Closure.

Cultists! Everywhere!

I could probably stop this entry at that, and still have that be an completely accurate recap of the vents that occurred.

The previous session ended with Tyler, Jesse, Logan at Madam Curry's store front, trying to retrieve a body, but then seeing the streets flooded with cultists. Brandon (who could not make it to the session tonight, regrettably) and Kami where elsewhere in town, running their own errands.

In usual fashion with this campaign, because of the split group, I had an interesting time making sure the time lines added up and everyone got an adequate amount of table time. I give major kudos to my players for displaying an exceptional amount of patience with dealing with this. (I am still wondering if it is because of the nature of the campaign, or because most of the party were of Thief/Rogue types?)

The first group dealt with was with the three players, and their impending surrounding. Logan topped out in initiative, and with his turn lobbed a Molotov cocktail into the nearest crowd. He missed his mark, but still set plenty aflame. This got everyone's attention, and the hordes surged forward. Jesse and Logan decided to hold their ground for a bit. Tyler fled. He did not plan on leaving everyone behind, however, as he stole a vehicle on the street and then proceeded to use it to run over as many cultists as he could. His death count was impressive, but when Logan and Jesse's characters began to get swamped by many bodies, Tyler was quick to follow as he was pulled from the vehicle and eventually subdued as well.

At this point, at the mercy of a random roll, Ricco's character is introduced. A female Tomb Robber Thief, of West African descent, Ricco came across the scene when Tyler's character was initially starting to get swarmed. Doing what sensible people would do, he ran for help and had someone call for the police. By the time he had finished his task and returned to the scene, the cultists had crammed the PCs into the car and drove off themselves, whatever ones remaining scattering to the wind. Ricco attempted to follow, but failed simply due to the faster speed of the car. When he returned to the scene a second time, he encountered a lone police officer inspecting the scene. After a brief exchange, the officer offers (and insists) to take Ricco to the police station for official questioning. As they drive off, Ricco is drugged.

At this point, it became Kami's turn. After returning to the safe house, and not finding anyone there, Kami checked in at the hospital, and finally went home for a decent night's sleep. The next day, she went to Madam Curry's, and saw what is left of the scene of the crime - blood stains. Madam Curry's shop was closed. It was at this point that Kami noticed that the streets were remarkably devoid of people in this part of the city, and, despite this, she went to the local shops for witnesses. She managed to find out that a massive brawl occurred, and several individuals were seemingly kidnapped. She then comes across a curious, out-of-place shop. Tentative to enter when greeted by a voice that beckons her in, she tried to slowly creep inside the gloomy shop, then found herself sucked into a brightly light shop with puzzle boxed and trinkets lining the shelves. The shopkeep was a gray-haired individual with bad teeth with long hair and bread, as well as a bad East Asian accent. Through an exchange, the old man gives Kami the location of her friend, at the cost of a permanent loss of a hit point. The old man also says that she should just forget them, and leave.

She then spent the rest of the day going to several police stations, asking if any of the current prisoners needed any medical attention. While seen as an odd offer, some accepted, while others said the did not currently have any. Lastly, she returns to the hospital.

Back to Jesse, Tyler, Logan, and Ricco, they wake up in a jail cell, with two guards walking patrol and several "normal" looking people walking to and fro. After some internal discussion, the PCs decided that waiting around was just a bad idea - it would be better to try to break free. Jesse spots that the "normal" people were actually moving too and fro from what appeared to be a reinforced grate leading into the ground. He also overheard them say, "The path is clear," and relayed the information to the rest of the party. After the "normal" people left, Jesse tried to create a distraction, which is successful in taking attention off from the rest of the party, but both guards come over to tell him to knock it off. Caution to the winds, the party charged out from the jail cell and assaulted the two guards. The guards did not go down without a fight, however, and Ricco is knocked down to 0 hitpoints (but awake, just staggered.) After knocking out the guards, the PCs went to the grate and struggled mightily to open it. It took a while, and reinforcements managed to make it to them, but the PCs valiantly stood their ground to valiantly make their escape. Ricco took damage from the jump, as is knocked unconscious. Despite not knowing the character too well, the PC party decided to leave no man (or woman) behind and dragged her body along as they made their escape.

