Building Bhakashal – The Quantum Bandit

The concept of a “quantum ogre” in a TTRPG is an encounter that will happen no matter which of two paths the PCs pick. The DM doesn’t decide which side the ogre will be on, if the players go down the right side, the ogre is there, if they go down the left side, the ogre is there.

The idea is that the PCs picking a path creates the encounter, sort of like observing a particle collapses the wave form and kills the cat in Schrodinger’s famous experiment.

Bhakashal has it’s own version of this; I’ll call it the quantum bandit after the event’s of today’s game. It is a crucial part of sandbox play.

In AD&D1e there are encounter reaction rolls. They are to be made when two potentially hostile parties approach each other. So, for example, think of a group of PCs marching through the forest when they come upon a bandit camp. In AD&D if the party engages in parley with the bandits then the referee has to roll an encounter reaction roll.

If the PCs did not engage in parley, the bandits could just attack or not attack at the DMs preference. But if they do, if they communicate and the bandits can understand them, you roll to see how they react, anything from immediate violence to extremely friendly.

Bhakashal generalizes this to ANY encounter between two groups, whether they can speak and communicate or not. It also includes monsters and animals. Monsters and animals have some heavy negative modifiers to encourage violence. But regular NPCs have more modest modifiers.

In my experience, many DMs decide what NPCs do to react to the party’s actions or appearance. They don’t let the dice decide, as this may produce an anomalous result that “doesn’t fit”.

The thing is, the result only “doesn’t fit” because the referee has a story to tell, an expectation about what will happen based on what they want the party to achieve in the session. When the referee chooses the result all the time, they get predictable, and the players start to be able to guess how NPCs will react. The referee will often make similar decisions to keep consistent, or to avoid being “too easy” on the players, or whatever.

Everyone thinks they are spontaneous and creative, but the reality is that many refs fall into patterns that make the game dull and predictable, and thus much easier. Sometimes, when you know what’s going to happen, it’s less of a challenge.

When the roll is made in Bhakashal the referees job is to interpret it, embodying the principle of RRTEI, Roll Randomly Then Explain It. Of course, the referee can add modifiers of their own based on context.

There are several advantages to rolling encounter reactions rather than deciding:

1.        It surprises the referee too. Since the reaction is rolled in play, the referee will be surprised by the results too, which really adds to immersion, its like the game world is a separate entity from the referee and the players, making it feel more real.

2.        It makes NPCs tactically opaque; it is harder to predict what they will do. Rather than NPCs being automatically hostile or friendly, each situation is different.

3.        For a significant portion of NPCs in the game, there is no extensive backstory or context for them. In a sandbox game where you pivot a lot, you don’t always have NPCs fully fleshed out. As a result, PCs regularly run into NPCs whose sum total information is, “Bandit, 0-level, broadsword and mace, AC 7”. Some will just be “bandit”. When the referee practices RRTEI, they immediately populate the NPCs background and create their context when explaining the result.

Sandbox games do not do as much prep for the general denizens of the game world as there are too many of them. Big NPCs sure, but there are so many more NPCs that are not part of the main focus of the party’s activities that they nonetheless encounter. By leaving this to a dice roll and encounter reaction table, the referee is doing the work on the spot. This works perfectly for a sandbox ref.

And it ends up adding immensely to the game.

Take an example from today’s game.

The party were on the hunt for the hideout of the Slave Lords. They found the town of Suderham, and were in a tavern asking around to find out more about the Slave Lords. Nothing specific, just general gossip and basic information. Suderham in Bhakashal is a hidden city where ne’r do well’s gather and hide from the law.

I told them the tavern was filled with sailors, fishermen and bandits/mercenaries. I added that there were probably a few adventurers around in the mix as well, and of course likely some thieves.

Now, one particular PC is a human fighter (in Bhakashal he is referred to as an Emberi Mercenary), and he’s very big and very strong. He looks like a tank. He’s been with the party for 3 years now, the PC is 8^th level and has a lot of scars. He carries himself like a seasoned fighter.

He saunters over to a table of bandits and announces that he wants to sell his sword arm.

Plausible, simple and direct.

How do the bandits react?

Bhakashal’s encounter reaction system kicks in. The PCs are not in Bhakashal, so many of the modifiers don’t work here, no one in the Inn knows these chuckleheads are Bhakashal lords. They just see a tough looking warrior.

The roll can lead to a number of reactions:

Violence

Hostility

Unfriendly Indifference

Indifference

Friendly Indifference

Friendly

Friendly and curious

Friendly and helpful

Friendly and very helpful

Today I rolled “friendly and helpful”

So why would a group of bandits/mercenaries be friendly and helpful with an outsider who is looking to make some coin?

My job as a referee is to interpret this result.

What I know is that this is a hidden city where bad people go to hide, do nefarious business, trade contraband, buy and sell slaves, and recruit malcontents.

A low roll could have meant they saw him as competition and wanted to take him out, or that one of them had recently been beaten badly and wanted to take out some random guy to show they still had the juice.

But this was a high, positive roll.

I decided that these bandits/mercenaries worked in a group and sold their services to various employers, and they spent a lot of time in Suderham. There are three powerful warlock’s that live in the city and rotate duty on city watch along with a patrol of soldiers and some Yeth hounds.

There’s Hephonal the Ghanite, a 7^th level Yalan (snake folk) Warlock who travels with a pair of charmed wererats, Seu Yirra, a Chitin  (insect folk) Thaumaturge (thief/magic-user) who uses poison and has a Ring of Reptilian Regeneration, and Bowbrak Wikal the Shunned, a 8^th level Togmu (frog folk) Theurgist (fighter/illusionist) with a pet Maroon Dragon.

They are all on call if a serious strike force ever showed up at the city.

One of them, Hephonal the Ghanite, doesn’t like the mercenaries and has hassled them consistently when they are in the city. The bandits see this as the perfect opportunity to either have Hephonal killed without having to do it themselves or at least give him a bloody nose. They can’t confront him directly as he has the authority of the Slave Lords behind him and knows the bandits and their proxies well.

But the PC is a perfect tool.

This one roll has led to:

1.        A new task for the party to fulfill, if they are successful the NPC bandits will share information about the Slave Lords, specifically a secret entrance to their estate that goes underground (essentially A4)

2.        A background for these NPCs, they are sell-swords that run afoul of the city authorities regularly

3.        The party now knows that there are people in the city who are not aligned with the Slave Lords, so they have potential allies they can find and recruit or pump for information.

4.        They have formed an alliance, thus thrusting them into the middle of a factionalized environment and given them new enemies and new allies instantly.

5.        The environment becomes more layered and real, and because this encounter wasn’t planned or forced, they feel like they are discovering something about the game world, rather than being railroaded into finding the Slave Lords and fighting them.

I find this immensely fun, and here’s the best part. When they set out I had NO IDEA how they were going to find and slay the Slave Lords, they planned to find a pirate ship and follow it back to the aerie of the Slave Lords and go from there. Because I didn’t know (and they didn’t know) how they were going to proceed, we discovered it together, in an emergent way.

It didn’t feel like a story being told, it felt like a world being explored.

Using encounter reaction tables and RRTEI, the referee, the dice and the players co-create the game world as they play. Every time this happens I feel a frisson of excitement, it’s an act of spontaneous creation, it feels visceral.

This is the heady wine of table top role playing, it’s exciting, it’s spontaneous, it’s unpredictable, and its immersive.

It’s also adaptive and allows the referee to move forward with minimal prep, building the environment as play occurs.

