Trail of Demonic Cthulhu: Base Demonic Template (edited)

So here's the rules of my new Trail of Cthulhu demons thus far.

Powers

Those fallen who are in possession of bodies will gain far fewer powers than the canonical World of Darkness versions.  Each fallen will gain a single power that has greater versatility, such as pyrokinesis, to encourage the players to think in terms of a defining power rather than a random assortment of magic. 

The Fallen will have an extra ability based on their full demonic form which holds true for all members of their House and two abilities that are unique to their particular purpose and sub-House.  Using their demonic form can draw the attention of local supernatural forces and can sometimes cause them more trouble than its worth.  It costs a point of Faith to use one's revelatory / apocalyptic form but it lasts until the Fallen wills it to end.  So long as they are wearing their apocalyptic form, they may suppress or re-establish their active abilities with a thought.  As an example, they may begin with wings, suppress them to move through a hallway, then unleash them again to fly over a gap.

They may use rituals, much as anyone else, but doing so typically causes their minds to brush the greater cosmos or even channel the power of Earthbound and Outer Gods, which is still stability shaking to them.  They may spend Faith instead of Stability on a 1 for 1 basis when using spells or rituals as part of the activation cost. 

Some things may become normalised to them with exposure and thus after each exposure the possible Stability cap will be reduced by 1 for each independent exposure.  This works twice as quickly for Deep Ones and Zombies which even humans can become inured to (not typical of the game but there are enough examples in the books of people being disturbed by the monsters but no longer falling into hysterics).

They still need to worry about losing sanity as they come to comprehend how the universe truly works - unravelling their human comprehension removes the bulwark of protection against the torments of the abyss, after all.

Base Abilities

When the Fallen die, they can potentially claim new Hosts.  The players have given me the power to simply provide them with a logical host after the first which I'll draw from the Masks of Nyarlathotep companion book or other NPC guides depending on the country they're in and the campaign they're playing.

Fallen heal faster than mortals.  Thus they heal 1 hit point per day without rest, 2 health points per restful day and 3 health points if given medical attention.  They can spend a point of faith to undo an injury (i.e. broken limb or lost finger) or regain health points on a three health points for one faith point basis.  Fallen also won't lose their last health point from bleeding out. 

 

The Fallen can also invoke each other using their celestial name which allows them to converse through whispers from across a field as though they were standing beside each other.  Once can detect this power's use through the Awareness skill.  Mortals can also invoke them with their celestial name but this is a one-way street.

It is a +3 stability cost to witness a demon's apocalyptic form and their reactions will be dependent on the Fallen's overall behaviour toward humanity.  A Fallen Angel who slaughters humanity with relish will provoke terror, while one who seeks to protect humans will typically leave them awestruck and astounded.  The cost will be reduced by one point for every encounter until the third encounter, whereupon the mortal will lose 1 point of sanity but no longer lose stability to gaze upon them as their mind has come to accept them.  After all, they are creatures that helped stabilise reality so they do not appear as "wrong" as most. 

Thralls only take a hit to their Stability the first time they see the Fallen.

Fallen angels may refresh their native faith pool (i.e. equal to their normal Faith rating) through the quiet worship provided by mortals but only if they have recently done something meaningful for that mortal (i.e. save their life, defend them in apocalyptic form, torture them).  This is called 'reaping faith' and it can be performed on a thrall if the situation is right.  Typically they may only do this once per case though exceptional circumstances may allow additional refreshes.
 

Additional Skills

Faith is a General Skill that is capped at 3 for starting characters.  Fallen may gain double their initial rating through pacts (i.e. temporarily increasing it to six) on a one Faith per pact basis.  There may be some occasions where a Fallen needs to roll their Faith rating as a contested pool though typically it is simply spent to perform an action.  Fallen recharge one Faith per day and must reap from mortals (see last paragraph in Base Abilities) or ravage their thralls to regain more (see Pacts below).

Awareness is a General Skill that is used as a sort of sixth sense for the supernatural that can sometimes glean further information, but is typically used as a divining rod for relics and current magical effects.

Eminence is an Investigative / Interpersonal Skill that is used as a sort of Credit Rating skill for the fallen.  There is also a downside in that other Fallen are more likely to remember their names and potentially even syllables of their True Name.

Legacy is an Investigative skill where Fallen may spend points to remember situations and events from before their time in the Abyss.  Most Fallen would have at least one point in this skill.  Typically spends will lead to short flashbacks.