The underground section they found themselves in was part of the sewer system. There was a chain of lights leading a path before them. They followed it for a little bit, and then decided that following that path would be folly - it was probably the way the cultists were going to take them in the first place. So then they took the first turn they could, and tried to find a manhole cover to escape from. It did not take long, and they exited outside the police station in an alley way. In the vicinity were some straggler cultists, which they tried to over take, but not before the cultists managed to call out for support.

The chaos that ensued can be summed up into this: Logan used his rope to climb the nearby building to escape. When he reached the top, he attempted to help his teammates below, but ultimately just managed to snag and rescue Ricco's unconscious body. Tyler and Jesse held their ground for quite a long time, but as more and more reinforcements showed up they had to retreat. Bad fortune struck during their flight, and both ended up surrounded. By that time, Logan was also almost surrounded as well, but he successfully managed to make a roof-top getaway.

After having found safety, Logan sneaks back to the hospital, where Kami and Him made the decision to skip town.

The streets are eerily empty, save for some isolated groups of people, most which are cultists. Despite some recognition, what remained of the party managed to leave town without incident.

Thus ended the campaign.

Non-discourse.

It has felt like an insanely long week, but looking back at it now, I am not sure where all the time has went or why I have not posted this sooner.

Oh well, it is all good.

The session opened with the party resting and recovering at the hospital. While they were doing that, Ricco's new character was introduced. Perhaps unaptly named with Sherlock Holmes, he had the past of being captured and tortured by a mage. Through various means, he managed to escape. Finding another mage to train him in that esoteric knowledge, Ricco's character, at the beginning of the game, was beginning the process of following up leads to get revenge. Obviously, one such follow up lead to the PC party at the hospital, where, after some dialogue, the party decides that, though they can not trust him, that he could be useful to have in their employ.

After the dialogue, a telegram is received from Captain Crunch (the police officer whom Jesse helped with interrogating the "witch woman") that Jesse should come immediately, with all of his friends. Naturally, the party embarks off to the old ruined house located in the suburbs - the actual house of this police officer. Here, they were informed by the Captain that action must be taken against the cultists that he has been investigating. He had stopped going to work for the last several days, out of suspicion that he was being followed and closely watched after the transpired events.

Captain Crunch's plan was to simply storm the Cult's headquarters, a isolated house near a swamp. There was some arguments as to how to go about doing this, or whether or not they should wait and scout things out - Ricco's character hinted at having supernatural abilities to see and experience without the burden of flesh. A compromise was made, but then the Captain brought to everyone's attention the need for additional cars. Needless to say, Tyler, Jesse, Logan, *and* Ricco all went out and stole a car. Ricco's encounter was innovative - simply calling a cab. However, knocking out the cab driver proved troublesome, and after a lot of mucking about, the party discretely disposed of his corpse.

Once everyone was ready, Captain Crunch doled out some weapons, two revolvers and a shotgun, and they headed out.

When they reached the house, they allowed Ricco to enter his trance-like state. While Ricco begins scouting around the cabin, the rest of the party is approached by what seems to be an individual. Failing to bluff their way out of the situation, a firefight commences. In the spirit world, Ricco notices the house begins to glow from the inside, slowly getting brighter by the moment. He finds he can not approach the house within a certain limit. The house gets near blindingly bright, before a form explodes from the middle. Ricco's character, awed by its power, submits himself - and his soul is promptly eaten.

His body then transforms into a zombie, which begins to attack Captain Crunch while he is attempting to drive away. After the initial firefight, attention was attracted from the house, and people began running all over the place - though not necessarily at the party. When the house began to glow, and something horrible burst forth from it, massive sanity damage was sustained - and discretion was decided to be the better part of valor.

After returning to Captain Crunch's home, the party rested. Some were clearly affected by the previous night's encounter - notably Captain Crunch, who seemed catatonic. Kami and Brandon then left for the hospital, in an attempt to do basic bloodtests for Captain Crunch, while the rest of the party decided to goto Madam Curry's shop to ask questions.

At Madam Curry's, little was discovered, other than that "they had failed" and that they should try to run as far they can. Someone then noticed that a cultist was looking in through the front shop's glass - Jesse, far beyond driven at this point, immediately threw a dagger into the cultist's chest.

The session ended when the party, attempting to quickly seize and hide the body, saw the streets filled with more cultists.

Non-Euclidean

Dear sweet lord of mercy, I do not even know where to begin.

Non-Euclidean has, unofficially, been decided to be the term for this whole campaign, as there have been so much nonsense in so many ways that it is almost hard to keep track.

