Building Bhakashal - Session Report - Dungeon Crawling!

As it happens, dungeon crawls are not common in our game, but this week my Dad’s group continued their delve into Tamoachan! This is a great opportunity to show how crawling works in Bhakashal and discuss adjudication. I have yet to run a game where there isn’t at least one or more instances where I have to make a ruling on something that isn’t covered directly or obviously in the rules. This is a regular part of refereeing that is ignored by many, but helps to put the RAW vs rules improv issue into a more nuanced light.

The vibe in this module is creepy, it is pitch dark except for torchlight, I’m tracking turns, torch burning times, and rolling for random encounters every turn, 1 in 12 odds. This means that taking time to do anything has a cost. I periodically mention moaning or howling noises, that the party has decided are the air moving through the complex, or maybe not. I’ll randomly announce that they hear a, “hiss”, or “shriek”, or “chittering”, or whatever else comes to mind, to mimic the hundreds of small creatures that inhabit this complex. The whole shrine is waterlogged and hot as hell, miasmatic and fetid, in places the stucco is sliding down the walls, giving the whole place a decrepit, decaying vibe. Their splashing through watery areas masks other noises, one time when they were standing looking at something I told them they heard splashing behind them. That sobered them up fast.

Add that they can see about 40’ ahead from the torchlight, anything further ahead is enshrouded in pitch black darkness, which means that as they explore corridors can look endless and thing sort of appear as they advance without warning.

It’s delicious.

I don’t know why people say AD&D “can’t do horror”, never underestimate the fear of the unknown, my players were genuinely terrified, the atmosphere created a mountain of tension.

This week they decided to double back and go into a corridor they avoided, finding that about halfway down there was an entrance to a side room that was blocked by a giant stone. They heaved on the stone (four of them) and managed to push it back to gain entrance to a room. That movement plus pushing took a turn, so I rolled for a random encounter, nothing, and noted a turn off of the torch burning time. They slid past the stone to a chamber with doors. There was lime on the stone that now began to burn their hands after pushing on it.

So, they spent a turn washing them off to stop the burning. That required another random encounter roll, which came up negative. The party Seer cast Find Traps on the door ahead of them, which lasts 3 turns. They turned up a trap!

At this point the party Thaumaturge (thief/magic-user) came forward and I had to make a decision, does find traps just tell you a trap is there, or does it tell you what kind of trap it is? The spell description says that traps will become “visible to them”. So, I ruled that this allowed the caster to see the outline of the mechanics of the trap, like an X-ray, in this case a trip switch on the door that released when it was pushed in, breaking a glass sphere.

The Thaumaturge rolled to disarm the trap and was successful, she jammed an iron spike in behind the trip switch so it couldn’t break the glass sphere.

They entered the room and looked around there was an axe imbedded in the wall and a raised area of stone. They extended the Find Traps to the whole room. Here again I had to adjudicate. First, there was a vampire in the raised stone area, it was a tomb.

And there is a mechanism to open up the tomb, you have to turn some dials, so there is a mechanism to turn dials and release a vampire. Is that a trap? I decided it wasn’t; it was a tomb.

Then there was the cursed axe. Note it casts a shadow that looks like a severed arm! That was a juicy detail that creeped them out.

It can’t come off the wall until the vampire is slain, but when it does it is cursed and can’t be put down. Is that a trap? I vacillated on this one, but ultimately decided it wasn’t a trap, it was a cursed weapon that would be entirely functional in the hands of a chaotic evil warrior. So, in this case they found no traps. However, the party Seer then got smart and decided to cast Detect Evil, and both the tomb and the axe pinged as BIG E evil. The DMG spell description gives some options, I chose “longing evil”, as both creatures longed to have the PCs interact with them.

They decided at that point to book it.

That was another turn, so we rolled for a random encounter, nothing. They left and headed down the corridor to a rubble filled stairway. They spent a turn digging and then their Find Traps spell expired. They spent another turn digging only to have debris keep falling down.

So, they abandoned the area. Two random encounter rolls in these turns came up negative, then I informed them their torches were about to burn out, there was some scrambling and they lit new torches. At that point the Detect Evil spell wore off. They headed back to the room with the pool and the underwater ledge. I rolled and the Nerid was not there.

They continued to the next door, and the party Thaumaturge checked it for traps. She’s earning her keep! That takes a turn, so another random encounter roll with nothing turning up. The party fighter stepped up and heaved, opening the old, jammed door.

They sloshed through water (ruining any chance of surprising any foes) and found more doors. The Thaumaturge once again checked for traps and found none. That was another turn, no wandering monsters. This opened up into a long hallway. Because their light only reaches 40’ ahead, they essentially advance into an area of pitch blackness as they move forward.

The Seer decided to cast Detect Traps again, and they set forward down a long corridor. Then came another adjudication question, does Detect Traps find secret doors? The rules don’t specify, but in this case I decided that it would not register, a secret door is not a trap.

However, as they went down the hall they saw some artwork on the wall, the Thaumaturge checked it out and ended up activating the secret door. That was another turn, and another failed wandering monster check. They went a bit further down the hall and the spell pinged on the end of the corridor where there were arrow traps, which they avoided. They went back to the secret door and went through.

They found a corridor with carvings of animal heads on the side, and what appeared to be a bracelet caught in the mouth of one of the animals. The Seer used his spell to check for traps and found that the beak of the animal would close on anyone grabbing the bracelet.

The Thaumaturge jammed in an iron spike to keep it from closing and the party warlock pulled out the bracelet. While the rest of the party investigated the other heads, he spent another turn casting Identify on the bracelet to find out its powers (it allows flesh to stone or  the reverse to be cast three times, then it becomes a ring of stone shape, three times for that and it stops working).

Another wandering monster failed check. They continued down the corridor, pushing through the darkness, when suddenly a mummified human body was floating in the air in front of them. There were screams and jumping in chairs. Soon they could see a number of hanging mummified corpses.

 The Find Traps spell was still active, and they found a pressure plate trap in the middle of the room, they noted it’s location, turned around and took a different corridor.

They found a side chamber in this corridor with a chest. They used the last of the Find Traps here to discover at pressure plate trap. The party warlock cast Levitation and was pushed forward with a rope around his waist, he opened up the chest and took out a statue of a strange fish like being that looked like nothing natural they had ever seen. That creeped them out too.

During this process I rolled a wandering monster encounter with two huge spiders (these are horse sized), crawling along the ceiling. They gained surprise and dropped on the party Thaumaturge and second Mercenary (both NPCs!). The Mercenary took some minor damage but made his poison save, the Thaumaturge was missed.

The Mercenary split the spider in half with his bastard sword, the Thaumaturge cast Burning Hands on the beast and did enough damage to drive it off with a failed morale check. They pressed on to find a door, which the party Mercenary opened handily (and noisily).

They entered into a room, It was filled with statues, they couldn’t see all of the room, so they were a bit spooked. They wandered around the room for a time looking at the statues and the cairn on the far side, then they found doors and left the room.

I told them before leaving that their torches were burning out again.

They replaced torches and moved on, checking the doors for traps then forcing them open. Another turn, another failed wandering monster check. They walked down a long corridor, seemingly endless in the dark, and came to a large stone blocking the corridor. Three of them put their shoulders into it and pushed the stone up an incline on rollers, slowly but surely. That took another turn, and another failed wandering monster check.