In order to better reflect these skills, I have used a 28 / 75 point system.  Yes, these are a lot of points but in a two-player game with additional skill requirements I don't see this as a major hindrance.

Weaknesses

One can use their True Name to bind them to perform a certain number of actions to fulfil the sorcerer's will.  Earthbound can bind them forever if their True Name is known or even consume their souls should their hosts be broken before one.  Fallen can be banished or abjured against through mortal ritual and certain ritualistically enhanced items affect them more keenly than any mortals. They cannot succumb to mundane disease nor do they age, but they do need to eat, sleep and breathe like any mortal.  Elder Signs are particularly effective repositories of human faith (i.e. psychic energy) as they are already powerful occult matrices.  They don't need to see the Elder Sign, or know it's there, to be affected by it.  On the other hand, they can easily approach should they come across a neglected Elder Sign displayed prominently.

Pacts

The Fallen can make a pact with a mortal in exchange for more Faith.  Each mortal in a pact provides an additional point of temporary Faith but the Fallen may only have as many pacts as their Faith rating.  The Fallen may ravage the mortal for more faith (rolling his own Faith rating to see how much is gained) but this costs the mortal +7 stability and permanently reduces both their current and maximum sanity by two.
 

A mortal (aka thrall) under the effects of a pact ceases to age or be affected by the rigors of age (including rigors currently experienced), and gain three points in an investigative skill and five points in a general skill (may not be Sanity or Stability).  This skill may be Awareness and, indeed, is typically the only way such individuals may obtain that skill.  The Fallen can roll their Faith to sense the mortal's location, no matter where they are.

There is also a once off benefit at the point when the pact is established where the Fallen may either refresh all of the mortal's hit points to full while curing them of a disease or injury, or provide them with apparent youth and beauty, or provide them with 3 sanity points (as they remind humanity of their value in the world) or grant them the use of an apocalyptic form trait known to the master which costs the thrall -2 stability to use.  
The Fallen may also possess the thrall at will should they ever be ejected from their host.  They can also open up their thrall to possession by another, but only if the thrall's current stability or sanity has been reduced to 0 or they are unconscious.

Trail of Cthulhu meets Demon: the Fallen (because I can!)

I've always loved Call of Cthulhu campaigns but I've always loved Demon: the Fallen characters.  Ancient spirits corrupted by millennia in the abyss, who nevertheless fell for love of Humanity, who are now in possession of a host that infiltrates their own previously maddened minds with real emotion and memories, causing them to become some sort of hybrid ensures some very complex characters.

Plus the Demon: the Fallen setting includes these same Fallen sometimes being drawn into reliquaries where they become Lovecraftian monstrosities glutted and warped by the twisted faith of their evil cults.  And while the form of horror would be different … there is something terrible about looking up at some monstrous being and seeing your horrifically warped kin.  Actually there is something quite Lovecraftian about that, especially as these characters could warp the same way eventually….

Naturally this requires a few setting changes to both.  Namely the God who made the angels didn't make the universe but this portion of the galaxy and it made it according to certain rules that would stabilise reality and prevent the rise of more horrific entities.  It never told the angels this, of course, never thinking they would disobey as it couldn't truly comprehend them either.  It had three life giving planets created to support intelligent species that could clamp down on reality and prevent the infiltration of other entities.

These included the Elder Things, Mi-Go and Humanity.  The angels were divided in focus across these three planets and instructed to love them as much as they loved God (love = devotion in their terms) but these creatures were left in a state of blissful ignorance (which fits in with the Lovecraftian Knowledge = Sanity Loss).  Eventually one small prophetic angel set to examine the possibilities of the future foresaw something horrific coming and so one third of the angels (led by Lucifer) went to bring sentience to the three races so that they could be better prepared.

Things went well for a time, but then the Great Entity saw what they had done and offered to un-make the accidentally rebellious angels (they thought the Great Entity would want that)as penance and to remove sentience from the three main races.  Few angels agreed with the suggestions though a third of humanity and Mi-Go agreed (the Elder Things just telepathically projected themselves into the future to avoid what was coming).

The world was scoured by the Great Entity in its attempt to re-set the clock, protecting only the earlier obedient angels and those mortals who had chosen ignorance, but the fallen hid with their chosen people, divided up into five factions, and went to war.  A number of creatures were made during this war, such as the Deep Ones (products of the Palace of Sighs) and the Shoggoths (created by Elder Things empowered by Rabisu during the more enlightened eras).  Eventually they were rounded up and cast into the blackest pit, a place called the Abyss, in the lightness centre between solar systems.

