Building Bhakashal – Session Report – Domain Play

We had our first session for one of my after-school groups this Saturday, we are shifting to biweekly 3 hour weekend sessions rather than weekly 1-1/2 hour after school sessions for this year, as after school activities are increasing, as well as homework!

We took a 2-month summer break, when we finished they had just arrived back in the city after a fierce fight with a bandit crew. They had traveled across the game world to the Forgotten City, and they were heavy-laden with 8 months of adventuring loot. I have to hand it to them, they hired extra pack animals and traveled with a caravan to ensure they brought all their loot home, it was a major pain in the ass, an extra cost, and it slowed them down considerably. But they were rich!

After a recap of the previous game year, mainly reminding everyone of tasks finished, tasks unfinished, commitments met and not met, allies and enemies created. This was essentially a bookkeeping session, but my group loves those. First we dealt with leveling up ¾ of the party (two PCs didn’t level, the rest did). One side benefit to this (differential XP requirements by class) is those classes that level more often get rewarded. When you run different classes leveling at different rates, this becomes another way to differentiate the classes. People complain about thieves in 1e for example being “underpowered”, but they level up fastest in AD&D and so improve more regularly.

We had one of the party warlocks level, and they rolled for their Patron spell, in this case they rolled a homebrew spell and were pretty stoked about it. It allows you to “borrow” power from a monster if they fail their save.

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Inarrak’s Ingenious Appropriation (Alteration) - Level: 6, Casting Time: 6 segments, Range: 1”, per level, Duration: Special, Area of Effect: Special, Components: V,S,M, Saving Throw:Neg.

Inarrak’s Ingenious Appropriation allows the Warlock to temporarily “appropriate” a power from a monster who fails their saving throw. This could be, for example, the breath weapon of a dragon or the gaze of a basilisk. While appropriated, the monster does not have that power. The Warlock can in principle appropriate any power, multiple attacks, etc. Powers can be used 1 time for every three levels of the caster and must be used within an hour of casting the spell. The Warlock may not appropriate a power from a creature that has more HD than she has levels. The material component of this spell is a small mirror and a gold piece.

 

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Warlocks in Bhakashal are free casters, once they memorize a spell they can cast it up to their maximum number of times per day (level and INT based), but they have failure odds for all castings, and the odds of HARMFUL failure are 5% per level of spell.

Ouch.

Now almost everyone in the party was 8^th level. This means that they are on the cusp of conversion into Bhakashal nobility. At 9^th level PCs who have completed an important task for their faction are considered to become part of that factions upper echelons

The party had two 8^th level members before everyone leveled up at the start of our current sessions, they will likely hit 9^th by mid year and be eligible for noble status. We are transitioning into what would traditionally be called “domain play”.  I consider all levels of play in Bhakashal to be “domain play”, as  you work for a faction from 1^st level, and are thus tied to bigger things from the beginning.

But I digress.

They decided that it was time to figure out what to do as their “big task” to impress the existing Bhakashal nobility to let them in when they did reach requisite level. Up until this point they have been following the direction of their patron. They had a sense of what was important to him, but they did not have a sense of what was important TO THE FACTION beyond him. And the point is that they need to do something big so the faction will want to add them to the existing nobility.

They had two ideas, first was to find a powerful monster that was threatening their House and slay it. The second was to pair up with Craight the Swift, the caravan master of the caravan they had traveled with for the last game year, and find some distant place to open trade with, either in mundane resources that are rare in Bhakashal, or in magical resources, e.g. rare components used in spell and item creation. This second option was what my Friday game from last year decided to do when they had a few players hit 8^th level. They are currently in the underworld trying to build a trade network around exotic monsters. Slaying a fearsome monster is good, figuring out a way to harvest materials from a monster in perpetuity is even better. For example, in Bhakashal several of the marshland villages raise giant slugs and use their acid for various things, from weapons to spell components to alcohol. If the party could corner that trade or get an advantage for their house in that trade, it would be a big deal.

