Episode 6: Under a Metal Sky - Character 4

The final member of the Cantileverre's crew was played by Jessica Price.

You have left someone behind that you visit every time you're in port. Who is it? Why can't they come along with you?

My daughter—she has a degenerative bone condition and can't handle the rigors of acceleration and deceleration.

You were place abord the ship as the technician because you specialize in what sort of drives?

FTL. 

You sufferedan injury and now have a cybernetic prosthetic. What is it?

My prosthetic allows me to see outside the normal human spectrum, but I miss normal eye contact.

To give yourself that extra kick during those life-or-death 20 hour long repair sessions, you have become addicted to a stimulant with a somewhat nasty side-effect. What is the side-effect? Do your shipmates know?

Memory loss. I am trying to hide it.

How did your sister die?

I forgot her medication.

In what ways would you be better suited for your boss's job?

I was raised to lead.

You are the first member of your family to go into space. Why?

I'm the only one who escaped the hereditary illness.

What was the worst decision you ever made due to your stim habit.

Leaving home and going into space.

What scared you the most as a child?

Insanity.

What is your filth threshold?

Low. I'm a neat freak.

A ship like this requires a lot of funds. Where do those funds come from? How do you feel about the source of those funds?

My family is wealthy. I feel I have an obligation to lead because of it.

That gets us through the entire crew. Next time: what actually happened.

Episode 6: Under a Metal Sky - Character 3

Fortunately for the crew of the Cantileverre they also had a doctor, played by Erik Keith.

Doctor Roland O'Bloome
Where did you get your medical training? Did you enjoy it?

On an agrarian harvest planet. I grew up there but left for greener pastures.

Where are you in the chain of command on the ship?

I don't have a rank. I do my job and weigh in when I need to.

Normally, you are a paragon of your morals, which isn't always convenient. How, in one regrettable instance, did you need to go against them? What do you regret most about that encounter?

I want to save everyone, but one of the mercs on the ship was too aggressive. I may have had a hand in the accident that claimed his life. It's a shame I couldn't calm him down otherwise.

What can you do that most other people can't?

I know how to program a ship's life support system to cause strange health effects that I know how to treat. I've become exceptional at recognizing health related issues based on system failures on a ship and how to treat them.

I may use this to ensure my position in the crew.

You see a lot of odd things in space. What is the strangest thing you have witnessed?

We can acress a semi-derelict ship that we thought was salvage. Ends up the inhabitants had survived for over three months, but had gone completely insane.

Who is the only one aboard to have ever beaten you at chess?

The ship's AI, it's insufferable good at it.

You have a romantic interest in one of the other crew members. Does he/she know? How does this affect your work environment?

Ship's navigator, but he doesn't know.

What soothes the tension headaches you get?

A little bit of the stim packs I have hidden under my bed. The ones we're pretty sure the merc was stealing before his "accident."

When do you feel most alone?

When I don't have anyone to help.

What is that thing and why do you have it?
It's a multipurpose medical device that can be used to inject things into people, such as adrenaline or sedatives.

You have a somewhat shady past, leading to the acquisition of some very useful skills. What did you do and what skill did you learn from it?

I was stuck on an agrarian transport when the life support system went out. I was the only survivor. It was then that I started doing freelance and joined up with this group.

Episode 6: Under a Metal Sky - Character 2

The next crewman of the Cantileverre is James Jacobs's character...

Navigator Kruger
Normally a navigator of your skill would not be assigned to this sort of ship. Why are you here?

Because I agreed to do the job in return for a reduced prison sentence. I'm the getaway driver/pilot for my criminal heist buddies.

Where did you get that scar?

Some bastard named Gafer took out my left eye and some cheek with a grapefruit spoon in prison.

Why don't you like being the age you are?

Becuase I spent 20 years in prison and misused most of my life.

You are normally very close to your family, but recently you have fallen out of touch. Why? 

I don't know. I've been told to help on this mission or I'd never see them again. My "family" is my criminal pals.

What piece of contraband have you smuggled aboard? Who else knows about it?

A super-poison capsule tucked into my eye socket folds. The medical officer knows. He found it during an exam but kept it quiet.

When do you feel most alone?

In a crowd.

Which member of the crew don't you trust?

The medical officer, because he knows about the pill.

Why are you also in charge of inventory?

Good question. Due to a government clerical error.

What hobby do you have that occasionally comes in handy?

Meditation. Helps me focus and contain the beast.

What disease do you fear the most and why?

Anything that causes blindness, but in particular onchocerciacis.

What did you do during your last shoreleave?

Got involved in a casino heist and got caught... 20 years ago.