Bloody awesome.

 

Building Bhakashal – To Sea!

My Thursday group have become Bhakashal nobility, and the task they took on to achieve noble status was to unite the fractured thieves guilds, which they did at the end of last year’s game. This year they have been dealing with the challenges of being in charge of the guild.

They don’t direct day to day things, that’s the responsibility of the Red Arachne, the leader of the newly united guilds. They work at a higher level, and their first few tasks were putting out fires. There were competing factions within the newly united guild that weren’t happy about the change, those loyal to the old Red Arachne. The party rallied those loyal to the new Red Arachne and dealt with the dissenters.

In order to get the votes to give them control over the united guilds, they took on tasks for other nobles to ingratiate themselves. They had to slay two dragon turtles that had been harassing the shipping lanes to return a favor to Umani the Onyx (an 8th lv. Kutya Chimerist), leader of another faction at House Quannar who had helped them with the guild vote.

After that they took on direct guild business, a group of guild bandits had been frustrated by House Tairn marshland patrols. They were sent to put an end to that and failed. And a gyre (raw magic caster, like elemental benders) named Ghanglor Terrik summoned an air elemental and attacked the party with a warning to back off the guilds. While doing that, two NPCs have added themselves to the party through a “chance” encounter, they are spies posing as thankful adventurers the party rescued.

They were next formally challenged in the arena by Riyan The Raze, an 11th Level Emberi Jantu Magus Warlock at House Quannar. Emberi are humans, Jantu Warlocks create magical creatures (like owlbears), “Magus” means she is high level. Bhakashal nobility conflict within and between Noble Houses, and Riyan was unhappy as she used to control the city branch of the thieves guild when it was separate from the Raosk branch. She lost that control to the party. She sent Ghanglor to send a message, and she and Ghanglor fought two of the PCs in the arena. They lost that fight to Riyan’s Rod of Beguiling.

They gave up control of the unite guilds to Riyan to spare their lives in the arena.

There was much discussion as to what to do next. They decided that Riyan would start making demands of them as she had defeated them in the arena, which gave her status that the other nobles would likely reward. So, they decided that it was time to find another task to engage them. They went to Umani, as he was the only other factional leader at House Quannar who had been willing to work directly with the party and support them

They essentially asked Umani what they could do to help him, as they had earned the enmity of Riyan, who had clashed with Umani in the past. When this happens in Bhakashal there are tables to roll on to help to create tasks for the party. In this case it was pirates who were harassing merchant ships. I decided to use A3 and A4, modules in the classic Slavers series, for this. The pirates were slavers and they were raiding in territories where the guild did business. Rather than run the PCs through the whole series of modules, they would travel directly to Suderham and take out the Slave Lords, cut the head off the snake.

They are a high level party, they are more than capable. And that way I get to add some original old-school flavor to the game.

Bhakashal is located in the Pelissio Swamp of Greyhawk. But it is a Greyhawk that would be unrecognizable to most, as there are no dwarves, elves or halflings, no orcs or any of the standard Tolkien creatures. I essentially just use the map, everything else is modified.

The party was travelling to the Pomarj, that meant an ocean voyage.

The House owns several galleys, they were given the Fair Wind:

Fair Wind

Captain Asan Tillmok, Fighter, Saan (lizard folk) Level 6, AC 5 (chain), HP 32, Broadsword (+8/+6), Bardiche (+3/+2), Crossbow (+3/+3)

Magic Items

+1 broadsword, +3 vs large creatures, Wand of Magic Missiles (25)

 (25) Saan crew (AC6, Cutlass [+3/+1], crossbow {+2/+2]) 

 (2) Ballistae – 2 round weapon speed, damage 3d6/3d6, (S300,M750,L600)

 

Ship Warlock: Thila the Reed

AC:6,7th level Cavaral, HP:25,11 spells per day, 

Spells: 

1st level –  Hagellan's Thunderous Staff, Magic Missile, Mar Kassan’s Awesome Armadillo, Shield

2nd level - Control Gasses, Moonsal’s Ichorous Syphon, Stinking Cloud

3rd level - Ammon Marr’s Wall of Talons, Majnar's Metallic Sympathy, The Black Mist of Jax

Magic Items: Wand of Conjuration (6), + 1 Dagger, Broach of the Wolf (transform into Werewolf at night, SD: +1 or better weapon to hit)

Scroll: Feeblemind, Contact Other Plane

Thila is a Cavaral, they specialize in evocation magic and cast their spells with somatic components only, so motions of the body in some combination.

Day 1 they set out to sea I roll for weather, three d20, a blue one for precipitation/cloud cover, a yellow one for wind and a red one for temperature. Bhakashal offers more granular and more simplified travel systems, we decided on the simplified version, if the wind roll is high they move 5 hexes a day, if it is moderate they move 4, if it is low they move 3. They can use rowers or raiks (raiks are creatures that pull the ship), rowers add 1 hex to the day’s travel raiks add 2, but they cannot work two days in a row.

Day 1 the winds were good and they covered 5 hexes, no encounters were rolled.

Day 2 the winds were good again, and they covered 5 hexes, an encounter was rolled but it was with a merchant ship, so they passed without incident. On day 2 they strategized with the captain regarding what to do if they encountered slavers on the water, and where they were going to go when they got to the Pomarj (the slavers were rumored to have a concealed port city they operated out of, but they were uncertain as to exactly where it was, they knew a few possible locations).  The party mercenary (now a Bhakashal Lord) sparred with the sailors and instructed them in the finer points of melee swordfighting.

Day 3 – Low wind day and only 3 hexes covered. The party decided they wanted to take their mounts along on the trip, most ride giant lizards. They keep them in the holds below, but they must make land every 3-4 days and let them out to graze, hunt and stretch their legs or they will start to become agitated and difficult to control. They made land and let the mounts out for a few hours. One of them has a Kestram (a giant bird) as a mount, the Kestram flies ahead, sometimes lands and sits on the back of the ship, and at other times rests on nearby land.

No encounters.

Day 4 – In the Tilva Strait they rolled an encounter, in this case with a giant squid. The PCs were gambling with the crew when the ship suddenly rocked and heaved and tentacles appeared on the side. The squid wrapped it’s tentacles around the ship and began to attack sailors. Fortunately, the attack came during the evening when the party was all awake and no surprise was rolled, so they managed to hack and blast at the tentacles that came over the side and the creature fled.

Day 5 – A huge storm hit, propelling the ship 5 hexes but damaging their rigging and sails. The party warlock had a Fabricate spell that made the repairs fast. No encounters.

Day 6 – A low wind day so they landed to let the mounts roam. No encounters.

Day 7 – The party dined at the captain’s table then discussed tactics with Thila the Reed, they have had some problems coordinating spell casting and melee, and they didn’t want to get mixed up in combat, also, they wanted to know what she could do in a fight. Thila was a House warlock, so she was willing to share the majority of her spells with the party. No encounters.

Day 8 – High wind day, party rolled an encounter with a large whale, there was no surprise so it was spotted a good distance away, whales generally don’t harass a ship unless it pursues them, and they decided to steer clear.

Day 9 – A moderate wind day so the captain put the rowers to work to get them a full 5 hexes on, they made land for a stop in for the mounts. An encounter was rolled, they were on land and it was with a group of hunters. They saw the ship in the water and the large group on the shore with giant lizard mounts and decided to approach cautiously. The party invited them over to join them in a meal (they had taken the opportunity to hunt while their mounts were grazing). The party asked about slaver activities in the area and were told that slavers were quite active across the gulf, and were actively raiding on the coast. They had fought off a slaver party themselves a few weeks ago.

