Masters of Carcosa - Session 4

Almost a full month since our last game! The fastest way to kill a campaign is to miss games, and playing every week meant that a missed game had an oversized impact. I’m impressed the Carcosa game managed to last as long as it did, as I was a bit too quick to reschedule when I was a little busy or tired.

Reading the comments I see that at this point I still didn’t have a clear procedure for wilderness travel I was happy with. I suspect I was just using travel times from OD&D and winging it. Before the next session I would settle on Hazard Die based procedures, borrowing from how Brendan ran his games. Earlier that year (2014) Brendan wrote two seminal blog posts: Overload the encounter die and Proceduralism. I joke that I am part of the OSR that is obsessed with Adventure Time, but I’m also part of the OSR that is obsessed with procedures of play. It felt like everyone read Torchbearer, didn’t want to play it, but did want to add procedures and downtime to their games.

In this session the players decided to attack the Orange Man Citadel to the North. They were aware the citadel was an ally of their enemies the slavers, that they apparently ran gladiatorial games. Evan using his teleporting laser gun to teleport the Frog God away was great conclusion to the fight, as it meant the Frog God was now wandering the wilderness alongside the players. I added the Frog God to my encounter table. My encounter tables would slowly grow and change based on the actions of the players each session. Will the frog show up in a future session?

The players found a “strange metal collar with buttons and lights (Treasure #1)”. The players had to figure out what the magic items (or super science) they found did. I had a list of items so I wouldn’t forget. Treasure #1 was a truth collar the space aliens used for interrogation. Will the players figure out what it’s for?

I don’t recall if Nick named his character or not. He was killed this session. His previous character, Horace, was killed in the session 2, the previous game he played. The game was a bit of a meat grinder.

Players:

• Beloch Shrike: ???, Orange Man Fighter
• Eric Boyd: Gux, Yellow Man Fighter
• Evan: The Spangled Inquiry, Bone Man Sorcerer
• Gus: Normangina, Yellow Woman Fighter

Recap: 

• The rainbow connection were resting in the cavernous castle, home to the Ideal of Decline and his sad group of Bone Men. They debate heading North back to the Putrescent Pits, or South in Invak to help start some sort of alliance between the two towns.
• The party suggest to the Ideal of Decline that they abandon their crazy castle and come live in Invak.
• He is wary of the idea, but sends 6 of his Bone men with the party to investigate the town and report back.
• In Invak the party meet with the Speaker of All Graces, and decide that it’s the red moon and they should save those slaves.
• The Speaker of All Graces is always down for fucking with slavers, and provides one of his best lieutenants and 40 men to help the party.
• Organina recruits another 7 Orange Men from the refugee quarter to help as well.
• The party head north to the Orange Man Citadel, home to cultists famous for feeding the winners of their gladiatorial games to their spawn god.
• The citadel seems strangely abandoned.
• The party does some scouting, and then attempts to scale the walls.
• The grappling hooks alert two Orange Men inside.
• A crazy fight breaks out—I bet Zak has some rules for mass combat in Vornheim I could have used here.
• The Orange Men have laser guns, but are about as good a shot as Cobra.
• Things are overwhelmingly going the parties way until the interior doors to the citadel are opened, and the giant spawn god, a huge feathered frog with a beak, lets out a croak that scares most everyone in the battle.
• A small number of reinforcements join the fight, but in the end they are also put down quite quickly.
• Nick’s character is eaten by the terrible toad.
• The Spangled Inquiry had been shooting at the frog with his teleportation ray for several rounds, finally hitting the beast when it was perhaps almost dead. The beast disappeared into the wilderness, and presumably ran off.
• Searching the citadel reveals a stash of valuable gems.
• The Speaker’s lieutenant gives the party the first 3 gems (100 GP, 5000 GP, 5000 GP). “The Speaker of all Graces would thank you for pushing us to finally finish these slavers off. I will do so in his stead: 100 GP a slaver to your strange troupe. The remaining treasure we split evenly. The money due to the dead will be given to our home Invak. I will keep 35 men here with me to secure the fort these slavers wasted with their idiocy. My remaining men will head south with you and he freed slaves to report to the Speaker of all Graces. Tell him to send word of what he wishes to do here.”
• 35 Bone Men and the lieutenant stay behind in the citadel, the party returns to Invak the next day.
• There was much rejoicing.

