If These Stones Could Scream: Region Map

Victor is normally tasked with taking my crude line drawing and making them into something that you can understand without patience and a magnifying glass, but since he has been busy I thought I would take a stab at it and see what I could do.

This is the region map for If These Stones Could Scream another Dungeon World adventure I am working on:

Not quite satisfied with how the mountains blend, and I’ll need to texture the grassy areas some more, but otherwise it is almost done. Then I will try my hand at polishing up Khajra (city map), and then the Serpent Ziggurat (dungeon map).

If These Stones Could Scream: Khajra Map Take 2

My second stab at Khajra, the primary adventure site for our upcoming adventure If These Stones Could Scream. I made the area with the actual town a bit smaller and added an arena, while the snakeman pyramid is quite a bit larger and circular (at Josh’s request). 

The town started out as a dig site for explorers investigating and/or looting the snakeman pyramid, but due to all the water after it was cleaned out it became a kind of resting stop for caravans crossing the desert. Eventually a would-be noble set up shop (and walls) and began charging people to stay and purchase water.

Epiro: Season Finale

Cast

• Atticus (wood elf predator druid 6)
• Iola (wood elf centered breath monk 6)
• Perseus (demigod Chaladin 6)
• Nero (critically cursed evoker 6)

Outmaneuvering the hydra’s many jaws was easy enough, it was trying to punch through the stony plates that was giving Iola trouble. Still she at least proved to be a sufficient enough distraction that Atticus was able to drive a piece of ice into an opening.

There was a loud hissing as the ice melted, but the molten stone darkened as it cooled which he took to be a good sign. Seeing this Nero gathered up numerous fragments of ice in a magically conjured whirlwind, and proceeded to relentlessly shred the creature with high-velocity frozen shrapnel.

Slowed and disoriented thanks to the wind, debris, and curtains of steam it was easy for Perseus to blast one of the heads in the face with a lightning bolt. It whipped back as chunks of stone were flung away, exposing a layer of glowing, magma-like flesh which hopefully meant they were wearing it down. The fight continued for about a minute, with Iola and Atticus trying to smash and claw through stone, Nero blasting it with arcane ordinance, and Perseus using every ranged-lightning ability he had in his woefully short book.

One of the heads went down. As it crashed into the ground it exploded in a cloud of searing rock and ashes, blinding and burning everyone nearby (which happened to be most of the party). There were still three left, and unfortunately even without the deathsplosion Iola, Perseus, and Atticus were being worn down through a combination of intense heat, choking smoke, and just generally being knocked around; they had already had a full day of fighting elemental cultists and narrowly avoiding being crushed by a meteor.

By the time they had destroyed a second head Atticus went down, but with a helping, healing hand from Perseus he was back on his feet…until the next hit almost dropped him. As he limped to safety he chanced a glance skyward and saw a shape blotting out the opening far above. It was a crow. Not just any crow, but a really, really big crow. It dove, landing on one of the hydra’s heads and smashing it into the ground. It savagely pecked at it, but was forced to take back to the air in order to avoid getting a bite taken out by the other head.

His prayers to Gaia had been answered. Technically. I mean it was no stampede of animals or onslaught of floral overgrowth, but quality over quantity, right?

Quality in this case meaning size category.

Iola and Perseus hung back, using blasts of wind and the lightning-staff to attack from relative safety, while the crow darted in opportunistically to tear at the hydra with its beak and claws. Things seemed to be turning around when another head went down…until Nero saw the blood.

A small pool of golden-red blood was sliding towards the hydra. He did not know why or what would happen, just that whatever it was could not possibly be good. He tried animating small rocks to ward it away, which seemed to slow it down but not by much. Once it had almost closed the distance he turned the full brunt of his arcane whirlwind upon it. This proved much more effective, splattering it some thirty feet away, but once he saw it gathering itself up again for another go he decided that he should call for help.

Iola reacted the quickest. She was not sure what it might do if it touched her, but given that the hydra was proving too hot to handle decided to give it a shot. Or, more accurately, a kick.

She slipped.

The blood simply flowed around her and poured into the pit. Nero chased after it, but by the time he made it to the edge the blood had formed into the four-armed faceless demon that he saw when the summit was still a summit. It was extending all four of its arms through the ground, trying to pull something out. He slid into the pit, burying his axe in the creature’s back in hopes that the demon within the axe would, I dunno, drink it or something.

The axe bit in easy enough, but the demon’s face–and just the face–twisted around to stare at him, which would be unnerving enough if it had a normal face instead of a graven symbol of Tharizdun. The axe began to mentally scream in agony, and for the first time in weeks Nero was able to let go of the axe, and so he did. Then he crawled out of the pit, presumably because he expected the blood-demon to turn into some kind of super-blood-devouring demon, which by themselves are something he wanted no part of, anyway.

