Flashpoint: Absalom

Our intrepid heroes (or anti-heroes, whichever) sailed off around the southern coast to Absalom where they set out to purchase provisions for their ship.  Lunjun and Proteus sold off a bloodstone Quadren taken from the dwarven warehouse in Diobel and used it to purchase enough food for everyone to eat for an additional 15 days (common rather than poor meals, each 1.5 silver), cheap sailors clothes (commoner’s outfits) so the slaves had a spare change of clothes, better sailors clothes for the recruits + three spare (traveller’s outfits), and 1 reasonable lieutenant’s outfit (explorer’s outfit).  They also purchased 8 cutlasses for the recruits (plus one spare), another 10 barrels of water to cover them for the same amount of time.  The extra decent outfits are for when a few of the indentured sailors (slaves with a prospect of freedom at the end of the voyage) convert.

You can read my thoughts on character wealth levels and its relationship to outgoing expenses over here.  Sounds thrilling, I know.

Anyway, so they make their purchases and set sail. 

Lunjun attempts to strike up a conversation with the tattooed Mwangi who owns the pet rat.  The Mwangi silently scowls at him until an exceptional success on a Diplomacy check causes Lunjun to happen to know (and mention) an obscure Mwangi god known as Shimye-Magalla (a juniform of Desna and Gozreh). 

The man is startled by this and says, “How you know I’m Bonuwat?”

“I can tell,” said Lunjun.  He rolls Knowledge Geography and on a decent success then proceeds to mention how he knows the Bonuwat are exceptional sailors and good fighters that often best the Bekyar (a demon worshipping enemy Mwangi group).

The man introduced himself as Boano and his rat as Boniboni and from that point on ceased to be surly and difficult – which is handy because he may have been trouble later on.

Commander Archer then asks Lunjun to teach Haylei (the ship’s brat and lowly midshipman) how to write in Common.  Lunjun does this by teaching her how to forge which is quite successful at getting her motivated.  Proteus gives them the various port passes for them to practice their duplication efforts.

Commander Archer is then approached by A’isha Hala, the Aasimar ‘freed’ slave, who coos to him about how she’s anxious about berthing with the other sailors and how the three tieflings in particularly unnerve her (she is careful not to say anything about Lhye, though).  She implies that she has had to serve as a courtesan slave from a young age.  Commander Archer stammers a bit and then offers her his quarters.  She then spends her time on the Quarterdeck gazing off at the afterail.

Haylei makes a few comments about how she feels lonely having the midshipman’s berth because she’s used to sharing her bed (paupers share beds or sleep in piles to stay warm).  Commander Archer kneels down to tell her she can berth with the lieutenants for now if she would like.  He can’t offer A’isha the Midshipman’s berth because that, ironically enough, puts her on par with the officers and confuses the lines of authority whereas the loan of his cabin to a noble-seeming lady is just the captain being kindly or lusty. 

Anyway, Haylei whispers in Varisian to him that she doesn’t trust A’isha and that he should be careful because A’isha has ‘knife eyes’.

Commander Archer then excuses himself and convenes a meeting where its decided that he will wait with Second Lieutenant Marxus belowdecks but by the door.  Lenny will continue to keep an eye on the conscripts (running the tieflings up and down the rigging until they stop using the lubbers’ hole and threatening them if they don’t obey her).  Proteus will crouch upon one of the spars of the mainmast with his light crossbow in hand.  Lunjun will continue to teach Haylei in the Midshipman’s berth.  Lhye will speak to A’isha using his position as a tiefling to help her ego trip her up.

First Lhye uses Charm Person whilst she is facing away.  With that he manages to learn her sad cover story.  Proteus gets yet another exceptional success and figures out that the woman is a cunning sociopath and figures out that she’s probably an alchemist by also putting together her movements and a peculiar chemical scent that she still exudes even under her womanly scent (due to all her time spent with chemicals). 

Lhye manages to convince her to try some soothe syrup after pointing out how terrible seasickness can be.  At first she’s suspicious (suggesting that the Charm Person didn’t move her to Friendly and instead only to Neutral so she started pretty low) but she drinks it.  It’s a potion of Delusional Pride and it makes her all the more arrogant.  He starts making digs about her inability to cope and the small strides she’s made thus far and goads her into admitting that she was a Master in the Katapesh Poisoner’s Guild (Proteus deduces it’s a lie, she was likely a Journeyman) and that she had important contacts in Cheliax and Taldor.  He manages to figure out that she sold guild secrets and that was the cause of her enslavement.

