but she tried to use her influence over the dream (at this point she had just become lucid for the first time in the dream, for reasons I won't get into now) to make her baby a normal offspring of the two and not the usual Gootie-abomination that kills its mother and takes none of her genetic makeup.
Tilia soon birthed a little curly haired satyr looking baby boy that I told her player would be visiting her dreams again in the future.
Tilia eventually ended up riding the god-jellyfish Kariki-Kalos into the sea of dreams and straight into the Dreamer's Castle.
I want to do a whole post on the dream journey because it was almost miraculous how well it worked. I am also going to invite Tilia's player to share thoughts on the dream sequence.
As explained here, the party is currently split up with Hammer the warforged barbarian and Beautiful Bob the half-elf/half-gibbering mouther in the upper levels of a temple looting a chamber of its sacrificial trappings and sacred treasures while Tilia is having fun with a bunch of dreaming liches down below.
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| Dreaming Lich |
There were many challenging aspects to running this session. The awake PCs were dealing with a ticking clock. In 2 1/2 minutes the re-animated skeletons of the old temple priests and faithful would finish the trek up from the catacombs, and in 5 minutes the temple would finish being completely sealed away from the 4e dimension and the portal to the bati-bati world would be fully opened. Tilia's body, sleeping, was in a chamber at the end of a long tunnel that would take almost 2 minutes to run down.
And then there was the dreaming PC. Running an effective dream sequence in D&D is hard. As a DM you don't want to just narrate what is happening, but you don't want to allow the player to have as much of a feeling of control as normal. I want to write a whole post about just the dream sequence because it was probably the single coolest role-playing moment I have been a part of. For now I am going to content myself with a few of the highlights from the entire session, dreaming and awake.
Hammer opened his portal coin to the hovercraft and charged around the treasure chamber scooping loot into the portal with his axe. I made the Super Mario coin sound effect.
An unseen vampire sitting in a control room elsewhere in the temple dominated Hammer. Beautiful Bob used his telepathic link with Hammer to force the barbarian into a rage, using his nightly d30 roll to do so... and rolled a 30. Not only did Hammer's rage break the domination, the dominating vampire also flew into a rage and lost the ability to use the ritual throne to project his domination attack for 1d6 rounds. I rolled a six.
Tilia managed to latch onto a talisman during a falling episode in her dream journey, her father's great axe. I told her player to use the ax like a wild card, a dream symbol that could be conjured into another dream scene later.
Bob and Hammer moved the party into the dark crystal chamber near the treasure room, a chamber designed specifically to broadcast rituals out onto remote targets. Bob offered up a sacrifice of his own blood and called upon the storm he had summoned earlier in the evening a few miles downriver before the party abruptly left the river cultists in the wake of an attack by slavers. Bob painted a map of the temple in his own blood on the floor of the crystal chamber, centering it on the chamber that contained the raging vampire. Hammer has a lightning hekura (spirit demon creature) living inside his dark crystal heart and has gained a powerful lightning strike ax attack. Bob's dark ritual allowed Hammer to strike the map and a powerful twin strike of lightning shot from the storm and into the vampire's chamber. The vampire was holding a steel scepter with a crazy power that opens a portal to the inside of a star and causes a column of star fusion to exist in this world for a few rounds, and a series of unlucky rolls made me decide the scepter's power went off in the strike and incinerated the vampire.
Tilia nearly was washed away into the sea of dreams while fighting alongside her father in a battle dream of her youth. Tilia used the ax talisman to call the axe to her in the dream and sink it into the ground to prevent being washed away. The sea of dreams is contiguous to all points in dream but it is easiest to return to the shore just left. I gave her a +4 bonus to the check for the use of the talisman at a very appropriate time, and she just made her check to avoid slipping away from the liches' dream land.
The temple troll, unleashed several rounds earlier by the vampire, finally made it to Hammer and Bob and I lunged in with an encounter power that would have badly hurt Hammer and slowed him for the encounter. I roll a 1.
Bob ends up opening a small portal to the raging inferno of star fire that is still going off in the vampire's chamber (the party's hovercraft Curious George was providing an attentive eye in the sky view of the temple's exterior and had been very much enjoying the fire show) and blasting the troll with it, keeping his regeneration from working for just long enough for Hammer to bash it into enough submission that Bob was able to dominate it. Bob felt sorry for the troll after realizing that its living heart had been plucked from its body and kept magically sealed away under the floor of the treasure chamber, and its claws had been replaced with shadowy portals to necromantic realities that oozed necrotic poison. Bob took several precious rounds to restore its heart, remove the enchantments on its claws and heal as much of the psychic damage it had suffered through years of domination at the hands of the temple priesthood as possible. Bob then nervously released his domination of the troll.
I gave it a very slim chance of attacking the PCs and a much greater chance of running down after the oncoming skeletal priests who presided over all the denigrating rituals the troll had been forced to perform in. The troll booked it down the twisting tunnel to the catacombs, buying the party more time as the skeletons were only about five rounds away at this point.
Tilia entered a grove in her dream of twisted trees that she recognized as being the work of her first master in the shadow arts, Old Man Gootie. She also soon noticed that she was pregnant. This elicited groans of horror from Bob and Hammer's players, who of course knew that Old Man Gootie was famous for his ability to procreate with anything and birth new incarnations of himself instead of creating true offspring.
