Building Bhakashal - Session Reports!

Three of my regular games started up this week. I’m going to try something different and I will review each here rather than doing them separately.

Giddy up!

 

Thursday Game

This is my theatre kids game, they are all new to D&D, the party consists of a Spider (thief), Warlock (Magic-user) and a Mercenary (fighter). Their first task for their patron was to retrieve the thief who stole one of his magic swords. They found him on an island and have decided to throw in with him and work against their patron

The first half hour of the session was logistics, they decided to hire me on for a regular game, the initial plan was 6 sessions only, so we had to work out some things.

Previous Session Reports

1^st and 2^nd Session - https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/10/building-bhakashal-session-report.html

3^rd Session - https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/11/bhakashal-session-report-we-had-our.html

4^th Session - https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/11/building-bhakashal-session-report-new.html

5^th Session - https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/12/building-bhakashal-session-report.html

 

On to adventure!

The Warlock they decided to throw in with stole the sword from their patron as he is collecting powerful magical swords to give to a demon as part of a binding pact to get that demon to perform a service for him. He came to the island to find another sword that was supposed to be in a maze. He was studying the maze, and discovered there were four monsters imprisoned there who were the magical “anchors” for the place, and that it was actually meant as a prison for otherworldy beings. Currently the sword was there as the former occupant died leaving the sword behind.

The PCs unintentionally released the anchor monsters, exposing the sword for them to take. They eventually confronted Bamal (the Warlock). He was pissed, they had messed with the maze, and released the monsters. They parlayed with him and convinced him not to slay them in exchange for the sword he wanted (a +4 defender). He put them on probation, assigning a huge (med sized) spider to watch each of them until he trusted them.

This session they were continuing to help the warlock, he had instructed them to slay the carrion crawler they released from the maze, which they did. He then told them to find the Hoar Fox they released, they did that too, the fox had taken up with the Kobolds. Now they were sent after the firedrake and shocker.

Their first move was to take Bamal to the kobolds, he wanted to recruit them to help him, but they had been opposed to him in the past, his hill giants had slain a few of them. The Hoar Fox was a peace offering, so they were neutral now. The party brought Bamal, they joined the kobolds for breakfast, and they talked business. Bamal made some concessions to the kobolds, and they agreed to be his eyes and ears. The party was part of the negotiations, the kobolds had wanted the giants slain, but Bamal wasn’t ready for that, he instead promised they would be safe, and that he would eventually slay them both at a time of his choosing.

The party spoke for both sides of the negotiations, and eventually they came to an agreement.

To find the monsters they were after they got the kobold hunters to report back on where they had seen the creatures on the island, if at all. The shocker had crossed over to a smaller island about 800 hundred feet away in the ocean, the firedrake was at the end of the island inhabited by a green dragon. The party’s alliance with the kobolds had provided rich dividends in information.

In the after conversation, conducted in a language the kobolds didn’t understand, Bamal revealed after being questioned by the party that he was collecting magic swords to give to a powerful demon, that was all he revealed, but it got their attention, Bamal was attempting to enter a deal with a Marilith with the gift of magical swords.

They went to the far end of the island and tried to spot the shocker, but no luck. Then the party Saan (lizard man) Spider (thief) swam to the far island to search for the shocker. The island was small, but she moved slowly to avoid being surprised. She eventually found singed trees and grass suggesting the shocker had walked to the center of the island and then walked out again towards the ocean.

She swam back, checking for sea-devils all the way (they were told Sahuagin were in the area), and rejoined the party. They went to the kobolds for food and rest, then headed out that night under a full moon to find the Firedrake.

They went to the end of the island with the dragon, where the firedrake was supposed to be staying, and hunted and slayed a deer to use as bait (that required waiting 2 hours in a perch, gaining surprise, and shooting it).

They took the deer deep into dragon territory and found the firedrake, it was feasting on a wild boar, so it was not interested in the food and just attacked them.

The party warlock was fast on the draw, hitting it with a reduce spell, this shrunk and disoriented the creature for a round, and the warlock then cast Sleep, and that was that.

They bound up it’s muzzle and took it immediately to Bamal who cast a Charm Monster  spell on the creature.

Mission accomplished.

They slept the night, the next morning they went to the beach to watch for the arrival of the Wyvern, heading back to Bhakashal, it will pick them up and take them back or leave them there if they haven’t been able to find their target. They will have to decide if they will head back empty handed and say they couldn’t find him or send the ship back with a message that they need more time and wait for the next scheduled ship to pick them up. Either option has the potential to alert their patron to their betrayal, so they will have to think it out.