With the final head destroyed everyone headed into the pit, where they saw the demon slowly extracting a glowing crystal from the ground, and they knew what they had to do.

They attacked the crystal.

Iola got a few good cracks in, but it was Perseus’s lightning-staff that really did the trick, marking one of the few explosions that Nero was not only not the cause of, but was not even caught in. Fortunately even though Iola was at ground zero she still survived, albeit barely. Once they were certain that no one else was going to show up and make their day even worse, they had the crow carry them out of the pit and down the mountain to Copper Cairns, where they could rest up before dealing with the issue of the artificial winter, other elemental cults, and power vacuum left by a pantheon of dead gods.

All in a days work, right?

Behind the Scenes
This marks the only campaign that I can remember ending what I would call a satisfactory note; pretty much everything before this was a one-shot, module, or just ran until either I wrote myself into a corner, it petered out on its own, or life intervened.

Randy wanted to get in some words about our upcoming Numenera campaign, so the session was unfortunately a short one. I wanted to have the rock guy come back for a one-on-one with Perseus and maybe have Nero duke it out with the demon, but we did not have a lot of time and despite giving the characters back a daily power and some healing surges they were pretty badly beat up.

Oh well, it is still nice to wrap up a campaign on some sort of conclusive note. Maybe some day we will revisit it, or maybe I will flesh it out, polish it up, and throw it on Drivethrurpg. Maybe both? At any rate I have to say that I really do not think things would have gone smoothly as they did if I had kept going with 5th Edition, and that once we converted to 4th Edition I had an easier time planning and running the game, and the players had more fun (and more evocative characters).

If These Stones Could Scream: Khajra Map Draft

Now that I am done with the Dungeon World version of Something Stirs in the Blackscale Brakes (13th Age will be coming once there is a SRD that allows use of the default icons), I have started working on another adventure titled If These Stones Could Scream.

After finishing 20 pages I thought I would switch gears and work on one of three maps that will be included in the adventure, starting with Khajra:

Victor is gonna have a field day with this one.

Khajra is located in the middle of an expansive desert, serving as a key stopping point for caravans passing through. Well, it used to until its inhabitants stopped opening the gates or even responding at all.

Numenera: Meet Ort

Ort is a charming nano who exists partially out of phase. He is also not human.

It looks like in a couple weeks I will get a chance to play Numenera. The original plan was for me to start running something after Epiro wrapped up, but Randy wants to take a stab at it and I am more than happy to let him sit behind the screen for awhile.

So what to make? Though there are only three types, there are plenty of descriptors and focuses that you can mix and match in order to add more diversity. All the same there were already a pair of nanos, so I originally chose jack partially for variety, partially because it seemed to play well with existing partially out of phase. However this changed once I started trying to envision what my character looked like, or more accurately what it was.

The default assumption is that characters are human, or mostly so. There are some optional rules for varying degrees of mutations (cosmetic, useful, etc) and alternate races. The problem, for me anyway, is that the other race examples are basically a fish person and a bulky, six-eyed person. Given that the game takes place a billion years in the future after alien visitors, dimensional exploration, genetic mutation, probably evolution and more,w I wanted to think outside the humanoid box.

What I came up with is Ort, a kind of jellyfish-octopus hybrid looking thing.

He (it?) crawls around on numerous tentacles that he can also use to manipulate things. Rather than eyes he just kind of has patches on his skin that allow him to see. For an added twist I chose to make him charming, but since I could not find any jack tricks that synced with it ultimately changed his type to nano. Since he lacks a face I took the hedge magic esotery so that he could generate emoticon-like images to help convey emotions, and onslaught so that he can just zap you.

And there you have it. I think he fits the theme of Numenera really well: unknown and strange. What do you think?

Epiro: Episode 114

Pictured: Spoilers. Kind of. It is not as big.

Cast

• Perseus (level 6 demigod Chaladin)
• Iola (level 6 wood elf Centered Breath monk)
• Atticus (level 6 wood elf predator druid)
• Nero (level 6 human evoker)

One-hundred foot diameter rock hurtling towards your face? That would be time to leg it.

Atticus and Iola were the quickest, easily making it to the relative safety of the passage; being either an elf in cat-form or an elf capable of high-velocity wind-jumps has considerable benefits when the name of the game is speed.

Nero and the heavily-armored Perseus? Not so much.

Or rather, not at all.