They spent some time talking and decided to ask their patron, Quin Faal the Iolite, for suggestions, he’s obviously more plugged in than them. Over the last four years of this campaign they have gotten to know him pretty well, and on the whole they have been successful at the tasks he has put them to. So, how does the Patron respond? I roll for that. Encounter reaction roll (with mods) was very positive. I decided that Quin Faal was ready to make some big moves of his own, and having any member of the party as House nobility would give him another ally. So, he gave them 3 options, tasks that would both work in his favor, but also give the party a big reputation boost.

The first was related to the Bhakashal Blossom, this gigantic plant has roots all over the city that lead to healing pools, the temples and the Noble Houses control them, but there are rumors of another that has not been found. The healing pools are a big deal for two reasons, one, they heal ANYTHING, you could bring back a finger and get back the person. Second, regular healing drains the Seer (Priest) who does that healing temporarily, the pools do not. Odds are the pool will be on another House’s territory, so if that’s a House they want to forge an alliance with (which can be rolled for), or one they are opposed to, no matter what there are lots of possibilities!

The second task related to demons that have been appearing with increasing frequency and targeting powerful people in various Noble Houses. Demons in the city used to be rare, with so many high level warlocks and seers around, why bother? Find out why and stop the demons. That would be very dangerous, between magic resistance and psionics, demons are deadly, and defeating them and rooting out the source of their summoning would bring major Honor to them and any House that would take them.

The third related to the Spiders (Thieves) guild, in Bhakashal the Guild is split into two, the city branch and the Raosk branch. They have an uneasy truce, but the city branch is run on the sly by a Lord of House Quannar, the PC’s house. When Quin Faal told them this, they became privy to “nobility” level information, the identity of the “Black Arachne”, the guildmaster of the Brass Blade Spider’s Guild, is pretty secret. Now they know, Quin Faal was trusting them with key information. House Quannar has influence over one branch of the Guild, but not the other

Task three was to either slay the Guildmaster of the Raosk guild or take him out of play so that either one of them or a House Quannar Lord could take over, making their house dominant over both branches of the Guild.

That would be a boss move.

We took a break at that point from the RP with Quin Faal and while they thought about the options, we took some game time to take care of some bookkeeping. They had to cover expenses. They had been gone for months, so they had to pay their retainers (the ones who protect their property in the city). They also had to pay tribute to their patron, pay their taxes on their property in the city, make their donations to the various temples, make their donations to their factions, and grease the palms of a number of regular allies. Some also had to replenish supplies, henchmen and mounts.

Then they had to convert their mountains of coin into gems and jewelry. We roll for each PC to see if they get a better, worse or fair exchange when they buy gems and jewelry, various PC skills figure into these rolls.

One of the PCs wanted to RP a brief encounter with a mid level brawler who had bested him in a fight in the Raosk before they left on their big trip to the Forgotten City. He found the guy after some searching around a brief trip to the temple of Aeskaros, Bhakashal god of Vengeance (Aeskaros appears as a fiery red humanoid with four arms and the head of an ape, carrying a pair of two-handed swords), where he left a very large donation, the Seers pointed him to his prey. They had a fight in the Raosk, essentially on the street, there was lots of informal betting, and this time the PC won the day.

They loved that.

Then one of the PCs decided to take downtime to make a magic item, they had found a scroll with Enchant an Item and took the chance to try and memorize it. That was successful, and he had access to the library and the laboratory at House Quannar, so he decided to start with enchanting three shuriken to be +1 and return on throwing. Bhakashal has a process for that, so we rolled and spent a lot of gold (just getting the shuriken made is expensive as they have to be the very best quality materials, made by a skilled artisan) and he got his shuriken.

But that, combined with level training and other housekeeping activities, took up about two weeks of game time. By that time Quin Faal had tasked another one of his groups with discovering the possible extra healing pool.

So that was off the table.

They eventually decided on trying to take out the Guildmaster of the Raosk Brass Blade Guild as their initiation task for status as House nobility. I think the demons scared them off!