Episode 6: Under a Metal Sky - Character 1

I managed to pull together another Dread game a few weeks back, this time using one of the adventures out of the Dread rulebook, the sci-fi scenario Under a Metal Sky. I gave it a bit of a techy twist to indulge the genre, but we'll get into that a bit later.

This time around our players were:

Gabriel Rosas as Captain Albrecht Skinner
James Jacobs as Navigator Kruger
Erik Keith as Doctor Roland O'Bloome
Jessica Price as Technician Naamah

To give a bit of insight into our players, I'll post their character questionnaires and answers. First up...

Captain Skinner
As captain of your ship, what part of your manegment style upsets your superiors?

I report actions after the fact. Too many hoops to jump through to go through.

Who was your ship named after?

Cantileverre, the elder pioneer of the colony first founded outside allied space.

When your last ship was destroyed, what did you risk your life to save?

The nav files.

What class did you enjoy most at the academy, and why didn't you excel at it?

Hyper-space theology. Slept with my professor.

What food that most people like can't you stand?

Algae noodles in BASIC broth.

You have a phobia you developed during your first mission. How has it interfered since then?

Asteroid hit our ship, broke atmosphere. Almost drowned. Small ticking-tacking gets on my nerves.

Because of a terrible injury you had to have part of your body replaced with cybernetics. WHat was replaced and what are the capabilities of its replacements?

Lungs and inner ear; breathe less oxygen, also get dizzy when away from my control bracelet for longer than 24 hours.

Even though the record was wiped clean, what haunts you from your past?

My family was responsible for the disease outbreak of 0-88-A.

You often find yourself envious of what other character? Why?

The rich one. Said family is well liked and they are regarded well by "The Man."

How are your quarters decorated?

With fluid screen murals of star coronas broken by planets.

You ship docked with a seemingly abandoned space hulk. Why are you there?

It was there. It's my job to explore... even if I'm mostly transport.

That's character number one. We'll get to the others in the coming days, along with a few videos I took, my take on the plot, and a rather unusual handout.

Episode 5: Editors Only!

You wouldn't think that a game of Hero Quest would be as hard to get together as it has been, but that speaks to how busy its been at the Paizo offices this past year. So we're going to call episode four at one session—in my past experiences Hero Quest only has one dungeon anyway—and move on.

And what a perfect month to move on into!

It's the second week of October and the second week of my totally spur of the moment decision to run a different creepy RPG every week this month. Last week I kicked it off by running Paizo's editors through the first pages of Dungeon #146's "Meenlock Prison," reinterpreted for the Pathfinder RPG and set on the western shore of Druma in the Inner Sea Region. The group is insane, so I don't actually expect horror to overcome high jinx, but we'll see—and we're already having a blast playing! The Paizo Editors Only! Game is:

Judy Bauer as Caw the raised by crows gnome barbarian
Chris Carey as Saling the bagpipe playing halfling bard
Ryan Macklin as Blacktear the goth dwarven cleric of Pharasma
James Sutter as Oy McKrakin the weasel wrangling dwarven witch

So far, our first levelers have made it from the coastal village of Tarrob to the prison island of Prophet's Vineyard with writs for the release of two prisoners, Lyle Benedict and the "Blessed of Shelyn." After almost capsizing in their quarter mile crossing to the island, the party reached the prison and nimble deduced that the crew claiming to be the warden and his guards probably aren't who they say they are. They turned an ambush around on one of the good ol' guards and nearly subduded him, when something from the ajar door leading into the underground cells nabbed the defeated tough and yanked him inside.

The adventure is fun, but I'm doing a lot of on the fly revision to make things work with the Pathfinder RPG and to make it feel a bit less rail-roady. Fortunately, when good sense would typically fold an adventurer's curiosity doubles down.

"Meenlock Prison" is on track to wrap up on Tuesday the 5th, so watch for more from Paizo's warriors of words early next month!

Episode 3: Apocrypha

When running games more or less set on Earth I really enjoy when searches for inspiration or direction turn into collection missions. It's like planetary cherry picking, I'll take this and this, include this and this, get rid of that, and throw in some of this. Best of all, the history's built right in... and is often stranger than anything that might just get imagined up.

Crowland Abbey

In the case of my Engel game, I knew I wanted to do something with a floating village—since those are a thing in Engel. The description in the Engel setting explains that many are from the British Isles, which suffered devastating flooding but was able to save several communities by making them raft villages (link: floating village), but that these communities are sometimes dislodged and forced out to sea by the powerful season hurricanes that wash over the islands every year. Since this would be a British community, I decided to go to Google maps and see if I could find a legitimate name for my wayward community. Crowland was too perfect, too ominous, to pass up. Map view turned to Wikipedia view and what's the first thing that appears but the distinctive, partially ruined abbey at the town's center, Crowland Abbey. What a fantastic looking place, with the ruin of its former nave arching off like a huge buttress and a great old graveyard. I was sold at this point, but then it kept getting better, with a saint beset by demons (Saint Guthlac) and an abbot murdered at the altar by vikings (not to mention his wayward skull). Smitten, my floating village turned into a floating abbey, figuring that if a community was going to save any part of itself, its ancient communal heart would be near the top.