At the top of the incline, they settled the stone and continued on. The corridor twisted and turned, and they saw pictures on the walls depicting some sort of game, which they studied for a time. They came to a turn in the hall and a capstone, covered with runes, was in the intersection. The party warlock cast Comprehend Languages on the runes, and they saw the message, “Dare not open this pit unless you be willing to meet the challenge of the game”.

They decided against it and moved on to the end of the corridor. By that time another turn had went by, and another failed wandering monster check. They came to another door, the Thaumaturge checked it for traps again, coming up clean, and the party Mercenary tried to force the door. He failed, and the NPC mercenary tried and succeeded. Another turn, another failed check.

This room had a cat motif, with a cat statue, a bunch of stuffed cats, and a cat mural on the wall. They briefly went around the room then decided to leave and go back to another door they had abandoned. That took a turn, another failed check followed.

They have been mapping, and they traced back the route to the room with hanging mummified corpses. They avoided the trap and checked the door on the far side for traps. The Thaumaturge found nothing, and the Mercenary heaved the door open, in this case releasing a waft of stale, stench filled air that made their torches sputter and give off a wan, greenish light.

That was just for effect, but it got them nervous.

Another turn to check the door, another wandering monster check failed.

They entered the room and found two bodies lying on slabs with a knife, a flask and goblets in between them. They looked around, avoiding the bodies, and decided to take knife and the flask and leave, thus not triggering the two bodies to come to life. Some of my groups turn over everything in the room before leaving, the Dads were moving along after a short inspection.

Another turn, another failed check.

The warlock, who had been towed along by the mercenary NPC, settled to the ground as his Levitation spell wore off.

They backtracked to the room with the cairn and statues. They decided to explore the room more closely and went to the cairn. They smashed it open and found some jade bead pectorals and a silver amulet.

The party Mercenary tried to pry a lantern off the floor and opened a secret door!

“A blackened humanoid corpse lies in the chamber beneath the floor, it’s skin blackened and cracked with age, it’s clothing mere rags, and an unbearable stench wafting out and filling the room around you. Then, it’s eyes snap open!”

A wight in the secret compartment woke up! It reached out to grab the Mercenary but he managed to dodge it’s grasp. The Mercenary brought his magical trident down on the beast and rolled a critical, doubling damage, and slaying the thing instantly, as it emitted a horrifying, unliving scream!

Another turn, another failed encounter check.

They saw an amulet on the wight and took it off, leaving the room immediately and making their way back to the cat motif room. That took another turn and another failed wandering monster check.

We stopped there.

Observations

This module is very atmospheric. The per turn wandering monster check is a constant time pressure on the party, as well as the torch burning. Systematic exploration of a dungeon with it’s strange distant sounds and encroaching darkness creates a constant low-level dread. Every time they explore an area, use a spell or move around time passes, every time they check for traps they spend a turn. Every turn brings the possibility of some monster descending upon them.

Yes, they have very handy spells, but every step they take is dangerous, so they may be able to avoid traps, but they are still at risk. They also have to abandon potential loot if they find a trap and decide to bail. They unknowingly bailed on a vampire, good call really, but there was loot in that room they abandoned.

I was personally shocked no one tried to take the evil axe.

I have played with refs that want to nerf divination magic like this as it “takes all the challenge out of it”, but they forget how detecting a trap just makes the players dread it and worry about whether or not they should be trying to disarm it. And traps in AD&D can go off when you try to disarm them, so even if you know it is there, it’s still a danger. Not to mention that you have to concentrate to find traps, so you can’t be casting other spells when you are looking.

So, using the spell doesn’t really take away the challenge, it just changes the course of action.

High tension combines with awesome art.

When we finished they were 21 turns, 3-1/2 hours into their delve, and they have 3 turns remaining before their current torches burn out. They have enough torches to last for 4 more hours, at that point they will have to resort to spells, and the Seer has been using up their low level spells for divination magic, so they might end up getting caught flat footed.

This session was a reminder of how valuable each member of the party can be, the Seer and Warlock cast divination magics, the Mercenaries muscled the doors and the giant stone blocks, the Thaumaturge checked for traps regularly, finding several.

Dungeon exploring is a team sport. The claustrophobic, wet, decaying environment, the mysterious sounds and utter darkness of the space, and the unique monsters/mythology of the shrine make this one of the most atmospheric and terrifying modules in TSR’s catalogue.

They are having an absolute blast.

Hopefully we won’t take a month to get back together again.

Building Bhakashal – Session Report – They Split the Party!

Today’s game was a good example of how to handle a complicated session.

My Thursday group split up to do different things:

Group 1 stayed behind in the city to address some housekeeping tasks, one of them wanted to spend a week training his new pet baby wyvern, the other wanted to train for a week riding his new mount, a Kestram (giant bird).

Groups 2 and 3 were tasked with helping Brass Blade Guild raiders (the Brass Blade Spider’s Guild is Bhakashal’s Thieves Guild, the PCs are now running it) who were being foiled by marshland patrols from House Tairn. It’s a delicate situation, and the remainder of the party split into two more groups, Group 2 stayed behind in in the raider’s land camp, Group 3 went along with the raiders as they attacked an incoming merchant ship.

So, we had three groups on three fronts.

I know some referees dislike this sort of play, but Bhakashal is a true sandbox game, which means that whatever the PCs choose is what we do, if they want to split the party, then it’s my job to run the encounters.

The rule at our table is this, when the party splits, the referee switches from group to group, splitting up the session time roughly equally between them. Players have two choices, they can stay around the table when it is not their turn, but if they do so they must pay attention and not be disruptive. I will usually get them to roll dice for me or run any party NPCs with that group, so they have something to do.

Alternatively, they can leave the table and come back when it is their turn. I actually somewhat prefer this option as it keeps them in the dark to things happening when they aren’t there.

This week they opted to stay at the table.

We started with the group who was mid-combat at the end of last session. There was one action left from the end of the last round (the first round in combat), when the raider’s ship, The Domino, caught up with the merchant ship, The Astrolabe. The party Spartan (monk) had to shoot his bow from the raider’s ship. He managed to hit the spellcaster on the Astrolabe twice, doing decent damage.

Then the new round started, initiative was rolled and the combatants were sequenced. As an aside, Bhakashal’s combat system is proving to be ideal for large fights between big groups, roll initiative, add modifiers for weapon speed or spell casting time, and the segment of your action is determined.

Easy as pie.

Things moved fast and furious.

The bandit crossbowmen shot en masse, slaying 1 and wounding 2 crewmembers on the merchant ship.

 Their ship was slowly closing the gap, but they were still at medium range and taking penalties.

The House Tairn Chitin Warlock, Umi the Chaolite, cast Flame Arrow on the crossbow bolts of several House Tairn regulars who shot a volley off at the Domino. The party spartan managed to knock two of the flaming bolts aside, but another sailor on the Domino was killed, another wounded, and one of the bolts set the sail alight, sending crewmembers scrambling to set out the fire.

The spell caster on the Merchant Ship, one Asil Merr the Mirach, cast a Protection From Normal Missiles spell as he was spooked by the Spartan's shots.