At that point they talked strategy, how to best identify the Red Arachne? Eventually they settled on finding something of import to the Raosk branch of the Guild, something that they wanted or wanted out of the way, and dealing with it. That would hopefully get the Red Arachne’s attention, and maybe help them to find out who they are. We broke at that point with the players busily hatching schemes and seeing if any of their new, recently leveled abilities would be helpful.

I should add that generating high level tasks like this is something else that Bhakashal does if the referee desires. There is a rumor table for the setting that has high level stuff like this that is up to the referee to decide on as true or false. So it could just be a rumor, or it could be the basis of something bigger. Add to this any rivalries from the PCs past that impact the House, or any tasks they have completed that hinted at bigger things going on. There are tons of sources of inspiration for this level of play in Bhakashal.

For those who are curious (these figures are rounded, I wasn’t watching the clock the entire time):

Time for Tasks: 7 - member party [OoC means “out of character”, IC means “in character or played out at the table as the PCs)

1. (OoC) Recap of big developments of previous year, enemies/allies made, achievements - 30 min

2. (OoC) Leveling up - 20 min

3. (OoC) Brainstorming "main task" - 20 min

4. (IC) Discussion with Quin Faal - 30 min

5. (OoC) Bookkeeping Tasks (money changing, expenses, henchmen, etc.) - 20 min

6. (IC) PC fight with brawler - 20 min

7. (OoC) Magic Item creation - 10 min

8. (OoC) Brainstorming "main task" - 30 min

Total – 180 min, 3 hrs

 

Building Bhakashal – High Level Play

My gaming groups are starting later this year, which gave me some time to review my campaign notes over the last few days. My Wednesday group started the year heading to a place on a map, the Forgotten City, just because it sounded cool, and there was lore suggesting it had great riches.

The lore was off, it had a gateway to hell, and moderate riches. After releasing a Pit Fiend, and pissing off a very high-level warlock, they managed to flee and catch up with their caravan. On their way back they had a bandit encounter that was very chaotic, but they managed a stalemate and retreat and headed home to Bhakashal.

They have all accumulated enough experience to level, which will make some of them 7^th level, and some of them 8^th. For reference, it has taken 4 years of gaming, about 360 hours of table time for the highest-level PCs in the party to get there. When you hit 9th level in Bhakashal you get to join the upper echelons of your faction. Each faction has a ruling class, a group who, by distinction of raising through the ranks, are now those who direct the faction. So, some time near the end of this gaming year, assuming they survive, they will be in a position to become part of the ruling class of Bhakashal, and will no longer have a patron directing them.

 However, you don’t just automatically become a Lord upon hitting 9th level.

You have to do one of two things:

a) defeat a sitting Lord in combat in the arena

b) perform a service for the House that significantly impacts their status/repute 

A Lord can refuse a challenge if desired, unless they have dishonored their station or the challenger. So that route is risky as the party doesn’t have any “dirt” on anyone. Over the next gaming year, they could look for some and challenge someone directly.

Option B would involve something BIG. Something that would significantly impact the status of their House. They are of course welcome to come up with a task that would meet the requirements. My Friday group did this last year, as they were older than my Wednesday group and had party members that hit 8^th level halfway though the year. They came up with the idea of establishing trade relations with factions in the underworld in order to get access to the unusual monsters and plants of the underworld. Establishing an outpost and trade relations for their Noble House would be a big deal.

However, it can be hard for players to come up with, “something big”. As much as the players are involved in faction play, and familiar with their patron’s interests, coming up with a significant goal to gain prestige amongst the upper echelons of Bhakashal House nobility isn’t. So, I’m going to give them some ideas. In each case the idea will be one that they learned through a contact or ally they have made over the last 4 years of play.

It’s time to cash in on the many relationships they have built

Option 1 involves the Brass Blade Spider’s Guild, it currently has 2 branches, one located in the Ward of House Quannar, the party’s House, the other branch works out of the Raosk. The Lords of House Quannar have sway over the city branch.

But the Raosk branch is out of their sphere of influence. So, task one would be for the party to either assassinate their Guildmaster or determine how to bring them to heel. This would bring all of the guild into Quannar’s orbit. That’s the kind of “big move” that would be worthy of a Lordship, as it would fundamentally shift the relationship between factions. It would involve infiltration and spying, gathering power. 