Tilia has always harbored a deep guilt for unintentionally trapping Old Man Gootie in deep shadow and forcing him to lose his sanity over eons of journeying to return to this reality. She used the dream as an opportunity to be glad that she had his child, but she tried to use her influence over the dream (at this point she had just become lucid for the first time in the dream, for reasons I won't get into now) to make her baby a normal offspring of the two and not the usual Gootie-abomination that kills its mother and takes none of her genetic makeup.
Tilia soon birthed a little curly haired satyr looking baby boy that I told her player would be visiting her dreams again in the future.
Tilia eventually ended up riding the god-jellyfish Kariki-Kalos into the sea of dreams and straight into the Dreamer's Castle.
I want to do a whole post on the dream journey because it was almost miraculous how well it worked. I am also going to invite Tilia's player to share thoughts on the dream sequence.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Lichhanger
Our last 4e session ended on quite a cliffhanger. The short story - the party split up. One member of the party woke up a lich precisely as the other two party members were breaking into the temple treasure room and triggering its magical guardians to spring to life. And that is when we called it a night :)
Earlier in the evening Beautiful Bob bathed in the pool of light at the base of the radiant energy waterfall manifest between two colossal stone statues guarding the entrances to two temples. One temple contained a peaceful new cult of the river god, worshiping the party's old friend Akili as a new incarnation of the river's spirit. The party's stay there was more or less uneventful, although Beautiful Bob did plant a few seeds in Akili's head about learning to control and harness her new-found godlike powers.
Exploring the other temple proved much more exciting. Right after a tense encounter that used some of the party's daily powers the party split up. I should not forget to mention that a giant stone disc was slowly closing the entrance to the temple (the party triggered a trap in the entrance hallway), coinciding with the slow opening of a portal to a nightmare dimension populated by the Bati-Bati (orb creatures from another reality that warp the minds of all who behold them until they pluck out their own eyes). I told the party they estimated about 10 minutes until the temple was sealed in completely. There was some discussion of whether the party was still going to be able to teleport out of the temple if it was sealed and the general consensus was that no one knew. They forged on ahead. Bob had made a couple of tiny clones of himself earlier that were keeping an eye out on the long tunnel to Bati-Bati world and exploring the labyrinthine crypts below the temple.
Tilia went down to the magically sealed iron door at the end of the long hand carved tunnel to the south-east of the crystal ritual chamber where they fought the animated giant-boar heart and entrail-mouthed abomination just a few moments earlier and opened it on her own. Hammer and Bob were checking out the rooms to the north-west when Bob figured out that the large wooden double doors at the end of the hallway were magically trapped and wanted to explode. Bob then scried beyond the door and saw the temple treasury, gems and gold and residuum. This was all that Hammer needed to hear and he charged headfirst at the door. Which happily exploded in his face. Right about then Tilia had walked into a room lined with seven niches carved into the walls, six of which contained mummified bodies quickly identified as slumbering arch-liches (although from a divine tradition). Two large ceramic statues of horned spear wielding temple guardians sprung to life like drunken bottom-heavy tops in the treasure chamber above exactly as Tilia managed to wake up one of the sleeping arch-liches in the lower chamber.
This should be fun!
Friday, June 29, 2012
Synergistic Effects and Contraindications in Herbal Magic
One of the things I wanted to do when I introduced a bunch of magical herbs in my 4e campaign was to eventually come up with some kind of mechanic to resolve the unintended consequences of mixing medicines. I decided early on that I didn't want to try and make an exhaustive chart of every possible combination, because that would get ridiculous very quickly with the number of different magical herbs and elements we are talking about here.
This issue came to the fore again last session when Tilia was faced with a daunting magical challenge and she ate some vile smelling fungal growth and a wing of the staring moth to gain bonuses they would give to her arcana check (both items collected during the course of the campaign).
This is still tentative but I have a rough mechanic. For each pair of herbs ingested, roll 1d20. A result of 1 indicates a contraindication and a result of 20 indicates an unexpected beneficial effect. When more than two herbs are ingested at once, roll for each individual pair and also once for the entire unique combination.
1. This combination of herbs severely strains the heart. If strenuous physical activity is engaged in the next 2d6 hours there is a risk of heart attack (this could be a Fort attack in 4e with the potential to do enough damage to kill, or a Save vs. Death in earlier editions).
This issue came to the fore again last session when Tilia was faced with a daunting magical challenge and she ate some vile smelling fungal growth and a wing of the staring moth to gain bonuses they would give to her arcana check (both items collected during the course of the campaign).
This is still tentative but I have a rough mechanic. For each pair of herbs ingested, roll 1d20. A result of 1 indicates a contraindication and a result of 20 indicates an unexpected beneficial effect. When more than two herbs are ingested at once, roll for each individual pair and also once for the entire unique combination.
I have a very rough start on contraindication and unexpected beneficial effect tables (these definitely need to be expanded to at least d20 tables - leave suggestions in the comments?): EDIT: Mike, player in my 4e campaign and sometimes poster on this blog, sent me an email with a bunch of great suggestions for this that I will be incorporating into these tables soon.
Contraindication Table: 1d12
Remember to tell your doctor about every magical herb you are currently taking when discussing a new prescription!