The impact obliterated the temple, shattering the summit and sending pillars cartwheeling down the mountainside. Iola and Atticus were tossed about as the passage buckled and collapsed, but aside from some bruises and scrapes they were miraculously unharmed. The ground began to shudder again as a violent, deafening wind erupted from the broken summit. Then the sky darkened as the air quickly became freezing and it began to snow.

Brace yourself, magical volcanic winter is coming.

After about ten minutes the wind mostly subsided and the ground was carpeted in several feet of snow. Atticus was not affected much thanks to all the fur. Iola was used to living high up in the mountains, but not that used to it and ended up having to wrap herself in a blanket to ward off some of the cold. When they were mostly sure that nothing more disastrous would occur, they crept out and made their way back to where the summit used to be, hoping against all odds to find someone. Or at least part of them.

As they started up the stairs a scabrous, clawed arm shot out of the snow. Atticus reflexively darted over and worried it, causing the bloated demonic body it was attached to to bolt upright, bellowing in pain. It was certainly dressed like Nero but–for starters–the head had a crest of twisted horns, the skin was covered in thick, dark protrusions, and while the mouth had too many rows of teeth it was still less disconcerting than the one gaping from its distended gut.

Atticus let go, and both he and Iola just stared at the corpulent obsenity in a mixture of confusion and disgust.

Then the gut-mouth vomited up Perseus.

Then the creature slowly diminished in size until all that was left was a Medium-sized, human-looking Nero. He was feeling uncomfortable for a variety of reasons: physical trauma from all the explosions, transforming into a demon and back, spitting up the son of a god he recently killed, and standing knee deep in snow wearing tattered clothing in a region of the world where snow is not a naturally occurring thing. Could this last half-hour get any worse?

Of course it could.

Perseus stood up, covered in a sheen of demi-demon saliva, standing in the freezing cold, and struck Nero. Several times, until he teetered on the verge of consciousness. Once Nero was sufficiently battered and bloodied, he drew his sword and prepared to drive it through his skull. Nero just laid there in resignation, but after several seconds Perseus’s face turned from rage to horror. He slowly lowered the sword, the lightning flashing in his eyes faded. He then backed away before stumbling off to dry heave in the snow for a bit.

Nero picked himself up. His wounds were rapidly healing, and the axe shot him a mental “you’re welcome”. After some awkward silence the group made their way up the stairs so that they could assess the damage. The meteor was lodged within a cylinder of what looked like black ice. It was around ninety feet across and extended thousands of feet into the depths of the mountain. Cold wind was weakly billowing from it, all that remained after whatever energies it contained had been expelled into the sky.

They began climbing down. Well, not Iola and Atticus. They again had the advantage of flight and simply glided to the bottom. The walls did not afford many handholds, so despite his understandable hatred of Nero Perseus was forced to accept his assistance or risk falling. Nero tied a rope around both of them and animated a grappling hook to slowly lower them down in yet more awkward silence. Even if they had something to talk about it was pretty easy to notice as they descended that the meteor was somehow still pushing its way down, grinding away at the shaft of ice.

Perseus tried his luck some more with the lightning staff. It blew off small chunks, but they continued to hang in a slow orbit, keeping pace with the meteor’s inexorable progress. It was simply too big to destroy, so they would have to think of something else. They reached the bottom a few minutes later. As soon as Perseus’s feet touched the ground he could feel a malevolence emanating from beneath him, and Atticus’s keen senses began to detect a very faint pulse, as if the ground were alive.

Nero opened up his arcane sight to give the area a scan. He saw that the pillar was tightly wrapped in strands of abjuration, conjuration, and evocation magic, and crackled just ever so slightly with necromantic energy. He could also see waves of evocation energy being channeled into the meteor from somewhere atop the mountain’s shattered crown, which he noticed were being disrupted periodically by the gusts of wind. The air was disrupting the earth magic, which was being used to grind away a pillar of ice…uh oh.

All of a sudden Nero realized what was going on. They were standing atop a primordial that had been imprisoned directly beneath the very thrones of Olympus. The pillar that impaled it kept it inert, and was made of ice because stone probably would have not done anything and been easy for a practitioner of earth-based magic to remove once they had found it. That was where the wind came in: currents both inside and outside would have made it virtually impossible for anyone to find it. Even if they did, the wind would oppose their magic and weaken them.

But they did find it, and the last step was to apparently destroy the pillar, which would allow the primordial to recover and awaken.

So, time to plan.

Perseus considered the idea of reconstructing the pillar, but quickly dismissed it as he lacked either the power or time to found a religion and accumulate enough power to perform whatever miracle was needed in order to create it in the first place. Destroying the pillar was likewise out of the question, as they had tried that plenty of times and it would take far too long before it achieved its goal. Nero lacked the time, resources, and knowledge to cobble together a ritual to halt its progress or reassemble the pillar.