Option 2, over the last year there have been several prominent attacks by demons in the city. Demons, even powerful ones, rarely enter Bhakashal, there are so many wards, warlocks and high level priests around. So, someone in the city has likely been summoning them, or there is some sort of rift that lets them through. If the party can stop this it would be a major achievement, as demons are quite powerful, defeating several of them would be notable.

It would also put all of the Noble Houses in their debt, as the demons have attacked and killed several powerful Lords and Warlocks in the city before they were themselves destroyed. In addition, it is believed that some of the demons are polymorphed and hidden amongst the population.

Option 3 involves the Bhakashal Blossom, a huge plant that has roots throughout the city that connect to the healing pools that are accessible only to the most powerful in the Bhakashal factions. The PCs would hear that there are one or more pools that have not been discovered, and their task would be to find those pools and either secure them or bargain with the faction who control the territory where they are found.

The pools are extremely important, discovering new pools and securing/controlling them would be an achievement of the highest order. It will also be very challenging as it will involve negotiating with other Houses if they are found outside of the territory of the party’s House.

These three options were created by raiding the Bhakashal City Rumors Table. The table has 50 rumors about the city, the ref gets to decide which, if any, are true. Most of them have a conspiracy flavor, so they make excellent fodder for the sort of bold, game changing action that would be worthy of soon-to-be Bhakashal Lords who want to impress their House to gain stature and standing.

This year they will need to step it up and do some game-changing things in order to earn their spot amongst the Bhakashal elite.

It going to be epic.

Also, it is important to note that I haven’t had a chance to play test this part of the game much yet, two of my groups are approaching the goal, but none have made it.

One of the key differences between Bhakashal and other indie games is that it has been extensively playtested, over the last five years we have put in 1000+ table hours of playtesting. This high level piece is one of the few that hasn’t had the opportunity. Playtesting ensures that the systems work, work well, and the system is integrated.

Onwards and upwards!

Building Bhakashal – Home Game – Session 3

My home game is currently a few dads from my kids friend group. We added a new player this week, so I thought a session report would be useful.

When a new PC arrives in our home game, I generate the PC for the player or we roll it up together, player’s choice. In this case they asked me to make them a PC, and the existing party, a Seer (priest) and a warlock (magic-user) needed some muscle. I rolled up a fighter using the Bhakashal chargen rules, randomizing almost everything.

Last session the PCs had managed to kidnap Mitrax Toma the Bold, a House Omander Lord who was plotting against House Rostus. Between sessions Mitrax was ransomed off to his House in dishonor, and he fled to his retreat to plan with his ally, Calligaster Naukan, a House Omander Necromancer.

The party discovered that the pair were funding bandits to harass caravans in territory under the protection of House Rostus. They don’t know why. Kamerli the Ivory, the party’s patron and a House Quannar Warlock, along with Tairnay the Sphene, House Rostus Warlock, and Kammershorn the Iron, House Rostus Lord, have banded together. Tairnay and Kammershorn are responsible for House Rostus territories in the marshlands.

They met in Tairnay’s tower, in the upper Northeast corner of the ward of House Rostus. The tower is made entirely of green marble, it has no windows except on the top floor, which is almost entirely open with pillars every 10 feet or so. The roof has an elaborate garden on top, filled with lush foliage, strange flowers taller than people, vines that slowly move and more than its share of bird-sized, luminescent insects. At the centre of the roof is a pool made of white stone filled with silvery water. Seats are arranged around the pool, and the party is escorted to the roof by four Chitin House Rostus Regulars, wearing their blazon of an Emerald Lantern on Black.

Fun side note, Tairnay is a high-level warlock at House Rostus (8^th level), so her tower is in that ward, but I don’t place that sort of stuff, instead, when the players interact with the location, I specify it on the map. So as of yesterday’s session, that building has been designated as the tower of Tairnay the Sphene.

