Building Bhakashal - Session Report - Splitting the Party

My Saturday group met on the weekend, they have been trying to get to the Guild master of the Raosk branch of the Brass Blade Spider’s Guild (Thieves Guild). To get to him, they are trying to get to Maur Hoguelen, wealthy Bhakashal merchant who controls the mount trade. They made themselves known to Hoguelen’s organization, working up from the bottom, and had managed a meeting with one of Hoguelen’s agents, Golusk Haik after impressing him with their prowess fighting on the Raosk platform. They are going to be interviewed by Hoguelen at a party at his house in two days.

That’s where we left off last session.

If you want more detail, here are the last few session reports.

Report 1 - https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/09/building-bhakashal-session-report.html

Report 2 – https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/10/building-bhakashal-session-report-my.html

Report 3 - https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/11/building-bhakashal-session-report_24.html

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This session was notable as it was split between the players, and a great example of how to handle this sort of thing. Everyone wanted to do different things, so I gave my, “split the party” speech:

“OK, since we are split, here is the deal, the people I’m not on with at the time can be doing the following:

1-      -  Watching

2-       - Reading any of the game books

3-       - Working on their character (updating, whatever)

4-       - No chatting, no discussing the encounter with the players who are in it

5-       - If you can’t do that, leave the table and I’ll call you when we are done”

Technically, the PCs who ae not involved in the “scene” shouldn’t know what happens, they can miss what happens at the table without consequence. I first tried this by sending the players who were not “on” to other rooms automatically, but some players disliked this very strongly. Instead of doing this, we run the game with whomever is “on” for that encounter, the rest of the people can stay and be quiet or leave, their choice. I find this works really well for my groups.

We were off.

We went around the table, starting with the activities that would take the least amount of time, by general agreement.

 

First Activity

First order of business was some bookkeeping, to give the player of the Spider/Warlock his spell. It was researched and rolled for last session, I took the draft and gave it a once over between sessions, and this is what we landed on:

Rikan the Silent’s Scorpion Sting (Alteration)

Level: 3, Casting Time: 3 segments, Range: 0, Duration: special, Area of Effect: 1 target per 3 levels, Components: S,M, Saving Throw: Neg.

Rikan the Silent’s signature spell allows the warlock to give a weapon the ability to paralyze a target with a successful strike. The spell is active on the Warlock’s hand for 5 rounds, if not discharged before that time it expires. Any weapon touched will have the ability paralyze a target hit by that weapon, for a duration of the caster’s level / 3 in rounds (e.g., a 3^rd level caster could give a sword the ability to paralyze a target it strikes for 1 round). At most one weapon per 3 levels of experience of the caster may be so enchanted. Paralysis effects are subject to a saving throw, with a penalty of -1 for every 3 levels of experience of the caster. The material components for this spell are a scorpion tail and iron dust, the caster holds the tail, dusts it with the iron, closes their fist on the tail, closes their other hand on the fist, holds them together for the duration of the casting time and then pulls them apart. The palm of the hand that held the tail will be a shimmering silver until the spell duration completes.

I’ll add that to the PDF version of the Bhakashal Spell Book at one point and give credits to the player.

Probably a good point to mention that Bhakashal has spell research rules.

Second Activity

The party warlock decided to obtain a sleep potion, if they were going to capture Hoguelen at some point, they wanted him alive. To obtain such a potion you can go to a Chimera House. In AD&D, if you taste a bit of a potion you get a sense of what it is, so, for example, sip a potion of flying and you might feel light, a potion of fire resistance and you get instantly chilled, that sort of thing.

In Bhakashal, Chimera Houses brew potions, and give small samples, mixed with drinks, that give that potion effect. Each House specializes in a small number of potions. People come in, pick the potion type, and get a small amount mixed in a local drink, and you get the “feeling” of the potion effect. A sleep potion could be picked up at most of these places, as it has medicinal and regular uses (for people who can’t sleep).

When the warlock goes to the Chimera House, the player shows me on the map where they are going, I tell them how long it will take to get there. If they are travelling there are odds of encounter per hour. If that coincides with their visit to the Chimera House, then the encounter happens there, otherwise it would happen wherever the PC was at the time.

In this case, there were no encounters.

There was something else about this part of the game that bears mentioning.

When I was putting together Bhakashal I wrestled with the fact that the city was VERY BIG, and in order to key all of the buildings in the city it would make the setting HUGE. There are easily more than a thousand buildings on the map. I looked at published examples of large cities like CSIO and decided against that approach. In the end I decided to create an emergent city, e.g., one where each ward in the city had a table with weighted entries based on the prevalence of establishments in the ward.

So, at a glance, you can see how likely it is to find say a blacksmith in any given ward. Alternately, the referee can roll for each building as you explore the ward.

In this case, the PC did not know the location of the Chimera House, so they decided to wander until they found one. For each building they encountered, I rolled to see what the establishment was. As it happens, they passed 5 buildings before they found a Chimera House. So nowfive of the establishments around their residence are defined on the map.

I love this aspect of the system, as each group will make their own “Bhakashal” as they adventure.