We stopped there.

The ship is arriving in the late morning, unbeknownst to the party, in the mid afternoon another ship will arrive from city with two warlocks from their patron. This was their first mission for their patron, Quin Faal the Iolite, and he didn’t yet trust them. So he sent two warlocks to meet them on the island, either to help them find or defeat Bamal, replace them if they were all dead by Bamal’s hand, or if they were up to anything, bring the hammer down.

Next session, we will see what they can do!

 

Friday Game

My Friday group are veterans, high level now, they are trying to get into the upper echelons of House nobility by establishing a teleport circle in the underworld so they can teleport creatures from there to Bhakashal. To do this, they found the instructions for making the circle, and they have to slay four mind flayers and drain their blood to make the ink to inscribe the circle. If they can pull this off, their House will benefit immensely.

Last session reports: 

https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/11/building-bhakashal-session-report-my.html

https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/12/building-bhakashal-session-report_6.html

They finally isolated a flayer with his retinue, a warlock and two ogre henchmen,  to waylay him, but were unaware of the fact they have magic resistance, a failed spell led to a confrontation and the flayer learning their plan from the party warlock, who teleported away back to their base (a tent in the market of the Illithid city where they were posing as potion merchants, as the party Myrmidon (Bhakashal fighter/alchemist) could make potions. The other party members fled.

Today we started from there.

The flayers Yeth Hounds corralled the fleeing PCs back to him, an encounter reaction roll had him offering the party a deal, knowing their plans he wouldn’t slay them and eat their brains, and in exchange the flayers they would kill for their magic circle would be his rivals. Flayer society is fiercely competitive and an outside group would give him an edge. He offered them information on where to go to get their first victim, and if they were successful, he would give them magical aid to get the rest.

They had to prove themselves.

So they agreed, and headed back to the illithid city. They did not have encounters on the way back, and they found the party warlock in their tent, resting. Several of the party members went out to gather information on their target.

The party myrmidon had slain a mobat while out, he brought back the head of the beast and made potions out of it. He managed to create 3 potions of Feather Falling. He then cast further spells upon them (Myrmidons in Bhakashal have a list of 11 spells, all of them are potion related) that turned them into gaseous form. This enhances their power for a random parameter of the potion.

While he was up to that, the party was planning their attack on the flayer they were told about,  Yigeth Caln. Yigeth is a younger flayer, he was caught trying to slay another and his penance is to be given the most demeaning task, to  go out amongst the non-illithid groups in the city and recruit slaves/food. Yigeth focuses on busy areas where the non-illithids hang together. The illithid city is located in a huge, incredibly deep (around 2000’ deep) underground cavern, this cavern has multiple columns of stone that fill its space from top to bottom, and carved into these columns are caves.

One particularly large column has a donut shaped cavern (circle in the middle, big space, and periodic columns along the edges) and is the main Illithid city, there are multiple large estates in this column, and several market areas spread throughout. All of the other columns are either private estates, enclaves of various underground groups (e.g., there is one enclave where only Malu (fish folk) live.

There is also a large column where the laborers and hunters all stay, it is filled with tents and large markets, open fires and spits, gambling groups, etc. The lowest of the low, those who do the physical work for the flayers, are here.

Yigeth recruits by coming to this column, finding recruits, telling them to come back with him, if they resist his Ettercap henchmen throw nets on the targets and beat them with Tetsubo and haul them off. As there is a flayer with them, they are not accosted.

The party was told to attack the flayer when he was harvesting as he would be distracted, and very unlikely to read their minds and know they were attacking. In large crowds their ESP was less likely to warn them.

So they went to that column and posed as itinerant workers, dressed in dirty robes and brought a tent to pitch, posing as outsiders from the caves looking for work. They were unusual for the underworld, but human slaves were common enough that human workers would not be out of place, the other party members who weren’t human stayed in the tent.

The two party humans went out into the crowds to find out more about the flayer, as he visited regularly, they figured the locals might know a bit. They target a pair of Ettercap hunters, they offer them coin for information about the flayer. Their “story” is that they are new here and they have heard rumors of a flayer who comes to this camp and takes away people. They ask when he comes by and what he does, and they offered small coin to the Ettercaps as payment.