2. This combination of herbs inhibits the body's ability to process alcohol for 1d4 days. Not only will alcoholic beverages be dramatically more potent, the drunk will last for the entire duration and a number of drinks = 1/3 Constitution could result in death by alcohol poisoning.
3. Combining these herbs interferes with the efficacy of magical healing. -2 per die on all magical healing for 1d4 days.
4. These herbs just don't work very well together. 1 (1-5 on d6) or both (6 on d6) of the herbs work at 1/2 normal effect (whatever that is) when combined.
5. Severe light sensitivity results for 1d6 days, blinded in full daylight and -2 to hit in bright to moderately lit rooms. If a 6 is rolled for duration, the light sensitivity continues for another 1d6 days. If a 6 is rolled on 3 successive checks, the effect is permanent.
6. A numbing of all physical sensations occurs, causing a -4 penalty to Dexterity and the inability to feel pain for 2d4 hours.
7. Do not combine these herbs when pregnant. This could be as simple as a chance of miscarriage or as crazy as a chance of magical birth defects. Alternatively this could pollute the semen of male characters for 3d10 days, either causing sterility or hyperfertility for the character and magical birth defects for any children conceived during that period.
8. One of the herbs (randomly determined) does not function at all while the other functions at 150% normal efficacy.
9. A severe drowsiness results, a fast and unavoidable sleep descending in 3d6 rounds and lasting 2d30 hours. Although pain or sudden loud noise can wake the character, sleep will return in 3d6 rounds until the original duration has passed.
10. A slow process of petrification starts. This initially manifests as +2 to AC and -4 to REF. Over the next 2d6 days, roll a save at -1 cumulative per day the petrification has progressed. Each failed save results in an additional +2 to AC and -4 to REF. Each successful save reverses one days effects (if the first save is made the petrification ceases). When REF reaches 0, the body is turned completely into stone and can only be cured through magical means.
11. Dehydration/nausea results (Thanks Mike!). Rolling a 1 on any attack/skill check dazes you for 1d4 rounds. Rolling a 1 twice without stopping to rest and rehydrate causes dehydration to the point where you fall unconscious for 1d4 rounds and can not be roused by normal means. Falling unconscious twice in this manner causes you to fall into a coma for 1d4+1 days, where you must seek proper medical treatment via someone trained in the Heal skill. Failing to do so within 2 days means you make a Death saving throw, if successful you stabilize and remain in the coma for an additional 1d4+1 days (added on to the first roll) You may also suffer permanent Ability damage. After 2 more days without medical treatment you automatically perish. Receiving proper medical treatment within 2 days prevents the Death saving throw, but you will remain in your coma for the full duration of your total days rolled. (Min 4 - Max 10)
12. Combining these herbs can be instantly fatal. Saving throw or die in 4e (or savings throw vs. Death).
11. Dehydration/nausea results (Thanks Mike!). Rolling a 1 on any attack/skill check dazes you for 1d4 rounds. Rolling a 1 twice without stopping to rest and rehydrate causes dehydration to the point where you fall unconscious for 1d4 rounds and can not be roused by normal means. Falling unconscious twice in this manner causes you to fall into a coma for 1d4+1 days, where you must seek proper medical treatment via someone trained in the Heal skill. Failing to do so within 2 days means you make a Death saving throw, if successful you stabilize and remain in the coma for an additional 1d4+1 days (added on to the first roll) You may also suffer permanent Ability damage. After 2 more days without medical treatment you automatically perish. Receiving proper medical treatment within 2 days prevents the Death saving throw, but you will remain in your coma for the full duration of your total days rolled. (Min 4 - Max 10)
12. Combining these herbs can be instantly fatal. Saving throw or die in 4e (or savings throw vs. Death).
Unexpected Beneficial Side Effect Table: 1d10
1. A random stat is increased by 1d4 for 1d6x10 minutes.
2. These herbs work great together. 1 (1-5 on d6) or both (6 on d6) work at 150% normal efficacy.
3. This combination reduces fatigue and hunger. No food or sleep needed for 24 hours. No side effects.
4. This combination of herbs restores 3d6 HP or grants 3d6 temporary HP that disappear if not used within 2d8 hours.
5. Lucky combination: +1 to all rolls for 24 hours
6. A metabolite of this combination is sweated out and is irresistible to a random species (25% chance of being the same species as the ingester), acting as a love potion upon first exposure and a charm person/monster for subsequent suggestions made by the ingester, for 1d4+1 hours. Even species not affected will find the body odor of the ingester very appealing for the duration.
7. Magically toughens the ingester, +2 to AC for 3d6 hours.
8. Grants telepathy to 50'. This requires concentration and can only be used on one subject at a time. Does not require line of site. All living minds within 50' can be detected and contacted with concentrated effort.
9. Moment of Zen. Exact effect of this is up to the player and DM. Suggestions of a mechanical nature would include temporary bonuses to Wisdom, initiative, diplomacy, reaction checks, perception; suggestions of a more flavorful nature would include giving the DM a blank card in the form a character "revelation" (the DM gets to either reveal a secret or make up some shit about the campaign world) or some kind of breakthrough on a personality or character flaw. This effect can never be intentionally recreated, only occurring as a random side effect of different herbal mixtures.