I suppose we begin with Andrew* having to leave us, and Kami taking his place. She rolled up a Weapon Master with a background of being a Physician. This brings up one of the weak points of such a campaign - how to accuracy translate such an interesting choice in creating a character. After some back-and-forth discussion, it was decided on that her basic backstory was as follows: her father was well off, and provided her with a good education. Ultimately, this ended with her succeeding as a nurse practitioner. For her major hobby as a privileged person, her character preferred something a bit more visceral - fencing. Thus, the party gained not only a potential melee fighter, but finally good means of healing.

With healing mentioned, I do not think I have yet mentioned some of what makes The Black Company setting so gritty and brutal. Healing in the mode of the standard 3.5 DnD way is not accessible until a Wizard reaches 4th level, and even then it is not the same. When healed by the healing spell, the lethal damage is converted from lethal to non-lethal damage. It is also fairly costly on the caster himself, as Wizards will take nonlethal damage as he casts spells. The Physician background allows people, in a limited way, to use the heal skill to also convert lethal damage to nonlethal. While it helps, the main benefit comes from giving people long term care. Treating people for 8 hours of rest grants them three times the standard heal rate, while a full 24 hours grants six times. (This includes ability score damage!) While the usual sword-swinger DnDer might find this hindering and tedious, I like it since it allows for other gameplay mechanics to shine through - like crafting. Finding time to craft in a DnD game can be difficult, and this this system it is more readily available. Another benefit is that it makes players consider the consequences of their actions more, before doing something potentially disastrous.

So, uh, anyway. Going back. The events can be summed up into the party starting around the house, where they are split up as some go with the police (after questioning) to the hospital and some go off on their own. This is actually pretty much the theme of this last session: the party breaking up into pairs, or even individually, to go off and do their own thing. This was not a bad thing by any means, as often times significant strides in the plot were made. It was just maddening because, when everything was said and done, we had to made sure the timeline added up.

After the first time of visiting the hospital (which became a strange sort of base of operations) Kami was introduced to the party. Everyone was questioned further by the police, and a doctor. They discover that the police are on a special investigation after being shown an idol. The police reveal no more information, other than that they trust the party to use discretion.

What happened next is confusing. Tyler managed to find his way back to the party after having split off from them at the beginning of the session. Brandon and Jesse left the hospital early, to find an underground club for some drinks. While there, Jesse spotted the woman who led him into being kidnapped - he secretly took vengeance, throwing a dagger into her chest without being scene. Brandon, with a great amount of wit, managed to escape with her dying body and dispose of it. (Do not ask. It just happened. The dice roll that way sometimes.) Ricco was still guano-pyschosis in the hospital. Andrew stole pharmaceuticals from the hospital.

The next big step was when the party followed leads - Logan used his Knowledge (Local) paired with Gather Information to route out who a good source on such things would be. This led the party to Madam Curry's Voodoo shop. Where, during a bit of haggling and interrogation, the woman that Jesse and Brandon had thought they had previously disposed shows up. Not everyone participated in the following fight, as she bumped into Ricco when he was (almost successfully) getting away from the party. That said, only Ricco and Brandon participated for the most part. Ricco ended up fainting from a failed sanity check (the woman cast a spell!) and Brandon succumbed, after putting up a valiant fight, to the power of her magic. While she continued to approach the store, distracted from conjuring up another spell, Tyler whipped a dagger into her throat after peering out the door.

Chaos reigned supreme in the following events. All nearby bystanders ran and screamed to and fro. Madam Curry ejected the party from her store. The Police began to arrive on scene, and some of the party ran (namely Logan) but not before some of the paranoid characters chained the woman up, packed in a garbage can, and secured the lid. Some of the party then runs, others are taken in for questioning, and some are taken to the hospital.

Ricco and Andrew are questioned. Ricco, seriously affected by madness, is checked into a sanitarium. Andrew is beaten during questioning, and then turned/blackmailed into a lackey of a police captain.

Kami and Brandon are returned to the hospital.