I rolled an encounter reaction and they shared what they knew, that he came regularly, that he started fights where he could as he liked hurting people, and that he usually travelled with henchmen. Then they threw away the paltry coin, laughed and walked away.

While they were talking with the human party members, the party thief pickpocketed one of them, fleeing with some jewelry and coins in a pouch, neatly sliced off of the Etttercap’s belt.

Boom.

They returned to their tent, at one point they saw an elaborately dressed lava mephit fly by, leading a pair of hell hounds on leads, and complaining loudly that the flayers had no taste in music, and demanding someone sing a song!

No one in the party offered to sing, I was heartbroken.

They waited for a few days, gambling and talking with the locals. The Ettercaps they pickpocketed showed up at one point, fortunately the thieves were in the tent at the time, so the  Ettercaps didn’t recognize the party warlock when he was out and about.

The flayer arrived.

The party cast various spells on themselves from inside the tent, the flayer was several hundred feet away, working his way through the crowds with his Ettercap henchmen. They figured they can’t cast spells at the creature, but they can cast on themselves. They buffed up the strength of several party members when the Necromancer cast Strength upon them (Necromancers get a few alteration spells, ones that alter the body, which makes sense as they can animate the dead). The party warlock cast “The Terrifying Arms of Brugg the Cruel” on the party Myrmidon as he was their best fighter.

He had 4 arms to attack with now.

They are planning on a distraction then an attack, or waiting until the flayer is engaged with victims to attack, they are hoping to hit hard and fast and take the flayer out before any brain-melting occurs.

Bold plan.

We stopped there.

 

Saturday Game

My Saturday group is playing the long game, also trying to break into the upper echelons of their House, their task is related to the thieves guild. Their house controls the city branch of the guild, one of the house Lords at House Quannar is the guildmaster for the city branch. The Raosk branch is independent, and House Quannar wants to run it too.

So, they have sent the party to either eliminate and replace the existing guildmaster of the Raosk branch or to “bring him in”. One part of the party has spent the last few sessions getting ingratiated to one of the Raosk Guildmaster’s allies, a steed merchant named Maur Hoguelen. They posed as bodyguards and attempted to get in his service.

The party fighter refused an ESP on his person, one of the conditions Hoguelen put on hiring him, and the party monk’s mind resisted the ESP done on him. Hoguelen was suspicious, and sent them away, vowing to look into their identities.

The party Spider (thief) tried something more direct. He went to the Raosk and attempted to find a contact to join the thieves guild directly. Last session he found someone and was told to return later to see about joining.

Previous session reports for details:

Report 1 - https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/09/building-bhakashal-session-report.html

Report 2 – https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/10/building-bhakashal-session-report-my.html

Report 3 - https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/11/building-bhakashal-session-report_24.html

Report 4 - https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/12/bhakashal-session-report-splitting.html

 

We started with the party Spider and his contact.

The PC went to the designated area and eventually his contact arrived, along with another person. His contact was a chitin (insect folk), the other person was a Saan (lizard folk).

His contact decided on a task for initiation into the guild. The Raosk branch focuses on physical crime, kidnapping being a prominent one. In Bhakashal kidnapping is done to dishonor an opponent, to show they are weak and vulnerable. Kidnapped victims are NEVER harmed, to harm the helpless is the ultimate dishonor. Instead, they are usually stripped of weapons and station markings and left in the public square, hands tied, or otherwise dropped somewhere embarrassing.

The initiation task was simple, a city guard captain, Ugaam the Steel, a malu (fish folk) Mercenary from House Horn (crest: black turtle on green) was giving their contact a hard time. He and four of his henchmen appear regularly in a Raosk Chimera House called the Phinsil’s Tail. The PC Spider was to bag the captain and deliver him to his contact, they would take him back to the city humiliated.

So, the thief went to the Chimera House and waited.

Ugaam arrived with his henchmen, Ihji, Waas, Pira and Sethik. Ugaam uses a naginata and mace, his henchmen use tridents, javelins and nets.

The party Spider waited for a time and cast a spell.

Now, a brief aside.

Normally casting a spell is obvious, you move your hands strangely and speak odd words, so casting in public gets attention.

However, the party Spider isn’t actually a Spider, he’s a multi-class Spider/Warlock. He has a spell called “Khostin’s Vermin Throng”, which summons 1 giant rat for every level of experience, he’s 7^th level, so he summons 7 giant rats.