But he might be able to knock it off.

Though he did not know much in the way of abjuration, he was pretty handy with forces. With enough time he could gather enough magical energy together and release it in one focused blast to hopefully dislodge it. The downside is that he did not have enough time; the meteor would grind its way through the pillar in a matter of minutes. He would need something to supercharge the ritual, giving him a lot of energy in a short amount of time. Something that had, on several occasions, demonstrably unleashed raw, destructive power.

Were you thinking of Zeus’s lightning bolt-staff thing? Because I was.

The party? Oh no, no no no: they went with Perseus’s blood.

I guess in their defense they were not trying to travel through time.

While Nero went to work Iola kept channeling torrents of wind upwards, which as predicted slowed the meteors descent. Once everything was ready Nero released the ritual. There was a loud thoom followed by an echoing crack as a neat, circular hole was punched through the ice. The meteor shifted, there was some more cracking, and then it finally slid off to the side. It did some damage to the pillar on the way down, but it was nowhere near complete destruction.

Using his sight to check the damage, Nero noticed that the magic holding the pillar together was fraying. Nowhere near as fast as it would have with the meteor on top, but it still likely only had a week or so before it would start to melt away on its own. After much discussion the party concluded that the best course of action was to have Nero remain here and try to halt the decay, while everyone else tried to find some means of rebuilding it before it was too late. Not a likely plan, but they did not have, well, any options.

Something dropped from the opening above. It crashed into the pillar, utterly destroying it while throwing Nero back because why not. Once everyone was finished dodging massive fragments of ice they saw the rock guy, black sword and all, crawling out of the hole that the pillar had previously filled. He stood up, and the glow of the lava that had begun to fill the pit cast a sinister silhouette as his gaze fell upon Nero.

NEEEEERO!

As he began to stalk towards Nero, everyone one else intercepted, punching, slashing, and clawing to little avail. Without so much as a flinch, everyone was flung away by a wave of force. Well, everyone but Nero.

Again, NEEEEERO!

Figuring he had nothing to lose, Nero swung his axe, burying it solidly and surprisingly in rock-man’s chest. He seemed to notice only insofar as he gripped Nero’s arm to keep him from fleeing, and raised his sword for a killing blow. Perseus rushed him from behind, cleanly impaling him with his blade in a burst of lightning and divine light. To Nero’s surprise and relief he did not explode, but simply crumbled apart. His relief was short-lived when the dust cleared and he realized that the lava had grown into a four-headed lava hydra.

Well, out of the frying pan and into the fire, I suppose.

Behind the Scenes
As with A Sundered World I had been making shit up as we went along, spending my time fleshing out the plot threads that they actually followed instead of investing a large amount of time on the setting and places that they would probably never see (which I would if I made this into an actual setting). In this case they ended up in a kind of race with one of the cults of Tharizdun that were seeking out Ogremoch.

I wanted to keep the game going, but my group is chomping at the bits for Numenera and this is another advantage of plan-as-you-go (for me, anyway): it is very, very easy to write in a satisfying stopping point. Sure, we might revisit this campaign down the road, but this way I can wrap things up in a much more satisfactory way so that even if we do not we can look back and feel like the story was “finished”.

At some point I settled on the idea that each of the “gods” were basically high-level genasi crafted by the primordials, empowered by mortal prayer. Due to their connection they could not kill the primordials (it would just kill them), so they decided imprisoned them instead. This way mortal races would be preserved and make them even more powerful.

Honestly I was not sure what the heck they would find up on the mountain. I originally was going to have it that all the gods had died a long time ago, which was part of the reason that the world was falling into decline. “Mount Olympus” was going to be a smaller temple guarded by air and lightning spirits that Perseus would have to defeat in order to start manifesting lightning powers, as that is what Beth had wanted.

5th Edition made this hard to do, or at least do interestingly. I guess I would have probably made an at-will lightning attack and then some daily stuff. Once we shifted over to 4th Edition, though, it was pretty easy for her to just reskin her radiant attacks as lightning and call it good. If we had been playing 4th Edition from the start I could have also written up a Storm Scion theme, too.

Anyway we probably have just one more session before Epiro is wrapped up good and proper. If this is a kind of setting you would want to see fleshed out, lemme know in the comments. I am going to start posting up some Numenera stuff as I start creating my own slice of the Ninth World, so that will be something new for the site.

