Masters of Carcosa - Session 8

… the leader of Invak would pay for the heads of Jale Slavers, and so the game because all about hunting the slavers and chopping of their heads. Blood Meridian, but in Carcosa. (Except the party would actually kill slavers, not any old person.)

Wait, I lied. This session the party does end up killing people and taking them back to Invak to collect their reward. Bad PR for OSR players everywhere.

Were these Bone Men slavers? No, I’m pretty sure they were cultists working for The Dominant Reflection. If you have been following along, in the very first session the players freed a Bone Man they found imprisoned in the Abandoned Space Alien Outpost. He disappeared into the wilderness, but that wasn’t the end of his story. At this point the players had not encountered him or his followers again, but that was soon to change.

The party also some how manage to turn the death of two hirelings they recruited in town into some positive PR, paying for their funerals. Jahar initially had a negative disposition to outsiders, but the group would slowly change that over the course of the campaign.

The main goal for the session was to pilfer Alien technology from the campsite of the lost Space Aliens they had rescued recently. This resulted—once again—in a battle with insane Mi-Go. How many times would I have the players fight Mi-Go? Several: I always listen to the results of the dice!

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

Players:

• Eric Boyd - Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter
• Beloch Shrike - Renoir, Red Man Fighter
• Dion - Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter

Recap:

• The party begins their adventure in the town of Jahar.
• 3 Brown Men guards are hired in Jahar for 10 GP a piece. They are well armed and seem competent.
• They encounter a group of 3 Blue Men who have escaped Jale Men who attacked them in Hex 1113.
• They give the Blue Men rations and direct them to Jahar.
• The entrance to the cavern has been filled in with rocks.
• The party dig it out and venture within.
• The cavern is quiet … too quiet.
• They find the alien camp site, and start pilfering the alien tech.
• But wait, it was a trap. 3 Mi Go descend from the ceiling to attack.
• They are joined shortly after by 3 more.
• 6 Migo are dead, 3 bodies in good enough condition to be brought back for sale.
• 2 Brown Men are also dead—everyone is sad.
• The party donate 200 GP to the Jahar guard guild. This leaves a very favourable impression of the rainbow connection within that community.
• Encounter 7 Bone Men on the road, they kill two, and are scared away by Orange Julia’s laser.
• The party suspects they are slavers—or at the very least would like to believe they are since there is a reward for capturing slavers.
• The Bone Men were curiously only interested in the Blue Men in the group.
• In Invak the party collects the ransom for the Bone Men “Slavers”.

Treasure:

• Rock Analyzer 500 GP
• 6 Sleeping Pods 300 GP
• 3 Mi Go bodies 200 GP
• Space Alien “Compass”
• 2 Bone Men “Slavers” ransom 200 GP
• Eric swapped his laser pistol for the dead Brown Man’s.