The warlock went to the place and purchased a single sleep potion. I had him roll a 1 in 12 chance of noticing that he was being watched. The Guildmaster they are trying to ingratiate themselves to knows who they are already, they weren’t sufficiently cautious when asking around about him, so after they appeared on the hunt and in the Raosk, he dispatched 3 of his guys to follow them around. A 1 in 12 means that the party member notices the guy.

By splitting up the party ensured that only one of them was on any one of the party groups at any given time.

They didn’t know this, but there you are.

Third Activity

The party Spider (thief) decided that, in addition to infiltrating the Guild through Maur Hoguelen, it would be wise to contact the Spider’s Guild separately, to see what information could be gathered. The PC Spider was already a member of the city branch of the guild, but not the Raosk branch. So, he decided to go to the Raosk and try and establish contact.

We rolled for an encounter on his way out of the city, and one came up. When this happens you roll a d6 to determine when the encounter happens in the 6-hour block (you roll for encounters 4x per day), in this case I rolled a 1.

So I decided that the encounter would happen when the Spider was on the dock heading towards the barge that crosses the river to the Raosk. I rolled an encounter with 3 mercenaries. Given that they were on the dock, I decided they were here to cause some trouble, looking for someone to fight.

However, Bhakashal Spiders all have an associated “turf”, an area of the city they are familiar with. In that area they get certain bonuses,

Spiders have a territory, part of a ward, a whole ward, or part of any other constrained area like the Raosk, the docks, etc. When in that area, they have a 5% chance per level of recognizing any local they come across, they gain 2%/level on all Hide in Shadows rolls due to familiarity with the area, and at any given time have a 1% + CHA bonus per level chance of finding a safe haven, e.g. a hiding spot under the control of one of their allies in the area. They get two saving throws rather than one when attempting to push their fleeing/pursuit speed while in their ward.

 Since the party’s patron was Quin Faal the Iolite, their Ward was the ward of House Quannar, which is the docklands Ward.

So, the party spider was on his turf.

I rolled to see if he recognized the mercenaries, and he did!

REF – “Three Malu warriors start walking in your direction as you approach the barge loading spot. You recognize them immediately, Kalak, Ygo and Tonsir, three brothers who hire out to hunting parties and occasionally fight in the arena, they are not associated with any Noble House, and have been known to throw in with a second story job, once with you.”

I made an encounter reaction roll with mods for the fact that the Spider knew them and had been on a job with them before, and it came up positive. They traded some banter and moved on down the dock.

The Spider took the barge to the riverbank and paid a silver piece to ride on a wagon to the Raosk as it was too hot to walk.

Once at the Raosk, the PC decided on the following course of action, he would head to a busy platform and look for pickpockets, once he found one, he would approach them about wanting to join the guild.

Not a bad plan.

However, this took time, I established the odds of him spotting a pickpocket on a busy platform of 1 in 8, check per turn. After 6 failed checks, I rolled for an encounter, and it came up. I went to the Raosk encounter table and rolled an encounter with… a Spider (thief).

I love it when that happens, he came to find a thief and a thief found him! This particular thief was 4^th level.

I had to interpret this roll and decided since he was standing around and scoping out thieves that the thief in this encounter had “made” him, e.g., had noticed what he was doing.

REF – A large Chitin in harness and kilt moves to your side, he has 4 daggers in a bandolier and a gladius on each hip. He points to 3 guards standing at different places in the crowd. “They are all off duty, all from different Houses, but pickpockets won’t try anything in front of them, if they are caught then those guards know who they are when they try things in the city. If you want to find some lightfingers, go to the outer platforms, still busy, but fewer soldiers.”

That threw the PC off a bit, but he recovered fast.

PC – “I’m looking for work”

Chitin Spider – “What makes you think you would be any use”

PC – “I’m a good communicator”

Chitin Spider – “How many languages do you speak?”

PC – Takes out a pinch of soot and a pinch of salt, rubbing them between his fingers then wiping them on his lips, speaking the words, “A szavaid víz”. He then spoke to the Spider, “All of them”

The Spider laughed, “Ahhh, I see, well, we could always use a spider with a bit of arcane, come back here tonight after sunset and we will see if there is a place for  you.”

I had the PC roll a 1 in12 chance he might spot the mercenary that has been tailing them, but it did not come up.

Fourth Activity

The party Spartan (monk) and Mercenary (fighter) were to go to Maur Hoguelen’s party to interview for jobs as personal bodyguards. They had demonstrated their prowess on the Raosk platforms, Hoguelen was specifically looking for bodyguards who could engage in unarmed combat as he sometimes had to be in places where weapons were forbidden.

They showed up to the merchant’s house, located in the ward of House Omander, he had an opulent mansion which sat at the confluence of two canals, prime real estate. They were stopped by the guards at the entrance, but their names were on the list and they were let in.

The party was on when they arrived, the room was filled with Bhakashal Lords and Warlocks, Seers from the Temples, House champions (well-known warriors from various Houses who had been successful in the arena), merchants, prominent guild representatives, and many others.

There were professional dancers moving through the crowd, doing acrobatics and dance, there was a band of drummers and flutists playing in the corner, and there were jugglers and bubble artists working the crowd.