Badge of the HMS Vengeance

Now we've got a setting for my creepy bug-cultist castaways, but I still wanted some way for them to be more in control of their seaborne sanctuary. A boat would be too obvious, but a submarine. So I looked into that and... oh... oh hoho England has nuclear submarines. Cue the diabolical laughter. It's one things for bug cultists to stictch wings on a guy and be disappointed when they don't work, but anything's possible through the power of radiation! Just ask Spider Man. In fact, what if that was the gimmick? What if the lead cultist finds this trove of pre-flood secrets and isn't able to understand most of them except those that are most elaborately illustrated, the ones that distinctly show—again and again—a man bitten by a radioactive spider and given remarkable powers. There aren't comics in Engel's dark future, so how would she know these weren't reports or instruction manuals from a time know for its incredible godless science? So she hops to, and through the efforts of her cult is able to get a pre-flood submarine up and running (handwave, handwave). Again, Wikipedia to the rescue, bringing up the HMS Vengeance, a Vanguard-class submarine of the Royal Navy. Again, perfect name, its obviously martial badge made a great emblem for these creepy cultists, and its nuclear engine sets the stage for all manner of sinister experiments.

Game sketches from the white board

History and research really did the work for me this time around as far as setting went, and having just re-watched The Relic and Mimic already had me in a mood for body horror, so the rest came pretty easily. I largely prepared for this game like I would a Pathfinder game, detailing the main areas, defining the major characters, sketching out a little map, putting together my soundtrack, and throwing in some other nuances I might need (selections from the top 100 British names, for example). I also threw in some of the suggestions presented in the rulebook for Dread (Why don't you own this yet?!), tracking out the general acts and what should occur during them. I'd never included that in a game I've run, so the attempt is a bit weak and it might be obvious that I didn't build the adventure with them in mind. It worked out well enough, but there's really only two acts: Exploring and Shit Going Bad. Having played through now, I realize I did too much work and constructed this far too much like a Pathfinder RPG dungeon crawl. Dread being a much more narrative game, the borders between rooms and encounters don't need to be so strictly defined, and while playing this I found parts I'd intended to be discrete scenes flowing into one another. It's a much more cinematic style of storytelling and I REALLY dig it for horror games like this.

Engel page from my workbook

Now that you've heard about my prep work for the adventure itself, the tools and handouts I used, the characters, and actually playing the game, here's all my notes. Below is the Word.doc with all of my room by room notes, while the picture from my workbook here has my sketches of the abbey, sub, and the other notes I scribbled down researching this and during the game. I don't promise polish in either of these documents, but if you're interested or want to run something similar to this (or just want a simple map of an abbey riding a sub), you're welcome to use them in your own home game. If you do use them and you and your players like it, let your players know about the site and be sure to post about your experiences on this page, I'd love to hear all about it!

Wes's Dread Engel notes and adventure (free download!): DreadEngel.doc

Sketch by Liz Courts

Alright! That brings an unexpectedly full week of Dread and Engel to a close. I will definitely be using the Engel setting again and I expect you'll be reading lots more about Dread on this page in the future. Huge thanks to my awesome players Judy Bauer, Liz Courts, Cosmo Fallacy, and James Sutter for such a fantastic game. Also a big thanks to the residents of Crowland, Lincolnshire, parishioners and clergy of Crowland Abbey, and the crew of the HMS Vengeance for letting me borrow the inspirational tales of their home, sanctuary, and vessel for my night of storytelling. Despite this game's grim theme, I hope my personal respect, appreciation, and fascination show through the dark fantasy trappings.

As for what's next... I'm really not sure, I was so focused on doing this mash-up that I haven't put much thought into it yet. I should probably get those Mass Effect slackers back in the saddle since they wanted a third session, so once that's wrapped I'll figure out what's up and who's in for episode four! Thanks for reading!

Episode 3: A Voice Raised to Heaven

The world of Feder & Schwert’s Engel is totally cool, there’s no doubting that. Knowing what I know now, though, I probably wouldn’t have used it as the setting of my first Dread game. The preamble about the campaign world was just too long. If the players had already been familiar, that would have been one thing, but as it was about a fifth of our game time was spent bringing the players up to speed on aspects of a rich setting that had little to do with the plot of the evening’s adventure. “Your angels in a post-apocalyptic future dominated by the Future Vatican” would have probably been enough. The exposition on the Dreamseed (the giant infernal bug-demons of the world) was useful, as those certainly made an appearance, but the hierarchy of the church, the role of the Engel, the history of the world, less so. It’s all vibrant and fascinating, so I don’t feel like it was a waste of time and the players were definitely interested—and were receptive sponges, as quite a few bits of lore and neo-religious dogma crept in throughout the night—but overall, had I to do it all again, I would streamline things.