Dungeon World: Something Stirs in the Blackscale Brakes

Our second product, Something Stirs in the Blackscale Brakes, is finally up on Drivethrurpg. This is a side project that I have been working on when not bugging Josh about A Sundered World, though ultimately he contributed a good deal to the writing.

It is a “campaign front foundation” for Dungeon World that, as the name implies, gives you a solid campaign front and some steadings to start with, as well as some dungeons, new dungeon gear, optional dangers, monsters, magic items, a compendium class, a blank map.

If you like the stuff that we have posted before, then you will probably like this, too. Though it is specific to Dungeon World, if people enjoy the story I would definitely port it over to 4th Edition and 13th Age (when they allow us to, at any rate).

NOTE: I also dropped the price on Seekers of the Sand to $3 for all those looking for a bargain on thematic seeker powers, magic items, and a paragon path.

A Sundered World: What Is Going On…Also Mind Flayers

It has been awhile since we last talked about A Sundered World: I moved and have been busy with a new job, play-testing a Super Dungeon Explore expansion, reading up on 13th Age and Numenera, Josh has been busy with his existing job (and his schedule got a bit wonky for awhile, too), etc.

So partly this update is to say that we are still working on the Dungeon World version of A Sundered World (with other systems to come). The page count breached pages out of a projected 150, and we are still working out the gazetteer, class playbooks, equipment, magic items, monsters, and more.

The other part is to talk about the direction we are taking mind flayers or, given that mind flayers are considered Product Identity by Wizards of the Coast, whatever we end up calling our version of them. Mind you none of this stuff is specific to A Sundered World; it could easily fit in any setting with a Far Realm.

Which should frankly be all of them.

A LONG TIME AGO, IN A REALM FAR, FAR AWAY
Mind flayers come from the Far Realm, a void beyond the known regions of the Astral Sea, where space, time, and reason have no meaning or appreciable purpose. Instead of starting out as defenseless tadpoles they look more like facehuggers: vertebrae-like tails and spidery limbs extend from a fleshy mass covered in eyes of various shapes and sizes. Since they can crawl about this already makes them more dangerous, but they also possess an array of primitive psionic abilities that can induce panic in potential victims, hide them from sight, maybe even a one-target mind blast?

Instead of having to be implanted in a victim they just latch on to your spine, digging through flesh and bone with their sharp limbs to get a nice, solid grip. Once the victim is immobilized it is only a matter of suffering through an incredibly painful, lengthy transformation, and that is where baby mind flayers come from.

Sigh. They grow up so fast…

Josh pitched this idea awhile back after reading Perdido Street Station, likening them to the handlingers. I loved the idea of making them more parasitic, but also wanted to make them more dangerous on their own. Since they can move, attach themselves, and are pretty good at hiding I think it will add a lot of tension when creeping into (or trying to escape from) a mind flayer enclave or vessel. This also better allows for someone to get it removed before the transformation is complete, paving the way for a compendium class or one possible origin for psionics.

SAMEY PSIONICS
I think it is kind of silly that 3rd Edition mind flayers had the exact same suite of psionic powers across the board, with customization basically limited to slapping on spellcasting/manifester levels until you get something reasonable. Since mind flayers are derived from other creatures one idea is to have what mind flayers do be layered on top of an existing creature (think 3rd Edition template), even going so far as to affect what kind of psionic powers that they develop.

For example a dwarf mind flayer could manifest powers that let it manipulate metal (or even transform its body into weapons) and regenerate quickly, while an elf would be more graceful, mess with your mind, and manifest precise bolts of telekinetic force. This is not meant to replace one explicitly defined list with another, but give you some thematic groups that you can use or change as you see fit. In Dungeon World this is a pretty simple matter of citing some flavorful moves, while 4th Edition and 13th Age would require power groups and a list of psionic features and/or nastier specials respectively.

OTHER ANCIENTS
Something I pitched while we were talking was if mind flayers were servants, creations, or even just somehow related to an ancient one (probably something that at least looks Cthulhu-ish given all the face-tentacles). Other ancient ones would have their own humanoid-turned-horror servants, like Dagon’s deep one hybrids. This not only adds more variety, but also makes it easier to develop plots where agents working for various ancient ones oppose each other. The characters might have to work for one, or ultimately choose the lesser of two or more impending dooms.

Epiro: Episode 113

Cast

• Atticus (elf predator druid 6)
• Iola (wood elf centered breath monk 6)
• Nero (human evoker/pyromancer mage 6)
• Perseus (human Chaladin 6)
• Thoros (gnome artful dodger rogue 6)

Zeus was down and an elemental-flanked cultist was preparing to finish him off with a black sword, while another presumed cultist sat next to a pillar, grasping at and talking to things that were probably not there.