The House Tairn warlock on the second barge, the Malu, Chilonder Bix, cast Phantasmal Force (as an aside, many people forget that regular magic-users can use Phantasmal Force too). He created the illusion of a group of 4 Malu boarding the Domino from the water. Malu are well known as sailors and it would not have been unusual for a few to enter the water when the fight started and swim over to attack this way, so I did not give the crew disbelief saves, and the PCs suspected nothing, only one noting that Chilonder Bix likely cast a buffing spell of some kind, as they saw him casting something but saw no effects.

Two shots from Domino’s ballistae hit the Astrolabe, both were on the side, high above the waterline, warnings that they could shoot lower and have the ship take on water.

Then Thurva, the leader of the raiders and a Thaumaturge, cast Moonsal’s Ichorous Syphon from a scroll. Thaumaturges are thief/magic-users that only use scroll spells. This particular casting of the Ichorous Syphon was scribed at high level, so this gave her the range to cast it near the Astrolabe, she used the Syphon to collect water and caused it to rise up like a snake and crash down on the  Astrolabe’s warlock, Asil Merr the Mirach. Unfortunately for him, he failed his saving throw and the spell drowned him on the deck of his own ship.

We broke their and shifted to the group doing the training. The party Conjuror (a new player) and the party Mercenary (fighter) spent the day in the Bhakashal marshlands, the Conjuror learning how to ride his Kestram while the Mercenary stayed on land below training his baby wyvern. They were heading back at night when I rolled an encounter.

As an aside, in a factional game there are always people after you, to reflect the possibility that one of these parties might show up unexpectedly, when I roll for encounters I roll an extra d6, on a “1” the encounter is with one of these NPCs/monsters who are out to get the party. I have a list of these NPCs/monsters, it's getting long!

As it happens, I rolled a 1 on the d6 so the two PCs were going to encounter someone who was out looking for them. In this case it was two NPCs that had been sent to spy on the party as they are suspected as being the new leaders of the Bhakashal Brass Blade Guild. House Magnar (Crest: Gold Dragon on Black), who are in command of the commercial/banking ward are angling to take over the guild, so they have sent NPCs to keep tabs on the PCs and determine if they are indeed the new Guild leaders and collect information about them.

They, of course, have no idea about this.

So the PCs, flying on the back of their Kestrem, see two people in the marshland below, with the coils of a purple liash plant around them. This was entirely a set up, they were feigning being in distress to draw the party’s attention.

And it worked.

The two of them flew down, dismounted and used a Charm Monster spell to get the plant to relax, releasing the two NPCs, one was “unconscious” and the other instantly gave him a drink from a potion bottle, acting desperate to save his life.

They fell for it hook, line and sinker.

They began to talk, asking who the NPCs were, what happened, etc. The represented themselves as travelers (I rolled a chance that the PCs might have met these men before in their time in the city, but that came up negative), heading to the city on their way through the marshlands. It was a plausible story.

The two NPCs gave the PCs gifts to thank them for the “rescue”, a large gem and a magical dagger (+1). The conversation went quite well, and the party fighter offered to help track and retrieve the mounts that the NPCs claimed were spooked when the plant attacked. He and one of the NPCs (a spartan) went off after the mounts

The PC conjuror and the NPC fighter walked along together discussing the NPCs plans in the city and his position on various issues of the day.

The NPCs are going to stay in the party’s orbit, playing the part of grateful friends rescued from certain death by the brave PCs, offering themselves up as “henchmen”, and report back to their masters when they have gathered enough information to be sure that the PCs do indeed run the guild.

It’s like an onion.

Then it was on to the last group.

The party warlock (magic-user), spider/warlock (thief/magic-user) and Slayer (ranger/assassin) were staying at the raider’s forest hideout with the 10 raiders that did not go out on the Domino, guarding the hideout.

The PCs were gambling with the raiders. When PCs want to gamble in the game we generally break out the cards or dice and actually play a game at the table. Today we played Onitama, it’s a variant on chess where the moves for the pieces change between moves outlined on cards that you draw and play. Games like this are perfect for the table as they are similar to games they know (in this case chess), but different enough that they feel appropriate to the game world.

In Bhakashal you can play a game of chess where the moves for the pieces change as the game progresses, that feels just different enough to fit the vibe of the setting, but it is similar enough that it feels familiar to the players.

That’s the sweet spot.

They played a round of the game then decided to call it a night. I rolled for a potential encounter in the night and one came up. All the PCs were sleeping when it did.

Their ledger of “people looking for them” was actually pretty long. I rolled for the last encounter and the two NPCs came up. This time I rolled the d6 and got a 1 again, so this time it was a Gyre that showed up.

The PCs took over running the guild, the former House Quannar Warlock that ran the Guild before the Raosk and City branches were unified by the party was one Riyan the Raze. She was extremely pissed that the PCs managed to convince the other factional leaders to vote for them and put them in a position to lead the newly unified guild.

Riyan decided to send someone to bloody their noses and keep them off balance.

She sent Ghanglor Terrik a 7^th level Garudin (bird-person) Wind Gyre. Gyres in Bhakashal manipulate raw magic energy into their particular aspect. As a wind gyre, Ghanglor is essentially an air-bender. 

Since the party was sleeping their perspective on the encounter was this,

“You awake to a cacophony outside your tent, screaming winds, crashing, cries of pain and panic, you look outside and you see 8 of the 10 raiders from the camp flailing about in the air, cartwheeling past each other, sometimes crashing into each other, crossbow bolts fall from quivers, as do swords and knives. The wind is deafening, like a concentrated hurricane, and leaves and branches whirl through the air, blinding you.”

Ghanglor can summon air elementals with a magic item of his, and he sent one in.

Elementals are EXTREMELY POWERFUL in Bhakashal, and we'll see how they handle this.

We stopped there.

Each group got about half an hour of direct play while the other groups rolled dice or played NPCs.

It is fascinating as any of these encounters would have been much different if the whole party was there, they are all around 8^th-9^th level, pretty formidable all things considered. Splitting up changed the tenor of the encounters considerably. Next week the fighter and conjuror are supposed to be flying out to meet the party at the raider’s camp, we’ll see if they bring along the two NPCs they “rescued”, and if they arrive to a raider’s camp full of corpses.

Once again I am reminded that once you start up a sandbox game, it runs itself. The consequences of party actions in a factionalized setting will generate an endless array of new encounters and adventures for the PCs.

Good stuff.

Building Bhakashal - Session Report  

My Friday group has achieved status as Bhakashal nobility, based on their successful execution of a task, namely building a teleportation circle between the underworld and Bhakashal. A few sessions ago one of my players asked if we could do a “classic, old-school module”, his dad had played AD&D BITD and had a bunch of modules at home. I was, of course, happy to oblige. The obvious choice was the Drow modules, but I have an almost pathological aversion to elves.

So I decided that the Drow were the ONLY elves in the setting, exiled to the underworld thousands of years ago, and a drow raiding party found their teleportation circle, skirmished with it’s guardians (a group of mid-level chitin archers and a pair of purple worms) and left. The party decided to track them back to their home to assess the threat to their holdings.

Last week’s session was pretty straightforward; they encountered a group of troglodytes. As it happens there are fewer humanoid monsters in Bhakashal, so they hadn’t encountered trogs before. They were fortunate in that they managed surprise on the trogs and used a combination of AOE spells and some excellent melee combat to slay enough of them that the remaining trogs fled, and they followed them back to their cave, slaying enough of them that the remainder fled. A small treasure haul whetted their appetite, and they pressed on.