The party fighter struck up a conversation with a random partygoer, in this case a Beastial (Bhakashal druid, often referred to by the locals as a “cultist”). Things were going well until he mentioned that he was a hunter who captured wild beasts to be used as mounts. That ended the conversation right there!

The party Spartan joined a conversation with Waja Thorm, a Champion of House Himmenghost. He was discussing which weapons made for the best decapitators, and the Spartan, who favored the bardiche, discussed the comparative merits of the bastard sword. That conversation went well.

Then, their contact, Golusk Haik, showed up. After some niceties Haik took them to meet  Maur Hoguelen. The Malu merchant was flanked by a pair of bury ogres (ogres are common bodyguards in Bhakashal), and standing to his immediate left was a Kutya (dog-person) dressed in a kilt and carrying a sword and a wand.

They figured, correctly, that he was a warlock.

I played Hoguelen as a smooth talking, confident leader.

Hoguelen – “Golusk tells me that the two of you are formidable hand to hand fighters, I’m looking for such warriors for my bodyguards, we will go to places where weapons and spells are not allowed on occasion.”

PC Spartan – “We hold our own”

He then asked the PCs what House they worked for, “so I know if there will be any conflicts”. The Spartan told him directly that he worked for House Quannar. They were neither aligned with nor against Hoguelen’s House, so that wasn’t a problem. Hoguelen is a merchant, he is not part of House nobility, but his mansion is in the ward of House Omander, and as a powerful person he would be connected to powerful people in that House.

Hoguelen – “So you are moonlighting then, picking up some extra work? I’m not going to get in trouble hiring you, am I?” Hoguelen smiled widely, his tongue darting in and out.

The Spartan laughed and said no.

Hoguelen to Fighter – “And you?”

Fighter – “I’m unaffiliated”

Hoguelen smiled and replied, “Excellent then. Now, the both of you will need to submit to a brief spell to ensure that there are no surprises.”

The Spartan nodded in assent, but the fighter…

Fighter – “No spells”

Hoguelen pulled back his head and his gills shook, a clear sign of surprise.

Hoguelen – “If you are going to work for me, ‘no’ isn’t an option.”

Fighter – “No spells”

I rolled an encounter reaction at this point, and it came up mildly positive. I decided that Hoguelen admired his moxy, but he wasn’t an idiot, so…

Hoguelen – “You seem determined, I admire that, come with me.”

Hoguelen and his entourage, along with 2 guards, escorted the two PCs to a back garden area, behind which was a small fighting pit, unseen from the street. Tied up at the other side of the pit was a pair of leopards.

Hoguelen – “Seeing as you won’t agree to the spell, I need to determine if you are here for the right reasons, survive a few rounds with my two pets, and you can stay.”

The PCs looked at each other, and the fighter agreed. He entered the pit, and one of the guards let the leopards loose.

Now, in Bhakashal, animals are very dangerous, as they get multiple simultaneous attack routines, and low initiative modifiers. The two leopards sprung forward and lunged at the fighter.

Fortunately for him, he rolled low for initiative. In Bhakashal, Emberi (humans) get two pummelling attacks per round, 1-3 damage + STR bonus for each. He rolled two criticals, and opted for double damage on each. He did enough damage on these two attacks to reduce the leopard to 0 HP (I roll HP at the table when the first strike lands, and leopards only have 3HD).

REF – “The leopards charge towards you, the first leaps through the air, you duck and slam your fist full into the beast’s stomach, winding it, your second punch smashes it’s head to the side, and it crashes to the ground, unconscious.”

At this point the player was high-fiving the other player, anticipating his easy win.

Then the second leopard landed.

Three attacks per round, I rolled well (the PC did not wear armor to the party, so their AC wasn’t great) all three hit, and the last was a critical. When the first two attacks hit, a leopard gets two additional back claw raking attacks. Both of those hit as well. For the critical I normally roll, but these animals were trained to kill, so I chose “extra attack”, and rolled another critical, in this case I chose “double damage”.

REF – “Focused on the first leopard you were completely unprepared for the second. It lands and savages you, claws cut into your shoulders, two back claws rake your chest, wicked fangs bite into your arm once, then twice, and finally a third time, tearing flesh like paper.”

That sobered him up fast.

Suddenly, this was a fight.

They went back and forth for 2 more rounds, and when all was said and done the PC was down to 3 hp when the leopard was finally knocked down to -1 hp (unconscious but not dead). Ho

Hoguelen had the beasts taken off to be treated and smiled.

Hoguelen – “You managed to survive my kittens, that’s impressive.”

Hoguelen then turned to his Kutya warlock, Sin Hai the Rook, and nodded, then looked at the PC Spartan.

Hoguelen – “It’s your turn”

The Kutya took out a copper coin, placed it on his forehead, closed his eyes, then spoke the words “Egy réz a gondolataiért.” There was a long pause and the Kutya smiled widely.

Spartans are masters of the body and the mind, this gives them the ability to mask the mind when needed. He rolled his odds and was successful.

Sin Hai – “I can’t read him”.