Completely enraged now, she storms off calling for Archer and that is when Lhye casts the Sleep spell on her.  The tieflings laugh from the rigging.  A few other sailors go to assist her, knowing only that the beautiful lady collapsed, but Lhye threatens to kill them if they touch her.  Archer simply states that this is on his order. 

There’s a bit of consternation that she may be able to poison them using old meat slime or what-not and that she may have casting abilities even without access to a formulae book (perhaps a multi-classer).  Second Lieutenant Marxus suggests that they break her hands just to be sure.  Archer can’t bring himself to order that per se so he simply orders that they use the manacles to keep her down below and ‘deal with it’.

Proteus therefore positions her hands over the steps (at Marxus’ suggestion) and puts a belt in her mouth to keep her from screaming out too much and Lieutenant Marxus smashes the bones in each hand with 6 damage apiece.

And there we ended the session with the ship filled with shocked silence.

They’ve also managed to hit Level 4!  Despite being on the Slow Track.  I think I give them too much experience points.

Wealth Levels & IC Necessities

It is expensive work trying to outfit a ship.  In my Flashpoint Campaign none of my players' NPC sailors has any armour.  Most of them are common sailors.  They didn't come equipped.  One was a prisoner.  They're level 4 so, in truth, if I counted their ship as part of their loot they probably would still be walking around with nothing but the odd Masterwork item.  This wouldn't work out for them when the enemies they are facing are designed around certain equipment requirements (which really starts rearing its head around level 5).

At present, if they're lucky the NPCs they hire on might have their own equipment.  There's certainly more of an urge to loot any daggers or cutlasses that haven't even been Masterworked.  But they still have food, repairs, water barrels, crew payments, clothing, armour, and weapons to worry about in general.

So how do I handle it?

When I estimate how much loot they should have for their level, I don't count ship or NPC equipment.  Its a rule of thumb, though, and I trust my players so I don't have to worry too much about them giving expensive weapons to NPCs to wield just so that they can then accumulate greater wealth.  If they even tried it, I'd notice right away and tell them not to and they'd shrug with a smirk and say something like, "Worth a shot."

Now this isn't to say that they get so much loot that they can dole it out with impunity.  They actually struggle a bit on the day-to-day level with reaching their wealth levels and are generally a fair bit below and that's fine.  If they want to spend their loot on their ship than that's good.  They'll be low for awhile but then they'll catch up.

This prevents them from over-spending on the ship because those short-term money constraints are an issue but it doesn't create a barrier of "Should I spend my money and grow progressively underpowered or should I not spend my money and have a mutinous crew and an ill-equipped ship?"

Culture Shock Book Series

For those of you planning on world building a custom world, creating a richer culture within an existing world, or trying to create a character with a cultural background rather than simply a personality, I can't recommend the Culture Shock series of books enough!  At the risk of sounding like a salesman, these books really break down other cultures to give a sense of the different customs in particular locations from their preferred method of greeting to their thoughts on punctuality to whether they find it rude if you eat everything on the plate (indicating they didn't feed you enough) to if you leave food on the plate (indicating you didn't like the food).

Just for the record, I'm not paid by the Culture Book series or any other publisher (I wish) but have simply come across these books and found them utterly fantastic.  Go down to your local library to borrow a few and see what you think.  You can always purchase them if you like them or if your library doesn't have the particular countries you're looking for.

And no, as far as I know there are now Medieval or Victorian Culture Shock books (though that would be cool).  However, a lot of these customs have been around awhile and are still worth reading up so that you can add those rich little details that make all the difference.

Forgiving Players

As much as I like talking about adventure structure, plot hooks, and ways to engage the various player styles, in truth, players are a remarkably easy audience to deal with.  I think its because they're not truly an audience.  They're also actors, writers, planners, and artistic designers and so are more immersed in the story and therefore less judgmental about it.  In short, they don't care if your game slows to a crawl for sessions on end so long as they enjoy the crawl. 

If it's fun, it works.  If it's not fun, it isn't.

