Building Bhakashal – Session Report – New Players

I have been running a game for a new group of players, the first two session reports are here:

https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/10/building-bhakashal-session-report.html

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

Their first session had them arrive on an island in search of a warlock, Bamal the Boastful, who had stolen a magic sword from his employer, a Bhakashal warlock and patron named Quin Faal the Iolite. At the end of that session the party had met a group of kobold hunters who lived on the island and befriended them, then they went searching for the warlock. Near the end of the first session they had a harrowing encounter with a Killinth plant, the plant almost consumed the party thief, but fortunately the party fighter managed to finish it off handily with her bastard sword. The next session saw them exploring an underground maze and releasing its inhabitants on to the island (unintentionally of course…)

Last night’s session had them meeting up with the kobolds again.

As an aside, I have run this adventure many times, it’s my default one shot adventure I use to introduce people to the setting, its short but can last longer depending on how it is played, and it is self contained (an island) which simplifies things a bit. It is interesting to note which groups befriend or at least parlay with the kobolds, which groups ignore them, and which groups attack them. In pretty much every case, the group who ignore or attack the kobolds do badly, the groups that befriend them do well.

Make of that what you will.

Because the kobolds saw them kill the shadows and save their hunters, they were welcomed with open arms and invited to join the kobolds for food. That led to some conversation about the island, and questions about the short bald man. The kobolds were sure that the giants had killed and eaten him, as they hadn’t seen the warlock for weeks. That got them talking about the giants.

The kobolds didn’t like the giants, they periodically ate kobolds or axe beaks, and they harassed anyone who came to the island. The players were already starting to show that they understood how to leverage their resources in the game. One of them pointed out that the kobolds might be willing to help them if they agreed to get rid of the giants for them.

That’s the stuff.

The players proposed exactly that, and I rolled an encounter reaction, it was cautiously positive, so they agreed to lend the PCs a few of their hunters as long as they agreed to finish off the giants. Further conversation revealed that the giants were most often sleeping during the heat of the day, so midday was the best time to go to the giants if they wanted to catch them unawares.

So, that day at noon they set out on axebeaks and giant boars towards the east end of the island and the giant’s caves.

I told them that since they were traveling with the kobolds, their odds of encountering a monster/animal on the way were reduced from 1 in 12 to 1 in 20, as the kobolds knew the island extremely well, and the odds of encountering deadly killinth plants was zero, as the kobolds knew where they were.

They learned another lesson, speak to a hunter/guide or someone familiar with an area and you can adjust your odds of an encounter downwards.

They approached the giant caves through the forest, and when they arrived at the forest’s edge I rolled to see if the giants were up or not. There were 5 in 6 odds they were sleeping it off, 1 in 6 they were up.

I rolled a 1.

The two giants were outside the cave in the merciless mid-day heat.

As the ref, I had to figure out why there were there. It is instructive to see how you can do this sort of thing by essentially creating a chain of connected events/actions.

I have run this particular island adventure dozens of times, and to keep from getting bored with it I randomize some things. In particular whether or not Bamal the Boastful is alive or not. Sometimes he is dead, having been slain by the giants, sometimes he’s alive, having made a pact with the giants (whether through force or spell).

I rolled at the beginning of the session to see, and Bhamal was alive. I decided that, in addition to being on the run, he was on the island to investigate the maze. The maze features four creatures, a carrion crawler, a hoar fox, a firedrake and a shocker. Each are imprisoned in a room in the maze, when anyone enters those rooms the creatures attack the intruder. But the real purpose of those monsters is their essences, fire, ice, lightning and paralysis. Balancing these four essences binds the shadow at the heart of the maze, and the shadow conceals a powerful magic sword.

Bhamal wants the sword, as he is collecting powerful magic swords, the one he stole from Quin Faal and the party is here to retrieve and the one in the maze are just the latest. He plans on making a gift of 6 powerful magic swords to a Type V demon named Ukimmar (type V demons have 6 arms) in order to form a pact with the demon.

He has been studying the maze and trying to figure out how to extract the sword but leave the maze intact, as he suspects it serves another purpose based on his study of the runes and sigils therin.

The party knows none of this, and at this stage he doesn’t know they broke the maze, released the monsters, and have the sword he is looking for.

I decided that Bamal has a crystal ball. He scrys the surrounding oceans periodically and if he views ships coming by he sends the giants to the beach to lob rocks at the ships. The giants think this is to sink ships so they can loot them, but in actuality it is to scare them off and for the sailors to report to others that the island is dangerous and to be avoided.

Bamal doesn’t want to be interrupted in his work, nor for Quin Faal to find him.

So that got me to explaining why the giants, who the kobolds said were most often sleeping during the hot daytime, were out of the cave. I decided that Bamal had sent them out and they were heading to the beach to lob rocks at a passing ship.