10. Restores youthful vigor - lose 1d4 years of age. Each time this combination of herbs restores youth there is a 1% cumulative chance of developing an irrational and overriding fear of aging.
Standardizing Doses and Duplicating Results
Unless very exacting precautions were taken to both accurately measure the potency of each herbal specimen and the exact amount consumed, combining the same types of herbs will not necessarily yield the same result. I think a good start would be to give a 25-75% chance of recreating a contraindication or beneficial side effect, with the care taken to measure dosage determining the exact chance. This assumes the same batch of herbs was used - I would lower these chances if this was not the case. The 25% chance of failure even given the same herbs and very careful measurement of dosage means that there was some other factor present the first time that is missing. Perhaps a fly flew in the preparation, or it was a hotter or colder day and the reaction depends on a certain temperature, or it was mixed in a copper bowl the first time and a wooden bowl the second, etc.
Addiction
Yes of course there should be addiction rules but I really haven't nailed that one down yet. I am still kicking around what sort of mechanic I want to use for addiction. I don't want it to be a record keeping game of tracking doses used per period of time, I know that much.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Alternate History Space Race
Sometimes being a DM in the age of the internet feels like cheating. I'm rolling the dang d30 every time behind the screen and no one notices because everyone is doing it. I posted a while back about how the internet is a megadungeon. My new Mars 1990 campaign idea has led me down a tunnel into some interesting caverns lately, like this amazing series of posts at alternatehistory.com which will give me some good starting points for my alternate history space race. A real life space historian runs a simulation game with five Russians and five Americans players modeling national civilian and military space programs; they have gotten through 1973. I am certainly not going to go to that level of detail but I do want to do a little reading up on the subject.
Heck, just looking at Wikipedia's broad outline of Cold War events in the 80's gives me a million ideas for the campaign. I have to make some big decisions. Is George H. W. Bush going to be the President in my game? I am also very much considering running both US and USSR groups of players through the same campaign. I have been wanting to finally jump into Google+ gaming and this will be the perfect excuse. I am envisioning the two parties as ultimately becoming bitter rivals in the race to unlock the secrets of the Martian megadungeons. I will track time for both parties so that I can tell who gets where first.
Heck, just looking at Wikipedia's broad outline of Cold War events in the 80's gives me a million ideas for the campaign. I have to make some big decisions. Is George H. W. Bush going to be the President in my game? I am also very much considering running both US and USSR groups of players through the same campaign. I have been wanting to finally jump into Google+ gaming and this will be the perfect excuse. I am envisioning the two parties as ultimately becoming bitter rivals in the race to unlock the secrets of the Martian megadungeons. I will track time for both parties so that I can tell who gets where first.
Google Mars
Holy crap! I had no idea there was a Google Mars. Google Earth was an incredibly useful resource for my Mutant Future campaign and if I end up running with my new alternate history Mars in 1990 campaign idea I know that Google Mars will be just as awesome. The links to articles and stories on prominent Martian features are excellent starting points for more inspiration.
Google Moon is pretty cool too...
There is a tutorial video at googleplanets.com which explains what you can do with Google Mars, Google Moon, and Google Sky. It does not mention using these free tools to help run a cold war sci-fi game, but it probably should.
Spy in a Backpack
I have gone many different directions when explaining character absences in RPGs.
Inspired by this post at the Temple of Demogorgon (all bow down to its name)
We had the classic "they were in the bag of holding" routine, as I had long since ruled that if you stuck a tube or straw out of the entrance you could draw oxygen from outside of the pocket dimension. My old 3e campaign took this to another level as two ninjas in that campaign would tie a twine around the bag of holding and attach it to an arrow they would launch from inside the mostly drawn bag, shooting themselves around like little magical fucks. And I let them do it in the name of cool.
We had the "we don't give a fuck this if fucking Mutant Future and shit is all kinds of crazy anyway" approach. (sorry totally unrelated link)
In my 4e game a player has been unable to attend for several months but luckily his goblin tinkerer had made an enclosed gunner's turret inside the chest cavity of Hammer the war-forged Barbarian and at the end of the last session he played he was in a trance, his consciousness exploring the dark crystal heart that Hammer's essence had been fused with. So that dude can come back any time and literally just step out of another player character.
But in this campaign I am talking about starting up, I want players to drop in and out because of espionage.
Secret missions. Everybody is working for one government or the other (or both) and no one is surprised if someone gets yanked from one mission to do something else for a bit. Nor is it surprising when spies drop back in unexpectedly. There is a home base to get back to before you run out of oxygen.
Spies in a backpack, y'all.
Inspired by this post at the Temple of Demogorgon (all bow down to its name)
We had the classic "they were in the bag of holding" routine, as I had long since ruled that if you stuck a tube or straw out of the entrance you could draw oxygen from outside of the pocket dimension. My old 3e campaign took this to another level as two ninjas in that campaign would tie a twine around the bag of holding and attach it to an arrow they would launch from inside the mostly drawn bag, shooting themselves around like little magical fucks. And I let them do it in the name of cool.
