Masters of Carcosa - Session 13

This session the players explored the rest of the Space Alien outpost. When the returned I had re-stocked the space differently, because it had been captured. The rooms that they had not explored previously were sealed, so that area was unchanged.

This session feels like some stereotype of an OSR game. The party wakes up all the Space Aliens that manned the outpost, who were in cryropods. Nick decided the best course of action was to knock one out while he was still disoriented, and run away with him. Maybe they were unsure what the deal would be with these particular aliens, and wanted to chat with one of them alone? This Space Alien ended up living in Invak, convinced he had been saved by the party and that all his friends were dead.

The rest of the session is typical Carcosa hijinks. They stumble up on the Frog-God Llothali that they had let loose in the wilderness when they freed the Orange Man citadel.

Spotty attendance after the last game because I moved the session a week, and didn’t create a new event. Once again, my biggest advice for running a long running campaign is playing on a consistent schedule. People will often say this game or that game have the mechanics required for long term play. Fuck that, the only mechanics you need are a calendar and actually showing up.

You can contrast the recap that follows with my Carcosa-style hex descriptions.

Players:

• Beloch Shrike: Renoir, Red Man Fighter
• Dael Nyxon: Bargo, the Dolm Fighter
• Eric Boyd: Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter

Recap:

• The party begins in the newly liberated space alien outpost. Before it becomes truly abandoned, they decide to investigate the remainder of the complex.
• They recruit a couple Bone Men to act as henchmen, who are a bit wary of exploring this portion of the complex.
• Prying open the locked door that leads north from the basement stairs, they find a small corridor, with 3 more doors.
• To the East is a room full of pods.
• Examining the pods they realize they each house an alien in some sort of stasis.
• Renoir attempts to shatter the glass door on top of a pod. His sledgehammer bounces right off.
• The party leaves the room, heading to the West most room. Inside they find a room full of strange plant life.
• The floors are littered with some dead plants and fruit, but not enough considering no one has been in here for years.
• While picking fruit the party sees that various autonomous robotic arms, etc, look to be taking care of the plants.
• The party moves to the centre room, the last remaining unexplored room.
• There is a large cylinder in the centre of the room that extends down into the ground. It pulses with red light. It’s cordoned off by a circular railing. The room is full of computers, and everything looks to be in working order.
• Orange Julia pushes a big red button!
• Slowly the pulsing of the cylinder comes to a halt. The lights in the complex turn off, and the sound of doors opening can be heard throughout the complex.
• In the dark, the PCs here another sound, the sound of the pods full of aliens opening.
• The party waits a beat to see what happens. They hear the sound of an alien retching. 
• Realizing the aliens might be disoriented from being in stasis for so long, Renoir decides to cold-cock one and kidnap him.
• Alien on his shoulder, the party book it out of the complex. Everyone else is milling around outside, confused by the loss of power.
• Seeing the party running away, they join in.
• Once a reasonable distance away, the two groups of captives head off: the Orange Men to their town to the East, Joi; the Brown Men to the merchant town Jahar.
• About half way to Invak the party spot what looks to be a giant frog off in the distance. That’s strange. Could it be the Frog-God Llothali, worshipped by those crazy Orange Men to the North. Yes, it probably is. How many giant-ass toads could there be?
• The party decide to take a longer detour to reach Invak.
• On the way they startle a group of 4 slavers.
• Bargo charges in and completely brains one.
• The rest flee post-haste.
• The party gives chase, but without more range weapons pursuit seems fruitless. (I should look up the LotFP chase rules, they might have been a better option for that part of the game.)
• The party regroup and head to Invak, where they are greeted as heroes.
• The Swift and Silent Beginning thanks the players for ridding the world of more cultists, and for helping fight the slavers. (You have more renown in the town.)
• Upon learning there is a space alien that was “rescued” from the complex, he asks that the creature be brought to him to be freed.
• The party wake up the alien, who has a surprisingly positive disposition.
• He is confused about where he is, what the date is, and what has transpired since his last week long shift at the space alien outpost.
• The party informs him that they saved him, that the rest of his comrades presumably died years ago.
• He decides to stay in Invak for now.
• The new bone men also start to settle in to their new home.
• The party travels South to Jahar.
• Orange Julia’s pack lizard is worn down from all the travel and dies in Jahar. (The merchants will buy his body to be turned into rations for 50GP—I forgot to mention in the session!)
• The party sell their weird alien fruit and call it a day.

Treasure:

• 100 GP for killing a slaver
• 550 GP for weird fruit
• 50 GP for pack lizard body.