I think that's where we Storytellers can get trapped within our own craft.  We think we need to compete with movies and books and videogames and so we try to wrestle the players into accepting the roles that would be necessary to make those mediums work.  That's the wrong way to go about it.  There's a whole bunch of rules of thumb about how to make a neat ending and an exciting beginning or how to craft a stellar investigation scenario but they are all rules of thumb.

They are all subservient to the Rule of Cool, the Rule of Participation, and the Rule of Collaboration.

The Rule of Participation is basically that everyone should be able to get involved and feel like they matter. 

The Rule of Collaboration is a simple enough matter that people need to understand they are working together and that trying to destroy the game for one person, or ignoring their needs because they differ, just undermines the whole experience.

As for the Rule of Cool....  Your group's perspectives on what is cool or not cool may vary.  Even within the group there's bound to be different perspectives on what is exciting and what is downright horrible.  Trust me, when I get excited about something in a game my partner (also a player) tends to wince and ask me if he'll think it's awesome or if he'll just get depressed.  I'm a horror fan so often times there's a streak of trauma inherent in what I think is cool.  The Rule of Cool is also one of the reasons why I wince when my players take events out of context to wow other people.  Sure, they think it was cool.  I think it was cool in context.  Other people, though, with no understanding of how it came to be will think its ludicrous and dumb.

As an example, in the Demon: the Fallen solo game that I am playing inside my character, Shaitan, is dating Belphigor, head of the Faustians.  It's a legitimate relationship, too, though a hidden one. 

Erm, yeah....  Right....  Doesn't that sound dumb?

Those who know about Belphigor know just how unlikely this is.  He was a heroic Namara Knight once upon a time but on his return to Earth he became a greedy, cold-hearted, grubbing Fallen who only thinks of himself.  Surely he's ONLY doing it to use me?

The relationship itself took me by surprise and followed after my character's heroic self-sacrifice with giving him my youthful and optimistic host (after accidentally causing his assassination when he tried to eat my ex-vassal who tried to betray me to him but whom I guiltily had to rescue as our history meant I understood the betrayal), a host whom during the possession I went down to Torment 2.9 so he got to actually experience what a low-Torment host was like, all of which meant he had a sudden ephiphany and came out at Torment 4, and I technically out-rank him as a Lord / Lady which probably makes me one of the few people his pride would allow him to care for.  It being politically advantageous couldn't hurt, either.

Some people would doubtless STILL think its dumb.  That's okay.  Depending on how you regard Torment, how you've personally come to think of Belphigor, whether you prefer self-sacrifice to end in vain, and just how dark you like your World of Darkness will all have an impact.  Other people would've thought it cool if a kiss from a low-Torment Fallen was enough to make him fall head over heels and plummet in Torment.

It's all good.  It doesn't matter what other people think.  What matters is whether everyone enjoys it and thinks it is a fun idea.  Your players, or other players if you are a player, will forgive you quite a bit if they enjoy it and often even if they don't but they see that you are enjoying yourself. 

So all of you Storytellers out there: Give yourself a break and rest a light hand on the wheel.

Often that helps them have the most fun of all.

Creepy Manor Brainstorm

I adore creepy manor stories - especially in older eras or fantasy. They're just a super cool location. I'm not a fan of haunted mansion ghost stories, though. Perhaps I just find it hard to sympathise with the super-rich yet incredibly bland families that populate them. I liked the American Horror Story family but they were intriguingly disfunctional and their mansion was a lot smaller than that used in your typical haunted mansion movie. I find modern haunted tales set closer to my personal experience such as apartment buildings or regular homes to be more emotive. I suppose the distinction is the level of realism. Haunted mansions are generally not surreal enough to warp my mind enough to fear it nor is it close enough to my own experience to make me uncomfortable in my home. This isn't any mark against haunted mansions but it sort of explains why I don't personally care for them very often.

