Building Bhakashal – Randomization

I built Bhakashal on a foundation of random rolling. This isn’t a particularly controversial idea, but the scope of the randomization is perhaps something that people might not be familiar with. There are several sources of randomization.

1. Tables

There are tables for spells, magic items, encounter tables, personality types, gods, mounts, weather conditions and many other aspects of the game.

One of the primary goals of this randomization was to allow the referee and players, in tandem, to procedurally generate the game world as they play, rather than detailing every aspect of the game world in advance. The latter is simply impossible, and even the more restricted guideline of detailing only what the referee thinks will be needed, is still fundamentally challenging. One of the truisms of role-playing games is that the players will go to places and do things you didn’t anticipate.

My original reason for using procedural generation was the sheer size of Bhakashal as a city, I looked at the closest equivalent fantasy city in size (The City State of the Invincible Overlord) and the sheer number of entries was formidable. Either you would have a hopelessly large descriptive section (which would be unwieldy) or you would pare down the details to the point that the referee was generating a significant amount of material in play, which defeats the purpose of providing such a descriptive section in the first place.

As I progressed it became clear that procedural generation using tables was the core mechanic for creating the setting. Rather than pre-generating the content, I created weighted tables that allowed on the spot generation of many aspects of the game world.

Note that weighted tables are key here,  e.g., the odds for each option on the table are not equal, they are weighted to reflect their commonality in the game world. Thus, this isn’t complete randomization, it’s randomization within a set of options that are determined by the nature of the game world.

In addition to allowing the referee to present a large game setting without getting overwhelmed by the details, it also gives the game some variety at each individual table. For example, spell casters with spell selections determined by random generation are tactically opaque, e.g., you are unable to predict what spells you enemy casters will have, as spells are randomly determined.

This has a myriad of benefits for game play.

Another benefit of randomized tables is the possibility of solo play. All aspects of character generation, encounter creation, faction interplay, every aspect of the game is driven by weighted random tables, so it is possible to play solo without a referee if desired.

The last benefit to this randomization is spontaneity, not only are the players surprised by what happens, but so too can the referee be surprised by what happens. When running games, it is very easy to fall into patterns that become predictable and unappealing for you and your players. Randomization keeps things fresh.

2. In-Play Randomization

There are two kinds of randomization in-play of interest here, encounter reaction rolls, and general odds rolls for actions. Both require active interpretation of prompts by the referee.

NPC Encounter Reaction Rolls - Bhakashal expands upon the traditional role of the encounter reaction mechanic by extending it to all encounters in the game world, not just those between parties in “parley”. Encounter reaction rolls are a mechanism for resolving NPC and monster actions that allow the referee to use weighted randomization to choose rather than choosing responses themselves.

Bargaining with the merchant for a new sword? Encounter reaction rolls indicate if the merchant will be giving you a hard time. Ask the caravan master to detour the caravan to allow the party to investigate a ruin? Encounter reaction rolls determine if you are left to your own devices.

As a general rule, an encounter reaction roll is made whenever a NPC has to make a decision, there is a conversation going back and forth, and when the conversation leads to the NPC having to decide about something, the roll is made.

Any given conversation will have a roll made, then the conversation takes a new direction based  on the roll, and later in the conversation another roll will be made, until the conversation ends through actions on the part of the participants.

The chief advantage to this system is that the referee is called upon to interpret the result in question, and in doing so will end up filling out some aspect of the game world. My favorite example of this happened when a group of PCs where purchasing mounts, when the reaction roll came from the merchant it was very positive, so he gave them a terrific deal.

However, as a referee I have to interpret that result, why would a merchant give this random group of PCs a good deal? I decided on the spot the merchant had been robbed recently, so he had to move stock in order to make the gold necessary to pay off his debtors and suppliers.

The party asked why they were being given such a deal, the merchant shared the information, and they decided to help the guy out. And that became their first adventure.

In a more “traditional” game the purchasing of mounts could be resolved by email between sessions, or it would be a matter of the referee looking up the price and telling the PC, or perhaps adjusting based on the setting economics. But it would be a passive, simple roll or determination. In Bhakashal, there is an encounter, and an encounter reaction roll shapes the response of NPCs to PC actions. Introducing encounter reaction rolls to our game fundamentally changed the way we played, as it meant that:

a)        predicting outcomes became harder

b)       there was no default  to combat in regular NPC encounters

These things meant that the PCs gathered more information, formed more alliances, and generally looked at NPC interaction differently.