Play in Bhakashal is factional, and routine hack and slash is not the regular fare for my group, so they found this all to be quite exciting. No need to negotiate or parley, no need to play one faction against another or consider the long-term consequences of their actions, just sword and board then find the loot.

All was good.

They pressed on into the main caves towards the Vault of the Drow, images of piles of loot dancing in their heads.

What they wee not aware of, and what they were to subsequently learn, was that the drow are not easy marks. Every drow has innate spell casting abilities, ridiculously low AC, and they are intelligent. Very intelligent. Many of the foes they have fought have been unintelligent monsters, animals and low to average intelligence 0-level soldier types. They are used to fighting opponents where there will be skirmishing groups with a single mid-to-high level spellcaster.

Bhakashal is different from traditional D&D in a few ways, the HP are on average lower for everyone and they are always rolled, never assigned or inflated. Magic items are always rolled for, never assigned, and thus less common for PCs. Also, AC values are higher (e.g., worse) as it is a tropical setting, no one is running around in full plate, and most of the heavier forms of armor are eschewed as it is part of a martial honor culture to fight without extensive armor protection.

Gygax designed the drow to be a challenge for high level parties who were used to being overpowered due to excessive magic items, with bloated HP and low AC. Your average 2^nd level drow fighter has an AC of 1, anyone higher level than that often has negative ACs.

With all this in mind, they encountered a large drow caravan at the end of last session. They have encountered caravans before in Bhakashal. They usually have a bunch of 0-level soldiers, a few mid-level mercenaries, and a single mid-to-high level spellcaster.

This was a large caravan, with 9 giant lizard pack animals, 14 drow guards, 16 bugbears, 4 drow sergeants, 8 merchants and a train of 20 slaves. What makes this so challenging is that even the Drow mooks are 2^nd level, AC 1 and have innate spell casting ability, and the “merchants” are 4/4 fighter/clerics with innate and clerical spell casting ability and AC: -3!

The party was spotted easily by the drow caravan, who were used to operating in the dark, and they engaged in parley. This is where the party made a fundamental mistake, they saw this huge caravan, with 18 fully kitted out drow guards, 16 bugbears and 20 chained up slaves and thought, “they are just a merchant caravan, no big deal”.

During the parley the party tried to present themselves as harmless travelers, but they were obviously topsiders, and trespassers in drow territory. I rolled an encounter reaction and they got lucky, a mildly positive result had the drow essentially warn them off, tell them to leave immediately or they would be dealt with.

The party took that as a challenge.

Initiative was rolled.

I roll everything in the open, and as it happens I rolled TERRIBLY this session. I think that may be the main reason they didn’t get slaughtered.

The lead drow fired off hand crossbows and javelins and all missed. The players had a good laugh at that, thinking these were low level mooks and that this would be a cakewalk. The two party tanks charged forward and through rolling a pair of criticals got extra attacks and neatly polished off the four lead drow warriors (all 2nd level).

One of the players did note with concern that even the “mooks” had low AC (in Bhakashal you add your opponent’s AC to your to hit roll so you know their AC when you attack them), but they brushed that off.

The party warlock has Power Word Stun. He loves casting it as it is a no save spell, so it takes out whoever he targets handily. What he should have realized was that it only takes out one target, and there were over 40 enemies in this fight. He targeted one of the mounted drow and took him out, there was much back slapping and hooting at the table.

The party gyre (he’s an earth gyre) created a pit between the mounted drow warriors and the party to stop them from charging, it was a good tactical move against mounted warriors. Three of the bugbears fell into the pit, but none died. There was a bit of mumbling about that, they had no idea bugbears were 3HD creatures. The party necromancer and thief took off on the necromancers worra (giant bat), planning to fly to the rear of the caravan and attack from above. A good tactical move, but it took them out of the fight for a short time while they moved from place to place. So far though, everything was going well.

“These guys are going to be easy!”

Then things went pear shaped.

Charging the drow in the front rank put the two party tanks in spell casting range.

They are all high level PCs, with great saving throw numbers, however, there were 8 fighter/clerics and 14 fighter drow with innate spell casting ability in range at that point. D&D is a numbers game at some point, and with that many saving throws to make, sooner or later you fail.

In addition, when the party first appeared the caravan dispatched 4 drow warriors, with their elven cloaks and boots to conceal them, two to either flank of the party. When the fight started they fired off their sleep poison coated bolts at the party.

First, the party Myrmidon was blinded by a Light spell from a drow warrior.

Then the Justiciar was blinded by another warrior drow.

The Warlock was paralyzed by the lead fighter/cleric’s Hold Person spell.

The Necromancer was paralyzed by a Hold Person spell while passing over the caravan.

The Slayer guide (an NPC) was paralyzed by a Hold Person as well.

Finally, the party’s newest member, a Theurgist (Bhakashal fighter/illusionist) was put to sleep by a crossbow bolt.

The only two party members that made it through this FIRST ROUND of combat was the thief and the gyre. Both of whom decided to flee. The thief was already airborne and simply kept flying. The gyre has Wings of Flying, he scooped up the sleeping Theurgist and they fled.

Fortunately for them, although there were four drow close enough to fire at them as they fled, all missed due to my terrible rolling.

Now they are in a panic. The party members who were blinded and paralyzed were quickly rounded up, stripped of magic items and chained, prisoners who would be taken back to the drow homeland to be either sold as slaves, slaughtered or left to some other nefarious fate.

The remaining three PCs are trying to figure out what to do. Initially they planned on flying back to the teleport circle, heading back to Bhakashal and coming back with a few House Quannar patrols to raise hell, until I pointed out to them that by the time they did that the caravan would be long gone and they might never find them again.

They considered maybe tracking the caravan from a distance until it got rid of the PCs somewhere, but at that point if they went back to the city for reinforcements who knows where the captured PCs would be, or even if they would still be alive when they returned.

They will have the week between sessions to contemplate this dilemma and come up with a plan. In the mean time, the captured PCs will be marching, in chains, along with the caravan. Perhaps they will figure out some way to gain their freedom, but that seems unlikely.

The only slim hope they have IMO is that there is a NPC drow fighter/magic-user who is travelling with the caravan but not aligned with them, if they can somehow gain his trust they might be able to swing something with his help, but that is a long-shot.

One of  the benefits of running a number of campaigns in Bhakashal for the last 5 years is that I have a lot of playtesting data. Sessions like Fridays are a reminder that the system works. The party is all 9th - 10th level in experience, they have a collection of very effective spells and abilities. They are formidable in the right circumstances, but at any time they can be brought down by low level threats if there are enough of them or they just roll badly. 

Combat should always be risky, Bhakashal caps HP so the classes don't experience 1e style HP bloat, Bhakashal gives up the scope of HD by restricting the HD to d8 and d6, no more d4 or d10. In addition, after 5th level instead of rolling new HP you RE-ROLL an old result, this means fighters have a maximum of 40 hp, warlocks a maximum of 30 hp. 

The net effect, along with the impact of saving throws, which similarly mean there is always a chance of failure, means that PCs are at risk at all levels, even if they are more formidable, and will have more protections/immunities, by high level.   