We had the "we don't give a fuck this if fucking Mutant Future and shit is all kinds of crazy anyway" approach. (sorry totally unrelated link)
In my 4e game a player has been unable to attend for several months but luckily his goblin tinkerer had made an enclosed gunner's turret inside the chest cavity of Hammer the war-forged Barbarian and at the end of the last session he played he was in a trance, his consciousness exploring the dark crystal heart that Hammer's essence had been fused with. So that dude can come back any time and literally just step out of another player character.
But in this campaign I am talking about starting up, I want players to drop in and out because of espionage.
Secret missions. Everybody is working for one government or the other (or both) and no one is surprised if someone gets yanked from one mission to do something else for a bit. Nor is it surprising when spies drop back in unexpectedly. There is a home base to get back to before you run out of oxygen.
Spies in a backpack, y'all.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Campaign Idea - Alternate History Mars in 1990
Received some transmissions from the blogosphere today. This fascinating post on an alternate U.S. space exploration history that could have been really makes me want to start a campaign on Mars. It is the story of a proposed re-usable single stage booster which would have led to a lunar colony by 1978 and manned missions to Mars by 1986.
I have been itching to run a Mars campaign since I read the Barsoom books a few years back in my quest to learn more about D&D's literary roots, and I have been wanting to run a Traveller campaign for some time. I am loving the idea of a campaign set in an alternate 1990 or so, 4 years after the first manned Mars mission revealed vast underground complexes left behind (apparently) by an ancient Martian civilization. I want to hork Travellers character generation mini-game (modified for alternate history 1980's, obviously) but use modded B/X D&D for the ruleset. Setting it in 1990 would mean that the Soviet Union was still there, and I would propose that the alternate history would provide a new space race that would keep the Soviet Union together. Gawd I am getting excited about this! Megadungeon meets Mars meets Traveller meets Cold War!
I love this level of tech for a sci-fi space game. I could use our real life tech levels of the campaign years, with the internet being a rich and never ending resource in that regard.
I am not 100% sure if I am going to abandon the sci-fi fantasy Polynesian Islander-analog campaign that I have been working on or possibly try to do both, but I am definitely going to be putting some more thought into this idea.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Blood Tattoo Magic
Blood tattoo magic is practiced by the seven city-states of the Zamonas delta in my 4e campaign. It was first encountered by the party when the royal tax collector from Siss-Anor showed up at the village of the song people far upstream in the jungle to collect the annual tribute in slaves. The party had been meeting with the local big man Kore (the song people, like most of the jungle peoples, do not have an organized government per se but each village has a big man, the man able to marshal the most resources through calling in favors, threats, marrying off daughters, providing the most food for feasts, etc.) when the news of the tax collector's arrival spread through the village. Accompanying Kore to the river's edge, the party marveled at the paddle-wheeler with the scorpion tail that had carried the tax collector and his men upstream.
The tax collector (also the sheriff, basically the lone extension of the laws of the city state this far upriver) and his two deputies were both heavily tattooed, but the tax collector in particular was almost completely covered in large, colorful designs. As he strode forward he raised his right hand and displayed a prominent eye tattoo on his palm. Beautiful Bob's player did not skip a beat, and Beautiful Bob raised his hand up as well and caused an eye to manifest on his palm (Beautiful Bob fused his body with a gibbering mouther a while back in a dark ritual and can manifest eyes and mouths now). The eye tattoo happened to be a mark of the sheriff's office and he took this as an insult at the least and a treasonous crime punishable by death more likely, and strode forward. Blood flowed from a sack hanging at his waist up into a series of blotchy dark tattoos that covered his torso and he transformed into a giant jaguar.
A fun combat ensued, the paddlewheeler had a metal edged prow and keel and clawed hands on the wheels that allowed it churn away on dry land, and the fight ended when Beautiful Bob steered the ship's wheels over the sheriff as he was engaged in combat with Hammer. The sheriff took several forms, the blood flowing from the tattoos back into the bag, and then out again into new tattoos as the fight progressed. He was in the form of a giant scorpion when he was finally minced up by the magically powered paddle-wheeler.
This of course led to a lengthy investigation by the players into how this tattoo magic worked. Here I present the fruits of their labor.
The blood that fuels the tattoos is the condensed essence of sacrificed humans. One human sacrifice = 1 dose of tattoo blood = 100 drops of tattoo blood. Even the most minor blood tattoo magic requires 1 dose to activate. No tattoo has any magical properties unless activated by blood. The jaguar form that the sheriff first took was a 2 dose form, while the scorpion was a 3 dose form. Activating a tattoo does not consume the blood, so the number of doses of tattoo blood possessed determines the level of magic able to be activated rather than the number of times the magic could be used.
Tattoo blood can be ingested orally as a powerful stimulant and mood enhancer. Small amounts (a "normal" dose, about 1 drop of blood or .01 dose per 100lbs body weight) grant a temporary magical bonus of +4 to all stats and the ability to "take 15" on any skill check. Tattoo blood is highly addictive and those who succumb to its temptation are known as "juicers" (of course). They soon waste away and become hollow shells of themselves unless they consume an ever increasing amount of tattoo blood each day to achieve normalcy.
Moving blood from the sack to a tattoo is a minor action, and moving blood from a tattoo back to the sack is a minor action. Blood cannot be directly exchanged between tattoos.
Minor tattoos are the equivalent of at will, encounter or utility powers in D&D 4e and usually take 1 dose to activate. When activated by blood, they give access to extra powers normally not available to a character. I will give examples of minor blood tattoos later in the post.
