Building Bhakashal - Session Report

Last night’s session was a ton of fun, and it highlighted the value of random encounters and skilled play, so I thought I would write it up.

The party had returned from a successful adventure and had went to their patron, Quin Faal the Iolite, for a new assignment. Most of the jobs they get from their patron take them out of the city, but this time I decided I wanted to run an in city job. Bhakashal is a fully fleshed out setting, and it has lots of potential for adventure within the city walls. 

Quin Faal is a high-level warlock at House Quannar, but like all warlocks, he has allies and enemies at other Noble Houses. Quin Faal was concerned about an ally of his, Ghollag the Ebon, who he was supposed to meet several weeks ago but never showed up. Faal had waited for a time, but decided that Ghollag might need assistance, so he sent the party to investigate. Ghollag has a tower in the Ward of House Phars, the party was to go to the tower to locate the warlock and see if he was OK.

They chose to go there during the day first. They took a canal boat and made their way over to Ghollag’s tower, located across the city. They knocked on the door, no one answered, so they decided to come back at night. Around 2am they returned, it was a cloudy night, and I rolled for random encounters all the way over. The map shows their route.

No encounters came up. There are two fliers in the party (garudin, Bhakashal arracockra) and one of them flew the party fighter up to the roof of the tower. 

Most buildings in the city have rooftop gardens, usually with a guardian of some sort on top

This one had a giant snake. The party fighter rolled well and dispatched it in 2 rounds without being bitten. The rest of the party followed suit. Rolled again for an encounter to see if they were spotted during all of this, but none came up. 

They entered through a door on the roof, but not before the party Seer (priest) cast find traps on the door and found a trap! He cast silence and then smashed the trap to pieces with his mace. The Seer has finally started to pay attention to his spell list and it is paying dividends with the party. Previously he has been focused on healing, they are starting to see his wider utility. 

So they entered the tower. Now, here is the thing about warlock towers in Bhakashal. They are not an endless series of traps and monsters. Warlocks LIVE in their towers, they are not going to have traps everywhere, they have to walk around their towers half asleep in their bathrobes like everyone else. Also, when I design a warlock’s tower for a powerful warlock the rooms all serve functions. They are not there as an excuse for deadly traps to mess up the PCs, they are lived in and real.

So they arrive on the top floor. The tower is 100 feet across and the room is entirely constructed of purple marble. There is a throne in the middle. If you sit in the throne and you have a charisma of 15 or greater you have a vision of the future. They decided to ignore the throne and stay on point, not even investigating it. They went to the next floor down.

This room was constructed entirely of orange marble. There is a pedestal in the middle of the room with a book laying on top of it. If anyone else but a magic-user or illusionist approaches the pedestal they must make a save versus magic. If they fail they will be knocked unconscious for 1 turn. If they succeed nothing else will happen. A magic-user or illusionist will feel drawn to the book which has seemingly empty pages, when they arrive at the book it speaks to them and instructs them to cast a spell into the book. If they do so a page with that spell written on it will dislodge itself from the book on a sheet of vellum. Ghollag used this item to create scroll spells. However, the book will work once per day. Each time it is used more than that there is a cumulative 25% chance that the spell will be permanently erased from the caster’s mind, and can never be cast again.

They decided to move on without discovering any of this. But they also discussed it for a bit, and there is little as entertaining as listening to your players speculate about what some item in a warlock’s tower will do. They are endlessly imaginative and their suggestions are almost always more horrific and cruel than I would come up with on their own. These sorts of discussions are the unofficial 5th pillar of D&D - “player speculation”, and are a key part of the excitement of play. 

They repeated the pattern all the way down to the first floor of the 8 floor tower. The first floor had a large glass sculpture of a hydra in the center. Anyone using light in the room will activate the sculpture’s magic and all in the room will forget why they are here and want to leave, if they don’t make a save versus spells. The party had lights, and multiple PCs failed their saves and fled the building. The rest of the party followed. 

They decided to report back to Quin Faal. He decided that they should go back in and investigate, and they told him about the enchantment on the first floor of the tower. Faal decided to give them a scroll with Anti-Magic Shell written at a high level to temporarily neutralize the magic on the statue so they could look around more. 

The party has also come to realize that high level spells on scrolls are a risky but valuable resource for the party.

So they returned the next night. They used the same approach to get to the top of the tower, I rolled for random encounters all the way there and while climbing/flying to the top. Nothing came up. They found the snake’s body still there, suggesting that no one in the tower had been to the roof since they were there, assuming there was anyone in the tower at all.

They skipped each of the rooms again, going down to the first floor. The party warlock cast Anti-Magic Shell from the scroll, they were VERY nervous about that, as a failed casting could lead to a harmful result, and they didn’t know what that would mean. But it was successful, and the statue’s effects were temporarily neutralized. 