Thing is, the material component of this spell is a small silver flute that you play to summon the rats.

Someone pulling out a whistle and playing it in a busy tavern would not seem unusual. This is a Chimera House, where patrons take small portions of potions mixed with drinks and get the initial sensation you get when you sip a potion that suggests what it can do. So he cast the spell and summoned the rats, directing them towards the guard captain and his henchmen.

All hell broke loose

The Chimera House was full of fishermen, mercenaries, traders, hunters, etc., so they didn’t all flee, some did, others took out weapons, others looked around to see if there were more rats, and the captain and his henchmen took out weapons to try and slay the rats as they swarmed towards them.

While all this was happening, the PC began to slip through the crowds to get behind the target. This required a surprise roll, which was successful.

In position he shattered a bottle over the captain’s head. In Bhakashal to knock someone out you strike them with a heavy object, if you get a critical you knock your opponent out, and you do half damage.

He was successful, but one of the henchmen saw the whole thing. The PC acted fast and shanked the guy, zeroing out his HP, and he collapsed to the ground unconscious.

The other henchmen were attacking giant rats.

The PC cast darkness against the back of the bar, to cover the exit.

He picked up the captain and slung him over his shoulder.

He fled towards the darkness, hoping to get free before the henchmen saw him.

He was successful in this, however, on his way out I rolled a d12. The guildmaster knew the party was asking about him, so he put a tail on them to see what they were up to. Every time they had an encounter I rolled to see if their tail was there, and if a PC noticed them. I had rolled about a dozen times before this over several sessions, it finally came up. The tail, a Chitin mercenary, had watched them for a while.

As the PC fled with the body over his shoulder, he saw the tail and recognized him, e.g., recognized that he had seen this guy several times over the last few days, always at a distance and just looking around.

He disappeared into the darkness, then out the back of the tent. He now had a body on his shoulder, and the henchmen would soon be outside looking for him. This was the tent they were in, he came out a flap in the back with the body

I immediately rolled to see if anyone on a neighboring platform saw him, nobody did at this point.

Now the PC scrambled, how do I get away with this body? People were streaming out the front of the tent, and eventually the captain’s henchmen would come out too.

The Chimera House is circled in red, the area between the Chimera House tent and the tent to it’s left was comparatively out of sight, it was nighttime and dark, so he dumped the body there and fled to find his contact several platforms over.

He gambled the henchmen wouldn’t look between the tents in the ark.

That gamble paid off, the henchmen did not see the captain unconscious in the darkness between the tents.

The PC arrived back with his contact, who was travelling with a Saan (lizard folk) phantasmist named Yorkun the Ambergris and four other chitin henchmen. They ran to the tents to grab the body. They got to the body and the phantasmist cast a spell making the body look like a trio of tightly rolled carpets, bound together. They walked away with it over their shoulders.

The guild contact then left with the PC, telling him he was “in” and agreeing on a time to meet to go to the next step.

While we were doing this, the other players left the room. It took about half an hour, and when they came back they had no idea what had happened.

That was cool.

After the Spider’s solo encounter, we switched to the Spartan (monk) and Mercenary (fighter) who had posed as potential bodyguards. Recall that their potential employer wanted to have his warlock cast ESP on them, one demurred and the other couldn’t be read. So he sent them off.

Now, as a referee I have to play the NPCs. Given that this guy is powerful and connected to the thieves guild, how would he treat two potential personal bodyguards, one that refused an ESP spell and another that was immune to it? A personal bodyguard immune to ESP would be handy, but the whole thing smelled bad. I know it’s bad, but the NPCs don’t, so how is this modelled?

I decided that he would be suspicious of anyone wanting a bodyguard role, as they would have direct access to him. He had them checked out, and their informants told him they were from House Quannar as they claimed, but that was all they knew.

Smart NPCs don’t make stupid decisions, so I ruled that Maur would go to the Temple of Bhammak and get one of the Seers (Bhakashal priests) to cast an Augury to determine if taking the PCs on as bodyguards would bring “weal or woe”.

If the PCs can do it, why wouldn’t the NPCs?

In this case, as they were planning on kidnapping the guy to get him to give up the identity and location of the guildmaster of the Raosk branch of the thieves guild, it was definitely “woe”.

So, he decided to have the party slain.