Anyway, onto the list:

Hedge Mazes (claustrophobia, confusion, artificial naturalism, beauty contrasting horror) - Castlevania
Drawbridges that shut at night (foreshadowing of night horrors, fear of being trapped outside, isolationism) - Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Curtain Walls and Moats (archaic, claustrophobic when inside, fear of the outside world, fear of drowning) -
Multiple Safe in the Moat outside (fear of drowning, difficulty in staying alive due to need to tread water) - Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Porcullis (fear of entrapment, fear of decapitation or having it dropped on you, fear or murder holes above, isolationism)
White roses in a rose bed with a few red roses (suggestive of sin staining innocence, of blood stains)
Atrium in Disrepair (beauty contrasts with horror, rays of sunlight in gloom if only a few windows or they're faded, fear of the open, almost cavernous symbolism)
Overstocked large library (multi-storeyed thus who's peering down, books strewn about or piled suggest obsessive research or pseudo-scientific enemy, hidden secrets, dark truths)
Violinists (a musical instrument that is pure, beautiful, yet so often mournful or eerie)
Piano playing (sometimes eerie, beauty contrasts with horror)
Sudden discordant end to a song drifting through the rooms (mystery, possible foul end)
Stuffed animals (desecration of the dead, taxidermy equipment is wicked looking, suggestive of grand hunts, pride in violence)
Wax Mannequins (uncanny value, fear that they might be human, fear they moved) - sometimes a monster in games
Suits of Armour (archaic, mystery of what's inside, fear they moved) - often a monster in games
Partially submerged room (fear of what's hidden, unreality, reminder of fragility of the world beyond nature) - often hides monsters in games
Blood spatter leading to an area (fear of injury, fear of death, anticipation toward a revelation, evidence of violence, temptation to follow, temptation to render assistance)
Blood smear leading to an area (fear of injury, fear of death, anticipation that you will see a corpse, evidence of violence and possibly someone trying to hide that violence, temptation to follow, knowledge their dead)
Stained Glass Windows (religious connotations, beauty contrasts horror, mysterious figures exalted, obscured world outside)
Depraved nobility (fear of no recourse, fear no one would believe you, fear of how far they will go)
Weathered stone and aging grey brick (ancient secrets, archaic, sense that the best times are behind us)
Isolated location (fear of being cut off, isolationism)
Village of the Downtrodden by the manor (fear of disease, superstition, clues as to threats, xenophobia, strange customs)
Heavy curtains (blocks the world outside, wealth contrasts horrors)
Follies - Artificial Ruins and Caves (mystery, false history - perhaps real if transplanted ruins from elsewhere)
Victorian oddments stack every surface (mystery, plenty to see, suggestive of travels)
Exotic vases, statues, steles (secrets, strange history, xenophobia, fear of the unknown)
Experimental Chambers (fear of injury, fear of cruel science)
Crumbling stairwells (fear of injury, archaic, best times are behind us)
Hidden Doors (unknown intentions, secrets, mystery)
Creepy puzzles to unlock certain doors (unknown intentions, sense of playfulness but perhaps cruelty, plus reminders of similar videogame experiences in creepy games)
Tape Recorders, Film Reels, Slide Projectors (archaic, disconnect from our modern reality, mystery of what will be seen, growing revelations)
Journals, Diaries, Letters (voyeuristic peek into what may not be expected to be seen, mystery, growing revelations)
Occult books with bookmarks (cruel hints of terrible things, growing revelations)
Survivor that dies after you leave them briefly (fear of death, fear of not being there for people)
Need to hide from an unstoppable beast (fear of being found, regression to childhood, vulnerability)
Twitching, spasmodic enemies (uncanny valley, suggestion of pain or alien movements)
Teleporting Monsters (fear of where they're gone, knowledge they could appear anywhere, fear of being spotted, inability to predict the threat)
Gouged lines in the walls (threat of violence, hints as to the enemy)
Masks (hidden selves, mystery, beauty contrasts horror, suggestions of decadence, implied history of the masks)
Antiquities (histories, so many lives witnessed by that object)
Creaking Floorboards (hints of someone approaching, gives away own position, sense of age and decay)
Radios (unreliable connection to the outside world)
Rain, Storm, Dreary Weather Patterns (needing to shelter somewhere unsafe)
Fog (mystery, hidden threats, reduced visibility)
Altars (religious significance, xenophobia, impressions of sacrifice or religious cruelty)
Dungeon with chains and cell bars (miserably history, fear of death and entrapment)
Greenhouse choked with exotic plants (nature trying to escape artificial confines, exoticism, beauty contrasts horror, threats from unknown plants)
Guard dogs (threat of injury, threat of betrayal from man's best friend, fear of death)
Guard dogs showing terror (fear they know what you do not, anticipation)
Boarded up rooms or areas (fear of the unknown, curiosity about what is hidden)
Inhuman or robotic seeming servants (fear of the unknown, uncanny valley, fear of monsters wearing human skin)
Seductive nobility (fear of missing out on something fun, fear of monsters wearing human skin, fear of consequences of sex)
Disturbing paintings of dreary or darkened landscapes or scowling individuals (fear of corrupted genealogies, sombre atmospheres)
Queer historical accuracies, i.e. fainting rooms and photographs of recent corpses that look sleeping (alien nature of our own history, unpredictability)
Long histories i.e. curtain walls that are 400 years old, ruins from the middle ages (mystery, fear of the barbaric past and what may be left behind)
All too helpful and prescient butlers (norms of a prior era, mundane training or mystical abilities, vulnerability)
Silent servants standing patiently by (alien norms of a prior era, easy to forget yet always watched, vulnerability, ghostly resonances)
Statue of an angelic woman that weeps tears of blood when you approach as an ill omen or the creation of a monster to attack (macarbe, image of death, religious significance, surreality - stone should not bleed) - Castlevania 64
Blood weeping through bricks or scratching behind bricks and stonework (what may lie behind it, hidden monsters, buried alive)