 

Monster and Animal Encounter Reaction Rolls – Bhakashal also has encounter reaction rolls for monsters. These are based on the premise that monsters and animals will not automatically attack everything they encounter. Monsters and animals are not stupid, they don’t attack large groups unless the have the numbers, they don’t eat everything they encounter, etc. Bhakashal uses a weighted table to determine how animals/monsters react to threats, the weighting does make them tend towards hostility, but it leaves open the possibility of peaceful interaction, or just fleeing the scene, so every encounter isn’t guaranteed to end in violence.

General Odds Rolls for Actions

NPCs have to make decisions all of the time, and there are times when those actions are not immediately spurred on by player actions. So for example, a PC thief is watching a potential mark who is in their home. The home has a strongbox, and the thief is waiting for the mark to move out of the room where the strongbox is located so they can enter and try to steal it’s contents.

How long does the thief have to wait?

This may seem like a trivial decision, but there are profound game play and fairness implications to these sorts of decisions. If you decide that the NPC mark stays put a long time, the odds of the PC being discovered increase. If you make them move sooner, the PC has better odds. Referees make decisions like this all the time, and depending  on how you rule, they can have a strong impact on the game play for the PCs. A referee who routinely makes the mark stay put a long time makes casing and stealing from marks much more challenging, the ref that moves things along fast makes it much easier.

Essentially, any of these decisions impact play outside of the application of the rules, if you make these decisions by fiat, there is room for bias, or at the very least predictability on the referees part. If you randomize these decisions, then there is less room for bias, and greater unpredictability.

Gygax suggests randomizing aspects of play not directly covered by the rules, and Bhakashal embraces this idea enthusiastically. This sort of randomization is also a fecund source for creating the lore and environment of the game world.

Take another example, the PCs were travelling with a caravan, and the caravan came to a section of the route that had rough terrain that would make them vulnerable to attack while passing through. However, the most expedient route around this terrain would delay them by an extra 2 days, the least expedient route would delay by 3 days. What does the caravan do?

This is important as bandits monitor the rough terrain for travellers they can waylay, and the odds of encountering someone (friend or foe) on short detour are greatest. So, there are advantages and disadvantages to both options. At this point I would randomize the choices available:

1 – Take a much longer detour (safest, longest time)

2-3 – Continue through the rough area (most dangerous, fastest)

4-6 – Take shorter detour around the rough area (second most dangerous, second fastest)

 

The idea here is that the caravan master will want to minimize delays but maximize safety, arriving late is a big problem, arriving without your goods is a bigger problem, so this is reflected in the weighting of the odds, where the third option is the most likely.

Importantly, I narrate these choices to the party before rolling in the open for the results. This gives them the opportunity to suggest other options I may not have considered. For example, say one of the PCs suggests using an illusion to deceive any potential bandits. That is something that the caravan master would not have come up with, so it can be added to the list when suggested.

 

Once the roll is made, the referee has to interpret the result. So, say we rolled that the caravan master has decided to push through the rough, dangerous area, the referee would have to explain that decision if the PCs confronted the caravan master. That means the referee will have to pull on the threads of the game world to determine why this decision was made. Explaining the results of rolls is almost as much fun as making them. It can be an opportunity for role-play (the caravan master has something to prove to his boss), or an opportunity to drop adventure hooks (the caravan master is becoming reckless as he has debt collectors on his tail and delays let them catch up).

 

I have adopted this process for all of these sorts of decisions in the game, and it has led to some of the most interesting gaming experiences. I find that one of the biggest challenges of being a referee is making an almost endless stream of decisions about the game that aren’t really outlined in the rules. For years I just picked based on instinct, or went with a default decision to save time and effort. That sort of thing gets dull and predictable really fast, and in doing so breaks immersion in an important way. The game world feels less real if you can call what is going to happen all the time.

 

Randomization of these in game interstices, the spaces that are not explicitly part of the rules but a significant part of game play, makes the game far more fun, unpredictable and gives it a kind of depth that is hard to emulate.

 

It also lessens the possibility of the referee being biased against the PCs one way or the other. You have all no doubt played with the referee who always ends up making these sorts of decisions in a way that is harmful to the PCs.

PC - “Are there any ships in the harbor sailing to Monmurg?”

REF  – “No, not today”

PC – “Does the merchant have any young, fast horses in their inventory?”

REF – “I’m afraid not”

PC – “Are there enough branches lying around to start a fire?”

REF– “No, there are not”

Alternately, there is the magical referee, who always seems to answer “yes” to these sorts of questions.