Nero prepared to drop a scorching burst on the whole lot, but Perseus ruined any chance of surprise by dramatically shouting while running towards his father. Before he could reach the halfway mark Atticus, as he is wont to do, sped past and leapt onto the cultist. Though he seemed to be made entirely from rock the speed and weight was still enough to bowl him over.

Thoros quickly scanned the area: two elementals, a cultist packing a black sword, and a…crazy person seemingly oblivious to anything going on. Assuming it to be an act and that he was actually preparing some kind of ritual magic, Thoros began making his way towards him using the pillars for cover in case rocks started to fall and people die. The fact that he also seemed to be the least threatening of the bunch was just an added bonus.

The elementals went after Atticus and Perseus solely due to proximity, seizing them in all too familiar and painful grips. Iola did her best to pummel them into so much rubble, Perseus ineffectually struggled, and Atticus escaped by shedding his skin as he shifted into a bird. He decided to take the fight to what he assumed was their leader, changing into a bear mid-flight in an attempt to crush him. It seemed to do some damage, but the cultist returned it with some hefty interest by telekinetially slamming him into the ceiling before casting him aside like a rag doll.

Thoros crept up on the gibbering man and stuck a dagger in his back. He did not seem to notice, which was…different. So was his blood, which was less blood and more of a golden-reddish fluid. As it seeped out it started to form crystals around the edge, which made the whole thing more unnerving than it already was (though not enough to stop him from stabbing).

One of the elementals went after Iola, who was easily able to dodge its attacks, while the second continued to put the squeeze on Perseus. Nero legged it past everyone, and with a quick bit of space-folding was able to get Zeus a very relatively safe distance of twenty or so feet away from where he was.

Iola helped pull Perseus free, but as he prepared to heal his father was surprisingly stopped by Nero who blurted out something about villains and plans. What was even more surprising was that despite a complete lack of any compelling evidence (or evidence at all, really) Perseus actually listened, heading back into the fray to confront the leader. The most surprising thing of all, though? Nero killed him.

No, not Perseus, Zeus.

Yes, Zeus.

He brought the cursed axe down, severing his head with one noisy, messy chop. This got a reaction from the leader, just not the one that Nero had been hoping for: he cackled, actually cackled, before triumphantly shouting a drawn out, “Yes!”

So to recap, Nero just killed a god, the only god they have ever encountered, and one that would have probably reciprocated their assistance with at the least divine lightning and thunder. Said god is, sorry was, the father of Perseus, who was probably going to take issue with that. And to add injury to insult the corpse exploded in a cacophony of light and thunder that hurled him against one of the pillars.

Judging from the bloody splorch, reaction of the bad guy and accompanying thunderous explosion, Perseus guessed what had happened, but he did not have time to react because the bad guy was busy trying to drive four feet of, well, he was not sure what it was: it not only slid through his shield easily enough, but it also seemed to draw bits of metal into it. He did not want to find out what would happen if it he actually landed a blow.

As his head cleared Nero could hear the axe’s demonic voice thanking him for quenching its thirst, on the blood of a god no less, which was just further confirmation that he had made a mistake. Not wanting to make another rash decision he opened up his arcane sight to try and gather some intelligence, but even that just ended up being yet another item on his list of regrets.

Crazy Cultist looked like an eight foot-tall, four-armed demonic entity. Crystalline growths jutted from its body in random locations, and crimson-gold fluid flowed beneath its translucent, glassy skin. There was not even a face, just a jagged spiral of Tharizdun scored into where you would have expected to see one. It was probably an improvement over what would have been there.

What might have been stranger was what it was doing: each arm seemed to be writing a sort of arcane formula in the air, intersecting them at various points. It seemed complex, which meant that it was probably powerful, which was almost certainly bad for them, so he decided that he had to stop it the only way he knew how: cursed axe. He rushed at the demon and began wildly hack at it, hoping for the best. Or at least something on the positive side of the spectrum for a change.

Meanwhile the elementals had begun tearing stones out from the center of the platform. Cold air began issuing from the slowly growing hole, identical to the one that they found in the wall during the hike up. While Iola moved to ineffectually stop them, Atticus changed into a stag to ineffectually help Perseus. Though Iola ended up getting sandwiched between both elementals, Atticus actually got it worse by getting both impaled by the black sword and thrown from the summit.

Fortunately Iola had a full suite of disciplines that allowed her to fly and jump really high: she was able to burst free of the elementals, swoop down to catch him, and make the leap back in the same round.

Monks doing monk-things? Take that 5th Edition.