That said, if we play this setting again, these players are totally primed, so it’s not like it was a waste.

As for Dread, I’ve been excited to play since I got the book a month ago and it did not disappoint. In fact, I’ve been gushing about it since we’ve played. Loved it. Loved it, loved it, loved it. The way the Jenga-tower feeds into the players’ growing apprehension is easily the strongest synthesis of resolution mechanic and mood I’ve ever seen. Breathlessness, that’s this game’s effect, infecting each player with a totally appropriate dread regarding every extraordinary action. The players started around the table, but by the end, if they could have been closer to the walls, and thus farther from the tower, they would have been. Simple, elegant, brilliant—I might have a new favorite storytelling game.

I was too easy on them, though. First off, the janky Jenga knock-off I got, while aesthetically perfect, seems far less structurally sound than a normal Jenga tower—just look at those uneven bones! So I went easy on them as far as calling for pulls, as I didn’t want the tower to topple after like three attempts. Turns out, though, the tower was a little sketchy, but just fine, and over the entire night it only tumbled once—boy did it, but we’ll get to that. Also, with the engel being superhuman, the threshold of what’s extraordinary is already increased. So feats of strength, using the name of god to shout down a shack, flying, they’re pretty commonplace for engel, so I didn’t require pulls for a lot of stuff. That made a significant portion of the initial exploration pretty safe—though trying to empathically read an item formerly possessed by someone surgically violated by insectile grafts certainly did call for a pull. If the players had been normal humans, sure I would have certainly changed the danger level of the game, but I still think there would have been significantly more pulls. The whole thing worked and it was cool and, especially by the end, very creepy, but without the shield of divine powers, the players would have been much more freaked out. Something I’ll certainly be keeping in mind for next time.

As for setting the mood, I was delighted to finally get to use the band In the Nursery’s Engel soundtrack in a game. For a setting as dark as Engel, the soundtrack is strangely hopeful. Maybe I’m viewing the whole setting through a more cynical lens than is intended and Engel is actually meant to be a world about hope and faith overcoming evil… but I really don’t think that’s the case. But, for the intro, the epilogue, and another spot or two, it worked great. For the really creepy stuff, I defaulted to an old favorite soundtrack, the score to Silicon Knight’s Eternal Darkness. Subtle and ominous, a few select tracks were on in the background throughout most of the night. For the big dramatic fight at the end, a newer take on an old standby rose to the challenge, Castlevania: Lord of Shadows. I haven’t used this specific Castlevania soundtrack terribly much—I’m mostly a Symphony of the Night kinda guy—but certainly will again. Here’s my whole soundtrack for the evening.

Prelude: Engel, “Angelorium”

Exploring the Exterior: Engel, “Pandoramicum”

Exploring Crowland: Eternal Darkness, “Black Rose”

Ashby & Library: Eternal Darkness, “A Journey into Darkness”

Exploring the Vengeance: Eternal Darkness, “The Somme”

Congregation: Eternal Darkness, “Gateway to Destiny”

Dreamseed: Castlevania, Lord of Shadows, “Carmilla”

Easily the high point of the game was the climax, and through no direct decision of mine—which was the best part. Judy’s character Israfel had spent a good portion of the evening watching the team’s back, largely because they’d come to fear attack by the Dreamseed. As her engel’s power was the voice of God, the ability to damage creatures and substances with the power of her voice, she was serving as artillery. So, when Rogziel and Zophiel got attacked (and Pahadron was euthanizing a 10-year-old; why yes, she does get younger every time I mention it), she needed a moment to get to the scene. By the time she did, though, a gigantic, irradiated damselfly had burst loose and was stampeding through the claustrophobic confines of the boat’s bowels. Entering the area, she was the first to act, and chose to use her voice on the demonic creature. She surely could, I explained, but it’s huge, armored, and angry, so her words probably wouldn’t hurt it much. She could, however, wound it by making a pull. She might more than wound it, though, by making two pulls.

She opted for two and cautiously scooted toward the wobbling tower. Cosmo, being absolutely in the moment, caught what unfolded. You can see me in the background using my iPhone to slowly crank up the music (yes, I’m still loving my Bose Soundlink speaker, which I gushed about in my last Mass Effect write-up).