Tattoo forms take 2 or more doses to activate and are beasts of another feather altogether. Each tattoo form has HP and defenses that do not change relative to the character. When the character takes a full rest, the HP of all her tattoo forms refresh. Each tattoo form is basically a new monster, with its own movement and assortment of attacks and special abilities. If reduced to 0 HP or fewer while in tattoo form, the blood flows back into the bag and the character is dazed until the end of her next turn. Some tattoos are daily forms, which can only be activated once between extended rests.
Blood tattoo magic is highly regulated, and only specialized ritual priests have the tools needed to make the tattoos and the knowledge to prepare the sack that holds the precious blood. The sack is made from the hide of the Ura-Tur (a swamp bogeyman that specializes in snatching victims and draining their fear from them while hiding them from nearby comrades), a leather as transparent as the clearest plastic and much stronger. The needles used are ura-tur spines and the ink is the color-shifting blood of the ura-tur. Certain tattoos denote royal lineage and every named house has a distinctive tattoo as well. Some of the wealthier unnamed houses have donated handsomely to the temple coffers to procure their own tattoos for house members to sport (only 7 houses denoted by the pre-fix "al" before the house name are considered to be actual named houses. 3 of those seven are royal houses that trace lineage to the earliest kings of Siss-Anor. There are several unnamed houses that command more actual power and wealth than any of the named houses, but they do not have the official prestige nor access to many proscribed tattoos). Many occupational guilds also have their own tattoos that mark entrance into their membership.
Common soldiers, guildsmen, house members and the like never have more than 1 dose of blood. The number of doses of blood in a person's bag is a direct correlation to status and influence. It is considered an embarrassment of the worst sort to be unable to activate a tattoo because of excessive juicing. Sul al-Tuz, the royal tax collector who got waxed by the party, was a well known juicer. He could not even transform into the 5 dose phoenix form of the royal house of Tuz, his birthright, and died ingloriously in scorpion form as a result. Nobody much liked Sul al-Tuz and his assignment of upstream tax-collector was a punishment, but he was still of noble blood and the party had to scramble to cover up their role in his death.
Here are a few examples of minor tattoos and tattoo forms: I have made up quite a few more, which I hope to post barring my usual laziness. These have worked really well in combat, giving me a lot of fun tactical options. Starting with several minor tattoos activated and then switching to different forms as the fight progresses makes a tattooed adversary very memorable.
Recharge 6
Close Blast 5
+15 vs. Will vs. all enemies in blast. Those hit are blinded and slowed for 1d 4 rounds. All allies in blast gain +2 to attack and damage for the same duration.
Soaring Hawk 1 dose tattoo, a military tattoo
at will power
minor: close burst 20, 1 target in burst. +12 vs. Will, the target is slowed (save ends). Effect: the target is marked until the end of your next turn. If the target violates the mark they are knocked prone.
Shifting Panther 1 dose tattoo, a military tattoo
at will power
minor: shift 3 squares and gain combat advantage against one adjacent enemy until the end of your next turn.
The tax collector (also the sheriff, basically the lone extension of the laws of the city state this far upriver) and his two deputies were both heavily tattooed, but the tax collector in particular was almost completely covered in large, colorful designs. As he strode forward he raised his right hand and displayed a prominent eye tattoo on his palm. Beautiful Bob's player did not skip a beat, and Beautiful Bob raised his hand up as well and caused an eye to manifest on his palm (Beautiful Bob fused his body with a gibbering mouther a while back in a dark ritual and can manifest eyes and mouths now). The eye tattoo happened to be a mark of the sheriff's office and he took this as an insult at the least and a treasonous crime punishable by death more likely, and strode forward. Blood flowed from a sack hanging at his waist up into a series of blotchy dark tattoos that covered his torso and he transformed into a giant jaguar.
A fun combat ensued, the paddlewheeler had a metal edged prow and keel and clawed hands on the wheels that allowed it churn away on dry land, and the fight ended when Beautiful Bob steered the ship's wheels over the sheriff as he was engaged in combat with Hammer. The sheriff took several forms, the blood flowing from the tattoos back into the bag, and then out again into new tattoos as the fight progressed. He was in the form of a giant scorpion when he was finally minced up by the magically powered paddle-wheeler.
This of course led to a lengthy investigation by the players into how this tattoo magic worked. Here I present the fruits of their labor.
The blood that fuels the tattoos is the condensed essence of sacrificed humans. One human sacrifice = 1 dose of tattoo blood = 100 drops of tattoo blood. Even the most minor blood tattoo magic requires 1 dose to activate. No tattoo has any magical properties unless activated by blood. The jaguar form that the sheriff first took was a 2 dose form, while the scorpion was a 3 dose form. Activating a tattoo does not consume the blood, so the number of doses of tattoo blood possessed determines the level of magic able to be activated rather than the number of times the magic could be used.
Tattoo blood can be ingested orally as a powerful stimulant and mood enhancer. Small amounts (a "normal" dose, about 1 drop of blood or .01 dose per 100lbs body weight) grant a temporary magical bonus of +4 to all stats and the ability to "take 15" on any skill check. Tattoo blood is highly addictive and those who succumb to its temptation are known as "juicers" (of course). They soon waste away and become hollow shells of themselves unless they consume an ever increasing amount of tattoo blood each day to achieve normalcy.