Day 10 – A moderate wind day but captain Tilmok decided to save the rowers in case they ended up encountering any slavers or pirates while crossing the gulf. They can’t cross the ocean directly as this would have them off land for too long, so they had to cross the gulf and get to the coast then move up the coast. This put them in slaver’s territory, so they were going to be cautious! No encounter.

Day 11 – It was windy and stormy; they travelled 5 hexes but rolled an encounter with sahuagin! Fortunately, there was no surprise, but they rolled 80 sahuagin approaching. If they made it to the ship that would be a bloodbath, Sahuagin are 2HD to the 0HD of the sailors, and in large numbers they are deadly. Captain Tilmok had the entire crew fire crossbows and the ballistae fired to try and discourage the sea-devils. He also has a Wand of Magic Missiles, and he targeted what appeared to be leaders from a great distance, hoping to dissuade them. Unfortunately, all of the party spell casters were sleeping at this time, a mistake they won’t repeat, so there was no spell casting at them when they were at a distance.

The sahuagin reached the ship quickly and began to climb up the sides. By this time everyone was on deck, and this gave the party one more shot at reacting to the creatures before they were on deck.

The party warlock angled a Lightning Bolt spell and took out 4. The party conjuror cast an Emyar the Ashen’s Ebony Coils spell and summoned 10 tentacles from another world, they wreaked havoc with the sea-devils, crushing many, damaging others and sending them back to the ocean. Thila the Reed cast Stinking Cloud and took out 5 more. The sailors were ready when the sea-devils came up over the sides, as were the party tanks, who managed multiple attacks on the beasts slaying many.

At this point I rolled for morale, as they had slain a number of the creatures, and they failed morale, fleeing back into the ocean.

Disaster averted.

Day 12 – Moderate wind and a storm, no encounters, no damage to ship. Several rounds of Onitawa (a chess variant) with the ship’s captain and the party warlock made for good RP fun.

Day 13 -  An encounter is rolled with a pirate ship, an additional roll determines this is a slaver ship. The party spots the ship and gains surprise, so the ship doesn’t spot them. They decide they are probably pirates but they aren’t sure if they are slavers, and they decide to follow at a discrete distance using the Kestram as a scout to keep track of the ship. They deliberately lay anchor and wait for the ship to gain distance so they don’t get spotted.

Day 14 – They set in to land to feed the mounts so they can sustain a pursuit of the slavers, no encounter.

We stopped there.

Ocean travel is one of my player’s favorite pastimes. While things cool off back home, they get to explore a bit and see the game world. They enjoy the role play interactions with the ship’s crew, and over time they become protective of the sailors and friends with the captain and the ship spell caster. They like to gamble, gain information and otherwise engage with the crew. The weather effects travel times and can even damage the ship.

If they follow this slaver ship at a distance they can go directly to Suderham to confront the Slave Lords, but they may decide to peel off at some point if they aren’t convinced these are slavers.

Adventure awaits!

 

 

Building Bhakashal – Letting it Ride – Spell Casting Edition

Something happened in our Thursday game that got me thinking. We had a new player start three sessions ago. He created a spellcaster (a conjuror) and was stoked to use his new powers. 

In the first session he played in, he decided to cast a summoning spell. Now, these spells are his bread and butter, his primary class ability, like illusions are for illusionists and fireballs are for regular magic-users. Unfortunately, the action ended before the monsters showed up. In the second session, he tried casting a long casting time spell in melee and was struck by a crossbow bolt, disrupting the spell.  By the time he figured out what to cast next the fight had ended. 

Last session he and the party were on a ship (I will be typing up a session report soon), and they encountered a horde of 80 sahuagin. The sea-devils were approaching their ship, and everyone knew that if they got on board it would be a bloodbath

Missile fire (crossbows and ballistae) met the approaching creatures and took out a few, but not many. The new PC decided to cast Emyar the Ashen’s Ebony Coils, Bhakashal’s version of Evard’s Black Tentacles. It took a while to cast, so he had his henchmen shield him

The sahuagin started climbing the sides of the ship, and the black tentacles of the spell emerged from the water and started to strike/coil around the sea-devils. Some were crushed to death, some were damaged. An 8^th level conjuror casts all conjuration spells as if 10^th level

So, there were 10 tentacles, and the saving throws of the sahuagin were high enough that many failed and were coiled up and crushed. A lightning bolt from the party warlock took out a few, as did a stinking cloud from the ships caster (a Cavaral, specialist in evocation magic)

When the sahuagin came up over the sides the crew were ready and managed to take out a few, the party tanks got multiple attacks and took out a few each. Even the crew got lucky, I rolled well and they slayed a number of the attackers

But he writhing tendrils of the Emyar’s spell were the most effective, and our new player was a badass.

Now, here’s the thing.

It took 3 sessions until he got to “shine” and really show off at the table.

I regularly see advice on socials that suggests that each character should get a chance to shine in each session, that the referee should be tweaking things, so change a roll to ensure that the new player’s PC casts their spell, or that their monsters arrive sooner. And this was a new player, wasn’t I risking their interest in the game if their PC struck out several times in their first few gaming sessions? "No one wants to be useless in the game, particularly a new player", I see advice like this all the time, bemoaning sleep and paralyzation effects as they take out PCs, or complaining about the spell casting rules as they allow interruption. 

I also see lots of advice about retaining player interest and giving them “wins”, particularly for new players. Why would I let him fail so often when he was just starting to play the game?

Thing is, I know a secret. In AD&D 1e things are swingy. Yes, he missed the mark a few times, but he also learned from his mistakes. Between sessions he read his spells, he figured out that long casting time spells were a problem.

He realized that AOE mattered to the spell (a Fireball in the situation where he used Emyar’s would have been disastrous), and so did range. He had his henchmen protect him so he would improve his odds of casting. In short, he learned from his failures. So, by session 4, he could move all the pieces together to pull off a badass spell casting win. I could have given him that win in his first session, and the temptation is always there, particularly with new players. But instead, I didn't interfere and eventually he pulled it off WITHOUT MY HELP.

And that, dear readers, is the difference. 

He struggled for several sessions but eventually figured out the system well enough to pull of a spectacular win. And he felt both the struggle and the win. The win felt significant as he knew how hard it was to pull it off. 

He EARNED it, and he KNEW that he earned it, without any help from me.

When we were wrapping up, I asked him how it felt to have kicked some ass, and he didn’t hesitate, he told me that it was sweet, he had struggled for a few sessions, but finally he figured it out, and it felt amazing. He admitted he was worried about 1e AD&D as opposed to 5e (he had played a few sessions of 5e), and that AD&D would be harder, but he preferred the old-school experience, as it felt like an achievement to pull it off.

Never cheapen victory by tweaking results.

Let them fail, let them struggle, because this will make their successes so much sweeter. The new player was over the moon when he left yesterday, and the party did a lot of back-slapping and hooting and hollering about it. He was the big shot that day, and it felt amazing. I heard them talking as they left, he asked one of the other players if he thought I had “helped” him to succeed with the spell, they pointed out that all rolls were in public and the fight was outlined on the map so I couldn't tweak things, and they added that, "Ian NEVER helps us to win, we win on our own."

That’s the stuff.

Full session report to follow.

Building Bhakashal – Session Report – Back to the Underworld!