Tairnay sits beside Kammershorn in robes of green that shimmer and shift when she moves, like ripples through water, she is bald, has an elaborate flair collar behind her the head, and wears a silver skullcap with no jewelry of any kind. She is a Malu (fish-folk). Kammershorn is an Emberi (human), a tower of a man, also bald and without beard, wearing only a leather kilt and harness. He has a House Rostus tattoo on the shoulder of his weapon arm, and his signature trident by his side.  Sitting across from the two House Rostus dignitaries is your patron, Kamerli the Ivory. Kamerli is a tall, thin Emberi, dressed in dark red leathers, his hair is a lustrous black and his all-white eyes lack pupils.

The party and the NPCs discussed options based on what they knew. In this situation I roll randomly to see what Kamerli, Tairnay and Kammershorn have come up with, they are well connected Bhakashal Lords and Warlocks, they had a lead.

 Mitrax Toma the Bold is allied with a Necromancer, Calligaster Naukan, Naukan’s lieutenant, a lesser Necromancer named Pholl the Gaunt, has a penchant for searching out the places where groups of people have recently died and collecting their corpses to reanimate. A local hunter, a friend of House Rostus, had guided him to the location of several slaughters, and after a modest bribe has let them know of his next trip. Kammershorn suggested that this route might be the most direct.

 Before that, they were sent to retrieve someone. All high level Bhakashal Mercenaries recruit lower-level mercenary followers, they act as sort of a personal guard. One of Mitrax’s former followers left his service, dissatisfied with his progress within the Bhakashal Lord’s ranks (he was passed over for important assignments, etc.) He left House Omander and is a free agent. He is staying at a Ketka named the Slumbering Naga on the Southmost platform of the Raosk, fishing, gambling and fighting on the platforms in the Raosk for extra coin, his name is Taerg the Rain.

 Taerg might have useful information, the party had to find him and convince him to come back to their patron and share information.

The new PC was of course Taerg, I told him two pieces of information he had that were relevant to House Rostus holdings in the marshlands.

1.        There is a Yalan village in the Cairan Forest (“Village of Golta”) who have denied House Rostus access to their territories, all villages can choose to reject the protection of a House. Lord Kammershorn and Tairnay the Sphene have been in talks with the village to reverse this decision. The bandit raids have made House Rostus look weak. Taerg heard Mitrax discuss this village before.

2.        A Togmu village along the River Kirth, Bargo, in House Acantus territory, has been competing with a Saan village in House Rostus territory, Amabar, both villages have been breeding giant slugs and harvesting their acid for use as spell components and in creation of alcoholic beverages. Taerg saw Mitrax take interest in this conflict and discuss it several times.

The party travelled through the city to the Raosk. Note that I rolled for encounters along the way in both locations and while travelling there. The rules are weighted such that encounters are not the default, but they can happen. The party ended up on the platforms of the Raosk. A positive encounter reaction roll with a Togmu hunter they randomly picked out of the crowd got them the location of the Slumbering Naga.

The Ketka  was a large tent that has curtains hung to divide up the space into sleeping squares, these squares have mats and pillows and a small table and chest. They are marked by having a maze-like corridor that snakes between the divisions to give access, and a green (oxidized copper) a four armed emberi (human) statue of Bemmarg, god of love, holding two long staves, at the entrance.

The party asked about Taerg when greeted at the entrance, explaining they had work for him. I rolled to see what the tent-minder would think about that, given that the PC was looking for work and fighting on the platforms for coin, I weighted it slightly in their favor. He told them that Taerg was fighting on the elevated platform tonight. He fought every few days.

They went to the platform. During the day it is elevated to the top, it’s shade is a well known refuge, during a fight it is lowered so it is only 10’ above the closest platform below (platforms vary in height). The disc is large, fights can stay in the center or branch out towards the sides. A critical hit to someone near the edge would send them over, taking falling damage and perhaps missing the platforms and heading to the marsh.

The PC is a mid-level fighter, he was pitted against a Jugyi (turtle folk) named Kulkage – AC: 4, Lv: 4, HP: 20, NA: 2, DA: 1-6/1-6, SD: Back AC 1 – Kulkage will attempt to pick up his opponent (critical required) and throw them off the edge of the platform.