Moving blood from the sack to a tattoo is a minor action, and moving blood from a tattoo back to the sack is a minor action. Blood cannot be directly exchanged between tattoos.
Minor tattoos are the equivalent of at will, encounter or utility powers in D&D 4e and usually take 1 dose to activate. When activated by blood, they give access to extra powers normally not available to a character. I will give examples of minor blood tattoos later in the post.
Tattoo forms take 2 or more doses to activate and are beasts of another feather altogether. Each tattoo form has HP and defenses that do not change relative to the character. When the character takes a full rest, the HP of all her tattoo forms refresh. Each tattoo form is basically a new monster, with its own movement and assortment of attacks and special abilities. If reduced to 0 HP or fewer while in tattoo form, the blood flows back into the bag and the character is dazed until the end of her next turn. Some tattoos are daily forms, which can only be activated once between extended rests.
Blood tattoo magic is highly regulated, and only specialized ritual priests have the tools needed to make the tattoos and the knowledge to prepare the sack that holds the precious blood. The sack is made from the hide of the Ura-Tur (a swamp bogeyman that specializes in snatching victims and draining their fear from them while hiding them from nearby comrades), a leather as transparent as the clearest plastic and much stronger. The needles used are ura-tur spines and the ink is the color-shifting blood of the ura-tur. Certain tattoos denote royal lineage and every named house has a distinctive tattoo as well. Some of the wealthier unnamed houses have donated handsomely to the temple coffers to procure their own tattoos for house members to sport (only 7 houses denoted by the pre-fix "al" before the house name are considered to be actual named houses. 3 of those seven are royal houses that trace lineage to the earliest kings of Siss-Anor. There are several unnamed houses that command more actual power and wealth than any of the named houses, but they do not have the official prestige nor access to many proscribed tattoos). Many occupational guilds also have their own tattoos that mark entrance into their membership.
Common soldiers, guildsmen, house members and the like never have more than 1 dose of blood. The number of doses of blood in a person's bag is a direct correlation to status and influence. It is considered an embarrassment of the worst sort to be unable to activate a tattoo because of excessive juicing. Sul al-Tuz, the royal tax collector who got waxed by the party, was a well known juicer. He could not even transform into the 5 dose phoenix form of the royal house of Tuz, his birthright, and died ingloriously in scorpion form as a result. Nobody much liked Sul al-Tuz and his assignment of upstream tax-collector was a punishment, but he was still of noble blood and the party had to scramble to cover up their role in his death.
Here are a few examples of minor tattoos and tattoo forms: I have made up quite a few more, which I hope to post barring my usual laziness. These have worked really well in combat, giving me a lot of fun tactical options. Starting with several minor tattoos activated and then switching to different forms as the fight progresses makes a tattooed adversary very memorable.
Minor Tattoos:
Open Eye of Justice 1 dose tattoo, official mark of an officer in the military who can act as judge in representation of the city state outside of the city proper.Recharge 6
Close Blast 5
+15 vs. Will vs. all enemies in blast. Those hit are blinded and slowed for 1d 4 rounds. All allies in blast gain +2 to attack and damage for the same duration.
Soaring Hawk 1 dose tattoo, a military tattoo
at will power
minor: close burst 20, 1 target in burst. +12 vs. Will, the target is slowed (save ends). Effect: the target is marked until the end of your next turn. If the target violates the mark they are knocked prone.
Shifting Panther 1 dose tattoo, a military tattoo
at will power
minor: shift 3 squares and gain combat advantage against one adjacent enemy until the end of your next turn.
Tattoo Forms:
Jaguar 2 dose tattoo form, special mark of the honor guard (military tattoo)
HP:250/
AC:22
REF:25
FORT:22
WILL: as tattoo wearer +5
Movement: 8 Swim: 4 Climb: 6 Jump:6
Basic Attacks:
Claw (+17 vs. AC, 2d8+4), bite (+17 vs. FORT, 3d8+8)
Standard:
Claw/Claw/Bite
Claw/Claw/Bite
Pounce: Jump 6 and make the following attack, +17 vs. REF, 6d8+36, must be at least 1 square away at the beginning of the action
Recharge 5,6: roar, close blast 3, +17 vs. FORT, push 3 squares and knock prone
Special: If an enemy grants combat advantage, standard attack: Skull Bite, +17 vs. FORT, 6d8+36
I might come back to this post later and add the 3 dose giant scorpion form used by sheriff Sul al-Tuz.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
The Fractured Deity
The players in my 4e campaign have returned from exploring an alien planet to the rainy season in the jungle. One of their first orders of business was checking up on various local friends and informants to see what had happened in their absence. One of the interesting bits of news was that several new religious cults had sprung up along the banks of the Zamonas worshiping the river god. This was not particularly surprising to the party as they had long known of the prophecy that a specially prepared temple maiden was going to give birth to a new river god at the time of the eclipse. In fact, the party had even traveled back in time/journeyed to an alternate reality in order to prevent the temple maiden Akili from abandoning her post and committing sacrilege with Old Man Gooty after encountering Akili and Gooty's ungodly child Slotek, so they were pleased to hear that the river god was making a comeback and assumed that their interference with the natural order of things had resulted in the prophecy being fulfilled. The PCs had also left some precious living spirit beetles (this post explains a little about the spirit beetles) with Akili when they dropped her off back in time thousands of years ago and hoped that they would spend the intervening eons feeding off the magical energies of the temple chamber and multiply. Tilia had set up some magical circuitry to keep the environment inside the temple perfect for optimal spirit beetle breeding and the party was really looking forward to collecting a handsome harvest of spirit beetle.