Though you can probably infer, THAT means she dies, but still dramatically succeeded, sacrificing herself to defeat the beast and save her friends from a drawn out and surely lethal battle. Perfect. Absolutely perfect. Her devastating hosannas and hallelujahs ripped into the thing as it tore her apart, but her death cries ultimately blew away that living heresy.

And that’s where we ended it. There wasn't any point to explaining how the characters got out, or reported home, or whatever. The climax was so strong and so satisfying I ended it right there, with no question that the engel had won, despite the tragic cost. Phew! What a finale.

Tomorrow I’ll post all my notes from the game if anyone wants to do something similar to this, or just wants a sketch of a cathedral riding a submarine. I’ll also talk a bit about how much of this was fiction, and how much came straight from the real world… which might be more than you’d think.

Episode 3: Dread Engels

That. Was. Totally. Awesome.

If you don't own Dread, go buy Dread.

We played last night, using the setting of the Engel RPG, as I discussed in my previous post. Everyone filled out their Introductory Inquisitions--the little handwritten survey journals I put together for the game--and after an overview of the game, the setting, and reconciling a few character powers, we hopped right into it.
This time around, my fantastic cast consisted of:

Rogziel (Liz Courts)
* Who has skin like stars.
* Who shines like the sun.
* Who debates with fists.
* Who bears the Eye of Iblis. (Whatever THAT meant!)
* Who stands in front.

Zophiel (James Sutter)
* Who knows the thoughts of mortals.
* Who got a face full of bug swarm.
* Who speak English.
* Who carries old women into danger.
* Who smites traitors.

Pahadron (Cosmo Fallacy) 
* Who knows the fears of men.
* Who perfected fly-by soul searching.
* Who swings a mean yo-yo.
* Who gets bored on guard duty.
* Who isn't afraid to choke out a 12-year-old.

Israfel (Judy Bauer)
* Who fears no belfry.
* Who knows the deceits of the Sons of Albion.
* Who has her own sneaky methods.
* Who shouts down both buildings and bugs.
* Who sacrificed herself to save the day!

As for what got us these characters, Dread uses a survey method of character generation. These were the Engel themed ones the players got in their survey journals.

Introductory Inquisition

The Urielites are the eyes of the Angelitic church and aloof guardians over His flock. Despite this, what part of human life do you secretly wish you could share in?

If you could live outside the Urielite Himmel at Mont Salvage, where would you live?

Why are you the first person your brethren turn to in a crisis?

How are you better than a human?

What weapon or instrument do you practice daily?

Despite it being heresy to possess such an item, what is the one piece of pre-Flood technology you always keep on your person? Why?

Although greed, lust, and envy are damnable sins, what do you constantly crave?

Last week you skipped mass. Why?

When was the last time you bled? Why?

Your potestates, the tattoo-like manifestation of His power in you, grant you a remarkable ability. What is it?

You are blessed to share a name with a legendary engel who you seek to emulate. What is your name?

Oh, and I found appropriately themed cider.

So that's the gist on the characters. Tomorrow I'll get into the details of the game itself.

Episode 3: Dread Engel, Still of the Flesh

With Episode 3: Mass Effect going into overtime, I've decided not to wait to try out something totally different. Having heard fantastic things about the Dread RPG, I ordered that recently and was totally impressed. I expected it to just be storytelling with Jenga. It is not. The rulebook might use pulls from a Jenga tower as its core resolution mechanic, but its survey based character generation method, the depth in which it defines (and offers) various types of horror experiences, and the invasive questions running endlessly along the bottom are more than just perfect at creating mood, they're super cool. I was cackling the majority of the time I was reading its elegantly minimalistic 168 pages.

I've also always wanted to run a game in the world of Feder & Schwert's Engel RPG and finally put my Sword & Sorcery Studios' translation of the German originals to use. I've only owned my Engel books for a decade, so now that the new book smell is thoroughly worn off, they should be good to use.

Tonight we're playing Dread Engel*. I've got a few props (as per usual), a great soundtrack planned (including In the Nursery's Engel CD), an appropriately themed (French?) "Jenga" tower, and little Engel character survey journals. I have also informed multiple players that survival is not to be anticipated.

I've included a few images of what I'm prepared with, but the game starts in moments so I have to run. Once it'sover I'll post more details about the players and the scenario I put together if you're looking for your own Dread Engel story to play through. More to follow!

* This band name free on a first come, first served basis.

Episode 3: Coming Soon

Next up, on Erratic Episodes...

Episode 1: Thirteenish Shards

Heroes ready for danger!

Yup. They lost the shard I gave them.

After the briefest recap manageable and replaying only a few of the adventure's CD room descriptions, the party was back on the hunt for the remaining "twelve" mirror shards lost in Tergeron Manor. I was a softie, though, and gave them a replacement for the one that went missing, not truly expecting them to find the other twelve shards in the span of 5 1/2 short hours. How wrong I was.