Either referee is doing a disservice to the group, and in many cases may not even be aware of it. And these sorts of decisions make a significant difference to the game play experience. A referee who is constantly ruling against the PCs in these cases creates a game world where the PCs are at a constant disadvantage, luck, skill and planning aside.

Randomization of this kind is not for every referee. You need to be able to list out and assign odds to a small number of options at a moment’s notice. Thing is, I find that many people do this anyway when they are trying to make a decision about what an NPC is about to do.

Bhakashal explodes this process for all to see, then randomizes the results to make it exciting and unpredictable. And even more than all of that, it makes the process fair. By opening it up to the players, and rolling in the open, the players and the referee can see that there is no bias in the result. Any bias that there is can be found in the generation of the list of options, and as the players are given an opportunity to become involved in the process, the bias is at the very least acceptable to all at the table, which is all you can really ask for.

I think that the big advantage for me as a referee is that I find coming up with options and assigning odds to be easy and making choices to be hard. That difficulty is, in part, due to the fact that after decades of running games I became aware how much these sorts of decisions accumulate to shape the direction of play. I don’t want to have that sort of influence at the table, I want to shape the overall options to fit the game world and environment, but I don’t want to determine them completely, as it gives me outsized influence in what happens at the table.

Randomization minimizes this area of referee influence, and makes the game far more independent and immersive. Both the players and the referee get the sense that the game world is independent of them, and thus both more “real” and fairer.  This latter point has been one that my players have told me is important to them. They know I’m not “stacking the deck” and making things either easier or harder on the PCs. Instead, by using weighted tables and weighted odds distribution, the dice combined with the environment determine how hard things will be. The players find this combination to be particularly satisfying, they know when they overcome challenges that they were not coddled or punished, but instead they rose to a challenge and bested it, fair and square.

Building Bhakashal – Improvisation and Down Time

This Wednesday’s session was an awesome example of a whole host of interesting aspects about game play in Bhakashal, and a great opportunity to discuss “down time” activities, and hand waving, as the party had just completed an adventure and were transitioning to a new goal.

Let’s dive in.

My Wednesday group has just finished an adventure in the desert. They found the “Forgotten City”, and while they were there they opened up a hell gate. They negotiated with a pit fiend, releasing it in exchange for loot. However, the fiend betrayed them and fled to a desert city where a warlock resided, looking for revenge. The warlock showed up with the fiend in pursuit, a battle happened (where the PCs ditched the warlock and let him fight the fiend on his own) and the warlock left.

The party had travelled to the desert by accompanying a caravan. That caravan went on without them when they travelled the last distance to the Forgotten City. They knew where the caravan would be over the next week or two and knew that it would be in the desert city of Esham for several days so they could meet it there and head back to Bhakashal with them.

Travel is never hand waved in Bhakashal, they had a 5-day window to get to Esham and meet the caravan, if they missed the window, they missed the caravan, that’s how time matters in Bhakashal.

They travelled for 3 days to get to Esham, including encounters with giant scorpions and another caravan.

A few words about the “jewel of the desert”, Esham.

When I have to generate something as large as a city, I draw on the ample resources available to me as a Bhakashal referee, as Bhakashal is compatible with most old school source material. I found an old issue of Dragon that had an adventure, “Barnacus, city in peril”. I filed off the name, reskinned the city to fit a desert environment, and used that, rather than generating something from scratch.

That meant I:

1.      ---  Replaced all the elves and dwarves with equivalent Bhakashal groups

2.      --- Changed the mounts from horses to giant lizards

3.      --- I customized the random encounter tables: I rolled and determined that the powerful warlock (Haegemal the Heliotrope) who was attacked by the pit fiend in the previous sessions resided in Esham and might end up discovering the party and “having a word”, and I included an option for the PCs to meet the adventuring party they had met in the desert (who had retreated to Esham a few days before the party when they parted ways).

4.     ---  I factionalized the city, for example, I decided that the thieves guild in Esham ruled over a number of gangs, each gang competed for status and power within the guild, essentially the guild played them off against each other, taking a cut from everyone.

5.       --- I planted a few potential adventure seeds that the party might entirely ignore or pick up, for example, I decided that the city stayed closed for the night from midnight to dawn as they had an undead problem (a vampire with a group of jackalweres had been about in the area, the city leaders had sealed off the city at night to keep them out but weren’t telling the citizens to avoid panic).

There was one problem though, Barnacus is a city on a plain with a river going by, how was I to reconcile that? I could have heavily edited the map to clean things up, but that was a lot of work, and I was pressed for time.