The leader turned his attention back to Perseus, and with a single sword stroke sliced a third of his shield away before flinging him back into one of the thrones that ringed the edge of the summit temple. As Perseus struggled to stand his hand found a wooden staff laying against the throne. It looked unremarkable except that about half of it was cracked and scorched, but it resonated with a comforting power as he held it.

Not wanting to engage the cultist any closer than he had to and assuming it was magic, Perseus threw the staff…and missed. The cultist did not even break his stride: a chunk of the floor shot up, deflecting it towards the ceiling, which collapsed under the subsequent thunderous explosion. Luckily everyone was next to a pillar at the time, so they did not have to worry about getting crushed. Well, they did, just not from that.

Nero had just finished hacking apart the crazy cultist, whose “blood” oozed towards the center of the temple and formed a circle around the hole that the elementals had torn open. Thanks to his arcane sight he could see the magical formula extend tendrils of energy into the sky. As his gaze followed them he realized what the demon had been up to: a massive chunk of rock was plummeting towards them.

Unable to stop it, the next best option was running away. Unfortunately the leader was not about to let Perseus flee. Fortunately his attention was thoroughly occupied and he was vulnerable to an axe buried in his skull, which is what Nero did. He also exploded, but he was pretty used to everything he did backfiring by now. Still he was out of commission and Iola had managed to revive Atticus, so everyone was fit to leg it.

Except Perseus. He was not about to let a rock destroy his father’s home. The lightning-staff had returned to his hand shortly after using it the first time, so maybe he could use it to destroy the meteor, or at least deflect it. That would be a pretty incredible story, saving the ancestral home of the gods from meteoric destruction, right? Plus with his dad dead it was probably legally his home now, anyway. So, he exhaled slowly, took aim, and threw it.

And missed.

There was still time, so as soon as the staff reappeared in his hand he threw it again.

And missed.

Well, there were certainly quieter, more boring ways to die, right?

Behind the Scenes
Normally I try to get play reports out a couple days after the session, but a lot of crazy stuff happened in this session, and despite reading and re-reading it I am positive that I have some events out of order or even omitted.

Anyway this fight went really bad, really quick: the players rolled horribly, I rolled well, and Josh killed Zeus, who could have potentially turned the fight around (as well as give Perseus lightning powers). In his defense he did not do it to be a jerk, he honestly thought it was a good idea.

I was keeping both cultists from the previous session in reserve, hoping to bring them in at dramatic moments, but that would have been overkill. That is also why I kept the demon-cultist on the sidelines: anything extra would have almost certainly resulted in a TPK. Heck, the leader was intended to be an elite soldier, but I had to pare down his actions to one pretty much the entire time.

The entire time I was tracking something like victory points the entire time to determine if they could stop the meteor, and if not how bad the impact would be. The final tally was, well, pretty much as bad as it could have gotten. Thankfully we are not playing this week so it gives me some time to figure out what happens next.

Maybe roll up new characters for an elemental war campaign?

Epiro: Episode 112

Cast

• Atticus (level 5 predator druid)
• Iola (level 5 centered breath monk)
• Nero (level 5 human evoker)
• Perseua (level 5 human Chaladin)
• Thoros (level 5 gnome artful rogue)

After another hour or so of walking the characters found a light at the end of the tunnel. A strong wind was funneled into the passage, slowing their advance. They could see flashes of lightning, and thunder trembled through the ground and walls.

As they neared the exit they could see that it opened up onto a circular platform about one-hundred feet across that overlooked the land below. Near the edge there was a small temple with a statue that they assumed to be Zeus, what with the lightning bolt and all. Across from it a wide stairway was carved into the mountain, leading up toward the summit. Finally, and probably the most important detail, someone was waiting for them.

He had olive-skin and a shaven head that was heavily tattooed with runes. He was clad in a suit of plate armor and wore a dark cloak, because if you could say one thing about the Elemental cult–besides their proclivity for manipulating stone and hanging out with thematically appropriate denizens–is that they are not above color coordination. When they reached the exit he simply held up both hands in a gesture of peace and, shouting over the wind, asked them to leave.

Perseus said that they might leave, but wanted to first know who he was and what his plans were. To his surprise he was given straightforward answers: the man was a scion of Tharizdun that was, along with some other like-minded individuals, in the process of liberating him from Pandora’s box. Nero did not know much about Tharizdun, except that he was the thing that the rest of the evils in the box fled from when it was opened.

What was also surprising was that, after openly revealing that he was not only a servant of the bad guy, but that he was trying to free said bad guy from a god-forged prison, Perseus did turn to leave.

Maybe he thought that Tharizdun would just…scare off all the other bad things?