Of the three races, Humanity was always the weakest, and yet in its weakness came a certain quiet fortitude in terms of holding the sanity-shredded otherworldly reality at bay.  While the Mi-Go quickly fell to the assault of otherworldly beings connecting to their minds, and the Elder Things fell to hubris, Humanity kept quietly churning along in a way that kept this solar system in particular from falling to the reality bending horrors that were right outside our door.

Eventually some of the fallen angels were summoned from the pit and found no sign of the other angels nor the Great Entity.  They were typically some of the more powerful spirits, since their names were more widely known in whispered dreams, and they could not possess humanity due to their great spiritual weight.  Instead they were cast into grave idols.  These fallen angels slowly devolved due to their own madness from the abyss and the fell prayers made to them and are now hideous versions of what they once were.

Many of these Earthbound Fallen are the fell entities of Call of Cthulhu and many of the splinter masks of Nyarlathotep are actually separate entities thought to be one.  The Arch Dukes are Cthulhu / Belial, Mask of the Bloody Tongue / Abaddon, Black Pharoah / Asmodeus, Daoloth / Dagon and Hastur / Azrael.  Only Dagon's original name has been changed to XXX to avoid confusion with a certain large Deep One.

Shub-Niggurath, Azathoth and Yog-Sothoth all remain as they are in the Lovecraftian universe as terrible things from beyond the stars, or causal principles given life.  Y'Golonac and the like are typically lesser Earthbound.  Of course if the players start to assume that all entities they glimpse belong to their own species they're going to get a very rude surprise.

MY POSTING HABITS

Well I've been posting very intermittently lately because of my Dark Before Dawn multi-modal LARP.  Something about running monthly LARP sessions, with attached downtimes, play-by-posts and tabletop scenes tends to fill up your day!  Especially as it's a high mechanics LARP (lots of rules!) with character sheets and booklets that constantly needed updating.  Things will slowly get back to normal (I think!) after late May once my finale is done.

Meanwhile I'm in the planning stages for the following LARP campaign - Paradise Island (monthly LARP sessions, nothing else), enjoying Southern Wilds LARP (fortnightly boffer LARP), and continuing my Iron Gods and Wrath of the Righteous campaigns (currently on hiatus due to upcoming Finale).

I'm also working on finally doing the Cthulhu campaigns I've always wanted now that I've found a second player with the same love of tactics, investigation and NPC interaction.  It's a little too heavy having to do it solo because of all the decision making required.  Two players should be perfect as it gives each player plenty of time to enjoy their characterisations -- and it's much easier to interrogate a witness with two (maybe three) players than with four to six.

I'll be doing the Cthulhu campaign a little differently, however, because it's me and I like to tinker with settings.  The tinker posts will be their own topic, though, and worth their own post.  I will say that it will be using the Trail of Cthulhu rules and that I might start in Innsmouth and move on to Masks of Nyarlathotep and then finish up with Mountains of Madness.  Presuming we have the energy for all of these!  And then Achtung Cthulhu may tempt me.

Wrath of the Righteous: The Midnight Isles (Getting There)

Wow!  I haven't updated Wrath of the Righteous for awhile.  So let's see if I can recap.  They obtained everything they needed and were pulled in to meet Queen Galfrey and the Herald of Iomedae in Nerosyan's Pathfinder Lodge.  There they were given their marching orders to assault Minagho's hideout, enter the Abyss, seal the rift behind them (with Queen Galfrey's assistance) and disrupt the Nahyndrian Crystal routes on the Abyssal side.

So they teleport to Minagho's hide out, well their teleportation goes awry so they need to spend some time journeying to it, and slowly slaughter the demonic inhabitants.  They do leave the cambion alive when he makes a deal for his life.  He is an alchemist whose worked on the Nahyndrian crystals, after all, so he seems useful to them.  He's also labouring under the delusion that they are Lawful Good (rather than Neutral Good and Chaotic Neutral) and that they'll obey their oaths to the letter (not truly understanding how lawful humans can adapt).

He gets charmed by Minagho (luckily they spot it and don’t figure it for a betrayal) and fights on her side until he's injured.  Then he spends his time using cure potions and staying out of it until fully healed, by which time Minagho and the others are all destroyed.  Then Queen Galfrey and her troops arrive and are disgusted by the sight of the cambion, but are willing to escort him to Drezen for interrogation.

Our heroes enter the abyssal rift while Queen Galfrey positions herself on the other side, and the two groups shove two pages from the Codex into the rift and chant it closed.