One of the things I have come to realize about refereeing is that my job is to INTERPRET the prompts I am given. Since this city had a body of water, I had to interpret that in some way. I decided that the city was ruled by a bit of a megalomaniac and was within about 3 miles of the desert border, so they built a canal from the hills to the city, fed by water from the mountains. Haegemal bound a powerful water elemental to the canal to ensure that water would flow freely from the icy mountain heights to the canal every year.

This immediately created a host of implications, since desert dwellers want water, the canal would have to be monitored regularly with patrols otherwise everyone would be trying to get water to use for irrigation and other things and would dry it up or destroy it. Taking drinking water would be fine, and indeed, Esham’s ruler became immediately popular after allowing this to happen, giving parched, weary travellers a source of refreshment. However, anything else would be a problem, and the canal would have to be policed, drawing away troops and resources and creating dissent amongst the city’s population, who grew to see it as a profligate waste of resources.

One map feature had suddenly given my desert city a unique feature that had factional implications.

Now, since this was a brief stop before leaving on the caravan, we could have resolved everything with a few quick die rolls and a “two days pass and now you leave”.

But that’s not how we do it in Bhakashal, instead, we play it out.

The party arrived in Esham at about 2 am. They were blocked from entering until dawn, but not told why. This plants a seed of interest in the group as to what the problem is, but they aren’t willing to push it, and wait until dawn to enter. They pay the entry tax, tipping the guard who lets them in, and in exchange they are given a recommendation to stay at a particular inn.

They find a stable to take care of their mounts and get rooms at the inn. These interactions are simple and quick, governed by encounter reaction rolls with various modifiers based on them being outsiders, etc. Most of these interactions go fairly quickly, and unless the PCs want to try to get information from the NPC, or haggle a deal, they take up little time. Sometimes a conversation will prove fruitful and last longer, sometimes it will lead to more.

One of them asks around and finds the caravaner’s guild (a feature in my game world, every city has guilds and a guild dedicated to caravans) and through them locates the caravan they are joining to return to Bhakashal. The caravan master, Craight the Swift, is pleased to see them again (fearing they would  have died in the Forgotten City, or been gone too long to rejoin them) and they share details of their adventure. Craight has both saved and been saved by the PCs, so he is well liked, and the RP was a lot of fun. That took about 5 minutes.

Now that they have secured their spot on the caravan home, they have 2 days to kill before their caravan leaves, what are they to do for those 2 days? I asked the players and they decided on a few things:

1.        Several of them wanted to gamble, they were laden with gold from their adventures, and in real life the lads had been playing poker a lot, so they wanted to find a gambling house and play some poker.

2.        One of them wanted to go to the market and by an expensive, high quality “executioners hood” cloak

With all the talk of 1:1 time games downtime has become a bit of a buzz topic on Twitter. Bhakashal doesn’t run on 1:1 time, for a number of reasons. My players are not interested in making sure they exit the “dungeon” by sessions end, switching back and forth between groups when one group is in time jail, and since travel is ubiquitous in Bhakashal, the presence of “safe spaces” to retreat to isn’t always a given.

Having said that, Bhakashal is premised on the idea that time matters, and that you don’t hand wave the time required to do most tasks, instead, you play through them.

These are perfect examples, gambling with your newfound gold and buying things (e.g., “going shopping”) are standard examples of the kind of thing that many 1:1 time games relegate to back and forth email exchanges to “speed things up”.

That’s not how we roll!

The party split and we dealt with both groups separately.

First the gamblers. Three of the party members when to a gambling house, the first one they picked was the high-end place, so they wouldn’t look out of place dropping big bets.

They immediately sat down at a table when several of the players there left. I created two NPCs on the spot, a Chitin (insect folk) Mercenary named Mulk “the Cobra” Yigil, and a Saan (lizard-folk) Thaumaturge (Bhakashal Thief/Magic-user) named “Diamond” Drigart. One of the key things to remember when running sandbox games is that you don’t need to fully stat NPCs on the spot, you certainly can, or you can draw on a pregen that you have already made, but you can also just pick a race, name and class and only detail further as you need. For flair I gave the Mercenary a pet puma that sat at his feet named Grim.

Now, if this was a downtime activity in some games the referee would have say rolled dice and resolved the activity quickly, saying, “you play poker for a few hours with the locals and manage to come away ahead, with an extra 30 gp in your pocket”, or something like that.

No thanks.

