Masters of Carcosa - Session 1

When I was running my Carcosa campaign, I would post session recaps on my blog in the form of hex descriptions written as if they came straight from the book. Each session had additional descriptions for each hex the characters explored, and I also included a random ‘restocking’ table. Three of the entries in the table would present alternative endings to the session the players just played, with the forth being the true ending. This was all very cute, but I also kept traditional notes of what happened so myself and the players could refer back to them later. These were posted to G+, where you can still read them today.

Oh wait.

I’ve been meaning to repost these session reports for a while. Nick downloaded my Carcosa community before G+ imploded, and the export has been sitting on my computer for ages as XML & JSON I never had the time to turn into Markdown. But now computers can do a so-so job programming for you, so I have text that’s pretty close to cleaned up Markdown. I’ll take it.

This is the first session of my Carcosa crossed with He-Man campaign. I ran it for a little over a year, playing every other week, give or take. The rules were OD&D, and we all were figuring out how to run a hex crawl as we went. It was a lot of fun. Perhaps the most fun I’ve had running a game?

This was my first time DM’ing since I was a teenager. I was certainly nervous. Brendan took a break from running Pahvelorn, and I took over the spot every other week. (I think Nick might have been running the other week.) Pahvelorn was certainly a hard act to follow. Brendan’s megadungeon campaign was incredible, and really inspired how I ran this campaign.

Carcosa is a hex crawl, and my expectation was players would wander the wilderness session to session. This happened for the most part, but party didn’t stray too far from their home base. The party were called the Rainbow Connection, a travelling acting troupe. (This was rolled up using my crowdsourced “why are we together” table.) During the first session the players explored a dungeon I created, an abandoned space alien outpost. They released one of the main antagonists of the game, a Bone-Man sorcerer. He would get more and more powerful while they were distracted by the faction they would come to hate the most, the dirtbag Jale Slavers.

You can contrast these notes with the Carcosa style recap I wrote.

Players:

• Gus L 
• Eric Boyd 

Recap:

• The Rainbow Connection, a travelling acting troupe, were attacked and captured by a strange spherical robot while travelling through the wastes of Carcosa. They awake outside an alien outpost surrounded by bodies in various states of decay and mutation. Behind them lays a mysterious alien outpost, in front of them more nondescript wastes.
• They feel woozy and lethargic.  Searching the area they find random knickknacks, but also quickly realize everyone now dead is horribly mutated in some way.
• Lacking proper supplies for an aimless overland trip they venture into the outpost.
• Opening some large garage doors the party comes face to face with their captor. The robot rests in what looks like a bay of some sort, ignoring them. They back away and leave the robot alone. The second door into the base takes them into a small room.
• The base is quiet, and seemingly empty.
• There is still something powering it: the hallways are lit, and random computer screens flash strange inscrutable messages.
• Venturing further into the base the party finds a large open work area that looks to be unused.
• The party quietly explore. A room that looks to be another entry way to the complex contains nice warm furs for everyone to wear, but is otherwise bare.
• The next door the group opens reveals a room full of rock specimens: some look to be quiet valuable. They are all stored behind glass, that feels a bit warm to the touch. The greedy Mr. Smith opens up the glass to get a closer look, and suffers a terrible mutation for his trouble: he now stinks thanks to some newly grown boils on his body.
• The next room the party discovers is filled with crates, but also a strange Spawn—a blue hexapod with a gaping circular maw. They make quick work of it, and end up with a Bazooka of some sorts for their efforts.
• The party avoided one Jale Slime and killed another with fire.
• The party released a seemingly mad Bone Man into the wild. He was apparently imprisoned by the other Bone Men, though the party does not know why. He looked to have been left to die: he smelled terrible and was starving when discovered.
• The Green Man Greenox was killed trying to grab a weapon from the weapons cache. The room filled with poison gas. Mr. Smith quick closed the door to the room, so the rest of the party was safe.
• The alarm that was triggered startled the Bone Men that lived in the basement of this outpost.
• the Illustrious Prince of the Bone is the leader of the Bone Men, who decided to spare the party if they put on a show.
• The party promised to never reveal the location of the outpost, or ever return.
• the Queen of Autumn leads the party from the outpost towards Invak.
• a merchant caravan takes party the rest of the way, grudgingly. The party gives them a wide berth, and follows at a distance.
• They arrive in the town on Invak late at night.

Treasure:

• 6 large furs: they are very warm (you can sell each for 15 GP to the traders currently in town).
• Bazooka: you don’t know how many charges it has, or what it does, but its clear it still works. 

Monsters Killed:

• Spawn of Shub-Niggurath (300 XP)
• Jale Slime (100 XP)

People Entertained:

• 25 Bone Men and their children