I skipped a few of the battles on the way through the caves as they weren't all that exciting compared to what was upcoming and wouldn't have proven a challenge anyway.  They reached the temple, correctly guessed the puzzle, and appeared in Alyshinyra. 

We then took a few weeks off as I had a bit of a think about what I'd like to do there.  After all, the book can't devote much space to describing it fully and truly and I didn't want it to feel like Cheliax for demonkind or only as strange as Kaer Maga.  I think I did a good job, in the end.  You can judge for yourself when I write it up next week!

Iron Gods: Beating "Father"

It's been a few weeks since the last one so I can't remember all of the details.  I know they took out the robots in the last room and then decided to go and chase down some information on their friendly neighbourhood drug dealing merchant whom they are damn sure is a Technic League spy.  Our lovely tiefling seduces him and the others (plus Cleric of Brigh as a witness) rock up to interrogate him under a spell that prevents him from lying.

Sanvil Trett deflects their questions for awhile before finally drawing his sword … and being soundly beaten and grappled.  Then he finally admits that he is a Technic League spy, but he's willing to defect so long as he can investigate the ruins once they're done.  They accept this possibility but keep him under house arrest at the Evercandle Inn for awhile as they go off to get a broken elevator part repaired (which takes a couple days due to bad rolls).

Once they have the part repaired, they decide to follow up on a lead given by their newfound "friend" into certain strange activities at a particular warehouse run by Garmen Ulreth.  While approaching the warehouse, they start getting headaches.  Going inside they find a couple thugs and having decided that punishing the previous thug left them with a bad taste in their mouth, they went non-lethal.

All except for Nathaniel who decides to go for the kill.

When the thugs press their attack, they manage to bolt the door on Nathaniel who stealths away and around the building, brooding.  The others manage to get inside and head into the office to try and intimidate Garmen Ulreth who's sitting in his makeshift office.  In the end, when Luna tries to open the wrong thing (or rather, the right thing), Garmen calls in his guards and attack.

Luna keeps the various doors shut and bolted while Garmen tries to get his troops in, and they kill Garmen Ulreth.  Once their boss is dead, they open the door and use his corpse as a reminder that the thugs should run.  Which they do.  Promptly.

They find a strange device in the warehouse but they don't yet know what it does.

And that's where we left them.

Dark Before Dawn Session Summary: Meeting Nurse Cassandra

The Angel of Mercy came to collect votes.

All LARPs run a little differently.  Some use dice and others use boffer swords.  Some use narrative devices to guide the game (i.e. lighting changes) and others throw in external events.  Therefore it can be enlightening to read about the ins and outs of other LARPs to understand more about the format and all it can do.  In the interests of sharing information on how different LARPs can run, this will be the first of a 25 week series of posts on a Dark Before Dawn campaign summary.

The Dark Before Dawn campaign is a Vampire: the Requiem LARP which focuses on the unlives of the Adelaide court as they come to grips with terrible conspiracies and incredible finds and sits as firmly in the occult investigation genre as it does in the tragic horror genre.  Since this campaign is actually the second in the same setting, but most of the players from the first campaign couldn’t return to reprise their roles, most of the vampires were either new to the city or had returned after years inter-state or in torpor.

The game began with one Carthian (original campaign), two Circle of the Crone (one from the original campaign and one quite new) and the rest belonged to the pseudo scientific Ordo Dracul.  For a time new players could only bring in characters for the Ordo Dracul but later people could create characters for the Circle of the Crone as well.

Although the Dark Before Dawn is multi-modal, using forums and tabletop sessions to solve plots and deepen character connections, this series will *only* provide summaries of the LARP sessions although the final two posts will discuss how including a forum and a tabletop component affected the LARP.

On Saturday, 5th December 2014, we began with an occult mystery where a dozen vampires (either pre-generated with some advice from the players or returning from the original campaign) who all expected a different event, location and even era when they arrived.  There were folk in lab coats, police uniforms and masquerade ball gowns, and each vampire was shocked and confused at the situation they found themselves in.

The Ordo Dracul.

After the initial confusion, the vampires quickly realised that the location held many clues in the artwork, alchemical solutions and even spirit-possessed shrines that populated the hall.  They also found a warning, or perhaps a threat, written on both the chalkboard and even projected onto a screen at various points.

Soon they came to realise that four possessing spirits of darkness (strix) would be released into the venue to possess one of the vampires every hour and twenty, give or take.  These spirits would have vital information they would be compelled to provide to the vampires in their own way but they would also be vicious threats if allowed to linger too long.  Should the vampires fail to root them out and exorcise them, they will find themselves quickly overwhelmed as each additional one is released to possess another vampire.