My Friday group has been tooling around in the underworld, they spent the last campaign year building a teleport circle between Bhakashal and the underworld, and while they were back in the city a group of drow tried to commandeer the circle.

They were stopped by the circles guardians (a pair of purple worms and a group of chitin – insect folk) hunters), and when the party found out they decided they should track the drow back to where they came from and find out what sort of threat they represented.

They ran into a drow caravan a few sessions back and it was a disaster. They were used to fighting low level mooks with high level casters, or individual monsters, they were not ready for “mooks” who could all spell cast, had negative AC values and sleep poison to boot.

Several of the PCs were taken prisoner, but after a few days of travel with the caravan the drow decided to strip them of their magic and let them loose, as they realized that the party were well-connected and there would soon be a rescue party coming. They wanted none of that nonsense, so they let the PCs go and departed, knowing that by the time they managed to return they would never find them.

The PCs made their way back to the teleportation circle and back to Bhakashal with their tails between their legs. It was a near thing too, as they had to travel for several days with no weapons and limited spells.

Once they returned they refreshed themselves, rolled up a few new PCs to add to the party, mustered a House Ynris heavy patrol to join them, and headed back down to take care of business.

With 9 PCs, a 8^th level NPC Slayer (Bhakashal ranger) who joined to help them track, and 20 patrol members they were a big group.

I told them straight up that they were not going to be stealthy, LOL.

They hit the main caves and headed back in the direction they were originally heading.

Day 2 they rolled an encounter.

Now, as it happens, the warlock that came with the heavy patrol was 7^th level and had two magic items, a +1 sword and Eyes of the Eagle. This helped compensate for the fact that they had trouble seeing in the underworld. When encounters happen in Bhakashal you roll for surprise. They party gained surprise. Since their warlock could see quite far, I interpreted the roll by saying that he had his Eyes of the Eagle on and spotted something up ahead (he doesn’t wear them all the time, so this fit the roll and explained the surprise).

A 9-1/2 tall creature with horns and multiple limbs, surrounded by 3 lanky, filthy, oddly shaped humanoids were tearing apart and eating a group of kua-toa.

Since they had surprise, they got to act first.

I was curious if they would hold off, leave, wait, or attack.

They decided to attack.

The earth gyre in the party opened up a hole in the ground under the group, and they all fell in. The party approached a bit closer.

Then, a few moments later, the tall creature levitated up and out of the hole, and the 3 creatures crawled up and over the side.

The three creatures hissed and charged at the party, they were now recognized as ghouls (actually ghasts, but the party didn’t know the difference). The tall creature now revealed itself to have bat ears, a dog-like head, two clawed hands and two pincered hands. A type III demon.

The party warlock immediately tried casting Flesh to Stone on demon, unfortunately it didn’t work.

The party Theurgist tried an illusion, it also failed.

The party Necromancer cast Rajmuranji’s Cunning Appendage (which gives him a magical tail) on himself.

The party Spider (thief) snuck away into the darkness to maneuver behind the demon.

The party Justiciar (paladin) charged one of the approaching ghasts and almost killed it in one hit.

The party myrmidon charged a ghast and struck, it struck back and paralyzed him.

The party mercenary charged a ghast and slayed it outright.

The party conjuror conjured rats that occupied the ghast attacking the paralyzed myrmidon, to keep it from trying to eat him!

Faced with a battle force of 30 enemies, the demon decided to call for backup, and gated in a Type I demon to its side.

Game on!

Up until this point, they were fairly optimistic.

Then it got crazy.

The justiciar slayed his ghast and the one attacking the myrmidon. As an aside, the Justiciar has been an absolute BEAST in battle, nothing fancy, but he has mastered the charge and attack routine.

The warlock cast Power Word Stun on the demon, and it failed. The lads have little experience with magic resistance, they are used to dropping enemies easily with spells like this.

The Theurgist used detect intent on the demon, a Bhakashal Spell that tells you the intentions of the party you are casting it upon. I have no idea why he felt the need to do that, I thought it was pretty obvious what it’s intentions were, but whatever.

Now, the party Gyre planned to create a dome of rock over the demons, the idea being that direct attack on the demons wasn’t working (due to the magic resistance) so perhaps he could contain them. The problem is that other PCs were charging the demons to attack them and they hadn’t coordinated attacks or heard from the Gyre what they were doing. Depending on when they arrived in the sequence of events, they could either be caught inside or outside of the dome of rock. Luckily we have a crackerjack initiative system that sequences all actions, melee and spell.

The party Necromancer, Mercenary and Spider all arrived at the demons before the dome went up, and were sealed in with the creatures when it appeared.

The necromancer charged the second demon and attacked with his magical tail, but missed.

The mercenary attacked the type 3 demon and did some damage, unfortunately the demon then physically attacked the mercenary, it gets 5 attacks per round, and 3 of them were criticals.

He tore the mercenary to pieces, slaying him on the spot.

The type 1 demon attacked the necromancer, but I rolled terribly and did hardly any damage.

We stopped there

The party conjuror still has to act, but he can’t see anything as the creatures are in the rock dome.

The party Spider is behind the demons and still has to act.

I suspect there will be a few more fatalities next session, unless someone thinks fast, or gets lucky.

The underworld is a dangerous place, demons run around loose, they are discovering that high-level play has a new set of challenges, and that means they can’t rely on old tricks.

Adapt or die!

Building Bhakashal - Session Report - Fight!

My Thursday group had a busy session.

The first thing they did was to meet up with two NPCs that they “rescued” in the marshlands. The NPCs were plants sent there by a rival House to infiltrate the group. So far the party believes that the NPCs were genuinely at risk when they found them, and have no idea that they are spies.

The PCs met with the two NPCs, a mercenary and a spartan, both reasonably high level (7^th and 8^th). They NPCs made the case that they owe an honor debt to the two PCs that rescued them, and the party is going to think about what to have them do, either serve as henchmen for a time, or go complete a task for them. There was some lively debate about how to handle them, but nothing was resolved.

Last session, Riyan the Raze, a warlock at House Quannar and the leader of a rival faction, sent one of her allies, Ghanglor Terrick, a 7^th level Wind Gyre who had a Censer of Controlling Air Elementals, to bloody the noses of the party, and tell them to back off of the Brass Blade Spider’s Guild. Riyan used to run the city branch of the guild, but when the PCs united the city and Raosk branches (the task that made them Bhakashal nobles), they took over the newly united guild. Riyan did not like this and sent Ghanglor to intimidate the party. She was hoping the party would back off without having to formally confront them and reveal her loss to the wider city factions.

Well, they decided to challenge her to a duel. She accepted on behalf of her and Ghanglor.

Duels in Bhakashal are complex, honor bound exercises. If you show up to the arena alone, take on a larger group and win, you have earned the respect of the spectators and other House nobility. If you show up with a small army to take on a single foe any victory you gain will be stained by dishonor. The goal is to have both sides be comparable, so the fight is challenging. You can bring in any magic item you have, any spells, and if you have henchmen, animal companions or similar things you can bring them as well. You cannot, for example, summon a monster then enter the arena. Any spell casting has to happen in the arena, not outside.

If you defeat your opponent you can choose to slay them or let them live, combatants often look to the crowd to decide on that. When you are defeated in the arena the victor can claim you possessions and your title if desired or ask for some concession of your liking. Essentially the victor has full scope to make demands of the defeated.

The party conjuror and the party mercenary were the challengers. The PC conjuror showed up with his three henchmen, the mercenary showed up alone. Riyan is an 11th Level Emberi Jantu Magus Warlock at House Quannar. Jantu warlocks make monsters. She showed up mounted on a gess with a squealer of her own creation on a lead, and Ghanglor hovering in the air about 10’ up beside her.