 

Each giant picked up a large bag of rocks and marched to the forest towards the beach. The party saw them walk away and looked at each other, what to do now?

A quick conference produced the following plan (remember that the don’t know if Bamal is alive or dead):

-            The magic user would send her familiar to follow the giants and see what they were up to, she, her giant boar mount, her henchman and one of the kobold hunters would wait at the forest edge. In Bhakashal a magic-user can see through the eyes of their familiar.

-            The party fighter headed into the forest opposite to the magic-user, climbed a tree and waited with her bow by what appeared to be an animal run to hopefully bag a deer or a wild boar, she wanted to offer the giants food and try and either trick them or at least buy them off.

-            The party thief, along with one of the kobolds, headed up to the giant’s cave to check it out while they were gone.

The thief and kobold entered the cave, however, Bamal was IN THE CAVE. The giants occupied the vast back area of the cave, Bamal had a corner of his own near the front where he stored his tomes and did his work on translating the runes in the maze and figuring out how it worked.

First I rolled to see if the party made enough noise on the way in to alert Bamal to their approach before they entered the cave. In Bhakashal anyone can sneak, but depending on how you are dressed (e.g., if  you have heavy armor on) there are modifiers. Base odds are 2 in 6. Every PC rolls these odds to try and sneak up on someone. A thief, however, is better at sneaking, so if their 2 in 6 roll fails, they can roll their appropriate thieving percentage, in this case move silently.

Both made their rolls, so when they entered the cave it was a straight up surprise roll to see if either side was surprised. The party was expecting the cave to be empty. We rolled and Bamal was not surprised, but the party was.

So they entered the cave and saw the short bald man.

There was much shrieking at that point.

However, he got one free action against them due to surprise.  

I rolled to see what his reaction would be. He obviously doesn’t get many visitors, but the thief had specifically said she was not going to have her weapon in hand, and the kobold is native to the island.

I’m a firm believer that nothing is “obvious”, just because intruders show up at your doorstep doesn’t mean you instantly fireball them into oblivion. Bhakashal uses the encounter reaction table with modifiers. So you can certainly put a strong negative modifier so fireballing you into oblivion is a more likely option, but it is never certain.

I believe in this for three reasons, one, all of the best fantasy and sci-fi stories I have read have scenes exactly like this, where the “bad guy” doesn’t just attack for some, often esoteric reason, it’s virtually a trope, and I have always liked it.

Secondly, it keeps things opaque to me as well as the players, I like to be surprised.

Thirdly, it can often lead to interesting results.

In this case I rolled a mild negative interaction, which in game terms meant that he wasn’t  going to attack, but he wasn’t going to sit there and let them attack him either.

Bamal spoke one word an a pair of giant spiders scurried around from the shadows, these are size L spiders but the party hadn’t noticed them in the split second since they entered the cave. The two spiders scuttled over to the PC and the kobold, stopping a few feet away and bobbing up and down, ready to leap.

Bamal - “No sudden moves, they are easily upset, fairly hungry, and carnivores”

The party stayed still.

Bamal - “I don’t get a lot of visitors, why are you here?”

Thief – “We are exploring the island”

Bamal – “We?”

The thief smiled.

Bamal – “This island is fairly isolated, few come here to ‘explore’, mostly sailors who stop to find fresh water or game, are you a sailor?”

Thief – “Not exactly”

The thief was not being aggressive, she was at a disadvantage, and the story about exploring the island wasn’t that unusual, adventurers are known to explore remote locations. But Bamal also knew he was a wanted man, and was expecting that at some point Quin Faal would send people to find him.

Bamal – “Did Quin Faal send you; I was wondering when he would find me.”

At this point the players burst into discussion about what to do, be honest with the guy, lie like crazy, or bolt.

They decided to lie.

Thief – “We are just explorers, the island looked interesting.”

Bamal – “Did you arrive today?”

Thief – “Yes”

Bamal – “There is a ship passing by today, but it hasn’t arrived yet, I’m positive there aren’t two ships passing by today, which means you are lying”

Bamal isn’t stupid, and ships don’t pass by that often, he scried one on the way earlier today, that’s why he sent the giants to the beach. But he knows it hasn’t passed by yet, so the party was lying to him. At this point the thief was panicking, she had been caught in a lie and was at the mercy of a warlock with no reason to keep her alive.

Delicious

Thief –“Alright, I’ll level with you, we were sent to find you, but not to slay you, just to bring you back with the sword you stole.”

Bamal – “Quin Faal wants me alive, how quaint”

Thief – “We can just leave”

Time for an encounter reaction roll, every time the conversation leads to a potential decision point for the NPC, I call for one. This one was mildly positive. I had to now interpret that, why in the world would Bamal be positive towards agents sent to retrieve him?

Bamal – “Oh no, you can stay. The only conversation I get around here is from those two giants, and they are as dumb as a bags full of rocks that they carry.”