We played a few rounds of poker, using dice to indicate bets (e.g., when you bet 5 gp, you place a die with a “5” up in the pot). I love running “games within games” like this, as it gives me an opportunity to run NPCs that are sources of information about the game world. We played 4 hands of poker (PCs won 2 hands, NPCs the other two), with the party betting high as they were flush. The players LOVE gambling, and love having the dosh to play big.

The great thing about NPCs is that the party doesn’t have any idea of their LEVEL, so they treat them with some respect, their pronouncements take on a sinister edge, and they do lots of speculating that I can draw on if I’m stuck. Through conversation while gambling the PCs found out about the public distaste for the costs of maintaining the canal (“A canal in the desert, they are MAD”) and that the “no admission at night” rule was linked to religious extremists who were pressuring the governor to adhere to their beliefs (not true). Unfortunately, they stopped playing before they found out that Haegemal lived in the city.

I made a note on the random encounter table to increase their pick pocketing odds after they left the gambling house, as there were thieves afoot who looked for recently arrived adventurers throwing around gold in gambling houses. This all took about 20 min.

Halfway through the game we switched over to the PC who was going to buy a cloak. This particular PC was a mercenary, the party big boi, he has the most HP and does the most melee damage in combat, with his favorite weapon, a big bardiche. He went to the market and looked around to find a tent where they were selling find quality clothing. It was early evening and quite busy (evening is cooler so it brings out many more people), and the market was filled with locals, visitors… and thieves!

I rolled to determine how long it would take the PC to find a tent selling what he wanted and got two turns. Each turn I rolled to see if the PC was pick-pocketed. In the second turn it came up positive. I rolled to see if it was successful and if it was noticed, it was successful and unnoticed!

The PC went into the tent to look at cloaks. There was some discussion with the vendor (an old, blind Chitin named Hijim who shared his shop with a pair of oversized pet spiders to dissuade shoplifting!) The player loved that he was almost blind and they had a great conversation, eventually they decided on a price. The PC reached into their pouch and found the bottom had been cut out and there were no coins left!

Since the theft had occurred outside of the shop, the thief was long gone. Interestingly, the PC lost about 50gp, not a trivial sum for most, but for an adventurer who had just come back with thousands of GP of loot, it was inconsequential.

However, they were pissed about being stolen from, so they wanted blood!

I rolled a reaction roll for the shopkeeper when he found out that the player had been robbed. The result was strongly positive. My job as a ref is to interpret that. Perhaps he was worried that a report that someone was pick-pocketed outside of his tent would get around and push away customers, perhaps he had been robbed before and was still angry, perhaps he was worried that regular thefts near his tent would make the city watch suspicious he was in cahoots.

The shopkeeper told the PC, “The pick pockets in the market don’t keep your coins on them, in case the city watch collar them and find their ill-gotten gains, they usually go down to the docks and give their loot to their handlers and return to the market.”

With that, he was off to the docks.

When he arrived, he found a group of 8 on the dock, four were emberi (human) thieves that worked the market, four were chitin enforcers (3^rd and 4^th level fighters) and one was the group leader (an ogre). The PC walked up and demanded that they return his money.

At that point I made a reaction roll, and it came up slightly positive, so the leader told two of his enforcers to “get rid of this guy”, thinking to scare him off, and not wanting to bring down the city watch on them for slaying visitors unnecessarily.

Two 4^th level Chitin fighters surrounded the PC, a 7^th level fighter. The PC gets 3 attacks every 2 rounds, and does decent damage with the bardiche. The chitin drew four short swords each, allowing them 4 attacks per round with penalties to the “off hands”

The chitin with the better bonuses faced front, the other chitin stayed on the PCs flank and back, negating DEX and shield bonuses to AC, and giving to hit bonuses when attacking from the rear. The fighter gets an AC bonus using  the longest weapon (the bardiche is longer)

Initiative was rolled, I rolled terribly (a 6 for each chitin, the worst possible result) and the PC rolled well (a 1, the best possible result), and even with weapon speeds added, the PC attacked first. He swung and missed with a roll of 2. For his second attack he rolled a hit.

In Bhakashal when you hit the enemy for the first time you roll their HP on the spot. The PCs then realized this guy was 4^th level, and they got cocky. I reminded them that a 4^th level fighter is nothing to sneeze at, and two are definitely a threat. They weren’t worried.

The bardiche strike did enough damage to reduce the Chitin to just above half their full HP in one swing! Then it was their turn. 8 attacks in total, two hit, and two more were critical hits. Since any hit in Bhakashal can be a critical hit, any hit can turn the tide

The damage done wasn’t significant, d6 per short sword with bonuses of +1 to damage for one and +3 to damage for the other. I roll for criticals, in this case there was an extra attack and a double damage. The extra attack was a regular hit, so in total that was three hits, one for double damage.