Fights between factions within a House bring out spectators from their allies and their enemies. Plus, of course, representatives from other Houses, and the general public. Bets were placed; odds were 2:1 against the PCs as they were relative newcomers. One of them, the mercenary, was a Bhakashal Lord, the other (a new player) was not. So the fight was fairly even, two Bhakashal nobility, each with an ally.

Before they arrived in the arena there was a skirmish between a giant lizard and 4 prisoners, the prisoners got the worst of that, then the arena was cleared for the main event. Battles between Bhakashal nobles happen at night.

When the horn was sounded and the fight began, the party mercenary and one of the conjuror’s henchmen charged, they were hoping to get to the spell casters before they could cast. The PC conjuror cast Runic Circle on himself, anticipating that Ghanglor Terrik would summon an Air elemental (Runic Circle, Bhakashal’s version of Protection from Evil, hedges out conjured creatures of all kinds). The PC mercenary and NPC henchmen were headed toward Ghanglor Terrik.

Riyan let the squealer loose and it ran towards the charging figures. I rolled to see who the squealer would attack, and it was the henchman. The beast landed on him with a mighty spring through the air and tore him to pieces, slaying him instantly. When the squealer landed on the henchman the PC mercenary pivoted and moved towards Riyan instead. She saw this, what would she do?

Now, just for context, I roll magic items for all NPCs, and in this case Riyan is an 11^th level Warlock, her magic item list was:

+1 Chinook Blade (2-3 rounds of 1 hp drain for everyone in 2” range)

+2 Ring of Protection

Cloak of Displacement (+2 AC and Saves, first attack misses)

Rod of Beguiling (12) – Charm, no save, 2” radius

Scroll: Forecage, Sink

Scroll: Sequester, Astral Spell

 

For 11^th level Bhakashal nobility this seems like a fairly modest outlay of magic items. However, in AD&D1e (and thus in Bhakashal), magic items aren’t “balanced”, and having the right one can make all the difference. What magic item would she use when faced with a charging warrior who is also a Bhakashal Lord?

The key thing to remember here is that Bhakashal lowers overall HP for all PCs and NPCs, so it is entirely possible that the charging warrior could one shot kill the warlock. Not on the first shot (the Cloak of Displacement would protect against the first attack), but attack number 2 and forward would be a problem. So, in other words, a charging warrior of repute is a threat to any high-level warlock, no matter how powerful they are. This is one of the major areas where Bhakashal varies from AD&D 1e and other old school games, because overall HP are reduced, and any successful strike interrupts spell casting, mid-to-high level warriors are a threat to mid-to-high level spellcasters.

With the mercenary charging it made sense she would pick the fastest and most efficient way to stop him, and that was the Rod of Beguiling. It does not give a saving throw. Once the mercenary got within 20’, she activated the Rod. At that point the PC mercenary was beguiled and could not hurt Riyan. Furthermore, she could influence his actions.

The party conjuror was about to cast Mokull the Mighty’s Monstrous Conjuration (Bhakashal’s version of Monster Summoning), but he realized he would have to go a few rounds before his monsters would show up, and Ghanglor Terrik’s air elemental would be there before then.

With the PC mercenary out of the fight, his odds were looking long.

Riyan called out and told the PC conjuror that the mercenary would now protect her, so he should surrender now and she would be lenient.

The players discussed the situation, the PC conjuror was reluctant to give up conjuring monsters, he wanted the fight, but he also realized that by the time the monsters go there he could very likely be dead.

A 16HD air elemental is not to be trifled with, even from within a Runic Circle.

He surrendered and asked for terms.

She told him, “you know what I want” (she wasn’t going to state her demand explicitly in the arena), she wanted control of the guild again, in this case a united and more powerful guild. She would not strip the PC mercenary of his title (as was her right) or his property, she just wanted control of the guild.

He assented, and she let them both live.

This is a good move for her, she has demonstrated her power in the arena, and shown the PCs she means business, and now she will approach them in the House and look to form alliances to secure her power. They will have to decide if they want to go along with her or work against her to get control of the Guild back in the long term. Going against her right after losing an arena battle will look dishonorable, part of the honor culture of Bhakashal is accepting defeat gracefully, not being petulant and aggrieved. For now, since she let them live, they will likely go along with her and not make an issue out of her running the guild. If they want it back, that will be a long term project.

But in any case, they have learned that taking on a powerful Bhakashal Warlock or Lord is not an easy task.

To be fair, had they chosen other tactics, things could have turned out much differently. They could have struck the magical Censer, disrupting the summoning of the elemental. They could have sent the conjuror’s henchmen to attack Riyan, keeping her busy while they cast spells. Either one of them could have used magic items that act faster, or even shot arrows, charging takes time and allows your opponents to take shots at you while you approach them. The PC conjuror has a spell that swarms targets with insects disrupting spell casting. He also could have tried to charm the squealer and send it back against Riyan and Ghanglor. Emyar the Ashen’s Ebony Coils (Bhakashal’s version of Evard’s Black Tentacles) would have also wreaked enough havoc that he probably would have had time to summon his monsters.

Oh well, perhaps next time!

Another facet of Bhakashal that was accentuated in this fight was tactical opacity. Bhakashal recommends that the referee roll randomly for NPC spells and magic items, as well as randomly rolling for all of their characteristics. I have been told many times that this will put NPCs at a disadvantage with respect to the PCs as the PCs will be optimized by min-maxing players. However, this overlooks an important fact, when you optimize your opponents then it becomes much easier to predict what they will do. Certain magic items and spells turn up more often, as well as certain monsters.

When you randomize these things the players have no idea what to expect. This tactical opacity makes for a challenging game, and keeps it interesting for everyone.

 

Building Bhakashal – Session Report - Dad’s Game April 7

Tamoachan!

The lads finished off last session 2 weeks ago. The game has got to the point where I don’t make the arrangements anymore, the players organize the date and time, I just show up.

They are super stoked to play, and making it happen on a regular basis.

That’s the sweet spot.

They started in the cat room, which they had explored the last time fairly thoroughly. They went to a door on NE side and found a hallway with a number of consecutive pits. There was a lot of discussion as to what to do about crossing the pits. They considered the old boards but were worried about them breaking. Eventually they decided to have one of the PCs do the jump over each pit, then at the other end hold a rope. Then the party warlock cast Levitation on himself, and carried one person as he was pulled across, then he was pulled back, then he took the next person across.

This whole process took 2 turns, so two wandering monster rolls, but nothing came up.

One neat thing was that they couldn’t see the end of the corridor, so they didn’t know exactly how many pits they would be jumping. Even better, when the party thief was ensconced at the far end of the hallway with the rope it was far enough away that she was entirely covered in darkness. So they were hearing her but not seeing her as they coordinated efforts.

Little details like that really make the environment come together and keep everyone on their toes.

Every time they came to a door the party thief checked for traps. Then, if the door was clear, the party tanks tried to pry or shove the doors open. Some came open easily, some were quite difficult.

And of course wandering monster rolls were made, every time the thief checks for traps that’s a turn and one wandering monster check.

They encountered a huge room with a partially collapsed ceiling that let in fresh air and sunlight. At that point the PC Seer (cleric) decided to cast Continual Light on a dagger rather than rely on the torches.  He rummaged around the skeletons, found a bunch of miscellaneous loot, and disturbed a 2 headed snake. Fortunately for him the snake didn’t surprise him, so it was a direct initiative comparison. The Seer smacked the snake on one of it’s head, and the party NPC mercenary (fighter) beheaded the snake with his bastard sword.