The fight was fairly short, Kulkage won initiative and tried to grapple Taerg, but the mercenary managed to avoid his grasp.

They circled again, this time the Jugyi charged, hoping to knock Taerg back towards the disc’s edge, this means longest “weapon” strikes first. As it happens, Taerg has longer arms than Kulkage, so Taerg struck first and rolled for two strikes, hit both with criticals, the first he took another unarmed attack, the second he took double damage.

“After circling for minutes, feinting and pulling back, and failing a grapple, your opponent charges you, clearly intending to knock you back towards the disc’s edge. You anticipated this, and you move to the side slightly as he lunges, smashing the side of his head with your fist, he stumbles and turns towards you, only to meet your forehead as you bash his face, blood flying wild. As he staggers you spin around and smash the side of his face again with your foot, and he collapses to the ground”.

Laughter, shouting, and the sound of coins exchanging hands.

That was a fun character introduction.

The PCs had a conversation, the new player held out for a bit, and asked a few questions, he had just left the employ of a Noble House, and was doing alright on the platforms, he wasn’t sure. But they promised good compensation, and to at least hear out their patron, and he went along.

New party member gained!

Back at Tairnay’s tower Taerg shared his information. The party discussed options with the two lords and the warlock.

1.        Taerg thought they should ambush Pholl the Gaunt, Kammershorn liked the idea

2.        Tairnay, the party Warlock (Ormann the Crimson) and Seer (Ghollen Taz) thought it made sense to go to the villages to gather information

3.        Tairnay also suggested they could try to break into Calligaster’s tower in the Ward of House Omander. Calligaster has a tower of his own in the city, he and his apprentices live there. Tairnay knows something of his comings and goings.

Ormann suggested that ambushing Pholl was the best idea, and several encounter reaction rolls later we had agreement from the patrons.

So the party was directed to the hunter that had given up information, they found out about the excursion, Pholl was leaving the next morning.

Last session after defeating the bandits one of the bandit units, their leader and several lieutenants all joined the service of the PCs, in anticipation of House Quannar coins being sent in their direction. The party left in the afternoon the next day to get to the location, 3 days away in the marshlands. All parties were mounted. The party took a slightly circuitous route so that Pholl would arrive there first.

I roll for random encounters for any travel, that was for both groups. For the party no encounters came up. For Pholl there were two, one with a pair of crocodiles, they left after seeing the size of Pholl’s party (himself, a pair of henchmen and 10 house Omander regulars). The second encounter was with a small caravan, they passed without note. The necromancer arrived at the location and set up camp. Pholl would animate the dead later to move them under the cover of darkness to a different location where Calligaster has been collecting undead.

Just before the party arrived they heard a distant horn blowing from their destination. Nothing came of it, so they continued on. The party hid itself and the bandits around the location when they arrived. They waited until sundown and then sent in the mercenaries with instructions to attack as if they were surprised to find the Necromancer, but not to slay him.

The bandits were 15 0-levels, with 6 2^nd level lieutenants and a 7^th level mercenary leader named Rojmi Yin, they are all mounted on Saan (giant lizards). They burst upon the camp, there were 10 0-level soldiers, Pholl the Gaunt, a 3^rd level lieutenant and… a black dragon. The House Omander soldiers were not being menaced by the dragon, it was in the service of Calligaster, and through Calligaster, Pholl. So they were not impacted by the dragon’s fear aura.

Unfortunately, all of the party’s 0-level bandits and 2^nd level lieutenants were. They all fled in terror.

That left Rojmi, who immediately charged the necromancer and tried to scoop him up. He reached out and missed, turning around as the House Omander soldiers, who were on the other side of the camp (they were as far from the dragon as possible, even if they weren’t fleeing), came running. As he turned the necromancer took out a wand, spoke words they could not hear, and pointed it at Rojmi, a crackling blue bolt of lightning struck him and his mount, slaying his mount, and badly burning him.

At this point the PCs, who were hiding nearby, arrive.