The vampires were informed that they had been provided with several exorcismal techniques which lurked within the hall but each technique could only be used on one person.  If an exorcism was attempted on the wrong person, the entities would adapt and the technique would cease to work.
The unafflicted vampires performed admirably under pressure, though the first possession turned to be a very tricky beast indeed, but as their own secrets began to come to light they started to turn their attention back to the greater question: Why had they been brought here?  Who was the person who had done this to them?

The words projected on the screen revealed themselves to be sent by Nurse Cassandra, a ghostly victim of a mystical accident caused by one of the characters, who had been flung into some kind of arcane machine deep within the city and who had constructed this realm to communicate with them.
Things finally came to a head when a mysterious stranger arrived with a choice for those present.

Would they empower Nurse Cassandra or would they allow an ancient deity to slowly regain control of the city?  A few picked the ghostly figure, still fewer picked the deity.  Most chose to walk their own path and refused to choose at all.

In the end, the ancient occultist, Yzador, of the Circle of the Crone made a  deal with the angelic messenger that was an abjuration in disguise.  She was banished from their realm.

The doors to the outside world finally opened and the vampires were allowed to leave.  Many did so in silent contemplation, a great contrast to the chaos and confusion that had reigned for hours earlier.

Since their pre-generated characters had history in Adelaide and connections to each other, many of the players then chose to keep their characters rather than make new ones for 2015.

Iron Gods: Comeuppance

*NOTE* I don't know the various character's psychologies well enough to hazard any more than a guess to their motivations thus this will be heavily biased toward Mikhel's experiences as he's an NPC whose psychology I therefore know.

Every so often there is a session that defines the course of a campaign and the party itself.  This was most assuredly that session though where it's ripples will take them I still don't know.  So we did a flashback in time now that the player of our alchemist, Cerulean, was here so that we could cover her finally meeting our indentured servant, Mikhel.

Mikhel is the fellow swindled them out of 5 gold pieces in a con that netted him a total of 15gp from the entire town.  The poverty-stricken party, however, had their eyes dazzled by the high odds and the chance of instant wealth simply for survival and so had started imagining the 360 gold was already in their pouch.  They also assumed that the amount of gold Mikhel had procured from those betting against him was quite a high amount, too, and that he had drunk away hundreds of gold worth of winnings rather than a paltry sum of 15gp as most won't bet gold on the loss of more lives. 

Once they had tracked him down they took his gear worth around 220gp (masterwork studded leather, cure light wounds potion) but still felt robbed and wanted compensation for the 140gp they were sure he had spent on a single night of debauchery.

So they took him for punishment from the law.  Mayor Drolga typically would brand someone for a swindle but she couldn't allow people to cheat the heroes of Torch or else everyone would do it and ignore the imposed 20% voucher.  She threatened to lop off his hand and the two good characters (likely due to drugs) chose instead to inflict a punishment of six months indentured servitude to pay back the rest of the reneged bet.

During the morning conversation, they set the tone of future encounters by calling him little more than a pack mule and alternately joking about using him to find traps the more deadly way and threatened to take off his foot if he tried to run.  When he pointed out that with promises like that he would be better off with Mayor Drolga, Maxx kept trying to determine if he actually would like to lose a hand as that could always be arranged since she simply saw Mikhel as a liability.  In Maxx's mind he was just seeking clarification, but to Mikhel's ears he was being told he'd better shut up about his conditions or else he'd lose the hand for sure.  At this point it was starting to look like a better deal.

So then we jumped forward to the current point in time where the group had cleared half the science deck.  They proceeded to clear out the various plant creatures who had erupted from the Brigh worshipper's chests, though I played them out to be more primordial and alien than the actual description in the books because it felt more thematically appropriate.  When they came across the bodies of the Brigh worshippers they realised that the fungus-encrusted person they had returned to his fiancé would soon burst open himself (if he hadn't already).

The party felt no urgency hurrying back to warn anyone of the impending chest burster (perhaps figuring the fiancé already dead) and thought it better to understand the chest bursters first.  It seemed a rational idea at the time, though really they had handled the others well enough with bombs and sword.  Still Maxx wanted to do autopsies on the body to learn more about the disease so that they could better deal with it and the others agreed to wait.