Although the first few hours proceeded normally enough (excessive wariness, well-reasoned wariness, mad schemes, high jinxs), as the time neared our 6:00 deadline the adventure turned into the final moments of Clue or some sort of macabre Double Dare physical challenge, with the party running through the halls, kicking open doors, grabbing mirror shards, and tearing back to the parlor to hear the newest audio cut scene. I glossed over quite a few encounters as well and downplayed the haunted house's malign intelligence and damage dealing cold--even though I'm not running a third session of the game I didn't want it end on a dull note. Ultimately, the characters visited every room, heard every description, and--remarkably--managed to placed all thirteen shards back into the shattered magic mirror, restoring it... and inadvertently releasing the maniacal necromancer Morgoroth back into the world. Freed from the mirror, the full-powered necromancer stepped through the mirror and back into the seat of his power, with only four battered adventurers between him and a renewal of his dark deeds.

And that's where I called it. No reason to end the first episode on a total party kill.

A great session with what I think was a pretty satisfying conclusion. As for highlights, a few stand out.

A one point Zola's futzing with the corpse of a paladin set off a horrifying shriek that sent three of the four party members running in fear, our doughty dwarf being the only one to stand his ground. I had each character plot out the course of their flights (largely in secret), leaving Bearnar the task of hunting them back down. Fortunately, none of them got too far or bungled into any active dangers. Though Valeriu might have gulped down a few homunculus eyes while he was hiding in the pantry.

Nine to go

The master bedroom has contains a tub full of ice with one shard in it. As the party melted the ice (in a totally reasonable, effective way) it turned to blood... and eventually a blood elemental. As soon as that happened, the party decided that quietly leaving and closing the door to the room would be the best way to deal with the creature. They didn't expect it to turn into the 9-foot-tall scabhemoth that eventually came stomping down the stairs after them. They beat the thing handily, despite its significant number of hit points. Only after ward did I notice its equally significant damage reduction, but cest la vie.

One bathroom contains a rack of towels inexplicably soaking with blessed water. Fearing weird water in the bathroom, the party left these behind. At least, until Arth decided that the easiest way to get a glass shard inside a glass orb also containing a fireball would be to just break it in the tub. The rest of the party, largely dumbfounded I think, garnered quite a few "Bad Friend Points" for not talking him out of putting the fire orb in the tub, covering it with a pillow and a few blessedly moist hand towels, and then hitting it with a sword. I let the towels give him a bonus to his saving throw against the 10d6 fireball, which he made, but the end explosion still proved mighty. And it ended up breaking the shard inside. After it was revealed that a broken shard wouldn't work in the mirror the next few hours largely became the Quest for the Mending Spell!

There's one room with knights turned to steel, one of which has a mirror shard essentially fused into him. There's no way to free the glass short of a spell that allows the caster to become ethereal or otherwise insubstantial--like the relatively obscure wraithform spell. That's such an unintuitive  solution though, that when the party dragged the mirror into the gallery to touch the whole thing to the stuck shard I just gave it to them. Weird second edition design.

The still beating heart in the laboratory along with the adventure CD's beating heart sound effect totally made bringing my sub woofer along worth while. 

Aside from that insanity, some of the player-by-player highlights follow. You can also click on the picture below to see a close up of the house's map, with some little illustrations of some of the more noteworthy encounters (like the crystal coffin in the belfry, the blood smear where the blood elemental smeared-out, the dining room of the magical menorahs, and the coffee table of the exploding spellbook).

Behold the terror of Tergeon Manor

Bearnar (Jason Bulmahn)
* Downing a troupe of armored skeletons with on turn undead.
* Nearly saving his cowardly companions with a well timed (but ultimately ineffectual) remove fear.
* Chasing back down the entire party when they failed their saves versus a fear spell.
* Dragging his companions out of a library full of cloud kill.
* Sacrificing a dust devil spell to a pack of ghouls.
* Trying to rub Zola's soul back into her.

Sane Arth (Mark Moreland)
* Reproving how deadly a fighter with a longsword can be.
* Not contracting a petrification disease from the tainted coffin dirt.
* Nearly digging into a tempting bowl of delicious smelling creme' de wormfuck.
* Attempting to smother a fireball with a pillow.
* Attempting to smother a fire trap with his face.
* Popping a wall of force.

Valeriu the Grey (Rob McCreary)
* Concocting a way to melt a bathtub full of blood elemental without setting the house (or party) afire.
* Not setting off the devil mist trap in the greenhouse.
* Distance killing a giant mountain gorilla... somewhere.
* Knowing that a wizard would never trap a spellbook once when he could trap it twice.
* Skipping a ball of lightning into a starving vampiric mist.
* Mending the shard Arth broke.