Not nearly enough to down our tank, but it did drop him to about 2/3 of hit total HP in one attack, it got his attention, and I could see the wheels turning. We rolled again for initiative, this time he lost. Initiative can chain like this, due to the dice you get two attack routines in a row. The chitin got 8 more attacks, this time 3 hit and 2 were criticals.

I rolled for the three regular hits, and then for the criticals, this time I got temporary blinding and knock back. The knock back felled the PC to the ground, costing their next action, and their eyes were blinded by blood. I rolled up the damage from the criticals and added it, the PC was now down below 1/3 of their total HP, and the next attack belonged to the chitin.

You could see it on his face, the player realized that the two combatants surrounding him gave them bonuses, and that 8 attacks per round was more than enough to ensure that at least some of them hit, and some of them would be criticals. And criticals can shift the tide.

At this point I rolled an encounter reaction roll for the leader of the gang, and he decided to call off his men and tell the PC to scram, he didn’t want to deal with the city watch tonight. The PC was suitably bloodied and beaten, cut in multiple places and blinded by blood, sitting on his ass in the dirt.

“If anyone asks, Nulgam Nix’s crew, Baya and Gurst gave you a thrashing, you blooded Gurst, next time he sees you he has my permission to cut off your arm.”

The PC fled, found the party, and promptly reported the thievery and assault to the city watch.

Now we have an enmity, and a potential encounter to add to the random encounter list, the PCs running into Nulgam’s crew, and if the run into Gurst, it could get ugly.

That’s where we stopped.

Sessions like these are the reason why I hand wave virtually nothing in the game. Yes, some encounters can be brief and involve little RP, you don’t HAVE to interact more than the bare minimum, and depending on the rolls many of these encounters will be largely uneventful. But all contain the potential for something more. Some of our best gaming experiences have happened due to a random roll at the merchant’s tent, or while gambling with the crew of the ship.

They also have the benefit of making the game world seem more real, just like 1:1 time makes the game world seem real, playing through activities like this and interacting with NPCs in the process also make the game world feel more real. It provides opportunities to learn more about the game world and the immediate environment, factions, etc., and shows the players that nothing is given to them, they have to go out and get it.

Adventure awaits!

 

 

 

 

Building Bhakashal – High Level NPCs

Our session this week involved a high-level NPC, something they don’t come across that often.

My Wednesday group opened a hellgate in the Forgotten City, they bargained with a pit fiend, Baeral, releasing him on the condition he would lead them to great treasure. Baeral betrayed them and fled to a nearby desert city to gain revenge on a warlock, Haegemal the Heliotrope.  

The party eventually decided to leave the city after looting it. I rolled to see what happened between the Baeral and Haegemal. It ends up that the fiend attacked, the warlock fled, and used divination magic to determine what happened. He then decided to find the party and convince them to help him return the fiend to the pit. He flew across the desert, Baeral in pursuit, on an Opinicus. He asked the party for help, and they agreed. They went to the hellgate to await the pit fiend.

Now, a brief word of context. Haegemal the Heliotrope is a Technal Magus Warlock from House Ghan in Bhakashal. High level Bhakashal Warlocks are very powerful, Haegemal had captured the pit fiend and used it in rituals for months before it broke free. It was thirsty for revenge. Haegemal, as a representative of powerful Bhakashal warlocks, had to be a big deal. As an NPC he was modeling what was possible, and he was of a level to be a patron as well.

He had to have the flash.

I rolled him up according to the rules for NPC creation.

A few things to note. First, he has a broadsword, Bissandrith’s Sword of Cleaving, the sword only has a +1 bonus, but can hit any target, even those normally restricted to weapons of higher “+”, or whatever other restriction.

Warlocks with swords are PURE BHAKASHAL.

Next, his major magic item is Konkarrin’s Iron Sentinel. Konkarrin the Cyan is the Magus Warlock of House Viinos (18th level). The Iron Sentinel transforms you into enchanted iron and gives you low AC and a bunch of HP.

However, you can’t cast spells while using it.

The party was gathered, and Baeral appeared in the sky to the East, death in his eyes. Haegemal took out a scroll and cast Globe of Invulnerability on himself while the beast approached. Baeral positioned himself about 300 feet in the air above them. Then the Pit Fiend spoke, his voice like damnation and fire, “Haegemal the Heliotrope, your soul shall be mine to play with.” Haegemal snarled back, “Come collect your toll fiend, I shall pay you dearly.”