Mikhel, though a Chaotic Neutral lowlife, felt greater urgency at saving the lives of those at the Guild Hall and snuck away as he assumed the party too callous to care and as likely to chain him up as to hurry back with him.  He left the rest of their gear in the lobby but stole a single masterwork hammer so that he could defend himself, and escaped.  Now there was a crowd of people waiting by the lake and he could have told them of the danger but he knew that as an indentured servant, and one little trusted, they'd spend so much time arguing and claiming he was just being a swindler that the Guild Hall merchants would all soon be slain.

So he swam the river awhile, taking advantage of Water Breathing, though he had no swim skill and came out on the river bank to follow the hill around toward the Guild Hall.  The Guild Hall stood a very short distance away from his home.  He entered through the rear window and saw the creature carving at the door to the store room where the people hid and battered it to death with the hammer.  Fearing  the party would soon come to chop off his feet, and doubting very much they would care for his heroism, he slipped back out that very same window and crept off home and then down the hill to a small bolt hole.

Along come the party after fifteen minutes of autopsy, finally realising he was missing.  Since they thought him a lowlife they never considered he might care enough to try to save those at the Guild Hall.  They discuss the matter and decide that the bulk of the party should carry on after the runaway prisoner (tilting toward Law) while a couple head off to inform the right people and save those at the guild (tilting toward Good).

Bort, the blackfire adept, and Cerulean rush off to the Guild Hall and thus get there first.  They see the door has been mostly broken down, and the body of the green thing, and see that a dog had been mauled with blood spattered everywhere.  They ensure the group is safe and separate the one possibly infected person from the others while Bort races off to get the priests.

Meanwhile, Luna follows Mikhel's trail past the back wall of the Guild House with Nathaniel and Maxx.  Her Perception check to follow such a long trail isn't good enough to tell that he hopped in and out of the window and so they follow it to his home and then out down the cliff.  Mikhel hears them and flees his bolt hole so Nathaniel knocks him out with telekinetically thrown stones and Maxx picks him up, as well as the hammer, which is smeared with green goop.

They take him back to the Mayor and, not thinking to mention a possible plague of chest bursting creatures (presumably due to the assumption that Bort and Cerulean have it handled), take Mikhel for his punishment.  Mayor Drolga chooses not to wake him up, as a kindness, since this could be considered a form of anaesthesia.  She uses a Cure Light Wounds to heal the stump afterward, though I chose not to have Mikhel immediately wake up as should happen by the rules because I didn't really want to roleplay his reaction.

Maxx takes the severed hand to examine out in the foyer just as Cerulean and Bort come up to the entrance after following the trail.  Bort is horrified, though Nathaniel and Maxx, at least, still feel vindicated for their actions because the man did swindle them and run.  The punishment for running away from indentured service is the loss of a hand.  Thus it is appropriate.  Nathaniel even used a metaphor that if they hadn't punished Mikhel simply because he saved a few lives it would be like killing twenty people to save forty.  Besides, they reasoned, he probably only saved them because they were on his way.

Maxx and Nathaniel both agreed that Mikhel should be rewarded for his efforts but by the town and not themselves for he assisted the town, but wronged them.

When Mayor Drolga is informed of the situation, she *is* horrified but maintains that Mikhel will provide caution to those who would swindle the heroes of Torch.  However word that Mikhel saved one of the richest families in town and had his hand severed for it would undermine everything she had worked for so she tells them that she will give them credit for the rescue so long as they keep quiet about Mikhel's part in the heroism.

Though the Chaotic Good drugs are wearing off, and even once the drugs are gone he tells Mayor Drolga to give his portion of the reward for rescuing Khonnir Baine to Mikhel when he awakens.  He then gets another dose of the drugs from Luna to make himself Chaotic Good again and goes to comfort the people at the Guild Hall.  The following day he uses Mending and Prestidigitation to remove the blood and fix the door.

The Guild Hall offer to purchase the three masterwork hammers at 200gp per piece, rather than the typical half price of 150gp, though they lack the gold and instead give store credit which can also be traded at other local stores.  What better way to reward their heroes?  And the party accepts the line of credit and thus participates in a fraudulent swindle of their own.  Maxx doesn't realise the real price of the masterwork hammers, knowing little of economics, though at least some of the others would be aware (and I did mention it in GM talk but it's a big chatty table of five so some information is lost).

They returned to the Science Deck and took out the last few chest bursters and then attacked the two robots in the final room, knocking them down though most of the damage was dealt by the alchemist who had been tripped by the first stun gun.  They have yet to explore the final room which will be the beginning of the next adventure.