Tyler, Jesse, and Logan try to hide. Logan takes off outright, and Tyler remains in hiding. Jesse, however, is caught by another set of police that show up on the scene as he tries to make off with the garbage can with the dead woman in it. While being arrested, the can begins to move and shake. An officer inspects the can, and when he opens it, he gets a blast of fire in the face, at which point both officers riddle the can with holes. The unhurt officer (who was named "Captain Crunch") looks in the can and exclaims, "It's her! We have to bring her somewhere for questioning," and uncuffs Jesse. From there, they goto a seemingly abandoned house on the outskirts of town, where they meet up with Madam Curry, and then secure the dead woman's body to a chair. At Madam Curry's direction, they cut off the woman's hands, and pluck out her eyes. Later, the dead woman revives, and Madam Curry questions her in a strange tongue. When done, they cut off her head, and burn her body.

The session ended with everyone making it back to the hospital. Thank god.

Inclusion

If memory serves correctly, it has been over a year since the last post on here. Even then, the last campaign mentioned was a repeat, which, in retrospect, was a bad idea to follow through on. Thankfully, this campaign is new, but with seeing them side by side now, it is apparent that on some levels there is not much difference.

Similar to the previous campaign, this campaign takes place in the 1920s. Instead of the players' characters being inter-planar adventurers that bumble their way into the "real world," they are instead immersed directly into the setting. For better or worse, they will be victims to their own vicarious choices. (No mercy!)

For this campaign I am using, what now is, my standby: The Black Company Campaign Setting. While others seemed to have progressed from Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 onto other platforms, such as Pathfinder, or other homebrews, I have latched onto this gem. I love it, and I wish that more people within our collection of local gamers would give it an actual try. Sadly, it seems like I am the only person willing to run a game utilizing this system. I used to wonder why, and I have discovered two big reasons: Flavor, and complexity. Let us face it, when we game, we are there for fun and escapism. High fantasy is great for that, and other systems (I will use Pathfinder for comparison) provide that in spades. In addition, Pathfinder has simplified rules and spells - it is something much more friendly to the new and old gamer. The Black Company Campaign Setting, on the other hand, hovers around the opposite end of the spectrum. It is made for those people who like low fantasy, with some gobs of gritty realism. The 3.5 Edition of Dungeons and Dragons is already rather cumbersome with it rules, so having some additional cogs to add to all that clockwork is a burden for the casual gamer - not to mention a beginner. (A third reason can be named, but it is tied in with the complexity: the overhaul of the magic casting system. While once you the system down, you can quickly and proficiently cast spells, learning the system takes a degree of dedication that a lot of people just do not want to commit when it comes to having fun. I can not say I blame them much, but those who do put in the effort seem to rather enjoy the innovation and freedom that new magic system provides.) The saving grace, by far, for the Black Company system is its modularity - you can mix and match aspects and rulings to fit other settings as you see fit.

In the past year, I have seen a lot of different games run and ideas get thrown around. I even had the honor of playing in a few. One involved the D20 Modern Campaign Setting and hunting monsters from the Monster Manual for a company as a living. There also has been numerous zombie campaigns (well, "campaigns") trying to recreate some movie or game (Left4Dead). Lastly, that I can recall at the moment, there has been short campaigns run in history settings in the early modern era of Western culture. Some of these also used the D20 Modern system, while the rest used Pathfinder with some minor modifications. I have picked up a fear of using firearms in my games; I feel they are not properly represented, as well as they usually ruin the game in some form or another. Usually, everyone wants to get their hands on one, which ends up making things boring for all players involved. If that does not cause the eventual downfall of a game, another thing that happens is a player or two goes gets disgruntled because of past experiences with firearms have left a bitter taste in their mouth. (If you are there for fun, why would you put up with something you think will ruin it?) Babbling aside, I decided to conquer this fear, and try to find something that works - using the Black Company system, of course.

I wanted something relatively modern, and so I set out for a wide scale research scope. I had to delve pretty deeply into a lot of different areas, and pool together the knowledge I had gained from handloading my own ammunition and hunting, as well as historical studies. To prevent this post from turning into a novel, I ultimately settled on the nebulous time frame of the "late 1920s." Why? There were a lot of interesting aspects to this time frame that easily stood out and were very identifiable with aspects of the Black Company system. It was also an era where modern still commingled with the old - one would not have to go out of their way to fit in something like a tribesmen, hunter, or a hermit. Paired with that is technology - cell phones and GPS are tricky elements to deal with, so the 1920s has the old familiar DnD ways of doing things (Ham Radios aside). From a legal standpoint, there are a lot of interesting gameplay elements as well. The 1920s is the decade where people sought to improve society from the "old model" which caused the horror of The Great War, and so laws were passed to ensure general betterment. This is where women's suffrage, prohibition, and personal firearms laws come from. (As for firearms, metallurgy was truly being mastered, as well as other technical mechanics. Revolvers were still in their height, with semi-automatic technology being mastered, but not quite yet perfected.) In terms of magic, the late 19th and early 20th century was a prime time for the occult - the prime age for esoteric circles such as The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn with Aleister Crowley. Lastly, from what I can remember, it was in 1929 that global market began to crash, and the world all but knew it.