I rolled an encounter reaction at this point, Hoguelen was no fool, but having a bodyguard that could resist mental probes could prove helpful at some point as well. The roll came up barely positive.

Hoguelen – “You two are proving to be a mystery. I will speak with my contacts in House Quannar, and do some digging to determine if you are acceptable. For now, you are bleeding out over my fighting pit, and will disturb my guests, one of the guards will escort you two out, and Golusk will be in touch.”

We ended there.

Observations

Switching back and forth doesn’t always work, but it worked well here. The key, IMO, is to be clear about what non-participating players are to be doing when split party play occurs, and to stay focused with each group. Most of the players stuck around to see what happened with the other players in this case, only one of them decided to leave and do something else until their turn came up.

I know a lot of people dislike splitting the party, but to be honest D&D is a group game most of the time, breaking this up on occasion to run individual or small group encounters is a nice change of pace, and its’ interesting to see what the other players do when they are not “on”. It’s also interesting as during regular play, all the players can make suggestions to other players about what to do in particular cases. In split party play, the players who aren’t “on” can’t discuss or advise the other players on their actions, and this can create new opportunities for those players, as they have to rely on their own judgement more than normally.

 

 

 

 

Building Bhakashal – Session Report – Discovery and Play

My Friday group has been illithid hunting for a while now, and they finally got their opportunity this session. They got intel suggesting that a flayer was leaving the underworld illithid city and heading out through the main caves. They left a day ahead of it to prepare an ambush. Last session they saw off a group of Nareen cultists with a minotaur after an encounter that could have went south, but didn’t.

Last session report here: https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/11/building-bhakashal-session-report-my.html

This session they just had to make it through the day until their quarry arrived. We rolled for random encounters, they were hiding at a watering hole, so things were bound to approach.

The first encounter was with a trio of gargoyles. The party is five members, all mounted on giant lizards, so three gargoyles are not necessarily going to jump right in. I rolled and they decided to fly off for easier prey. Because I use encounter reaction tables for all encounters, whether there is parlay or not, this can happen.

The second encounter came much later in that day, and this time it was with a small herd of rothe (pictured above). These underworld oxen from the Fiend Folio are generally harmless, the party chose to stay in hiding while they watered and then left.

They made camp, slept with no further encounters and then waited again.

In the Bhakashal underworld there isn’t really a “night” and “day”, however, there are certain things that mark the time. Luminescent insects are very common, and they all “wake” at the same approximate time and move around the environment. This is the unofficial ‘morning’ in the underworld, when thousands of luminescent insects, some as big as large birds, fly through the air in swarms heading about their business.

From under this canopy of shooting stars, emerged the flayer, he sat atop one of the largest Gess (giant lizards) the party had ever seen, the “saddle” was a cradle of sorts, filled with pillows, and the flayer sat back relaxed as they walked, with several pots to either side giving off smoke that drove away insects. He wore loose robes and carried no apparent weapons.

Beside him, on an Xixia (giant spider), rode a Chitin, the chitin was wearing harness and kilt, a bandolier with knives was complemented by a gladius on either hip. He wore rings, perhaps a wand and had belt pouches on.

In front of these two were a pair of ogres, each on a giant lizard.

To the side of the group was a pair of Yeth Hounds, each 5’ at shoulder, coal black in color with red eyes and human like faces.

This was the illithid Sogogg Brot, his associate, the chitin warlock Jaekar the Rust, and the two ogres Mimir and Choss. 

Since the party was laying in wait, and the flayer and his crew were traveling to the watering hole, I adjusted the surprise odds: party being surprised 1 in 6, flayer and crew being surprised, 5 in 6.

The party gained surprise.

This was the decision point, they had surprise, the flayer and crew approached the water, they were about 50 feet away when the party decided to attack. They were hiding in the mushroom trees across the stream from where creatures would stop to drink.

They decided to cast Power Word, Stun. The party warlock found and memorized the spell a few sessions back and had been making great havoc with it, a no save spell. All generic warlocks in Bhakashal have odds of successful casting, if you fail, there are odds of it backfiring on you. His casting odds are 82%, pretty good, and it had failed on him once. However, for a 7^th level spell, the odds of a harmful backfire are 45%. So the one time it failed, it also backfired on him, stunning him in the middle of an encounter.

Still, he liked the spell’s power and he had been itching to cast it on the flayer.

The party knew some things about the flayers they learned from asking questions, they spent  a whole session gathering information for this purpose. They knew four things:

1. “They can read minds, but not all the time, only when they focus” (ESP)

2.  “They are not strong, but they can subtly manipulate your mind when you try and strike them, minimizing the blow” Flayers have decent Hit Dice, Hit points are not all physical, it’s left to the referee to interpret, this is my interpretation.

3.  “They can overpower your mind” - Domination ability

4.  “They can slip out of space then slip back” – Probability travel

What they didn’t know about was the magic resistance.

So, he cast the Power Word, Stun.

I then rolled the percentage dice, 33%.

The flayer looks up and around suddenly, he calls out, “Where are you, show yourself”

The party were all looking at each other.

Grogs like me don’t often get to see it when players encounter things “for the first time”, most of them have read parts of the books, and many have went home to look up the monsters they find in session.