Zola Nordandi (James Jacobs)
* Wisely not breaking the marble full of devil mist.
* Freeing the unseen servant chef.
* Dancing with a chair mimic.
* Throwing a ball of lightning bolt into a chandelier.
* Dancing through a cell block full of ghouls.
* Getting her soul sucked into a mirror of life trapping.

Just imagine that last piece in there

So that's a wrap for the second edition Dungeons & Dragons adventure A Light in the Belfry! The entire game was quite a flashback to my high school and college games, where I ran this adventure on several consecutive Halloweens. But I can't say I have any interest in revisiting second edition rules again any time soon. I must have asked for Wisdom and Intelligence checks a fifty times in those six-ish hours. While I like my games with some free form and interpretational elements to them, sometimes it turns out a little complexity in a rules system is actually a good thing. And trying to find anything in those rulebooks--oooof! I did a lot of adlibbing just to keep things running without a drawn out session of rules hide-and-go-seek. But for all the wonkiness, the story is a fun one and easily the best combination of classic D&D adventure and pure B-horror-movie camp I can think of--or ever want. I think this was my third--maybe fourth--time running A Light in the Belfry, and if I get my way it won't be the last. I am going to have to fix up my mirror for next time, though, the shards didn't fit a well as I would have liked--a fact losing one of them actually disguised quite nicely.

So thanks to James, Jason, Mark, and Rob for playing and being my guinea pigs for the first adventure of Erratic Episodes. Check back tomorrow for a bit on the props I used to bring Morgoroth's accursed mirror right into the game room, and a little later this week for the open call for Episode 2!

Whatever it might be.

Adventure Soundtrack:  Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust and Interview with the Vampire for group scenes and combat, tracks from From Hell and Hannibal for investigation.

Episode 1: We're Back On!

So far this endeavor has been more erratic than anticipated—holidays, travels, snow, adventures—but that all changes this weekend! We’re on for Sunday for the conclusion of A Light in the Belfry. Whether it’s to be a dramatic finale or an anticlimactic end, that’s up to the players and how fast they can track down the twelve missing mirror shards. One way or another, it all wraps Sunday night at 6:00.

That means that by next Friday I plan to have a brief written up for the next Erratic Episodes adventure. Anyone who didn’t play a Light in the Belfry is welcome to put their name in the hat (aka, on the comments page for the post, in an e-mail, or in a Facebook message to me)—be you a Paizonian, friend of mine, or other local Seattle gamer, all are welcome. I can’t say what we’re doing, when, or how many players I’m looking for yet, but one way or the other I promise it’ll be a blast!

But for now, hang tight for Bearnar the dwarf, Zola Nordandi, Valeriu the Gray, and Sane Arth’s final adventure in the second edition Dungeons & Dragons adventure A Light in the Belfry.

Episode 1: A Light in the Belfry Session 1

Trying to remember how THAC0 works

Short version:
It went smashingly.

Longer Version:
I ran the first session of the first adventure of Erratic Episodes last night. Four strangers, linked only by their shared employment or passage on a caravan, came face to face with the strangeness and menace of the Demiplane of Dread in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition adventure A Light in the Belfry.

I've kind of got a thing for dramatics (something of an understatement some readers will probably note), so the game started for me earlier that week. Relearning Second Edition was fine. It made me realize that I was either an idiot or a genius in my teens to parse the far-flung, vague, or just absent rules, but it was fine. I made my little crib sheet, reviewed the adventure, an rolled right into the arts and crafts part of the project. Every adventure needs a gimmick. And if it comes with a gimmick like this adventure does, it needs two gimmicks. And music. So there was still plenty to do. After this episode wraps up I'll post some of the pictures and details of the production side of this, you'll see some of it in the photos below, but there's still a few bits I don't want to spoil quite yet.

Behind the screen

An hour before the game found me in the Paizo conference room, setting up my sound system, digging out an old Ravenloft DM screen, making sure the lights were appropriately dimmed, picking out some last minute mood music, and flipping through the second edition Dungeon Master's Guide for magic items and equipment for the players (a bec de corbin, scroll of protection versus fire, and a longtooth dagger stood out as forgotten favorites). Jeff Alvarez, James Sutter, Erik Mona, and Sara Marie Teter all stopped in to check out what I was doing madly scribbling away in the dim conference room with Tartini's Devil's Trill going on in the background. (I'll get them all in games here eventually.) As this adventure uses CD narration and I refuse to play without background music, I had the adventure CD copied to my iPhone and that attached to a set of speakers I'd brought along. My laptop, playing the score for the evening, stayed behind the DM screen.