What else might you add to this list of creepy manors?  Any and all ideas are welcome!  Monsters, events, locations, places....

A good link filled with architectural elements in the References section.

Game Translation: Alone In The Dark (New Nightmare)

While I was going to translate Borderlands 2 I was given a verbal request to do an old survival horror so I'm going to go with that - especially since I think I need a bit more time to truly come to understand the strange joys of Borderlands 2.  So instead I'm going to look at Alone in the Dark (the New Nightmare) which I found to be a particularly atmospheric and evocative game.

I loved the rich level design.  The devil is in the details as they say and a quick Google Images of the games' locations can show just how lush and detailed the areas are.  There are ancient masks, stacks of books, antique furniture, and a general sense of a lived in museum that has slipped from the passage of time.  The shadows are richly drawn and add a real sense of foreboding.  In truth, I think they sat down and really thought about what could make each room deeply evocative and what would be quite creepy additions to both the manor and the islands.

So bring out your list and jot down the name of the location at the top and then brainstorm everything you think might be evocative for that sort of place (I'll do one later).  Shamelessly plagiarise movies, television shows, books, and photographs.  Feel free to grab some Google Images as well as inspiration.  Perhaps use Microsoft OneNote to put it all together in a comprehensible manner.  You might put down location details, NPCs, actions, events, and pictures.  Don't censor yourself.  Put down everything you think would catch your attention because if it bores you its more likely to bore your players as they tend to feed on their Game Master's excitement (to a point).  Then go through it with a critical eye and highlight anything that you think would work really well for the mood, give background, or provide for interesting highlights.  Take what works and see if there are places where it might be put.  Perhaps one particular encounter would work really well for the foyer.  Join inspirational elements together.  The hedge maze could be joined with the violinist with the dying man who dragged himself behind a statue and left a bloody trail behind.

I've already covered a bit about light-sensitive creatures in Alan Wake, but I can also point out that this game includes ammunition that damages such creatures such as phosphorous and magnesium rounds.  Such special ammunitions adds an extra bit of nervous resource management tension, I feel, as it shows that regular bullets alone aren't enough to fell these terrible creatures.  Since you pick up around the mansion it also suggests that the original researchers also had to worry about such things.

You can try to run around the enemy in Alone In The Dark rather than expend precious ammunitions so its worth making use of any tumble checks, dodge rolls, or athletics checks that your game has in order to allow the players to dodge around them.  These creatures can hardly be called sentient so leaving them trapped on the other side of the door could be plausible - though you might want to also put up a barricade if you don't want them to simply slam it open.  This can also add tension when the players have trapped themselves in a room and are now left to wonder if the creature has left before they pull down the barricade and attempt to leave.

Sound is important in this game.  Moans signify zombies out of view.  Creaking floorboards point out an enemy's approach.  These creatures may be surreal but they are also quite real and have a weight to them.  Remember that.  Give them a scent and a sound.  Considering that they don't appear to eat, drink, or defecate (makes sense considering their crystalline structure) it makes them all the more disturbing when you reinforce how real they are.

On that note, ensure you have a top-notch background for people to discover.  Pseudo-scientific discussions about crystalline structures mimicking organic creatures add a disturbing sense of surreality to it by allowing players a vague understanding of something that is still difficult to reconcile with our true reality.  This disconnect can often be more disturbing than something that is wholly outside of this world or our understanding of it.