Big fun!

Building Bhakashal - Session Report

My Thursday group had a fun session this week. Bhakashal has rules for generating ships and crew so you can have naval battles. Most ships have a spellcaster in the crew, something that makes it even more interesting. A former group spent 8 months traveling across the globe on a ship having adventures, and I ran a solo-campaign for a friend who played a warlock who signed on as a ship’s magician and spent his adventuring time protecting them from pirates and monsters.

My Thursday group are Bhakashal nobility, this means they can send out underlings to deal with many of their problems. They are also now in charge of the Bhakashal Brass Blade Spider’s Guild (Thieves guild), and they are balancing running the guild and operating in the House.

The guild supports raiders that attack incoming merchant ships that don’t pay their guild dues, and recently one of their raider groups has been getting pushback from marshland patrols in House Tairn territory. The PCs decided to address this issue in person, instead of sending underlings.

But rather than all of them going, they split up. The party fighter stayed back in the city training his new pet baby wyvern, while the party’s newest member, a conjuror, stayed back to train his new mount, a Kestram (giant bird). This left the party warlock, spider/warlock and Spartan (monk). They traveled to meet the raiders at their camp, and after some discussion the party Spartan decided to accompany them on their next raid so he could sort out the patrols that were harassing them. For some reason, they decided that sending out one party member was the best course of action, and the other two party members stayed behind at the raider’s camp.

The raiders hid in a cove along the Sklar River and the Spartan swam out to meet the oncoming ship and the two barges with House Tairn patrols accompanying it. Last session the Spartan climbed on to one of the barges and slayed two guards, but the leader of the patrol gave as good as he got, and the Spartan fled back into the water.

This session we picked up from there.

The Spartan went to the raider ship, and they set out in pursuit of the merchant ship. The leader of the raiders is a Bhakashal Thaumaturge named Thurva Theyliss, thaumaturges are thief/magic-users who only use scroll spells. Their ship is called the Domino, a small galley, with a red flag of a Black malu head with Red domino mask.

When the emerged from the cove and began pursuit Thurva cast a Phantasmal Force spell and created the illusion of a wall of thick mist between the ships. That wall of mist moved with the Domino and began to overtake the merchant ship.

Thinking this was odd, the spellcaster aboard the merchant ship, the Astrolabe, a rakasta named Willen Smokil the Onyx, smelled trouble, and cast a Mokuul the Mighty’s Monstrous Conjuration spell (Bhakashal’s version of Monster Summoning), obtaining a snapping turtle (a L sized creature). He sent that turtle into the mists to see what was there. Thurva could see the turtle approaching (her crew could not, illusions work like that in Bhakashal), so she decided to deal with the turtle before it damaged her ship.

She took out a scroll and cast the reverse of Stone to Flesh on the giant turtle. The creature failed its save, turned to stone, and sank immediately to the bottom of the river. She then dismissed the illusion, revealing her ship, so her crew could see the merchant ship.

The players thought that was pretty awesome.

At that point the Warlock on the merchant ship realized that they were dealing with another spell caster and cast Globe of Invulnerability on himself. 

I did some quick distance measurements to determine the separation between the ships, and we were off! Initiative was rolled, and the chaos began.

First off were the crossbowmen on the two ships and the two barges. The shots were made from Long range, so the full -5 penalty applied. Most of the shooters were 0-levels, with a mix of mid-level and a small group of high-level fighters.

The fighters from the first House Tairn barge fired off a volley of bolts at the Domino and managed to slay two crewmembers. The crossbowmen from the second House Tairn barge fired and slayed 2 more. The Domino crew returned fire, slaying 3 members of the merchant ship crew. However, their crossbows fired as the warlock on Barge 1 cast Ammon Marr’s Missile Inversion and snatched 7 bolts from the air and returned them to their source, slaying 3 more of the crew on the Domino.

 At this point the warlock on Barge 2 caster cast Magic Missile at Thurva, the players were sure this would be her demise, Warlocks (and Thaumaturges), don’t have the best HP, and Magic Missiles never miss. What they didn’t know was that Thurva had Fregoth’s Rapier at her side:

Fregoth’s Rapier (AR) This thin, razor-sharp blade comes with an elaborate filigree cage hilt encrusted with emerald slivers. It is a +1 weapon with the damage profile of a short sword and a weapon speed of 3. When wielded by an arcane caster it is a +3 weapon, with the damage profile of a longsword and a weapon speed of 2. It also acts as a magnet for Magic Missiles, drawing them in when shot at the wielder. The sword can attract up to the wielder’s level in Magic Missiles per day.

 I tend to make a big deal out of describing spells when they are cast, it adds to the flavor of the game,

“One of the House Tairn patrol warlocks, a stern Chitin named Chilonder Bix, touched his finger to his forehead and pulled out a long, glowing chain of magic missiles, he pulled back the chain and then whipped it forward, the missiles separated from the insubstantial chain and whistled through the air, corkscrewing along in the darkness, their bright crimson glow making them look like embers from a fire blown by the wind. As they approached Thurva they suddenly deviated from their path and struck the blade of her sword, now in hand, there was a sound like crystal smashing, and a brief shudder along the length of the blade. The raider’s leader smiled and winked at Bix in the distance.”

The players LOVED that. One of the nice things about Bhakashal is that it is jam packed with magic items they have never heard of, so when something like this comes up they are genuinely surprised and impressed.

 

We stopped there, and will resume the fight next session. The fighter and conjuror will be arriving on the back of the Kestram on the next day, so they will likely miss most of the fight. The warlock and spider/warlock may or may not appear during the fight, at the moment they are sitting it out.

Adventure awaits!

Building Bhakashal – Session Report - Domain Play

My Thursday group is knee deep in domain play mode, last session they executed a task to pay back a Lord from their House and head of one of the House factions, Umani the Onyx, who had voted in their favor and helped them gain full control of the newly united thieves guild. Umani wants to gain control of the trades guilds for House Quannar, and the guilds were up in arms about a pair of dragon turtles who have been attacking their ships coming in from the coast. The PCs agreed to deal with the dragon turtles as a favor to Umani. They were successful dealing with the dragon turtles, and they found their treasure hoard.

Treasure hoard’s for dragons are wild, they found huge amounts of coin (we rolled at the table for the contents of the hoard, and they scored big time on the coin). Unfortunately, the party warlock was strangled to death by a cursed magic rope. Fortunately, they managed to get his body back to the city where it was placed in the healing pools and restored to life.

Bhakashal nobility has its privileges.

They then set to spending some of their loot on various things.

The party Spider/Warlock (thief/magic-user) swapped spells with another warlock from the House, gaining the spell Morshoggoth’s Evasive Lanyard (this spell temporarily turns a regular rope into a rope of climbing).

The party warlock, recently revived, swapped spells with another warlock from the House, and gained Massmorph in return.

One of the party fighters had special arrows made with meteorite steel and adamantine arrowheads, burning through almost all of his share of the loot from the dragon turtle hoard.

This all took a week to sort out.

When they were lower-level PCs they had a patron, now they are patrons themselves. They have taken on a mid-level party and send them on assignments. They had sent out their party 3 weeks ago to try and secure some green dragon eggs. When they send out the party, I total the HD/levels of all their foes, adjusting for special abilities and advantages, and I total up the levels of their party, create a ratio, and roll to see if they were successful or not.