That was pretty cool.

They looted the room (found some jewelry, coins and a pair of potions).

They checked for traps on a NW door, I rolled for wandering monsters (none) and they  followed a corridor to the base of a set of stairs. I was ready to roll out the encounter, but they decided to bail and return here after finishing the level they were on.

Clever lads.

At this point they returned to the  cat room and found a door to the West, the party Spider (thief) checked for traps (I checked for wandering monsters) and they entered a dust filled room.

The dust formed into humanoid shapes, a woman in distress, soldiers, and they watched in rapt fascination. They weren’t sure what to do, they had no idea what these creature were. This was an odd room as the creatures don’t do anything, and there is no loot here. This is what you could call a “flavor” encounter, it didn’t have any game-mechanical content.

But the players ADORED it, they wanted to know the story behind it (the module has no story), they even considered using Speak with the Dead to try and find out if it was some sort of revenant, and see what the figure was trying to tell them. They eventually decided to bail on the room as it was kind of giving them the creeps.

They returned to the large rubble filled room and explored the next door. The thief found no traps and they found a room with a strange sight, what appeared to be a misshapen tree. They tried to go around it and it attacked, fortunately there was no surprise (the party had been suspicious of this “tree” from the second they saw it, “How can it grow here without sunlight!”). 

The creature lashed out with multiple tentacles, but the party Mercenary (fighter) got the initiative on the creature and decided to use one of his two Javelins of Lightning. That left a smoking hole in the central trunk, and the NPC Mercenary finished the beast off with his bastard sword.

When the encounter was over they asked to see the illustration again, and you could see the moment they realized, "that's not a tree", it's actually something weirder, the module describes it as, "polyp or sea anemone". Then you see the moment that this is a temple, and this thing was worshipped like something holy, some ancient god. Tamoachan has a lot of uniquely weird things like that. 

They retrieved some loot from the “tree” and moved on.

It’s been interesting to see how this group has grown over the last year, when they started the year they were miserly with their magic, now they were willing to use up one shot items if the need arose. This “tree” was an unknown quantity, and rather than risk whatever it had planned for them, the mercenary threw his Javelin of Lightning, a one shot item.

Dungeons are littered with the corpses of adventurers who died with unused magic items. That’s where all the loot comes from, LOL. I’m happy to see that they have made the correct tactical decision: use it or you die with it and someone else will!

They moved on a found a corridor with statues coming out of the walls.

An observation. The party Thaumaturge (Bhakashal Spider/Warlock, thief/magic-user) is a custom class, and her thief skills have proven to be invaluable. She checks for traps at every door, burning a turn of time and generating a wandering monster check. However, since I’m running the NPC, I have to randomize when she decides to check for traps outside of the doors. You don’t want her checking everywhere and all of the time, as that would be tedious and unfair, but you don’t want her missing anything obvious. So, to deal with this I roll to see if she checks for traps outside of the doors.

She decided to check for traps in the corridor and found a pressure plate. 

She’s earned her keep many times over on this adventure.

I rolled for wandering monsters while she checked for traps, but it did not come up.

 They moved through the room, carefully avoiding contact with the statues and checked for traps on the next door, heaving it open to enter a room with a well and a statue of a huge ogre-like being standing over a bed of hot coals.

They took the coals as evidence of something live being in the area and went on the defensive. They poked around the room, and went over to the well, dropping electrum coins they had found into it. The well was filled with “liquid light”, and I had the dropping of the coins cause a huge plume of the substance to spray up into the air, the PC dropping the coins (the warlock), had to save to avoid being splashed.

There was an ogre magi in a hiding spot in the ceiling, I rolled to see if it would come out an attack when the party was messing with the well. Four of the members of the party had stated that they were on the lookout while the warlock investigated the well. I rolled that the Ogre Magi would attack, so he dropped down from the ceiling, hoping for surprise, I rolled and he did not surprise the party, so it was initiative.

I rolled terribly, and three party members got to attack, the party PC Mercenary threw his net over the ogre, the PC mercenary is essentially a Retiarii, a Saan (lizard folk) gladiator in Samnite armor with net and trident. Once in the net the ogre magi was occupied trying to get free, while the PCs attacked. The party mercenary laid in with his trident, right to the gut, the PC Seer (priest) attacked with his Spiritual Weapon (Bhakashal version of Spiritual Hammer), and the NPC mercenary struck successfully with his bastard sword, running it through.

One thing that you learn early as a AD&D referee is that single mid-to-high HD foes are at a disadvantage with respect to multiple member PC parties, as they get multiple attacks vs one attack each round. In this case they won initiative and slayed the ogre magi before he could even return an attack.

Them’s the breaks!

They scored some loot after investigating the room (and a wandering monster roll) and left.

They spent some time looking around and found a secret door entrance behind a stone calendar wheel and found a secret corridor. They checked for traps at the door at the end of the corridor (I checked for wandering monsters) and they forced the door into the next chamber.

They debated what to do and eventually decided to avoid the door with the infinity symbol but investigate the other two doors. First they went to the door with the bear image. The party Spider checked for traps and found a trap, she determined that there was a pit below the door and that the bear’s arms would move out and trap whomever set off the trap. I rolled for wandering monsters, no good! They decided to leave that door and move to the door with the seal.

I should add that when they check for traps sometimes they find no traps because they made a successful roll and there was no trap there, sometimes it’s because they failed their roll, whether there was a trap there or not.

They checked for traps again and I rolled for wandering monsters. Both came up! A pair of mandrills came into the room; no surprise was indicated. The party mercenary won initiative and skewered one of the mandrills, slaying it instantly, and the other won lost morale and fled. They continued their work and the party Spider disarmed the crossbow trap, fouling the triggering mechanism. They then entered the room.

There were several pillars in front of them, and they gazed at the room in wonder, it was a miniature diorama of a huge Olmec city, complete with little carved people and a funeral raft, as well as a river of liquid metal running through it.

They were impressed.

The room description says the following, “The first character to cross the porch and pass the pillars will activate a spell-trap the pillars contain. An amber wall of flame will spring up between the character and the rest of  the party.”  

This is a trap designed to separate off a PC for a time, traps like this are a source of endless consternation and debate. Fortunately for us, we have an agreed upon marching order for the party, which includes distances between members. They agreed early on not to “bunch up” and provide dense targets for the enemy, but in this case it meant that the lead PC (the party Mercenary) would be separated for sure.

The PCs behind the wall took heat damage and retreated back. The warlock cast a Fire Shield spell from a scroll (one and done), and the Seer cast a Resist Fire spell. I should note that this group has finally learned that saving up your items is sometimes a bad call. So many times a PC will bite the bullet because they didn’t use a magic item or cast a spell that they didn’t want to “waste”. The dad’s have gotten past that.

Sheathed in roiling violet flames, the warlock walked through the wall of fire. The Seer, protected by his god, also walked through.

Badass.

By the time they were all through, the doppelganger had appeared in the chamber, looking like mercenary, the only thing different about them was their position, one was by the wall of fire, as the mercenary had chosen to wait, one was near the funeral raft. He immediately tried to bamboozle the PCs.

“When I passed through the wall of fire it transported me here, that’s not me over there, it’s a doppelganger!”

The mercenary responded, “No, that’s the doppelganger!, I haven’t moved.”