Apparently they hadn’t bothered to look up illithids.

The look on their faces was… priceless.

Thing is, after 4 years of play this was the first thing they had encountered with obvious magic resistance. They went up against a blue slaad a while back but it’s MR was low and never kicked in. For them, this was uncharted territory.

The party warlock, to his credit, walked out, across the stream and over to the flayer’s party.

Flayer –“Surely you must know that we are impervious to magic?”

Warlock – “I was misinformed”

Flayer – “A lone wizard, in the trees, seeks to ambush me?”

Warlock - “I was with a  party, but we became separated.”

Flayer – “We can also read minds, surely you knew that too”

Warlock – “GUYS, COME OUT NOW”

Flayer - “It seems your friends desert you, all four of them, why do you seek to take me on?”

Warlock – “Guys!”

Flayer – “No need, I took it from your mind, you need flayer blood to make a circle… yes, that could work”.

The creature turned and spoke, “Vog and Bayme, GO, Jaekar, now!”

The two Yeth Hounds bound forward through the reeds towards the trees, the tall chitin took out a small ball of material they could not see, flattened it between his palms, spoke words they could not hear, then pulled his hands apart around his body until they met behind him. As that happened, a ring of blue-white fire blazed into existence, forming a circle around the flayer and his allies.

Wall of Fire

The warlock took this opportunity when the flayer was ordering the hounds and his warlock to cast spells to cast one of his own, uttering the one word command of his Teleport Without Error spell, which takes him back to their tent in the market.

He rolled his casting odds successfully, so he was gone.

The party thief, necromancer, myrmidon and gyre all turned and fled from behind the trees. Each one can fly, the thief and necromancer by magic (wings of flying and spell) and the latter two as they are winged chitin (insect folk, they come in winged and non winged varieties).

The yeth hounds are as fast as they are in the air on foot, what they don’t know is that they can fly as well. Once they are in position they will.

We stopped there.

They are very much outclassed at the moment, all they really had was surprise. However, they now know that magic is almost useless against a flayer, at least directly. And they might still be able to talk their way out of this, as the flayer is a bit of an outlier (most never leave the city, content to dimension walk, eat brains and be entertained), and might want to leverage the party’s project against his need to eliminate some rivals. They might be useful to him.

Or he might just eat their brains.

We’ll see next week!

 

 

Building Bhakashal - Session Report - Factional Play and Alliance Building

My Thursday group played their last game of December, we will be meeting again in January. This has been my first all-girl group, and they have really leaned into the game. This is a group of theatre kids, all of them have parts in musical productions at their school, and they quite often either break out into songs from school or sing about what’s happening at the table. They have taken to calling the warlock they were sent to capture “the short bald man”, rather than his actual name, Bamal the Boastful. 

Not to his face of course.

It’s a very different vibe.

We have played 5 sessions together, there was one session where we talked about how to run your own campaign, when we are done they want to be able to do this on their own.

1^st and 2^nd Session - https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/10/building-bhakashal-session-report.html

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

4^th Session - https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/11/building-bhakashal-session-report-new.html

TLDR: Bhamal stole a magic sword from Quin Faal the Iolite, Faal sent the PCs to retrieve him and the sword, the party has decided to throw in with Bhamal instead.

Didn’t see that coming.

We rejoined the party after they had returned the sword they had found in the maze to Bhamal, he was after it, they got it first, and they gave it over to him, and told him about Quin Faal’s plans for him. This earned them some trust. He has a number of giant spiders that serve him, he put one spider “on” each of the PCs, following them around for the week. If the PCs behave, he will call off the spiders and is planning on bringing them in as he needs the PCs to do things he can’t.

We started the session with the PCs talking with Bamal.

I love doing in character stuff, particularly warlocks. Bhakashal warlocks ooze confidence and power, they don’t suffer fools and they don’t’ waste time with threats or nonsense. They are very fun to play.

Bhamal told them that if they threw in with him he would share what some of his plans were, but at that point they would become instant liabilities to him, i.e., if they didn’t work with him he would have to slay them.

He laid it on the line.

They decided to throw in anyway.

I rolled to see how he would react to this. It ended up being moderately positive. I had made a list of things he knew and his goals, remembering that he used to be a close associate of Quin Faal, so he knows a lot about him and his plans. I decided he would share some of that as the roll was positive but no active response, which meant he would just share information.

I rolled a d4+1 and got 3, so he shared three pieces of information. Here is a rough reconstruction of the key part of the conversation where he revealed these three things.

 

Bamal the Boastful – “You retrieved that Defender before I could get to it, I had wanted to learn more about the maze before taking it, but you have moved my plans forward, for that I am grateful.”

Ynir Freyil – “Grateful, we ruined your maze!”

Bamal the Boastful – laughter – “No, you don’t have the power to do that, you released four magical anchors, and damaged a statue, I can replace the anchors. And it’s not ‘my maze’, it has been here for, well, I can’t say for sure, but some of the languages used in those inscriptions were last being used hundreds of years ago.”