Our new mercenary now attacks a group of 4 0-level fighters that surround him. He gets the initiative and strikes with his trident, getting four criticals. In Bhakashal, you get a critical with a total “to hit” roll of 25 or higher, a 6^th level fighter gets enough bonuses with a magical trident to make that quite doable.

“The soldiers surround you, menacing with their swords, your trident jumps forward, spearing one in the gut, you pull it back and spear another in the neck with it’s spiked butt. You wrench it out of the soldier behind you, and whirl it around to push back the other two, who are, for a moment, disoriented by your slaughter. You stab the one on the left in the chest, he heaves forward and then back. The other lunges in your direction hoping to hit you before you can react, but the soldier on your tines falls off, and you flip the weapon around, jamming it into your target’s gut as he arrives.”

Badass. The rest of the soldiers fled after a failed morale check.

The party warlock lets loose with magic missile, which staggers Pholl and stops his next action. By that time a singed and pissed of Rojmi smacks the Necromancer to the ground.

Ghollen Taz turns to the dragon… and talks to him.

Dragons are intelligent in Bhakashal, this is widely known. They are selfish, power hungry and somewhat vain, being ancient and powerful.

“A mighty wyrm like yourself, having to work with that low thing, I cannot imagine. Whatever debt you have to his master, as surely it could not be to him, we will discharge it for you as we are going to slay his master for his actions against ours.”

Didn’t see that coming. The player was offering to slay Calligaster so the dragon would no longer have  to work with him, speculating that the dragon was discharging a debt or Calligaster had some control over him.

The beauty of this game is that I don’t have to decide, the dice will.

I make an encounter reaction roll, I modify for charisma and House alliances, and give a negative modifier as there is clearly some sort of agreement between the necromancer and the dragon. The result comes up strongly positive.

So the dragon accepts their offer, agree to slay Calligaster, and he will leave.

Pholl the Gaunt loses his cool and shouts, “If you betray my master, you loathsome worm, he will have your skin flayed from your body!”

I roll a reaction roll for the dragon, this is essentially part of the parlay.

It comes up strongly negative. One other quick roll to see what the dragon does, spell, breath weapon or claw and bite.

Breath weapon it is.

The dragon pulls up to full height and spits acid on Pholl, the acid dissolves huge portions of his body before the eyes of the party.

That was a hallmark moment.

Unfortunately, Pholl was also their lead.

The dragon turned to the party Seer,

“Dragons can walk on two feet little ember, or they can fly. I will fly from here for a while, go hunting on the coast, when I return I will travel to the city and walk on two feet until I find you, to see if  you have honored our bargain.’

He then turned, spread his wings and flew off.

Now the party had a commitment to slay Calligaster Naukan, one they had not discussed with their patron.

But that was a concern for the future.

Ghollen Taz sat down in front of Pholl’s smouldering, half eaten away body. He began to chant, his holy symbol clutched in one hand. After several minutes, his head pulled back, and his eyes opened, they were a blazing deep blue, all other colors gone. At this point, the half acid-consumed skull of Pholl the Gaunt rose into the air, and it’s half destroyed jaw creaked out scratchy, cracked words.

“Ghollen Taz… servant of Sithasial… necronaut… ask me your questions”

The party had conferred about what to ask,

“Why is Calligaster Naukan interested in dishonoring House Rostus”

There was a pause, then the half skull, steaming flesh hanging off it like curtains, spoke again.

“The village of Golta has refused their protection, denying them access to their territories, Calligaster wished to dishonor House Rostus so they would not change their decision.”

So now they knew what thread to pull.

Taz spoke again, “Why did Naukan want the decision to stand.”

“I know not”

That was their two questions.

They decided to go and round up their soldiers who had fled thanks to the dragon, and head back to the city. That was another 3 days of travel. They had only one encounter, a group of Togmu hunters, who they passed amicably.

We stopped there as they arrived back in the city.

They now know the clue is related to the village of Golta, Calligaster and Mitrax don’t want House Rostus to gain access to the territories around the village, that suggests that there could be sites or items of power to be found there. The next step is to figure out what’s so important about these territories.

Big fun.