Confused as to why a self-proclaimed hero that had at least claimed to have fought a medusa was just walking away, Atticus stopped him and asked him why. Perseus explained that if this guy was somehow related to an ancient evil that was so ancient and so evil that the gods themselves could not kill, but merely imprison him, at least on a relative scale he was probably out of their league. Of course after a brief pep talk about courage, responsibilities, and suffering of innocents they decided to roll initiative, anyway.

Though the winds impeded their movement Atticus was still able to close the distance. He grabbed the scion and flung him towards the rest of the group. As the scion picked himself up the ground seemed to, well, flow over him. Sheathed in a thick layer of stone, he took a few swings at Atticus, clipping him. While his back was turned Perseus charged, but his sword was easily deflected. With the scion’s attention turned towards Perseus, it gave Nero enough time to slam a sphere of force square in his chest, shattering much of the stone barrier.

And then it was Iola’s turn. The winds not only did not hinder her, but seemed to empower her as she drew upon the fury of the storm around them. She channeled it into a lance of hurricane force that launched the scion some thirty feet away. It was pretty impressive, though her friends might have appreciated it more if the force of the blast had not also sent them sprawling. At least it momentarily reduced the winds to a nice breeze.

A wave of stone surged from the ground, crashing into Perseus and engulfing him in a crushing embrace. In its wake stood a female gnome, with long, braided hair and eyes that looked like citrines. She did not move, but stood her ground and surveyed the battlefield, her eyes scanning independently of each other. Thoros, wanting to pick on someone his own Size category, flung a dagger at her, but it barely scratched her skin.

Hoping to free Perseus, Atticus leapt at the elemental, but all he was able to do was pry a few stones loose. It was still better than when he went after the gnome: his claws and fangs could not even make a mark, and she did not even seem to acknowledge being gnawed on. The stone “armor” from the scion peeled up over his legs and body, and down his arms, compacting into a pair of small spheres that he launched at Atticus. Though only one hit it was enough to knock him to the ground, writhing in agony.

Perseus struggled against the elemental’s grip but was unable to wrench himself free. Or breathe. He eventually resigned himself to praying to his father for aid, and just as he was about to black out a bolt of lightning lanced out of the sky. It struck the elemental, blasting him free without harming him in the slightest.

Iola reveled in her new found power. She darted about, easily dodging the elemental to go after the gnome. The gnome still did not move, and it felt like she was striking a stone wall. Nero decided to take a crack at her next, channeling a wave of thunderous energy through his fist as he swung. She shifted every so slightly, deflecting his blow and striking him in the arm.

Having learned their lesson by proxy Atticus and Perseus decided to keep their distance from the gnome, focusing instead on the elemental, while Iola tried her odds with the scion. She conjured up a cyclone of wind that focused the entirety of the surrounding storm into one point. It tore the platform to shreds, flinging stone about and the scion over the cliff.

The battle finally turning in their favor, the platform violently shook as it began to pull away from the mountain. The elemental seemed to “dive” underground, while the gnome continued to stand there. Iola pushed the cyclone into Thoros, launching him to the safety of the stairs, while Nero managed to catapult himself with a downward-aimed thunderwave. Everyone else just used good old-fashioned legwork to leap to safety.

They hunkered down on the steps to rest for a bit before finishing their trek up the summit. It was surrounded by a ring of fluted pillars topped with an elaborately decorated entablature. Similarly decorated stone thrones formed a ring inside the pillars. A dark-robed figure stood at the center, flanked by a pair of elementals. He was holding a black sword that he pointing it at a someone lying on the ground: his skin was cloudy white, and vibrant gold patterns lightly pulsed over his skin.

It was Perseus’s father.

Behind the Scenes
Another fun session with evocative, dynamic combat. I was happy that I was able to leave it on a cliffhanger, especially since Beth had been waiting to see if/how her character’s father would feature into the game. I had planned on ending the game in another handful of sessions, but…who knows, I am starting to think of more stuff. I might be able to keep it going longer than I thought.

One thing I love about 4th Edition is that it is really, really easy to make mechanics that evoke a concept.

The scion was normally a melee beater. He could use a Minor action to give himself temporary hit points (stone armor), but could expend it to make a powerful ranged attack. This gave players a choice: tough it out in melee, or risk getting hit with a nasty ranged attack. They could also try using daze/stun effects to force him to choose between attacking or replenishing his stone shield.

The gnome was also pretty powerful in melee: she had an Immediate Interrupt attack when struck in melee, and when she did not move gained weapon resistance. This made ranged attacks, especially magic ones, useful against her…which was why I also made it so that if a magic ranged attack missed her by a wide enough margin that she could redirect it into someone else.