Beautiful Bob did his usual psychic detective work and soon the party learned that the charismatic leader of this group of cultists, Satalio, was actually a clay golem animated with a spark of the divine essence of the river. Satalio, in short, was a tiny fragment of the river god, although he did not seem to be aware of this fact. Bob and Tilia soon learned (with a bunch of mucking around in other people's minds and peering through the shadow world and some very fortuitous rolls) that in the moment of conjugal union between Akili and the river spirit, the tremendous energy explosion fueled by the spirit beetles actually resulted in the river god fusing with many of the stronger and more receptive minds within a rather large area. This resulted in a fractured or fragmented deity, with many different aspects that seemingly operated independently of each other. Indeed, slavers from another river cult raided Satalio's encampment during a feast that night, and Tilia was deeply repulsed to learn that these slavers utilized the blood tattoo magic of the city state but had a river dragon tattoo form. For some reason this combination of human sacrificial magic (the blood tattoos) and natural river magic really repulsed Tilia.
Luckily, the world does what I say it does because I play the DM so everything did not go as planned... When the temple magics were activated by the eclipse and the spirit of the river was invited into the sacred chamber, the mating ritual was augmented by the incredible stored energy of all those spirit beetles. The temple circuitry was overloaded and Akili and the river spirit, rather than giving birth to a new god, were fused together in a burst of psychic energy that washed out over the flooded landscape and inspired visions in a legion of receptive dreaming minds. The cultists of the river god awoke with a new purpose in life.
The party learned that the river god had been manifesting in many different physical forms and had been taking a very active interest in affairs along the river. One terrifying aspect of the new god was an insubstantial waterfall of energy that "fell" horizontally and washed away anything in its path. This was the form the river took when it broke the magical bonds that had held its main channel from meandering away from the coastal city of Siss-Anor, and the form that destroyed the great navy of that city state. More benevolently, the river had taken on giant (25' tall) human forms, a comely man or woman, depending on the manifestation, and assisted travelers and riverbank communities in various fashions. An androgynous humanoid form, even taller (50') had been seen but its activities remained mysterious. An awesome water dragon was the other most commonly reported form that the party heard about.
The party learned that the river god had been manifesting in many different physical forms and had been taking a very active interest in affairs along the river. One terrifying aspect of the new god was an insubstantial waterfall of energy that "fell" horizontally and washed away anything in its path. This was the form the river took when it broke the magical bonds that had held its main channel from meandering away from the coastal city of Siss-Anor, and the form that destroyed the great navy of that city state. More benevolently, the river had taken on giant (25' tall) human forms, a comely man or woman, depending on the manifestation, and assisted travelers and riverbank communities in various fashions. An androgynous humanoid form, even taller (50') had been seen but its activities remained mysterious. An awesome water dragon was the other most commonly reported form that the party heard about.
When the song people told the party that there was a well established camp of cultists not far up stream, the party jumped in their new hovercraft (created from alien materials with an artificial gas cloud intelligence over the last few sessions on the alien planet) and paid the cultists a visit.
Beautiful Bob did his usual psychic detective work and soon the party learned that the charismatic leader of this group of cultists, Satalio, was actually a clay golem animated with a spark of the divine essence of the river. Satalio, in short, was a tiny fragment of the river god, although he did not seem to be aware of this fact. Bob and Tilia soon learned (with a bunch of mucking around in other people's minds and peering through the shadow world and some very fortuitous rolls) that in the moment of conjugal union between Akili and the river spirit, the tremendous energy explosion fueled by the spirit beetles actually resulted in the river god fusing with many of the stronger and more receptive minds within a rather large area. This resulted in a fractured or fragmented deity, with many different aspects that seemingly operated independently of each other. Indeed, slavers from another river cult raided Satalio's encampment during a feast that night, and Tilia was deeply repulsed to learn that these slavers utilized the blood tattoo magic of the city state but had a river dragon tattoo form. For some reason this combination of human sacrificial magic (the blood tattoos) and natural river magic really repulsed Tilia.
Despite this, Bob managed to convince Tilia that it was in the party's best interest to NOT make an enemy of the blood tattoo river cult without at least meeting with them first to learn more about their goals. After thwarting the slaver's mission (they seemed to be after several of Satalio's young cultists that came from royal families back in Siss-Anor, probably for ransom), the party allowed the tattooed river cultists to escape and secured a guarantee of safe passage into their camp for the purpose of parlaying with their leader (Ruskus, a former captain of the royal guard who led many of his men in revolt after receiving visions from the river).
The next several sessions are setting up to be mostly investigative, which I like, as the party tries to learn more about the different forms of the fractured deity, the cults that worship each form, and what the goals of these various factions are. I am hoping to make a post about the blood tattoo cultists soon, if the party follows through and actually meets with them.
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