I rolled to see how the fiend would attack, and I ended up with teleport. Pit Fiends can at will teleport no error, the fiend had been to that location before, so he can teleport there at will. I decided that when the fiend appeared after teleporting amongst the party members we would roll for surprise, if it won, it got the drop on the party and could have one free attack. This is one of those make it or break it situations, the dice could end things with one roll, as the fiend in proximity to the party would be carnage. If the party won surprise, the fiend appeared amongst them, and the party attacks it first. We rolled, the party won surprise, Haegemal and the party had a chance to act.

However, Fiends also  “shed Fear in a 20’ radius”. So, even though the party won surprise when the devil teleported, the Fear effect is in play automatically as soon as he was in proximity, so all had to make a save.

Two of the 7 party members failed, and left in terror, running as fast as they could. Then… the rest of the party took off too! I’m not sure if it was the way I role played the fiend, or the fact that a fully loaded Bhakashal Magus Warlock had shown up, but they decided this was out of their weight class and booked it.

Abandoned, Haegemal had to act.

As a referee, I know what is going to happen, but Haegemal doesn’t, he has no idea what ability the fiend was going to use, from gating in another fiend to wall of fire to psionics. In that situation I roll between all his options, to be fair. Haegemal decided to use the Iron Sentinel. As a referee I will then interpret the dice. Haegemal had gambled that the fiend, due to his sheer hatred, would want to get up close and personal to destroy him, so he opted for defense.

Another issue here is that the party has all fled, so they have nothing to do. That’s not on. So, I handed Haegemal’s sheet over to the party, they were told to each take turns directing his actions, and I ran Baeral.

Game on!

Haegemal was covered by the Globe of Invulnerability and was made of enchanted iron. Bissandrith’s Sword of Cleaving was drawn. His surprise action done; he decided to charge and on charge longest weapon strikes first, so Haegemal charged and swung at Baeral with the Sword of Cleaving.

Haegemal gets +6 to hit with the sword (this includes level-based, proficiency, strength, and magic bonuses), and +3 for the WvsAC adjustment against no armor for a total fixed bonus of +9. Also, charging gives you +2 to hit, so +11.

A pit fiend has an AC of -3, in Bhakashal you add the AC to the to hit roll, so in this case you deduct 3 points. So, the total modifier to hit for Haegemal is +8. To hit for full damage, Haegemal needs to roll a 20-24 with bonuses, to crit requires 25+ with bonuses. So, he hits on 12-16 and crits on a 17+, the player rolling for Haegemal rolled a 14, and since he was charging the damage is doubled. Haegemal normally gets a +1 damage bonus from STR, this increased to +4 with the Iron Sentinel, so I add +3 to the damage bonus for the weapon for a total of +6.

In Bhakashal when damage is doubled you roll the base dice damage, double that, and add bonuses. The next player up rolled the damage, he rolled 6 hp of damage, doubled to 12, and added the +6  damage bonus for 18 total. In Bhakashal when you damage a creature for the first time you roll their hp. A pit fiend is 13 HD, so I scooped up 13 d8 and rolled them, and it had 72 hp, less the 18 done by the sword, for 54 hp left.

“Haegemal swings a wide arc across the fiend’s chest, leaving behind a bloody gash, wide as the blade, spewing foul ichor”

The fiend hissed, “scratches warlock, I feel nothing!”, I rolled for his action, and he retaliated by casting a Hold Person, hoping to neutralize Haegemal instantly. However, the Globe of Invulnerability abjured the spell.

The fiend regenerated 2 hp, back to 56.

Initiative was rolled again and Baeral won, just barely. I rolled for a choice of attack, as Haegemal was made of iron the fiend might not go for a direct physical attack. But I rolled and he did just that. Two attacks, unfortunately I rolled terribly, a 2 and a 5, so both attacks missed. “The fiend clutched at the warlock with his deadly claws, but he ducked beneath its massive arms, fast as a mongoose”.

Then the players had Haegemal curse the fiend out.

Haegemal was up, and the next player rolled a 19 for a critical hit! The player chose extra attack, the next player rolled a 17 and got another critical hit, they were screaming at this point, egging the player to choose extra hit and get a crit chain. The player went for it, and the next player rolled… an 18, to DEAFENING SCREAMS and chants of “CRIT CHAIN! CRIT CHAIN!” For the third crit the player asked for double damage. There was much heated disagreement about this, “CRIT CHAIN, CRIT CHAIN” was chanted again.

Players always want to press their luck.