Nothing like relaxing in ice cold monster-filled waters, eh?

Try to make each new monster species' first appearance memorable.  In truth, your best off making every monster encounter memorable but the first one should be the best.  In this first encounter you get to lay the groundwork on how dangerous it is, what it's like, and what it's been doing.  Be sure to include a lot of foreshadowing. 

In the Carnby side of this game, after a short stroll through ominous woods Edward comes across a mausoleum where he meets an injured man propped up against a wall with a dead dog beside him.  He gives the traditional warning and Carnby heads off.  Carnby has barely gotten several feet away from the mausoleum where there's a scream, a shot, and a flash of light (which I interpreted as the muzzle flash).  When you return, the injured man is gone and only a key remains.  The dead dog is a hint of the upcoming corrupted dog monster and the first encounter with it (or at least with some monster) is entirely off-screen.  Very disturbing.  It gets better, though.  Carnby can hear barking dogs but when he gets closer he sees an Ophtalmicid monster that's killing another dog.  Later, two dogs break loose of their chains but flee past you in terror.  Its only once you get to the top of the stairs that you get attacked by dogs.  Build it.  Pace it.  Make it scary.  If you're not running a horror game, same thing but build it and pace it to make it exciting.

A campaign based around Alone In The Dark, or including elements of it, should appeal to Explorers because the place is quite exciting to move around in with some intriguing notes, equipment, puzzles, and places to explore.  Everything is so richly drawn that you really get a sense of being there in this strange and exotic place.  Investigators will get a kick out of putting together the crimes and horrors that occurred on the island as well as piecing together the monstrous hints and foreshadowing that can clue them into what sort of monsters they may face.  Expect to have your monsters predicted.  That's fine.  Tacticians will do the same thing to you.  If you allow people to hide behind doors and barricade them as well as dodging or distracting monsters rather than kill them, then Tacticians will have plenty of opportunities to show off their skill and plenty of obstacles to set their minds to it.
Action Heroes will enjoy it so long as they understand the excitement of a fast-paced chase scene or a tensely acrobatic moment rather than simply craving combat.  People sometimes forget that Action Heroes are often looking for epic or at least high adrenaline moments and that these don't have to revolve around combat.  If you give them enough dangerous moments to surmount then they could thrive in this game even if they only rarely confront the monsters directly.  Just be sure to let the game have a quick pace.  Their characters might wait around but the player probably won't want to unless they have to.  If they are big on combat, then have the monsters happen to end up nearest them or coax them into holding off the enemies while the others sort out a puzzle.

Communicators would enjoy the game more if it were a bit more Bram Stoker.  If you arrived while the mansion was still properly inhabited and while the monsters were nipping around the edges rather than after they had taken over the building.  They would enjoy the slow reveal and the terror of being trapped in the location trying to talk to the inhabitants and survive to suppertime.  However, so long as you give them a chance to tap into the faux lived experience of being in that sort of place and give them the time for character growth and character defining conversations than it should work out. 

If you have Action Heroes and Communicators in the same party, its worth simply mentioning to both parties that one needs time to get their kicks and the others need a quick pace to get their kicks so that both can be more tolerant of the others needs.  In the end, the Action Heroes will love those moments of character growth and faux lived experience that add depth to the game (so long as it doesn't go on too long and so long as they do get their adrenaline fix often enough) and the Communicators may well need a nudge to put down their mugs of tea and get back into the heart of the matter rather as its often through the crucible of the plot that their characters get to experience the most growth and change.  The two really are quite complementary and can help sort out your pacing for you so long as they respect each other's needs and can have faith that you won't ignore one in favour of the other.

You can find the trailer for the game over here. If you'd like to read the sort of tropes that Alone in the Dark used, you can find them here (though its not strictly about the New Nightmare only).

For the next Game Translation, you have a choice of these: Left for Dead, Half Life 2, Project Zero, Forbidden Siren, Gears of War, Mass Effect, Dracula: Origins, Realms of the Haunting, Dragon Age 2, Borderlands 2, and pretty much any survival horror or horror game. If no one picks anything by next week, it'll be Borderlands 2.

If you want to see the list of games I've done thus far, you can find the Game Translation series starter over here.