Every warlock in Bhakashal is also a sage with a major and a minor field, and two special categories within their major field. The players don’t know this, but Bamal’s major field is Yalan and minor field is Supernatural and Unusual, and his area of specialization is Languages. The maze was created by Yalan hundreds of years ago, and they inscribed runes using a now dead language.

 

Xala Havalock – “What do the anchors do, keep the monsters there?”

Bamal sat back and laid the Defender on his lap –“No the monsters were the anchors, they kept the sword where it was”

Kohliss the Syne – “The sword wouldn’t go anywhere on its own, why anchor it?”

Xala Havalock – “Maybe the maze is to hold powerful magic items”

Bamal the Boastful – “Your Rakasta friend is closer”

Xala Havalock – “It’s not for the sword?”

Bamal the Boastful – “No, I don’t think it is.”

Ynir Freyil – “It’s a prison”

Bamal looked on with a raised eyebrow, “You are insightful for a mercenary”

Ynir Freyil cut a slice off of the fruit that the warlock had offered them – “I see things”

Bamal the Boastful – “I believe it is a prison, and I plan to use it as one, but I need more time to study it. Quin Faal’s ego is bruised, he wants me and that sword back. He has been dishonored by my theft, it shows him to be weak, doubly dishonored as I was a close ally, Faal’s judgement is called into question within his own House. By choosing to crew with me, you have made a mortal enemy.”

The PCs didn’t know this, but Bamal spent years as a navigator, so he frequently uses naval terminology.

 Xala Havalock – “I didn’t like him when I met him, he was too sure of himself”

Bamal the Boastful – “Spoken true, Faal does not hesitate, he found me fast enough.”

Bamal stood and placed the defender on the ground, picking up Umanon the Unyielding and swirling it about in a sideways “8” several times, then inspecting the blade.

Bamal the Boastful – “But not fast enough to keep me from stealing this!”

Bamal laughed.

Xala Havalock – “Why do you collect magic swords?”

Bamal smiled placing the sword back in its scabbard.

The giant spiders, black and glossy, bobbed silently by each of the PCs, they could jump a good distance, and were looking to be hungry. Four of the spiders stayed with him, but he dismissed the spiders “on” each of the PCs.

Bamal the Boastful – “They need to feed, they are rapacious carnivores, when they get back they will rejoin each of you, the week is not yet up, but this way they won’t be tempted to take a bite out of you”

Ynir Freyil laughed out loud, Xala and Kohliss the Syne did not.

Bamal the Boastful – “ We will talk about my swords later. For now, know this, if you send the ship back with a message to Faal it will buy us some more time, but eventually he will send others. I want him to leave me alone.”

Kohliss the Syne – “You have a problem, he wants his sword back”

Bamal the Boastful – “Mmmmm, yes, he does, so perhaps we need to distract him.”

Kohliss the Syne – “But what about his honor?”

Bamal the Boastful – “Aye, his honor burns for my capture, but other matters are just as important, if not more important, if we disturb his machinations elsewhere, he will eventually forget about me and direct his resources there.”

Unbeknownst to the PCs, Quin is the patron for another one of my groups. Bamal knows many of Quin’s plans, so two of the tasks Quin offered to the other group  (they turned them down) are going to be discussed with Bamal. Had they chosen a task that this party was told to disrupt, then the two different play groups would have met.

Kohliss the Syne – “What machinations are we to interrupt?”

Bamal the Boastful – ‘I know of two projects that would capture his attention, the first is a magical book he has been looking for. When one of his agents showed up with a lead on the book I took the message and sent him away, I have been sitting on the information since. Faal wants the book badly, you could find it first and deny it to him, it is located, I have been led to believe, on a small island several days from here.”

Bamal took a knife and sliced off some meat, throwing it to one of the spiders.

Bamal the Boastful – “Most of my spiders like fresh meat, but this one has developed a taste for cooked, anyone else interested in some?”

Kohliss the Syne and Xala shook their heads, Ynir Freyil reached out and took the food, her stomach growing in protest over several days of plain rations.

Bamal the Boastful - “The other task is back in the city. The day I stole the sword one of Faal’s agents, a warrior named Fon Jallor, was slain and carried off into the marshes by a marsh dragon while on a House hunt. Faal has been desperate to bring his body back before some ill-disposed necromancer finds it and extracts important information. He was so maddened when this happened that he had taken out the sword in anticipation of heading into the marshes himself to look for the body, while engaged with a temple priest I obtained it.”

Kohliss the Syne – “He wants you badly doesn’t he.”

Bamal the Boastful – “Right now, most definitely yes, but he will forget this insult over time as other more pressing concerns overtake him. Before I left the city I tasked a Slayer who owes me his life with the task of finding Jallor’s body, your task would be to go to that Slayer, Bosk Tughlarn, and retrieve Jallor’s body, assuming he has found it. Tughlarn will spread the news that the body has been found, and Faal will be beside himself.”

Xala Havalock – “You know a lot about his plans, no wonder he wants you back, stealing that sword has had a great cost.”

Bamal the Boastful – “Ignoring me and failing to support me will have a greater cost for Quin Faal the Iolite, I assure you.”

So, the party learned three things, that Bamal thought the maze was a prison and planned to use it  for that purpose, that Faal wanted a magical book located on a nearby island, and that one of his agents had been slain and Faal wanted him back.