Now they searched the first floor, and found a trap door. They were about to open it, when the party Seer suggested that he cast Augury to see if that was a good idea. Well, as it happens, Ghollag the Ebon was in the basement, a vampire had managed to catch the high level warlock unawares and was feeding on him slowly, draining blood every few days to keep him weak and unable to cast spells, the vampire was using his tower as a launching point for his nightly forays for victims. So when the seer cast the Augury and it was successful, it told him that going into the basement would be VERY BAD. So they left and went back to Quin Faal.

Again, random encounter rolls were made on the trip, nothing came up. When they told Faal the results he insisted that they return to investigate that basement, “Or I will send other agents of mine to do so”. They agreed, and returned to the tower.

So they went back again at night. We repeated the trip across the city and the entrance from the roof. None of the random encounter rolls come up, and they enter the tower. Now, unbeknownst to them, every time they entered the tower I rolled to see if the vampire was there, or out “hunting”. In every previous case he was out, this time he was in. Halfway down the tower he appeared in the room. He was a well dressed emberi (Bhakashal human), and he was accompanied by 6 wolves. 

Yijama the Black - Vampire - 5th level Warlock - 7 spells per day

MV:12,HD:8,HP:40,NA:1,DA:d6+4,SA:Strength drain (2 pts/strike), convert to gaseous form, transform to bat, charm gaze -2 save, SD: Regenerate 3 hp per rd, +1 weapon to hit, reduced to 0 hp change to gaseous form, immune to sleep, charm, hold, poison or paralysis, ½ damage from cold or lightning 

(6) wolves (AC:7,MV:18,HD:2,NA:1,DA:2-5)

Spells

Magic Missile 

Morshoggoth’s Boisterous Braids

Wizard Lock

Shalin’s Fantastic Fetters 

Protection from Normal Missiles

Dimension Door

Polymorph Self

Wall of Ice

The party were shocked, in each previous foray the tower was empty. So they talked with the guy. He managed to convince them that he was asked by Ghollag to watch the tower, and that Ghollag had left on a trip several weeks ago. Warlocks travel around and seek out items of power, monsters to defeat to use for spell and magic item creation, it was a plausible story. They listened, then left to tell Quin Faal what happened. Amazingly, they bought the story and assumed that it was all just a misunderstanding. 

I guess I’m convincing.

This time Faal decided it was time to use divination magic to figure out what was happening. Technically, you can cast divination magic as often as you like, but for the more powerful spells, warlocks like to minimize their casting of spells that involve bothering higher powers. Still, this seemed like a fair use situation. 

He cast a Contact Other Plane spell (note: I have randomly generated all of Faal’s spells, so he doesn’t have access to any spell he wants, there is a specific list) to ask about Ghollag’s fate. He asked a series of questions that the party and I came up with together, I, as Quin Faal, came up with one question, the rest were the party. 

Quin Faal - “Is Ghollag the Ebon alive?”

Roll - No answer. This wasn’t planned, but it fit the situation well, Ghollag was being kept barely alive by the vampire to continue feeding on him, so the absence of an answer here felt right.

Quin Faal - “Is Ghollag the Ebon in his Tower?”

“Yes”

Quin Faal - “Is Ghollag the Ebon in the basement of the tower?”

“Yes”

Quin Faal - “Is he being kept there against his will?”

“Yes”

Quin Faal - “How many are keeping him against his will?”

“One”

I decided that Quin Faal had contacted the elemental plane of fire and was talking to an Efreet to get his answers. For some reason they were entirely delighted with this.

So now they were armed with the information that Ghollag was indeed in the basement of the tower, that he may or may not be alive, and that the person they met was very likely the one keeping him there. They had a discussion with Faal about the man as he seemed odd.

They noted that they had only seen him at night, though on two previous visits they did not encounter him. He moved silently, and had wolves around him. Several minutes of discussion and they decided he was likely a werewolf, the fact that the moon was not full explained why he was in human form. 

So they decided to return again at night and confront him.

This time, however, a random encounter came up on the way there. Now, the in-city random encounter tables are very heavily weighted towards non-combat encounters. Every ward has it’s own table based on the kinds of businesses / services that are common in those wards. You can encounter ward patrols, or “toughs” looking for trouble, but most city encounters will be neutral. A monster encounter comes up when the roll (or its inverse) on the city random encounter table matches the number of the ward. There are 54 Noble Houses, each occupying a Ward in the city. They were in Ward 41, belonging to House Phars. Their target was the building marked with a red star. 

