Masters of Carcosa - Session 3

The party had been told rumours that there were healers to the south that could heal Gus’s character of his terrible mutations. (You may recall that was his first character’s fate in our first session of the game.) The party ignored those rumours last session, but decided to pursue them this time. Bryan’s character came out of my random generator with a tattooed map on his skin: a map to the mega-dungeon I had imagined I would run, whose name appears in Hex 1109 of Carcosa: On the northern slopes of the mounds are the yawning pits that lead down to the infamous and deadly Putrescent Pits of the Amoeboid Gods.

I would occasionally seed more rumours in the alternate future restocking tables I would create after each session, as part of my recaps. For example, in the recap for this session I wanted to let the players know that another group as aware of the Putrescent Pits of the Amoeboid Gods and would explore it even if they did not:

A caravan makes its way North. The men and women ride lumbering lizards and have several days worth of supplies. They have a map leading to the Putrescent Pits of the Amoeboid Gods.

When I would post the invites to the games on Google+ I would try and include these open threads and rumours so the players had some rough ideas for things they could do. There was no overarching “plot” for the campaign, I was curious where the players would take play. It turned out, not to the Putrescent Pits of the Amoeboid Gods, so I’m glad I only ever drafted the first level.

This session the party learned a little more about the Jale Slavers, stumbling upon some escaped slaves. I created specific encounter tables for the rough regions I had imagined the hexes could be grouped into. Because this area was home to the Jale Slavers, there were entries tied to them. The first session the players had rolled to encounter some slavers after after they had sold off their slaves. This session the rolled and encountered some escaped slaves. They wouldn’t find the slaver’s base till the tail end of the campaign.

The men on standing upon the giant plinths come from the Carcosa book. A couple sentences describe the scene, which I extrapolated from. I love the short pithy hex descriptions of Carcosa. From these men Gus learned his character could be cured by heading far to the North. I had imagined this might lead the characters out of this region, but Gus didn’t even like the character they were trying to cure, so that thread was left alone.

The party discovered The Castle of Decline, home to a group of sad-sack Bone Men. One of the first groups outside of Invak the party would end up befriending. If I recall correctly, they eventually convince the Bone Men to abandon their home and join them in Invak. (Easy enough, since their home sucked.)

The session ended with the briefest exploration of the Putrescent Pits of the Amoeboid Gods. They might have explored a handful of rooms before us having to end the session. They would never return!

You can contrast this recap with my Carcosa style one.

Players:

Eric Boyd  - Orange Julia, Orange Woman Fighter Gus  - Mr. Smyth, White Man Fighter Brendan  - Missave Rage, Yellow Women Fighter  Beloch Shrike - Orange Man Fighter Bryan Mullins - Gloss-o-lalia (Lalia),  Dolm Woman Sorcerer

Recap:

• The party ventures south west in search of healers for Mr. Smyth
• Just before dusk they encounter some escaped slaves, orange men who have fled the slaver city.
• They reveal the slaves that aren’t taken to be sold are poorly chained up outside the citadel, beaten and kept in a weakened state, and guarded by men and women who ride dinosaurs.
• No one else in town is escaped from the Jale Men’s citadel, so this is a pretty remarkable situation
• The party sends them on their way with food and continues south west.
• They see a tall pillar reaching out toward the sky. As they get closer they can see a smaller 40’ pillar of smooth poured stone next to the matching larger one. On top of this pillar is a Jale man. The party speaks with him briefly, and he sends them East where a White Man is supposed to be.
• Continuing they encounter a Black Man who they speak to briefly. They learn a little bit about his life via Brendan’s character’s ESP. 
• They ignore all other pillars till the teach the White man. The party pretends Mr. Smyth is a mute, for the fear his mind will be controlled by the mystic.
• The mystic can’t cure Mr Smyth’s mutation, but can offer up prophetic visions via dreams.
• The party sleeps for the night, and Mr Smyth learns of a dungeon to the North where his cure might be found. He sees the entrance to a dungeon, choked with dead bodies, beyond which lies a Serpent Man.
• Fuck travelling to the North for a character Gus doesn’t even like. The party heads back to Invak, and plans to head North to the Putrescent Pits of the Amoeboid Gods.
• Along the way they avoid a group of White Men marching away to the East, along a river to the North.
• The party heads West and finds a strange citadel full of Bone Men.
• The Bone Men seem to be having a shitty time: some of them have recently died due to some issue with their water supply, others from a strange cyborg to the West, and some from capture by the slavers.
• The party heads to the Putrescent Pits of the Amoeboid Gods, but only explores it briefly.
• They fight a Spawn of Shub-Niggurath  and call it a day.

Tressure:

• Spawn Guts (to be claimed for reward in Invak)

Monsters Killed:

 - Spawn of Shub-Niggurath

At the time I thought the session might have been boring, but reading the recap and thinking back on everything the players managed to do, I have no idea why I thought that was the case. There is some more logistics around who will run something next. I realize now it was Bryan and I trading turns running because Brendan and Nick wanted a break. (Brendan was running his dungeon & rule set The Final Castle, which remains unpublished to this day!) Chris was a new player, who would join our games for a little while, on and off.

• Ramanan S (2014-12-24 - 02:09): Sorry if that session turned out boring. My plan is to get organized over the break. I realize now that my biggest road block to being a successful DM is not a lack of rules mastery, but being really boring and/or bad at describing things. I’m having fun anyway. Hah! Brendan S You can run all my Monday games till you are busy again. So the next one (29th) is yours. (Maybe that’ll be the only one you have a chance to run again?)
• Eric Boyd (2014-12-24 02:10): My character is Orange Julia — she hails from Fuudkaht.
• Gus L (2014-12-24 2:12): Nah it was a great session, the stylites seemed mildly terrifying.
• Ramanan S (2014-12-24 02:15): I learned a new word. They are medium tough, but there are 5 of you …. I realize that all these “tough” solo monsters are actually rarely a serious threat due overwhelming numbers on the players side. I don’t think any of the spawn for example have given you much trouble except for that plant one the sorcerer released last session.
• Bryan Mullins (2014-12-24 02:42): I feel like 5 to 7 first level characters can do a lot vs pretty nasty monsters. If you account for some attrition… Also. I’m enjoying the game because the feel is that we’re all finding out what’s happening as a group. That’s a feature, not a bug … at least for me.
• Brendan S (2014-12-25 22:03): For the 29th, if people are interested I would be down with running The Final Castle rules. Magic would be W&W. Probably some other dungeon though, because The Final Castle main dungeon needs more work.
• Chris G (2014-12-31 05:44): When is the next session? I love the hex-key-as-session reports.
• Ramanan S (2014-12-31 12:47): Thanks. This coming Monday is Brian’s game, probably. I’ll be the Monday after that. Unless Brendan is running something again. He may be less busy at the start of the term.
• Ramanan S (2015-01-03 05:38): Brendan S do you want to run something again on the 12th?
• Brendan S (2015-01-03 06:21): The 12th I actually have some other commitments. I might still be able to play, but it is uncertain, so I shouldn’t run that day.