They had several days to decide what to do as the ship that was going to take them back to the city was 4 days away, so they tabled this information for later. Bamal then told them that there were more immediate tasks to attend to. He wanted to keep this island as a permanent base for his use. He eventually wants to rejoin House Quannar (he hasn’t told them that yet), but this will become a retreat of his long term.

So, he wants to organize the island a bit. First, he told them they were to determine if the shocker and the firedrake were still on the island. Second, he wanted the hoar fox retrieved safely, he plans on offering it to the kobolds as a gift, along with forbidding the giants from harming the kobolds, he is hoping he can recruit them to help in defending the island. I also had him tell the PCs that they inspired him to make a pact with the kobolds rather than just ignoring them, in that they had allied with the kobolds and done so well. Finally, he wanted the carrion crawler slain as he cannot control it and it would slay too many of the other island denizens.

They decided to go after the carrion crawler first. Before they began to talk, Bamal sent out the giants to locate the crawler, by the time the conversation was finished the giants had found the beast on the far side of the island and were heading back.

At one point the PCs asked why the giants obeyed him.

Bamal replied, “There were three of them when I arrived here.”

LOL, badass.

They went on a carrion crawler hunt. They took their henchmen and four of the kobold hunters mounted on axebeak.

On the way there, the kobolds asked why the party hadn’t slain the giants as promised. That caught them off guard a bit, they had forgotten that they made the commitment. They decided to share that Bamal wanted a truce with them, and also wanted to work with them in the future. I rolled an encounter reaction to see how they would take that information, fortunately it was a low positive result (55%), so they decided to wait and see.

The giant pointed them in the right direction and they found the crawler in the marshy lands to the southwest of the island. Because they knew the location of the creature, they could approach carefully and enhanced their chances of achieving surprise, while lowering their odds of being surprised.

They were successful in obtaining surprise.

Kohliss has a pair of “buffing” spells that improve missile fire, Ammon Marr’s Projectile Extension and Ammon Marr’s Feathered Doom, she has only used one of them before, and this time she used both, casting them on the arrows shot by Ynir and all of the henchmen.

This proved decisive, as they hit the crawler with multiple arrows in the surprise round, along with sling stones from the kobolds. The aggregate damage was enough to put it down. They waited until it had stopped thrashing around, tied a rope to it’s tail, and dragged it back to the caves where Bamal lived. One of the giants lifted it’s tail and tied it to a tree so it’s body was hanging down.

Bamal emerged from the cave and walked over to the party. Xala spoke when he arrived,

“Fast and efficient, your new partners do not waste time.”

Kohliss had decided she wanted the head of this thing hacked off, in order to facilitate removing parts for use in potion/spell creation. She asked Ynir to do the deed with her bastard sword.

At this point I made an encounter reaction roll for Bamal, the party had completed their first task handily, and despite the fact they had giant spiders following them around everywhere, they seemed unphased. The roll with modifiers came up strongly positive.

Bamal took the Defender, which had been hanging on his belt, removed he scabbard and sword and threw them to Ynir.

Bamal the Boastful - “Let’s see how you manage a warlock’s sword”

Ref’s note: Warlocks in Bhakashal use magic swords, there are many that are made for them exclusively, a Defender is NOT one of those, but Bamal was essentially trash talking. Throwing her the sword was a test, would she turn against him as soon as she had it?

Ynir stepped up to the hanging crawler.

REF – “If you roll a critical, you decapitate the thing in one swing, otherwise it will take three solid blows to do so.”

She rolled a critical, and the head rolled away.

That was a badass moment. But then, what would she do with the sword?

Ynir wiped the sword on the nearby hill giant’s furs and put it back in the scabbard, throwing it back to Bamal.

They didn’t realize it, but doing things like this was improving the odds that Bamal would come to trust them with more responsibility and freedom. They were under a microscope right now, and the choices they made would determine whether Bamal would betray them.

Good stuff.

They then decided to take on the second task, retrieving the hoar fox. The kobolds were consulted about this, little happened on Siccai Island without them knowing. They went back to the kobold caves and one of the hunters told them that the fox had taken up residence on the north beach. It spent the mornings swimming, the afternoons hunting in the forest and sleeping, and the cool evenings running on the beach.

They decided to wait until evening and go to the beach, they took along some food. .

Kohliss had a polymorph self potion, she decided to use it and polymorph into a hoar fox and approach the creature. It was a clever plan, but there were complications. This fox had been trapped in the maze for years and hadn’t seen any of its kind for that long. There was no real way to know how it would react. It might be crazed, it might be aggressive. And no matter what she looked like, she would not have the mannerisms and reactions of a fox, let alone a magical fox.

I decided to roll to see how it would react.

When she first approached, I asked what she was going to do.

Kohliss the Syne – “I will approach, and as soon as it notices me I will stop and sit”

I rolled an initial reaction, it was neutral, confused.

REF – “It appears to be scoping  you out, what do you do?”

Kohliss the Syne – “I wait and maintain eye contact”

The hoar fox paced from side to side, watching Kohliss in her new form.