As it happens, they were not successful and lost 2 party members in the attempt. They returned at the end of the week of activity by the PCs to report on successfully finding the dragons and learning about their lair, but failing to capture the eggs. The PCs gave them all a small stipend for their limited success, then recruited two new members and sent them back out again. Deciding on tasks for their party, celebrating their wins and lamenting their losses has become a source of endless entertainment for the players.

At this point they were at loose ends, the thieves guild was recently reunited under their watch and authority, they installed their chosen leader as the new Red Arachne and put down an attempted coup. The day-to-day operation of the guild was the Arachne’s purview, they were mainly interested when they needed the guild to do something for them, or when there were problems that the Arachne wanted to hand off to them.

To simulate this process, I roll every session to see if a problem has “come up the ranks” to them, and this session one did. Bhakashal has a system for generating tasks for patrons and other high-level nobles, I used this system to generate a “problem” for the guild that the PCs were asked to solve. Villages in the marshlands hunt, fish and farm, but a select few of them also harvest monsters for some product they can produce. Three villages in House Westrill territory (Kacin, Russwood and Muga), have figured out a way to crystallize the venom from water spiders. They have village slayers who capture and breed the water spiders, and there are artisans who collect the venom and crystalize it. This crystalized venom is made into small, marble sized spheres that can be used as a material component in a Laysinath’s Globe of Respite spell (Bhakashal’s version of Leomund’s Tiny Hut). With this special crystalized venom sphere, the spell lasts twice as long and protects against insects as well as giving environmental protection.

The villagers have been selling these small spheres to select clientele in the city, word finally got around to the thieves guild, and the Red Arachne decided they wanted to corner the market, becoming the exclusive client of the villages, and reselling the spheres (at a hefty profit) to city warlocks who would want the spell for use when travelling in the infernally hot and bug-infested Bhakashal marshlands, and those who would cast it for their wealthy masters.

What the party does not know is that a warlock from another House, Teeshaka Onos of House Ain, has approached the villages, hoping to get their House exclusive access to these spheres.

The party decided they would go to the villages and negotiate on behalf of the guild in person, rather than relying on proxies, and without letting their House affiliation be known to the villagers.

Before they went they spent some time deciding on what sort of deal to set up with the locals. They discussed how much they could sell the crystals for, and how much they would pay the locals for them. They discussed distribution, and whether or not they would place any guild interests at these villages for protection. The villages were also in a rival House’s territories, so they discussed how to handle that, and whether or not they wanted to try to, “flip the territory” for House Quannar from House Westrill, knowing it could create a rift between the Houses, and a new rival.

The discussions have changed in domain play, but the passion and enthusiasm have not.

The trip there was 2 days, primarily by boat then a short trip across the marshlands.

In any given session there can be events related to past actions by the party. Case in point, in taking over control of both branches of the Brass Blade Thieves guild, the party had taken control from Riyan the Raze, a faction leader at their house. Riyan was now out to get the party, but too canny to confront them directly. Instead, she has tasked one of her allies in the House, a powerful wind Gyre named Ghanglor Terrik, to teach them a lesson. Terrik will be showing up at some point with an air elemental under his command to cause some chaos.

I rolled at the beginning of the session to see if Ghanglor would be showing up or not, in this case he was a no-show, but eventually the roll will cash out and he will show up, potentially at a very inconvenient time…

The set out in the early morning, when passing through House Klis territory in the afternoon during the downpour from an intense summer storm, they met a House marshland patrol, fortunately House Klis is an allied House, so they showed their colors and passed without incident. They had another encounter on day two with a hunting party from House Destwiller, but Destwiller was neither a listed ally or enemy of their House, and the House alignments were not conflicting, so the reaction roll was unmodified and came up high enough that they passed without incident after a brief discussion asking the hunters about dangerous creatures in the area.

They managed to find the village of Russwood and entered, asking to speak to the village elders on behalf of the Brass Blade Guild. The “official” cover for the thieves guild is that they are a trading guild, though some know the truth.

The village was primarily populated by Jugyi (turtle people), and one of the party was also a Jugyi, so he did the negotiating. Unfortunately, that was when they found out that someone had already approached the villages asking for an exclusive deal. They spent some time discussing the situation, until the village elders decided that they would invite the other party to a meeting, and both sides could state their case.

In past years the party might have tried to force the issue with threats of violence, or plan to ambush the other interested party when they arrived. Time and some gaming wisdom, combined with a  new focus on domain play, has smartened them up. They know they are powerful, but now using power threatens to draw the attention of rival factions and even rivals within their faction. Alliances are proving more useful. I was proud of them.

That’s when we broke for the day.

So far Bhakashal domain play is running like a top, generating tasks is easy, either entirely new tasks or events related to their various inter and intra factional rivalries. There are NPCs within the House that want to challenge their authority and pay them back for decisions that don’t align with their interests, there are NPCs at rival Houses and other factions that work against them. There are also allies within the House, both temporary and more involved that are willing to work with them to reach mutual goals. The setting, combined with the actions of the PCs, does most of the work, I just have to keep track of what’s going on, roll dice, and see how it unfolds.

Big fun

Building Bhakashal – Session Report – Dad’s Game – Tamoachan!

All of my gaming groups adventure in Bhakashal, and their primary adventures have been urban and wilderness. The classic dungeon delve is less common in my game. I run a campaign for a group of dads (fathers of my kid’s friends), and I realized over the break that they hadn’t done any classic TSR modules, nor had they done a proper dungeon crawl.

So, I fished out a module I’ve been dying to run again, The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan.

It is really the quintessential TSR dungeon, it was originally run as a tournament module, your progress through the Shrine timed against a gas that would kill you if you stayed too long.

Tamoachan is awesome for many reasons:

1.        It has unique monsters

2.        It  has traps

3.        It has environmental threats

4.        It is totally dark in most rooms

5.        It is damp and fetid, filled with brackish water, mud and caustic lime

6.        It has many hard to open doors and secret doors

7.        It has cursed items

8.        It has a unique Aztec/Mayan inspired motif, right down to the names

9.        It has “permanent” traps that can block off sections of the dungeon

10.   It has an illustration booklet with awesome old school art

The module feels claustrophobic, wet and rotting, the PCs wade through mud and water, giant slugs crawl on the walls, as do huge spiders the size of a man.

When the PCs moved through the shrine, I described what they could smell, hear and see. Dungeons gain their power in part through atmosphere, its my job to describe what they experience.

Many people complain about boxed text, but the boxed text in the module is superb, it makes sure to describe the spaces in such a way as to give the atmosphere of the environment in each case.

 

Reading out this description to the players produces such a visceral reaction, the glowing trails on the walls, the brackish water, the cracked braziers in the water, the description of – something – the hint that it might be leaving that strange trail on the walls...

When they arrived in the first room (in my version of this, they don’t fall in, they find the hole and crawl in), I described it as smelling like decay and death, wet, close, miasmatic, rotting. They heard dripping water, the low thrum of shifting air currents through the ancient structure,

Their light source was a bullseye lantern, as the shrien is entirely dark inside of most of the halls and rooms, their two bullseye lanterns were their only light source, and they shone like a flashlight, lighting up a cone rather than a globe, so they would shine it around and I would describe what they saw, but I would also regularly remind them that outside of that cone of light, it was pitch black.