Who to believe?

Delicious!

The PC warlock thought fast, “What did I instruct the Magic Mouth to say?”

The warlock had set a warning magic mouth at the entrance to shout if any sentient creatures came past it. The mercenary responded, “I have no idea, you didn’t tell me.”

Then he charged at the doppelganger, throwing his net.

The creature was tangled up in the net, and he continued the charge, attacking with his trident. In Bhakashal there are different kinds of criticals. There are “natural” criticals, triggered by circumstances, e.g., a charge doubles damage. There are weapons based criticals, e.g., an arrow, on a critical hit, can “remain” in the victim, doing 1 hp damage per round until removed (an action).

Then there are attack roll based criticals, which include things like temporarily blinding your opponent, getting an extra attack, or disarming them. At 7^th level mercenaries can stack two criticals. So, on charge they get the charging critical (double damage) from the attack, if they roll a critical on the attack, they can stack it. The mercenary rolled a critical, and chose to double his double damage.

He finished the creature off in a single hit.

“Your trident sings through the air and two of it’s tongs pierce the doppelganger’s two eyes, its ear splitting death screech rings in your ears.”

They then did a cursory search of the room, deciding to leave most of it unexplored, as they wanted to move up the shrine rather than spend too much time in one place.

I think my constant rolling for wandering monsters is getting to them, LOL.

They left the room and retraced their steps to the corridor with the steps leading up to the next level. They are mapping as they go, which has been fun, and it has paid off as it has allowed them to move around and explore knowing they could find their way back.

Observations

Once per turn wandering monster rolls make this sort of game play VERY different than the ubran and wilderness play they are familiar with. In the city you do check for random encounters every hour (except in particularly busy places), in the wilderness 4 times a day.

In the dungeon it’s every turn.

That makes for very different play at the table. Suddenly, time is a keenly felt resource, and players begin to understand.

Take lighting.

They started off with torches, but as they burned away (every hour) they had to be replaced. By the point that they got to the 3^rd set of torches, the party Seer decided to cast Continual Light on a dagger. No big deal. However, for the first time I can remember, the party Seer is getting near his casting total for the day. There has been a lot of detect evil, detect magic, find traps, that sort of thing, and the occasional combat spell, and suddenly they are looking at having to rest to cast anything at all.

They are also learning tactics, the party warlock is realizing magic missiles are primarily useful as they always hit their target, so there is no friendly fire problem. They are letting the party tanks charge and strike before casting AOE spells and such. Coordination has improved.

So far they have held their own and even bested their opponents quickly with a combination of good rolls and decisive action.

They are also a bit worn down, all have taken minor damage, scratches and nicks (according to the Bhakashal combat system, any damage less than half of your total is minor damage like this). HP in Bhakashal are primarily non-physical. But they are also feeling the need to get moving, the environment is just creepy and dangerous enough that they want to get to the end.

As they move further up the shrine there will be wonders and strangeness, I envy their experience of this first time.

The best part of this is that Tamoachan has encounters like the dust-spirit room that have no obvious meaning. There’s a mirror in one room that clearly states it does nothing. Then there’s mirrors level up that have wild powers.

I know everyone loves Tomb of Horrors for the big, dramatic death traps, but the tension and flavor in this module cannot be beat, the mashed up Central American themed environment is unique and in places both creepy and cool.

“When the door is opened a rush of warm, fetid air greets the party. The room is lit with a sanguine glow. On the wall opposite the door are tacked several obviously human skins. A cat-o-nine-tails hangs beside them…”

That sort of thing, found in the black, lightless depths of an ancient temple in the swamp, has such a powerful terror factor. 

Only evil things would be here.

They have chosen to leave certain things behind, and taken on a lot of loot they haven’t checked out for curses or magic. I know groups that would turn over every stone and carry every item. Different groups have different dynamics, and face different challenges.

They are enjoying this so much that they are arranging all the game times and locations and just checking with me to see if I’m available, they WANT to play, to explore this strange, evocative place. I love that kind of full buy-in.

Big fun.

Building Bhakashal – Session Report

My Thursday group is still split into three parts, each part got a slice of today’s session.

Group 1 – The Raiders

The party Spartan (monk) had joined in with the raiders on the Domino, with the Captain, Emberi Thaumaturge Thurva The Thrice Damned and her Malu Mercenary henchman Kalima Thrine. They were chasing a merchant vessel, the Astrolabe, and last session Thurva used Moonsal’s Ichorous Syphon to funnel up a column of water and used it to drown the Astrolabe’s warlock, Asil Merr the Mirach. A number of sailors on both sides were slain in the exchange of crossbow fire.

The two House Tairn barges that were protecting the Astrolabe turned around last session and approached the Domino, so they were closer. Chilonder Bix, a House Tairn Chitin warlock on Barge 1 had cast Phantasmal Force on the ship and made the illusion of 4 malu boarding the Domino, two at the front near the party Spartan, two near the back. The two near the Spartan attacked but did minor damage. The two at the back attacked two separate Domino sailors and slayed them.

The spartan attacked one of the illusions and hit it solidly on the chest, Bix made it fly over the side to be convincing.

4 of the 1^st level soldiers on B1 that had a shot, sent crossbow bolts at the Domino, slayed one crewmember and hit Thurva’s henchman, but as he has high HP the shot was described as a near miss. Two of the 4^th level mercenaries on B1 (at the front of the barge) shot Thurva, one hit her for minor damage, enough to disrupt her spell.

The 7^th level mercenary on Barge 1, Kostelthorne, shot Kalima and did minor damage. The spell caster on Barge 2, the 4^th level warlock Umi the Chaolite, cast Dalkin’s Mighty Stone, and a shimmering magical sling came into existence, and by using a diamond as the material component of the spell, a glowing sling “stone” shot out and flew towards the Domino, going through the chest of one of her sailors and out the back!

The crew of the Domino returned fire! Taking out 1 soldier on B1 and a sailor on the Astrolabe.

Kalima fired off a crossbow and shot a soldier on Barge 2, slaying him.

The high level mercenary on barge 2, Feegan the Boisterous, shot at the party Spartan, but he blocked the bolt.

SWITCH

 Group 2 - the trainers

The party Mercenary and newly created Conjuror were training, the Mercenary training his new baby wyvern and the Conjuror training on his new Kestram (giant bird) mount, on the way back to the city they had an encounter with a pair of NPCs.

They didn’t know these NPCs were sent to spy on them on behalf of House Magnar, one is a high level Spartan, the other a Mercenary. They were “attacked” by a Purple Liash plant, the party members saw them and rescued them last session.

The party Mercenary had went off with the Spartan NPC in search of their spooked mounts. They returned, and the PCs wanted to destroy the Purple Liash plant, so after a few misstarts managed to throw oil on it and set it on fire.

Fortunately, the weather roll for today had no rain.

The plant burned to the ground, and they looked around it’s’ base and found a gem, a necklace and a Bissandrith’s Sword of Cleaving, which was taken by the Conjuror.

They then bid farewell to the two NPCs, agreeing to meet them back in the city in a week or so, the NPCs have asked to “work off” their favor to owed to the PCs for “saving them”, so we’ll see if they get suspicious in the interim.

SWITCH

 Group 3 - The camp

The party members who stayed at the raider camp, the Spider/Warlock, the Warlock, the Beastial (druid) and the Slayer (ranger/assassin) had woken in the night to see the equivalent of a hurricane blowing around outside of their tents. 9 of the 10 raiders were in the air, flailing around helplessly.