The group showed up promptly at 7:00 and started divvying up the magic items and finishing up characters. This was Mark's first second edition game, and none of us had played for about a decade, so there were plenty of "how's that work?" moments. For a half hour they relearned the game and equipped up. We started at 7:30.

As written, a Light in the Belfry starts with the players at the gate of the haunted set piece, Tergeron Manor. As I run it, a Light in the Belfry with starts with a caravan in flames and Valeiru getting face-bit by the wolf standing on his chest. The wolf fight reintroduced us all to second edition combat, playing without a map and miniatures, the fast pace I like to keep combat at ("Tell me what you're doing now or you'll lose your turn!"), the fact that I don't sit down while I run games, and the acceptance that it's more fun to roll a die and call it good than spend 5 minutes looking up a rule that isn't really that important. The group fought off the wolves, made some introductions as the only survivors, and looted the caravan for a trove of mundane goods (salted herring and a fine fur cloak proved quite popular).

Things got weird as the night went on. Mists started to rise up around the wagons. It became unseasonably cold. Zola climbed a tree and found the forest had closed in around the road in both the directions the caravan was headed and had come from. Berry picking Bearnar found the foliage nearby changed significantly before and after they rested for the night. Valeiru identified the wolves as being non-native to the region and seemingly running from something. Arth... Arth protected his precious, precious sanity. And the night didn't end. Yeah. After a "full night" of rest, not even a glimmer of light on the horizon. Except for a distant light in a strange tower... a "belfry" even.

The grounds of Tergeron Manor

It was almost 9:00 before we even got to the start of the adventure, and despite the hardcore railroad nature of the game up till then, we'd had a great time. Reaching the beginning of the adventure meant the introduction of the game's CD narrator - dubbed half-price Vincent Price. The CD narriation proves intensely overwrought, but after the first few snickers, everybody seemed to get into it.

Without going on with a complete blow by blow, here were some of the highlights:

Bearnar (Jason Bulmahn)
* Being the only character to roll stats (3d6s) right down the line and take those stats in those slots.
* Adopting an orphened chicken.
* Being Dr. Goodberry.
* Getting attacked by a spectral knight.
* Destroying a giant green slime with a scroll of remove disease.
* Flowing mysterious footsteps right to the main plot point before we had to wrap up for the night.

Sane Arth (Mark Moreland)
* Murdering the most wolves (3 out of 5).
* It wouldn't be D&D if someone didn't try to put out the fire by peeing on it.
* Wisely deciding, "Hey, maybe we shouldn't touch the giant algae covered pool."
* Noticing the "Slender Man" in the upstairs window.
* Making the only Fear check of the night.
* Taking up the first glass shard and plugging it into the mirror.

Valeriu the Grey (Rob McCreary)
* Rolling up multiple windows and ladder on his robe of useful items. (Valeriu, Wizard of Egress!)
* Capably proving to be the party know-it-all.
* Discovering that just because the creepy house's doors are magicked shut doesn't mean the windows got the same attention.
* Knowing and passing on the info that you can kill green slime with remove disease.
* Not getting too pissed about using his only lightning bolt on a creature immune to spells.
* Kind of being the party tank. Valeriu's 15 hit points are obviously hit points of action!

Zola Nordandi (James Jacobs)
* Having Dr. Girlfriend's grandma's voice.
* Proving that backstab has always been hardcore.
* Climbing everything, and in so doing actually noticing "Hey, the adventure's over there!"
* Impromptu dwarf mining songs.
* Sticking his foot in a pool that ended up being a giant green slime.
* Noticing the strange cold affecting the house, yet still being the first one inside.

A fateful shard

At the end of the first session, the group had 1 of the 13 shards they needed to find. This gave me the opportunity to wrap the session up by actually handing Mark one of the shards I'd created and revealing the magnetic, white board "mirror" it goes in. Folks seemed pretty pleased with that and there were a number of questions about it afterward. Since he was the one who found it, Mark has the responcibility of holding onto the actual, physical shard he received until the next time we play. I  wonder if they'll be able to finish the adventure if he loses it.

Overall, I think we all had a great time. It's been over 8 years since I actually ran a game for friends and it was funny how fast things came back. And how pissed I was at myself for not doing this sooner, because it was a blast! In the next week here we'll set up a date for the concluding session - though we plan to play on a weekend so we can get farther along. Although I'd really like to get to the end to the end of the adventure, I plan to stick strictly to the two session format of these episodes, so we'll see how it goes. Will the team manage to find all 12 remaining shards and solve the mystery of Tergeron Manor? I'll post here just as soon as I know. Thanks for reading!

Adventure Soundtrack: Various tracks from Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust for group scenes and combat, various tracks from From Hell for investigation.