Knowing that their vision was restricted that way terrified them, as things could come out of the dark.

As an aside I'm always bemused when people say "D&D can't do horror", watching the terrified looks on my player's faces, the urgency to their reactions to even minor threats, the murmurs and whispers at the table, they were absolutely scared. When they were sealed off by a trap and realized they couldn't leave the way they came in... D&D (or AD&D in this case) can definitely do horror.

The party Thaumaturge (in Bhakashal, a thief/magic-user) earned her keep, she was checking for traps at every door and in many hallways. She managed to set off a pressure plate trap in an early hallway and sealed off the passage. Every door and hallways produces fresh fear.

Not only that, but cautious exploration takes time, and you roll for encounters every turn. The players found this horrifying, normally you roll 4 times a day for encounters when travelling, once a turn is a lot in comparison. Early on a huge spider appeared on the ceiling as they were investigating a hallway for traps. Lucky surprise and initiative rolls led to the party warlock blinding the spider, then the party fighter impaled it with a javelin. The fighter has a girdle of hill giant strength, so he one-shotted the thing with the javelin.

That was awesome.

The best part of that encounter was that this party is on average 6^th level, a huge spider is not a big threat, but they were so disturbed by the per turn encounter rolling, and it crawling along the ceiling in the dark, that they kind of freaked out about it. We underestimate the amount of raw fear that the unknown creates, and the degree to which knowing that monsters can show up at any time puts them on edge. Every time I took out that d12 they would all breathe in and look shaken.

Delicious.

They had an encounter with a talking crayfish and giant crab, thanks to the party Seer (cleric) they can speak with animals, and I had the opportunity to role play a centuries old sentient crayfish and crab team. The crayfish was demonstrative, waving around his limbs and shouting his answers to questions. The crab came to life after a strong positive reaction roll from the crayfish, when the “boulder and stick” stood up and spoke to the party they almost fell out of their chairs!

I also don’t do “voices” in regular play, but something about the adventure called on me, and I had the crayfish speak in fast, high sentences, and the crab spoke in single words using a harsh, guttural monotone. That was fun.

They negotiated their way past those two creatures and continued on.

Another awesome aspect of the session was the mapping. I have printed out an oversized version of the dungeon map and laminated it for my use, but the players are manually mapping the dungeon as they move around.

The difficulties of navigating by your own hand combined with the uncertainty of being in the dark and the regular per turn rolling for encounters has upped the tension significantly. It’s a great reminder that a perceived threat can produce as strong a response as a real one.

They were so tense that just the description of a green mass on the wall had them throwing oil and torches to burn the thing before it could attack them. They were convinced it was a green slime (it wasn’t) and that it was mobile (it wasn’t), and they were very eager to burn it. However, burning oil on a foul green algae creature in a closed dungeon environment led to thick black smoke filling up the room and blunting the only source of light they had (the bullseye lantern), as well as making it difficult to breathe for a while. When I rolled for random encounters as the smoke coiled around them, blinded, and the green algae creature shuddered and hissed as it burned alive, they were terrified!

They encountered the nerid as well. She managed to ensorcel one of the PCs, who just wanted to enter the water to be with her! The other party members held him back, and one used his trident of fish command to try and control the electric eel in the water that was in the service of the nerid. hat enraged her, so she roiled and boiled the water, harmless but it further freaked them out, as they had no idea how powerful she was. They eventually pulled their charmed colleague out of the area and went to explore another branch of the dungeon. The artwork really sold these encounters to the players, the languid nerid waiting seductively by the water, old school art is so evocative, and they loved all of it.  

They have only had three fights so far, the first with the huge spider, the second with the algae creature, and the third was with the slug on the wall (mentioned in the boxed text above). Two of the party fighters dropped into the water unexpectedly in that room, when they hit the water the slug turned its head and noticed them. That freaked out the party as they didn’t know exactly what this thing was or what it could do. I decided it was a spitting slug like the version in the monster manual (just smaller) and it spit acid at the two fighters who had dropped in the water. Fortunately for PCs in Bhakashal, they do not wear heavy armor, as the setting is infernally hot, this meant they didn’t have increased odds of drowning.

The party warlock and the party thaumaturge both cast magic missile, one from memory, one from a scroll. Describing how the missiles corkscrewed through the air, each time lighting up the whole room for a brief few seconds as they unerringly tracked their target, was awesome. They finished it off between the two of them. 

They haven’t found any loot so far, its been mainly terrified stalking, constantly checking for traps and wandering monsters, while delving deeper into the shrine.

When we finished I rewarded them by covering up my laminated large size version of the map and leaving behind only the rooms they had been through. Next session I think I will switch it up and slowly reveal the map as they move along, that’s good fun.

Everything about the session was terrific, the players were on the edge of their seats the entire time, every threat they faced was terrifying, and so far it was a giant spider, a crayfish, a giant crab, an algal mass and a giant slug. Monsters associated with death and rot, bugs, slime and crustaceans, primitive, basic things, all housed in a damp, fetid temple, crumbling and decaying all around them. They can’t see all around them, and they are constantly terrified of what might appear out of the dark.

And they haven’t even encountered the gibbering mouther!

We all have busy schedules and have only been able to meet once every 6 weeks or so, but they were insistent that we should get together as soon as possible, they want to explore!

Big fun.

Building Bhakahsal - Session Report

I run a “dads” game, and we had a session last night. I decided to write it up in detail as it exemplifies a Bhakashal session, it highlights the travel rules, it demonstrates how game play works in a shared world setting with multiple player groups, and it shows how the factional politics of the setting can drive adventures. 

This one had it all.

They were fresh off a victory in the Bhakashal arena, where they defeated Mitrax Toma the Bold, a Lord of House Omander, his henchmen and several of his warlock allies. It was a nail biter, but a combination of smart tactics and good rolls saved the day, though the party did lose 1 PC and 4 henchmen in the fight. Like most of my groups, many of the players have more than one PC, and the player that lost a PC had an alternate and didn't want to roll up a replacement, so we got right back to business.

Mitrax, two of his warlock allies and two of his henchmen were slain in the arena fight. One enemy warlock and one henchman were spared by the PCs and left, dishonored. 

Bhakshal arena combat rules state that a defeated but spared combatant cannot issue an honor challenge against the victor unless they commit another offensive act, so for now the losers leave with their tails between their legs, hoping for revenge another day. These rules also state that combatants killed in the arena, no matter their status, cannot be brought back to life. 

You die in the arena, you are dead for good, magic and status notwithstanding.

Since the PCs fought as a group they did not get Mitrax’s title, but they did get his property and magic items, a small windfall that included an estate in the marshlands where he bred mounts for his personal henchmen and loyal soldiers.

All my groups play in the same game world, some even in the same Noble House. My dad’s group is part of House Quannar, where my Thursday group is now nobility. The patron for my dad’s group is Umani the Onyx, leader of a different faction in House Quannar. Umani wants to curry favor with the head of my Thursday group’s faction, Quin Faal the Iolite. Faal was the patron for my Thursday group PCs for 4 years, as they are now nobility he is no longer their patron, though he is the leader of their faction in the House.