Last session the party warlock cast Laysinath’s Secure Shelter, it worked, but the winds were so strong they blew the spell apart. The Slayer was armoring up, the Beastial preparing as spell and the Spider/Warlock tossed a knife into the maelstrom to see what would happen and it was snatched away as if it were nothing.

The 9 raiders in the air were then shot off in different directions by the wind as if they were rag dolls, this was the first sign that perhaps the wind was not natural. It was, in fact, a 16HD air elemental. Elementals in Bhakashal are VERY powerful, they get a lot of powers not listed in the description. For example, an air elemental could suck all of the air out of targets in the AOE, making them save or go unconscious, or they can neutralize missile fire completely, drive enough dust and dirt to completely blind targets in a large AOE, pick up people and throw them around just like a very powerful wind, etc.

 They all flew high up into the air then came crashing down to their deaths.

The party Warlock attempted to cast Rope Trick, however, by this point the wind was pretty strong near them, dirt was blasting into their faces, and the rope that you hold on to when casting Rope Trick was being pulled and pushed around by the wind. All of this combined to disrupt his casting of the spell, and it was over.

The wind picked up and hit the tents, and the party Warlock and Spider/Warlock were pulled out of the tents, they both had to make a saving throw to grab on to the tents before being flung into the air. The Slayer and Beastial stayed in the tents.

At this point a Garudin Gyre (Gyres use raw magical energy and have a domain, for example, this was a wind Gyre so he has various wind related powers) appears in the air, somehow the maelstrom has carved out a calm spot for him. He has a quiver full of javelins and a censer hanging from his belt, with smoke curling out. He announces himself as Ghanglor Terrik, calls out each of the PCs by name, then tells them that Riyan the Raze says hello, and they are to “give up” on the newly reunited Brass Blade guild to her. Riyan controlled the city branch of the guild before the unification. The party unified the guilds and took control of both away from her by convincing another faction to vote with theirs.

The Gyre took out a Javelin of Lightning and threw it, it struck the ground right in front of the two PCs, spraying dirt on them and, “making the hair on your arms stand up” it was so close. Then he had the air elemental blow freezing cold air at the two PCs, treated like a breath weapon that did 6d6 damage, save for half.

Ghanglor Terrik called out his warning a second time, “Give up on the guild, or you will be challenged and slain!” At that point he flew off.

In Bhakashal a House Warlock like Riyan the Raze would normally challenge the PCs to a duel for control of the guild, but she wants them to vote the control over to her in this case, so she had them intimidated rather than killed. To have an agent of hers kill them without a formal challenge would be dishonorable, so she just wanted to show the PCs that they are “touchable”.

SWITCH

 

Back to the ships.

The party Spartan struck out at another illusion, this time he delivered a powerful kick to the illusion’s “head”, this would normally have caused him to be stunned, or at least knocked over, but this time the caster, Chilonder Bix, could not see the hit so did not make the illusion react properly, and the Spartan got suspicious that this was not real.

He made a disbelief save and realized that these were illusions.

He shouted out to the sailors on the Domino that these were phantasms, they all got saves at +4 and disbelieved the illusion together. When Bix heard the Spartan shout he laughed and pointed at him, winking, letting the illusions dissolve into smoke. He then looked at the Domino, spoke the words, “Dveře Otevřené” and a shimmering vermillion door appeared in front of the warlock, he walked through and appeared on the deck of the Domino, just behind one of the masts.

This spell, called Doljain’s Portal of Planar Passage, is Bhakashal’s version of Dimension Door.

4 of the soldiers on barge 2 had clear shots at the sailors nearest to Chilonder Bix, slaying them both.

Thurva saw Bix arrive on the Domino and took out a scroll, quickly casting Cijam the Rust’s Brilliant Beguilement (Bhakashal’s Charm Person) hoping to take him out fast, but the warlock made his save, shrugging off the charm.

4 barge 1 mid level mercenaries shot crossbows, two hit one sailor, removing another one near Bix, and one hit Kalima. Kostelthorne, the 7^th level mercenary on Barge 1 shot at the part Spartan but he again blocked the bolt with his ability.

The mid-level mercenaries on B2 took out two more Malu sailors on the Domino with crossbow fire.

The Domino crew shot back and took out 2 barge soldiers (low-levels) with their harpoons.

Feegan the Boisterous, the 7^th level Mercenary from barge 2 shot at the Spartan and he blocked it again! The party Spartan absolutely LOVES this class ability, and it has come in extremely handy. To be fair he was on fire with the dice today, making every save, but nonetheless, it was very cool in combat.

A mid-level mercenaries on B1 got their shot at another Domino sailor, slaying him and leaving Chilonder Bix completely free of anyone around him on the Domino.

Umi the Chaolite used Dalkin’s Mighty Stone again and shot at the Spartan, who blocked the missile from the spell. The spell shoots a gemstone from a magical sling, we discussed whether or not the Spartan’s ability to block would work against a magically propelled stone, and decided it would. He then cast Morshoggols Magnificent Mount to summon a giant amphibious snake, mounted it, and headed towards the ship.

Finaly, Kalima, Thurva’s Malue mercenary henchman used his Boots of Striding and Springing to jump from the Domino to barge 2.

I normally run theatre of the mind, but this time I pulled out the markers and set up the combat environment (seen above and below, this shot was at the end of the fight) with the two ships in black, the two barges in green (barge 1 on the left, barge 2 on the right), the spell caster on barge 2, the tall orange counter, is the Chitin Umi the Chaolite, the high level warriors on the barges were tall green counters, the low level mercenaries were flat counters in green and orange, the mid-level mercenaries were red counters. The tall orange counter on Barge 2 with the blue mark on it is Kalima, who jumped there at the end of the round.  

The Domino, the raider ship, is on the bottom, the orange tall counter at the front it Thurva, the tall yellow counter is the party Spartan, the blue flat counters are the crew, the yellow flat counter is a mid-level crew member, and the tall orange counter behind the dice cannister (one of the masts) is Chilonder Bix, who transported himself to the ship. The yellow flat counters on the top ship, the Astrolabe, are the sailors, their captain is on top of the dice box.

So much going on this session, the lads at the raider camp now know that Riyan the Raze has it in for them, and they have to decide to meet it head on, challenge her directly, or to work against her subtly, knowing that Ghanglor Terrik can strike at any time. Elemental magic in Bhakashal is VERY POWERFUL, so they definitely have to be careful there.

The lads heading out on the Kestram (giant bird) have no idea they have been made by two NPCs working for House Magnar, and they will be meeting up with  them when they return to the city, thinking that they are just NPCs grateful  that the PCs saved them that may want to join the party as henchmen.

As for the party Spartan and the House Tairn patrols that’s still very much up in the air, the crew of the Domino has been decimated, when the barges reach the ship they will outnumber them significantly. Chilonder Bix is on board already, Umi the Chaolite is still untouched, Kalima is on the barge and so is the high-level House Tairn warrior (tall green counter) Feegan the Boisterous. Thurva has no idea the raiders who stayed back at camp have been mostly slain, so she has lost almost all of her crew in this fight. She may get desperate and use one of her high level scroll spells. No matter what, they need to step it up as there are a pair of 7^th level mercenaries, a pair of 4^th level warlocks, about 14 low level mercenaries, and 8 mid-level mercenaries coming after them.

Large groups of foes, no matter their level, are always a threat.

Super-exciting session, all three of the player groups got some action, and they are juggling multiple dangerous situations.

Bring it on.