But the player was resolved and chose double damage. The first attack did 3 + 6 = 9 damage, the second did 4 + 6 for 10, and the last rolled 5 x 2 = 10 +6  for 16, the three attacks together did 35 hp damage! The fiend had 21 hp left.

“Haegemal, crouched under the fiend’s arms, thrust his sword into it’s guts, pulled it back out and pivoted around, slicing an arc into the devil’s side as it’s momentum took it forward, the warlock completed the arc of the swing and brought the blade around to cut open the fiend’s back, as it howled in pure rage.”

Baeral regenerated 2 hp, up to 23.

Initiative was rolled and Baeral won. Now the fiend was desperate, I rolled, and it decided to Gate in another pit fiend. Unfortunately for me, I rolled too high, and the Gate failed.

Haegemal wasted no time and swung at the beast again, this time he missed.

Baeral regenerated 2 hp, up to 25.

Initiative was rolled again, and Baeral won. The fiend attacked twice and hit twice, the first time was a regular damage hit, the second was a critical. I rolled for critical effect and got double damage. The fiend rolled 7 hp damage from the first hit, 10 doubled to 20 for the second, for a total of 27 hp damage to the warlock. Fortunately, in transformed state, the Warlock has 100 hp, so he was down to 73 hp.

The fiend hissed, “your skin is not invulnerable, I will eviscerate you!”

Haegemal attacked and missed.

Baeral regenerated 2 hp, up to 27.

Initiative was rolled, this time the player rolled a 1 and Haegemal won. There was much shouting and banging of the table. They wanted to finish him off.

The devil pounced on the warlock while he swung his blade. The player rolled a 17 on the nose, another critical, and opted for another attack. This attack, however, only hit for half damage.

The first attack did 12 hp damage, the second did 8 /2 = 4, for a total of 16, and 11 hp remaining.

Baeral struck twice on landing, the first was a miss, but the second was a critical. I rolled for effect and it was a knock back, sending the warlock sprawling. He also did 10 HP of damage, lowering Haegemal to 63 hp.

“Baeral leapt forward, hoping to crush Haegemal beneath his bulk, but the warlock struck first, drawing his sword along the belly of the foul beast, and eliciting a howl of agony. The devil landed and lashed out, his huge fist sending his foe back through the air and to the ground.”

Baeral regenerated 2 hp, up to 13hp.

Initiative again, Baeral won, and I rolled to see what he would do, knowing that he was on his last legs there were options for fleeing or even attempting to return hell through the gate. Instead, he cast a Symbol of pain on the Magus Warlock.

One of the players rolled his save and was successful.

“The devil stared at the warlock while tracing out a glowing symbol in the air, the warlock stood his ground, pushing back against the magic, and the symbol wavered and dimmed”

Now it was Haegemal’s turn. He took out his Dust of Disappearance and faded from view. The devil howled in white hot rage.

“Coward, FACE ME!”

Baeral regenerated 2 hp, to 15.

Haegemal charged the devil, hoping it would think that he had fled and not prepare for the attack on charge longest weapon strikes first, and Haegemal struck out a mighty blow. One player rolled a 16 for the warlock, enough for a hit, but not a critical. Damage is doubled on charge, another player rolled 7 HP damage, doubled to 14, added 6 for the damage bonus for a total of 20 hp.

“The devil was swaying, ichor flowing freely from multiple stab and slash wounds delivered by the Technal Magus Warlock of House Ghan, as it stood seeking out his enemy, his head separated from his shoulders, flying through the air and landing, face first, in the dirt.”

And the table lost their minds, screaming, jumping up and down, dice all over the place.

At this point they weren’t even interested in what happened to their PCs, they were basking in a victory over a powerful pit fiend and talking about asking Haegemal to be their new patron! I suspect the Heliotrope wouldn’t be interested, given that the party had fled as soon as the pit fiend showed up.

I rolled to see if Haegemal was going to go after the party or not, given their betrayal, but the powerful warlock decided to leave, and I will have him meet the party at a later date, perhaps he will show up the next time they meet their actual patron, to have a few choice words, LOL.

Epic session, the players LOVED IT, and they got to see what a powerful Bhakashal warlock can do. High level spells and powerful magic items make Bhakashal warlocks badass and dangerous to know. Also, it showed that even if the players are not directly involved in the action, you can bring them into it by handing over dice rolls and even NPCs to them to operate.

They were talking about the fight on the way out the door, and they will be talking about it at school this week with their friends. The epic tale of how Haegemal the Heliotrope destroyed the pit fiend Baeral will be told again and again.

That’s the stuff!