Bamal was a bit lonely, being on this island for months was enough for that. He wanted conversation and news of the world outside. For that he was willing to let the party live… for now.

Thief – “Why are you here?”

Bamal – “in part to hide from Quin Faal, but also to explore an underground maze on the island, I hope to discover how it works and extract something from it”

Thief – “Ummmm, er, ahhhh, yeah, we released the shadow from the maze and the monsters inside fled.”

At this point I needed to determine how Bamal would react. His goal was to retrieve the sword in the maze without disturbing the overall maze ecology, as he suspected the maze served a greater purpose. The party had disturbed all that. So, there was a LARGE negative modifier to the roll.

I rolled, and the result came up as negative but not actionable, I decided he was angry, but he also wanted the sword, and if he slayed the thief on the spot there was no guarantee he would find it.

Bamal – “YOU RELEASED THE SHADOW! I have spent months studying that maze, MONTHS, and you have undone my work in a day. WHERE IS MY SWORD?”

Thief – “My companion has it, outside”

Bamal – “We will go outside together and retrieve it, immediately.”

The thief nodded and turned to leave, and Bamal following after summoning forth two further spiders from the shadows and having them surround him as he walked.

The thief made it out of the cave before Bamal did and had a few seconds before he emerged from the cave. She frantically waved at the magic user and indicated for her to flee.

She cast Dimension Door and transported herself to the forest before Bamal emerged.

However, her mount, one of her bodyguards, and the kobold were still there.

Bamal came out of the cave and saw them by the forest edge, he stood outside the cave and took out a wand, holding it in his hand.

Bamal – “Retrieve my sword immediately”

The thief went to the other side of the clearing and entered the forest to find the party fighter, she caught her up, and got her, reluctantly, to agree to giving up the sword.

It’s a +4 Defender, she’s not keen to give it up.

They emerged, and Bamal watched them like a hawk. She and the fighter arrived and they presented the sheathed sword, handle first, to the warlock.

He took it and stared at them intently. The players had a quick conference between the three of them.

And then the party thief did something I didn’t expect.

Thief - “Quin Faal sent us here, but we are not his allies, this is just a job. We would be willing to work for you instead.”

Oh my, betrayal! Of a Bhakashal Warlock and patron no less! The point of this job was to impress Quin Faal so he would take them on as their patron, instead they were throwing him over for Bamal the Boastful.

In the last five years of patron driven faction play I have only had this happen once.

And now twice.

Thief – “Come over to us, we have decided to join Bamal”

The party magic-user emerged from the woods and walked to the group.

As always, when something like this happens, I roll for it. The party had been non-aggressive, they gave up the sword, and they revealed their hidden party member. On the other hand, they did come here to kidnap him and steal back the sword.

The roll came up enthusiastically positive.

I decided on the spot that Bamal realized that slaying the party members would not put off Quin Faal, so he needed to buy time.

Bamal – “When does Quin Faal expect you back?”

Thief – “the ship returns in four days to pick us up”

Bamal – “You will send a message back to Quin Faal, tell him to have another ship stop here in approximately two weeks, as you discovered an underground complex, fairly extensive, and you haven’t been able to find me yet. That gives us two weeks and four days without being disturbed, so I can plan my next move.”

The warlock then turned to the spiders, he spoke to each in a tongue none of the party members had ever heard before, then pointed to each party member in turn. One by one the spiders moved towards each party member, bobbing beside them and clicking their mandibles.

Bamal - “Each one of you will have one of my spiders beside you AT ALL TIMES until I am comfortable you are to be trusted.  I can also scry you at a whim to see what you are doing if you are not in my presence.”

He then reached into his robes and took out a horn and blew two short blasts on it.

Bamal – “the giants will return shortly, I will tell them to let you be, but they are remarkably stupid, so your best bet is to interact with them not at all.”

We stopped there.

 

Observations

I have run this scenario many times, sometimes Bamal is alive, sometimes he is dead, but this is the first time the party has found him alive and betrayed their patron to join up with him. I’m always fascinated by this sort of thing, Quin Faal is a powerful high-level Bhakashal warlock, crossing him earns you an instant, deadly enemy.

Why?

Who knows, but this will mean that, going forward, things will be fun!

Bamal is not a patron, he is a high-level warlock, he may be contemplating coming back to the city and becoming part of a Noble House, he may want to slay Quin Faal, dishonor him, or something else entirely. I will muse on that. I will also muse on how the kobolds will take all of this, they were expecting the party to take out the giants.

The players had a blast, this was not what they expected either! I love that everyone at the table was surprised by how this turned out. It may be some time before we return to the city, and I’m excited to see where this goes.

I got my second surprise of the night when the players told me that they wanted me to stay on as their regular referee and continue to run games for them. This was supposed to be a 6-session gig, and then I would be done.

Naturally I said yes.

I now have a fourth regular game to run, one home game and three others.

Right on.