Resources of Note Used:

• Gus fired his bazooka twice.
• Evan fired the teleportation ray 4 times.

Treasure:

• 14 slaves freed.
• Contents of Citadel:
  • 60 GP
  • 19 Gems: 100 GP, 5000 GP, 5000 GP, 500 GP, 500 GP, 50 GP, 500 GP, 1000 GP, 500 GP, 500 GP, 1000 GP, 500 GP, 1000 GP, 500 GP, 1000 GP, 500 GP, 1000 GP, 500 GP, 500 GP (20150 GP)
• 2 power cells.
• 4 laser guns (unknown charges)
• Strange metal collar with buttons and lights (Treasure #1)

There are 52 people on this adventure: 368 GP each, or there about. 1100 GP for killing slavers split 4 ways is 275 GP. So each player gets 643 GP.

Monsters Defeated:

• 11 crazy Orange Man Cultists (and slavers)
• 1 Spawn of Shub-Niggurath, a huge toad

It’s funny reading all the “who will run next week” chatter. This Monday night spot was a hot commodity. You can see I didn’t have any concrete treasure rolled for the citadel, I figured things out retroactively. I was all about just in time prep, which worked until it didn’t.

• Eric Boyd (2015-01-27 05:16): Player Notes: We need to write an easy-to-sing ballad about killing slavers, so our motives are clear when we show up in situations like this. 
• Ramanan S (2015-02-02 02:36): I still owe you guys: loot, a players map of the region, and better rules for wilderness travel!
• Ramanan S (2015-02-07 20:59): Still behind on things. I asked to see if Bryan Mullins can run next weeks game as well.
• Bryan Mullins (2015-02-07 21:39): Just got out of work, sorry no quick replay Ramanan S. I’ll post an invite for that game (the 9th) tonight.
• Ramanan S (2015-02-10 05:24): [Ram figures out the treasure for the session, finally. There is lots.]
• Bryan Mullins (2015-02-10T05:38:34.431Z): Damn, thats the one I missed!
• Ramanan S (2015-02-10 05:42): They raided that orange man citadel to the north to free slaves, bolstered by a militia from Invak. My notes for that citadel were a small map and stats for the frog God, which is why I didn’t have treasure handy at the time. I wasn’t sure how to allocate it till I saw Courtney Campbell’s post about treasure types today and that seemed like the obvious thing to do.
• Eric Boyd (2015-02-10 06:41): clarifying: is the party splitting 10,100 GP of gems four ways?
• Ramanan S (2015-02-10 11:03): The party splits their 3 gems worth 1100 GP between the 4 of them. It’s like a bonus or finders free or something. For simplicity we can just assume the Speaker of all Graces in Invak can swap the gems for currency.
• Ramanan S (2015-02-10 12:04): My current thinking is that “gold” is ancient super hardy metal coinage from some bygone era. So it all looks pristine and new, and most Carcosans don’t have the tech to mint new coins or mess with the old ones. So they are a good hard to counterfeit common currency. Thoughts?
• Ramanan S (2015-02-11 04:55): Bryan Mullins Am I running stuff on the 23rd (normally when my next slot would be), or this Monday (normally your spot, but you covered for me so I don’t know if you need / want a break or not). Let me knows.
• Bryan Mullins (2015-02-11 05:05): Um…lets say that I just did you a favor so you could get up to speed? Ultimately, I’d like to see Richard come into the rotation so that I can rest my Monday game more often. Sorry, side track. I’ll be ready and running for Monday the 16th, and you’ll be back on for the 23rd. Sound okay?
• Ramanan S (2015-02-11 05:06): Yeah, perfect!