So if a 41 or a 14 came up on the random encounter roll it would be a monster. It came up with a 14. All rolled in the open. So now I have to roll on the monster sub table. I get one of the players to roll, and he rolls an 8… crimson apes. Crimson apes are a custom monster in Bhakashal, it is not known exactly which warlock created them, but they have been in the city since its inception. They stick to the building tops and towers for the most part, as well as Ward Vinnos (a forest ward). They run in packs surrounding an alpha ape. It has been speculated that they were created by a warlock in the past but proved difficult to tame and train. It is well known that they only cooperate for beings of great power, and the naming ceremonies for high level House Warlocks usually involve letting loose a crimson ape that bows before them, demonstrating their power. The wizard Konkarrin of House Viinos is celebrated to this day as during his naming ceremony dozens of Crimson apes appeared unbidden and surrounded him, bowing in supplication. It is also known that they tend to appear when something important is about to happen to, or due to the actions of, a warlock. 

I rolled for surprise for both sides, the party won, and saw the apes moving from building to building, and I decided that one of the party members might know the lore about crimson apes. In Bhakashal all warlocks are sages with one major and one minor field, as well as a specialization. I rolled to see if the party warlock knew the crimson ape lore and he did. So I told them the story.

Since the apes were surprised they didn’t see the party, and I had to decide which warlock they were there to witness, the party warlock, Borun the Majestic, the vampire Yijama the Black (who was also a warlock) or Ghollag the Ebon. If I rolled the party warlock the apes would have approached the party, but I rolled Yijama, so they continued on towards the tower. The party watched as the apes headed to the tower that they were approaching. Since they knew that the apes only showed up when something important was about to happen to a warlock, they knew that big things were afoot, but not what they were or if they would impact the party.

It was terrific, tense gaming. They debated turning and running, but they wanted to see what was going to happen with the apes, so they continued on. Now, full disclosure, I had NO IDEA what the apes were there to witness at this point. That would have to be discovered as we play, but I knew it would involve Yijima the Black in some way. 

They arrived at the tower, the apes had already climbed up (they saw this as they approached) and they followed. When they hit the 5th floor of the building they found the apes in the room along with Yijima and his wolves. The apes were standing at the edges of the circular room, watching. Yijima knows the significance of the apes showing up, and he decided to mock the party a bit by suggesting that they were there to see the party’s warlock, Borun the Majestic. They decided to lay it on the line and accused him of keeping Ghollag in the basement against his will. 

No more messing around. 

We broke there for the session and will be picking up there next week. They have 7 days to ponder what is going on, potentially figure out that Yijima is a vampire, and decide how to handle the presence of the apes. Also, one of the players casually suggested that Yijima might be a vampire, but the rest of them dismissed it. He will be vindicated soon enough, and the “I TOLD YOU SO’s” will be loudly proclaimed.

Discussion

One of the things I love about my players is that they have learned enough about the game to realize that you don’t just barge in to fight everything you find. And you don’t have to engage with everything just because it is there. They avoided the special magical features of all the rooms in the tower because they could. They walked away from the first encounter with Yijima to gather more information because they could. They understand that magic is dangerous, and that fighting is deadly, so they only engage when they have to.

In short, they play smart, and gauge their encounters before engaging with monsters / NPCs / environments. And the best part was that they were riveted throughout the process, they may not have engaged with the magic statues and thrones, but they were still fascinated by them, and wary of them. This was a high tension session, in every room they anticipated doom, and the look on their faces when the Augury called for “woe” if they went into that basement was priceless. 

They know that encounters in the game world are not “balanced”, that they can be outmatched at any point, and that everything is rolled in the open where I can’t save them. This sort of play is the polar opposite of “story focused” gaming where the referees job is to steer them to “exciting” encounters and tweak those encounters to ensure their survival or success. 

I know referees who would be upset that they didn’t get to showcase their cool encounters, the party blew past 7 of the 8 encounters in Ghollag’s Tower, without engaging with them in any way. I know that some referees would have maneuvered the players into interacting with these features in order to produce a “fun” and “exciting” session, but these referees are missing something important.

No maneuvered encounter will ever produce as much tension, fear and immersion as the encounter they are anticipating. Players build up the risk and danger of whatever you put in front of them, letting them decide whether to engage or not gives them agency and makes the world feel real. Unplanned encounters just enhance this. The rolled encounter with the crimson apes was very rare, so special by that metric alone, the party has not encountered crimson apes in 2 years of play, but also makes the whole process more exciting. They don’t know what will happen, but they do know it is important!

What you see here is a group of players who know that every decision could be their last, and that they have to be smart to survive. They are fully engaged with the game world as they realize it is independent of them and dangerous.

This is the stuff.