He had his agents contact them with a bogus story: someone in his organization wanted him dead, he had a trusted ally seek out evidence, and found it, a poisoned dagger planted in his house during the party the PCs had attended, for later access by an assassin. That ally found the PCs, gave them the dagger and a map to Maur Hoguelen’s “villa” in the marshlands. They are to take this crucial evidence to Hoguelen, and he will discuss their new jobs.

Instead, there is an ambush waiting for them in the location noted in the map.

They took the bait, the party warlock and priest met up with them and they planned on travelling to the villa in two groups, the Spartan and Mercenary (the two posing as bodyguards) would head out, and a few hours later the priest and warlock (using a copied map) would follow. The Spartan and Mercenary would find a safe spot to hide nearby the villa, set up camp, and wait for the Warlock and Seer to arrive. They would then head out, just the two of them, to the villa and see what happens.

The trip to the “villa” had two encounters. The Spartan and Mercenary were attacked by thornwood vines, but managed to flee before being damaged thanks to the vine missing its first two attacks.

The second encounter was with the Seer and Warlock. They were attacked by a pair of anhkhegs that sprung out of the ground sixty feet or so ahead of them on the trail they were following. The Warlock attempted to cast Rope Trick to escape. The party Seer took out weapons.

The larger of the 2 anhkhegs charged the Seer and struck with their mandibles, giving him a good gash across the chest. His return attack was ineffectual against the beast.

The smaller of the two spit acid against the party Warlock, disrupting his spell and searing him on one arm.

That was the first round.

Initiative was rolled and the PCs went first.

The Seer dropped his weapon to cast Cause Serious Wounds on the large anhkheg. As it happens he had never cast this spell before, only Cure spells.

Set the scene, the Seer stood before a savage anhkheg, slavering mere feet from him, mandibles open. He reached out to touch the beast. He needed to roll a 14 to hit.

He rolled a 14 on the nose.

Then he rolled damage, 2d8 + 1, he rolled double “8’s”, and the beast took 17 hp damage, lowering it to just below half hit points in one touch.

“You strike the beast on the side of its head, dark necromantic energy flows through you, draining the lift from the creature as it writhes in agony”

That was cool.

The warlock cast Magic Missile on the smaller beast

“You pull out four glowing spikes of energy from your forehead in sequence, each time flicking the spike towards your target, the sizzling purple spikes of energy cut through the air, swerving around the larger of the anhkhegs and the Seer and home in on the smaller beast. The four slam into it in rapid succession, each time a shock of energy sparks as the spike hits the creature, and it hisses in pain.”

A morale check was rolled, and the beasts fled.

This was a big win for both PCs, the Seer had been rolling badly lately, and the Warlock had too, so they were both pretty impressed with themselves, and justifiably so.

They met up with the other party members at the camp. They could see a curl of smoke in a distant forest, and they decided that the Spartan and the Mercenary would approach the villa with the dagger they were meant to deliver. The Warlock and Seer would wait behind at the camp, and the Mercenary and Spartan would report back.

The Mercenary and Spartan continued on, but when they turned into the clearing where the villa was to be they found this:

There was a roaring bonfire

There was a trio of 7’ tall algoids standing at attention

There was a trio of Saan (lizard folk) mercenaries

There was a short Emberi (human) sitting on a floating disc of energy, a small winged creature on his shoulder, he wore no shirt and his body was covered with runes. This was Gholgak the Charoite 6th level Emberi Fabricus Inquisitor Warlock from House Dhom. Gholgak owed Maur a favor, and his job is to kill the Spartan and Fighter as they pose a threat to Maur.

Gholgak orders the Algoids to approach the party and stand between him and them.

He tells the party that Maur knows of their ill intent and they will not leave this place alive.

At that point the party fighter screamed to the far off Seer and Warlock to help them, then they turned to flee.

The algoids are slow but went in pursuit.

Gholgak cast The Sinister Smoke Serpent of Illyig the Corpulent, they had a fire going to power the spell, and a snake-like column of smoke came from the bonfire, streaking through the night air to come crashing down on the fleeing PCs.

The Spartan made a saving throw and managed to jump out of the way of the descending column of smoke. The fighter was less fortunate, the column of smoke enveloped him, and he dropped to the ground choking and coughing.

We stopped there.

 

Three sessions, three different scenarios, three different groups of players, varying degrees of success, but all were exciting, risky and unpredictable. All involved factional play, all were deeply imbedded in city politics and attempts to gain power.

Adventure awaits!