Flashpoint: Slaves & Dead Witches

There was a bit of a discussion about whether we should retro the vampire-in-a-box section of the last session where the trunk was opened and a vampiress escaped.  Since only two players were present there but four characters were present, I put it to Archer's player whether he would like a retro as he tends to have the most pragmatic perspective.  I explained that we presumed Archer's reasoning would be a) the trunk is destined to go to the Aspis Consortium, b) the Aspis Consortium are heavily invested in Cheliax and are known to be as dodgy and dangerous as multi-national corporations come, c) Cheliax is the Andoren enemy, d) powerful non-necromantic magical auras were found in the trunk that suggested a small armoury of no less than three magical items, and e) two of the casters could have repaired the lock afterwards.  With all of that information, it seemed logical to Archer's player that he would have wanted to double check the contents of the trunk first before delivering it to the Aspis Consortium.  There was no way to suspect that a monster would have been waiting in a 2 ft wide, 3 ft long, and 2 ft high trunk.

Anywho, so with that out of the way the cart trundled up to the ship and Lenny came down the gangplank.  Archer was sitting very primly and properly in the cart but was otherwise nonresponsive.  Lhye went to disarm him when he mysteriously snapped out of an enchantment that would normally take several days to break.  No one explained to Archer that the trunk was empty (though he suspected) and no one told Lenny that it had even been opened.  The Aspis fellow took a bit of time showing up with his coach and four mercenaries and he accepted the trunk, thanked them, and asked if they had thought to open it.

"No," said Proteus.

"No," said Archer a little too quickly.

"Are you sure?" asked the Aspis fellow shrewdly.

"How could we?" lied Proteus.  "The lock is of a superior quality.  We tried to take a look, to be honest, but we never managed to get it open."

The Aspis fellow nodded at that, though still seemed a little suspicious, and warned them about what might happen if the trunk were found empty.  Then he left.

Everyone then caught up on sleep and re-set their spells.  Lhye sneakily went for a daylight walk and managed to track down the vampiress through a process of elimination.  She was released only a dozen minutes before dawn so she couldn't have gone too far.  Presuming that she was new to the area, she had to go to one of the more obvious underground places.  He found her in a tavern's cellar after convincing the tavern keeper that he needed to take a look down there.  As he's held in rather high esteem as a healer in the area, the tavern keeper didn't ask too many questions, and Lhye went downstairs to find the vampiress.

The vampire was a Chelish woman wearing a blue diaphonous, almost liquid, shawl about her shoulders over a dark blue (almost black) dress.  The skin was pulled tightly against the sharp angles of her face and her dark eyes were unwelcoming but didn't Dominate him.  She wore a morningstar of a silvery steel that gleamed gold whenever it was struck by the light - it didin't appear to be a particular evil weapon which confused him.  She also wore a garnet stone set deep within an Elysian bronze metal.

She called Lhye a fool for coming into such a dangerous location and scolded him for his stupidity.  He explained that he came because his cat, the conduit for his magic, had shown adoration of her and he wondered if he were serving some terrible entity that it would be fond of vampires.  After all, his Harrow reading stated that he would be responsible for great change (though he didn't mention the reading).

Lhye managed to tease out information from her with a great deal of tact and stubbornness.  He found out that she was an Inquisitor of Milani who used to work in the Chelish underground formenting rebellion before her particular group was crushed and she had to flee overseas to try her hand at aiding rebellions in Chelish colonies in the Mwangi Expanse.  Unfortunately, one of the tribes also had members that worshipped Urgathoa and in a cruel twist of fate she was turned into a vampire.  Lhye tried to figure out her alignment in case she somehow wasn't Evil but she gave no verbal clues one way or another though she did state that she still wanted to tear down Chelish tyranny.

She also warned him referring to him as a 'man of chaos' that needed to figure out where he was going to place his feet or he would be lost and adrift as much as anyone else.  He asked if she would kill anyone in Diobel and she stated that she had no need and would soon be finishing her journey in Absalom as had been intended from the beginning.

Then Lhye returned to the others in time to see a slaver come up to finalise their slave transaction.  They all went except for Proteus whose player wasn't in attendance.  Proteus kept an eye on Marxus and the ship.  On the rowboat (that had a silk screen to keep the sun off them at the back and nourished slave rowers), the man (whose name I forget at the moment) spoke to Lunjun as an interpreter about what the going rate was for agents in Andoran.  Lunjun correctly deduced that he meant agents in Katapesh for Andoran and stated that he couldn't determine it himself but with a cutting of his hair he could have him contacted and located by the right people in Absalom (which the slaver stated he was visiting in a month's time).