It should also be noted that, with this campaign, I am using the rules for full brutality: hits on the surprise round go straight to the Constitution (Con) score, and grievous injury threshold is equal to just the PCs Con score (instead of Con plus Hit Dice). Infection rules are another inclusion, as well as the Sanity system. I almost feel sorry for my players just in terms of everything they have to keep track of and remember.

Speaking of players, I have a total of seven for this campaign. More than what most any Dungeon Master (DM) would care for. (Why do I keep saying DM even when it might be a misnomer?) Several of them are relatively new, but, at this point in my gaming experience, I am starting to see that as a boon rather than obstacle. Yes, it is unfortunate that they are subjected to all of these rules and expected to keep up with the more experienced players, but I am finding that the fresh perspective can help out a lot when trying to solve a situation. Perhaps it is because I am trying to run campaigns that are more than just dice rolling and kicking down the door. Perhaps the system just simply has a weakness against out-of-the-box thinking. Either way, here is a list of my players with their characters' background and class.

Jessie - Prostitute Thief (Yes!)

Logan - Thug Thief

Andrew* - Engineer Scout

Ricco - Criminal Fighter

Tyler - Criminal Thief

Andrew - Con Artist Noble

Brandon - Soldier Zealot

I will make a following post about their background write ups, for the sake of being concise.

The first session opened up with going around the table, one by one, introducing characters, and playing through the PCs' arrival at New Orleans and their encounters shortly afterwards. Most everyone attended Mardi Gras with the slanted intentions - stealing and other underground activities. Oddly enough, Ricco perhaps had the most pure intentions; he arrived in New Orleans simply by happenstance while doing a cross-country hike. Brandon and Andrew* buddied up in being war veterans, and were doing light "watch-my-purse" guard duty for a dilettante who was enjoying the festivities. (Well, Brandon was. Andrew* gathered as much beads as possible.) Some heard of odd happenings going on, mostly involving creepy people who act weird; standing outside people's windows, and sorting through trash. There was not much to follow up on, and being caught up in the ebb and flow of things, most of the party ended up captured. The closest to escape was Tyler, who, over the course of several days, managed to escape traps, encounters, and even the police while visiting every corner of the city. One such avoidance involved hiding the in sewers. At the end of an epic stretch of evasion, Tyler's freedom ended in the outskirts of the city, in a hotel over the swamp. After successfully defending himself against two assailants in the dead of night, the hotel owner, a furious "ragin' Cajun" swamp queen, pummeled him with a lamp when she awake and came to the scene.

After introductions, the party woke up in a dark room, in individual cast iron cages with tin buckets provide for (and with) waste. Others were in the room with them. The situation looked grim. Some tried digging and discovered that the wood of the room was undergoing a state of petrification. Probably the high light event was when a man, described as tall, dark, and handsome, walked into the room to direct some masked lackeys to take away two of the unfortunate prisoners. Logan gave the man some lip, and for that he was rewarded with a "scan" - grubs which were tossed on him that quickly burrowed into his person and caused him to pass out. Later, when the man returned, he harvested the grubs and ate them. Both events caused those had witnessed these to roll a sanity check. Other unfortunate events occurred, such as Jessie's character going through a memory wipe for supposedly learning bit of information that he was not supposed to. Finally, after Logan created lock picks from his tin can, he managed to pick the lock to his cage, and then subdue both the guards left in the room.

After releasing everyone else from their cages, the party then began to work on their first true encounter: a small non-Euclidean maze. Though the complex they were in seemed to be made purely of straight hallways and turns made of right angles, they would find themselves returned back to the the starting hallway if they made a "wrong" turn. Several members tripped over angles which behaved not according to perception. After a lot of time, frustration, and madness caused by failed sanity checks, small groups managed to find their way out - appearing in random places around a small cabin besieged by police.

A shoot-out occurred between the police and the NPC occupants of the household. The Police won. That is where the session ended.