The Thursday group PCs are interested in getting a foothold in the territories of other Noble Houses, and it ends up that one of the “spoils” of the defeat of MItrax, his estate, is in House Omander territory. The property became theirs when they defeated Mitrax, and all but a handful of his men left the property and its collection of sterling mounts. Umani asked the PCs to go and secure the estate before bandits or monsters from the marshlands moved in. He also thought it would be good for them to leave the city for a few days, as they were now enemies of House Omander having defeated a prominent House Omander Lord. 

Umani wants to offer the property as a base of operations to the thieves guild inside of House Omander territory, as a favor to Quin Faal, elevating the status of their faction in the House. The PCs discussed it and decided it was a good idea, so off they went. It was a 5 day journey through the marshlands to get to their destination, part on the road, part on a barge on the Sklar river. 

One of the aspects of Bhakashal that I’m most proud of is the travel rules, they make excursions like this awesome. Bhakashal travel rules structure random encounters while traveling using regular daily rolls with frequency based on time of day, weighted encounter tables based on terrain type, and encounter reaction rules that govern how encountered creatures react.

Choice of route impacts the frequency and kind of encounters you can have, travelling the road is different than travelling through swamps or on the river, both in terms of the speed of travel and the types of encounter possible. Importantly, NOT EVERY ENCOUNTER IS A FIGHT. Random encounters are ENCOUNTERS, which can be anything from a passing group of farmers off to market to an owlbear. 

The tables are weighted to reflect this. And they work well.

The procedure is as follows:

1. Roll based on time of day (1 in 12 - morning, 1 in 10 - afternoon, 1 in 8 - evening, 1 in 6 - night).
2. If an encounter comes up, roll for distance between parties
3. Roll for surprise
4. If surprise does not come up, both parties see each other, roll encounter reaction
5. If necessary, roll initiative

Their first encounter was on the road about 2 days out from the city, at night (between sundown and midnight). So that means there were 6 rolls with no encounter beforehand. The way the odds are set means that encounters are not constant. They can go multiple days without encounters or have multiple encounters per day. 

The important part is that encounters are NOT PREDICTABLE, Bhakashal does not assume that a game day is “wasted” when there are no fights on that day.

Distance between parties was 150’, and surprise was indicated on the monster, in this case a spirit naga, so the party had a chance to react first. They decided to move on, and added another 150 feet of distance (the distance they can travel mounted in a surprise round) before the naga noticed them. They were mounted and far enough off so it couldn’t catch them, charm with its gaze or spell cast unless they approached, and they decided against this. 

Even when you roll a monster encounter, subsequent rolls can make it such that there is no fight. Still, the referee’s job is to make even an avoided encounter engaging, so I described it like this:

“A distance away in the swamp beyond the road you see a large snake, perhaps 15 feet long,illuminated in the moonlight. It is scaled black with crimson bands, halfway standing like a cobra, and you see, much to your horror, that it has a HUMAN HEAD which is turned away from you. You spur on your mounts, deciding to avoid this evil creature, and as you ride off the grotesque beast suddenly senses your presence, its head turning slowly in your direction, ruby red eyes smoldering in the darkness, a foul hiss emanating from its maw.”

They avoided the beast, but they were suitably freaked out. Something they see but don’t actually fight can leave more of an impression, as it plays with their imagination. They all found the encounter to be disturbing, even though it was a “miss”.

On they traveled, and when they reached the river there was a village where you could charter a barge to travel downriver. Mounts are extremely common in Bhakashal, and barges big enough to carry them are common (one of the reasons why barges are more common than boats on the Bhakashal rivers). They commissioned a barge and headed downriver in the early afternoon.

They had another encounter on day 4, this time on the river. In this case the party was surprised by a giant gar, it struck their barge and two of the togmu poling the barge fell into the river. Togmu (frog-people) can swim, but the gar bit one in half before it could get back on the barge. 

In AD&D there are “niche” magic items that have special powers that don’t come up that often, one is a Trident of Fish Command. The party Mercenary (fighter) had one and had yet to use it, so he was chuffed when he finally had the chance. Using the trident he drove off the gar and kept the party from having to deal with a creature who would have been a formidable opponent in the water.

Well played.

They eventually reached their destination and set off on their gess (giant lizards) towards the estate. A 10 mile journey turned up no encounters, so they arrived and surveilled the place using the warlock’s familiar (a blood hawk). After satisfying themselves that the estate hadn’t been taken over by bandits or overrun by swamp monsters, they moved in.

Two House Omander soldiers had stayed behind when the estate changed owners, and they were expecting the party to show up eventually. Much to the party’s surprise, there was no hostility or violence, the soldiers understood that they had won Mitrax’s property in an arena duel, if anything they were impressed that they managed to slay him, and one of them guided them around the estate, showing them the mounts in the outdoor pens, and touring them through the house. The party was pleasantly surprised to discover that Mitrax had an extensive personal library of books on House Omander history and military history, as well as an extremely well stocked map room with detailed maps of House Omander territories as well as territories of other Houses that Mitrax was hoping to flip. These were extremely valuable finds.

They also discovered that Mitrax had a secret cellar meeting room, magically warded to prevent scrying, where he met with parties he did not want discovered. They were very excited about that. None of these things were magic items to use in combat, but all were extremely valuable in the factionalized setting that is Bhakashal.

While they were touring the facility with one of the soldiers, the other soldier stole one of the mounts and fled. They tried to track him down to no avail, and they aren’t sure what he will do, but they turned in for the night happy with their acquisition.

The next day they left and headed back to the river, travelling several miles downriver to find a village where they could commission another barge to return to the city.

They had one encounter on the river, but it was a doozy. One of the great things about the fact that I have always used random encounter rolls is that there are monsters that I’ve never used in game before. 

The Verme is one of those monsters, a 18+ HD giant fish! 

In this case there was no surprise, and the party saw this massive 80’ long beast moving through the water towards them!

The party Mercenary took out the Trident of Fish Command again, expending a charge to take control of the creature, but it made it’s save (an 18+HD creature saves easily) so it couldn’t be commanded, but it also couldn’t approach closer than 10’ to the weilder.  However, the barge was larger than that, and it could easily smash into the barge and send the PCs and bargemen into the water, where it could pick everyone else off.

In this case the party Seer (cleric) cast Speak with Monsters, and attempted to convince the creature to leave them alone, he told the Verme that they meant it no harm, and that they were poisonous to eat. 

There are no specific rules for this, so I decided on a modified encounter reaction roll, with a small extra bonus as the Seer worshipped the god Vekka, god of lakes and rivers. 

The roll was successful, and the Verme passed beneath them, all 80’ of it!

That took their breath away.

They continued home, their last encounter was during the afternoon on the road one day out from the city, with a group of rakasta hunters. They talked for a time, swapping some stories and sharing a meal, then passing on.

When they arrived back in the city they reported to Umani the Onyx, and made arrangements to send some House Quannar regulars to man the estate to protect it against intruders, and they discussed offering it as a base for the thieves guild in the marshlands as a gift to Quin Faal the Iolite and the PCs from my Thursday group.

End of session.

This one had factional politics, social role play, travel, random encounters and exploration. No actual fighting, but they had a grand time. 

People often assume that D&D is all about fighting, and that random encounters are just unpredictable violence. 

These people are missing out…