The slaver's ship had a slaver stink to it that was barely covered by heavy incense and oils.  It also had a Katapesh Naval Corvette as an escort.  His ship also had twenty Naval officers and a Naval captain for an otherwise enslaved crew.  They soon figured out that all of the slavers were born in Katapesh but were from foreign families as they generally had Chelish, Taldan, Ulfen, Half-Orcs, Tien, and Tiefling appearances (Tieflings always being outcasts).  Captain Archer purchased about 33 slaves to help round out his crew and sold masterwork weaponry to get them.  There were another 70 in the Hold but the Andorans frown upon purchasing slaves (even to free them) because it simply encourages the practice.

I'll do up a list in the next session of their identities, genealogies, and other details later on.  Suffice to say they bought three tieflings (one scaly across the forehead whose scales pulled up the eyebrows in a way that made him look imploring, one black toothed-clawed-eyed woman, one obviously Rakshasa-born).  There was also a female Aasimar who had her own little cage who had a golden sparkle in her eyes, a sheen to her raven black hair, and was a thing of seeming celestial beauty that tugged on the heartstrings.  She cost 100gp on her own but they bought her anyway.

Then they brought the slaves back to the ship where Archer intimidated them into line, declaring that while they're free men they're now pressed sailors and that they will be released after they make a run to rescue their own people that are being held on a prison hulk.  Archer didn't explain quite where they were going as it would have terrified them.  Marxus insisted that they be bound while the other officers left the ship as he wasn't capable of keeping thirty plus nervous slaves in line with only a couple carpenters and five able seamen to control the ship (all of which were unarmed).

So they then headed off to finally kill the brothel owner who was reincarnating people into slavery.  They went during the day while the prostitutes were sleeping and Lenny successfully heard the brothel keeper eating in one room and she smelled steam and oils coming from another (a recently made bath).  They checked the bathroom and found it set up nicely but with nowhere to hide.  Archer's player gave out a special card he'd been given for cleverness where he could alter or add some aspect of a building or area.  So I added in a large decorative folding screen a foot away from the wall of Tiennese design that they hide behind.

Then the man, a dusky elf, entered the bathroom and slipped into the bathtub that already held his tiny octopus familiar.  This made Lhye anxious as it meant he was a witch and now a cleric or druid and therefore he wasn't entirely defenceless without his divine focus.  They all got a surprise attack on him.  Lenny slashed at him and dealt 10 damage in a line down his naked chest.  Archer struck him for 5 damage with a shot from his gun.  Lhye successfully cast Hold Person on him.  Proteus failed to hit him with his trident (unfortunately) and finally Lunjun Siva got a critical with his Scorching Ray using his gun and burnt a hole clear through his heart for around 42 damage?  Something ridiculous.

They looted the witch's gear (some nice outfits, silver tea set, chess set, grooming and shaving kits, Cauldron of Brewing) but left the rest of the items for the freed prostitutes.  Lenny chopped the brothelkeeper's head off.  Archer went down to help them get their story straight and find out if they wanted to be free of him - they did.  He asked them what they wanted to do now and learned they wanted to set the brothel up as a Brothel of Calistria and make it also partially a place of healing (part doctor's office) as that would be most against the brothel keeper's desires as the keeper was a worshipper of Urgathoa.  Lunjun did most of the looting and took the man's oils, inks, and onyx stones, and shattered a pewter statue of Urgathoa and took the unholy book to burn.

Lhye prevented them from killing the octopus familiar so that he could bribe / threaten (using his cat as the threat as it did want to eat the octopus) the octopus into giving him spells.  It offered up Feast of Ashes and Fester but refused to teach him anymore.  So he spared the octopus which would soon become a regular octopus after 24 hours.  Hopefully Lhye thought to reintroduce it into the ocean.

And with that, they prepared to flee before the Diobel Consortium, the Aspis Consortium, and the brothelkeeper's powerful friends caught onto them.  They also had to get out so they could rescue their crew members from the slaver hulk before they were sold off or, worse, Wellard was found out to be Andoran.