Kohliss – “After a few minutes if it doesn’t run away or attack I will inch forward then stop again”

She inched forward, I rolled another reaction, this time it was just positive.

REF – “The beast stays put”

Kohliss – “I  will turn and run around in a circle, then run back a few feet, to see if it follows”

I rolled again, and this time it followed, then stopped.

They continued this process for a while, slowly inching towards the forest where Ynir, Xala and two of the kobold hunters were waiting. When they were close enough Kohliss went to the other waiting party members and moved through the group to show the hoar fox that they were friendly.

The beast moved back and forth, slowly. Xala took out the food and threw it to the fox. It sniffed for a moment, then ate it with abandon.

Kohliss began to play with it again, and the two foxes played for another 20 minutes, running around and between the other party members and through the woods. She then decided that the potion would be wearing off soon, so she returned to the group.

This was the make-or-break roll, when she transformed back the hoar fox would either bolt, attack or accept it. This was another one of those, “who knows” situations, wolves run with werewolves for example, and hoar foxes are not regular animals, they have magical powers. How would it react?

That’s what the encounter reaction table is for. Fortunately for the party the roll was positive.

The fox followed them back to the kobold’s lair. Kohliss decided to stay there, having the kobolds feed the fox and take care of it, until it was willing to stay with them on its own. This took about 2 days, and when Kohliss returned to the party and Bamal she told them that the kobolds were willing to work with Bamal, and that the fox had already used its power to make ice for the hunters, to their great delight in this sizzing hot environment.

Mission accomplished. They returned to Bamal to report their success. In the ensuing conversation Bamal gave the Defender to Ynir, taking her sword so he would have one to wear around, reasoning that she would be better with it than him, and that she was willing to give it back the last time he gave it to her.

They were building trust.

We stopped there.

 

Observations

Embracing faction play was one of the smartest decisions I ever made as a referee. I date this back to the first time I ran Dwellers of the Forbidden City. That module is a master class in how factions can change a run of the mill dungeon into a living, interconnected environment. Ever since then, I map out the relationships between creatures in any environment I create, and those relationships inform how the NPCs / animals / monsters interact.

Turning on their patron was a bold move, but as a referee, how do you handle that? This is a variation on the classic, “what if the PCs don’t take your hook?”

Fortunately, this isn’t a problem in a factionalized setting. Members of the same Noble House turn on each other all the time, they form alliances within and outside of their House, and they work against each other. So, turning on your patron, though often unwise, isn’t unheard of.

The island was also factionalized, Bamal, typical of an arrogant Bhakashal warlock, had ignored the kobolds, but the party’s alliance and successes with the creatures made him realize the error of his ways. Slaying the crawler and giving the hoar fox to the kobolds as a gift are bog-standard factional moves, slay those you cannot manipulate and appeal to your potential allies.

The party was learning that there is a time to fight and a time to shore up alliances and take it on the chin. Powerful, important lessons in a factionalized setting.

It also shows up in the decisions made by NPCs. Wanting the hoar fox in order to cement an alliance with the kobolds was 100% something that would not have come up unless the environment was factionalized, but it produced an encounter that the players absolutely adored. Polymorphing into a hoar fox and role playing, trying to get the creature to become friendly, was super fun for the players, they were completely absorbed in the rolls and in trying to figure out how to react to get the fox to come on board. None of that would have likely happened unless there were factional concerns involved.

What neither the party nor Bamal know is that Quin Faal doesn’t fully trust them at the moment, this is their first mission for Faal, and he’s no man’s fool. There are a pair of warlocks heading to the island to arrive there the same time that the Wyvern (the ship that dropped them on Siccai Island) returns to pick them up. Ostensibly this was done in case the party was defeated or wounded on the island and needed help, but in actuality Faal doesn’t fully trust the party and sent the two, Bham Veen the Mercurial and Kanai Grith the Hessonite to check on them.

I’m very impressed with the PCs, they are doing something very risky and making good decisions while doing it, all the while they are leaning in to the factional aspects of the setting.

Hijinks await!

 

 
Building Bhakashal – House Rules!

Time for a hard truth.

Everybody house rules.

Even people who play strictly “BTB” and “RAW”, they house rule too.

There are several varieties of house rule, and it would save a lot of electronic ink if we got them straight.

A house rule is just that, a rule that applies in the “house”, e.g., at a particular gaming table.

For example, “on a natural 20, you do double damage”

That’s a rather famous house rule, it was and is remarkably common when I played AD&D 1e BITD, but it was not in the books, it was something that individual tables chose to do.

My argument, TLDR, is that you HAVE TO house rule to play D&D, this isn’t an empirical observation, it’s a logical claim.

Why?

Well, D&D, unlike many other games, is open ended and has a LOT of rules, you simply cannot anticipate all the different ways in which the rules will interact with the game world and the player’s actions. The rules can’t cover every eventuality, if they did they would be remarkably unwieldy, instead, you adjudicate as needed and your house rules grow.

If you have played the game for any length of time you will realize this. I would go as far as to say that almost every session I have run for the last 40 years has had an example of this, a case where I had to make an adjudication because the rules didn’t tell me what to do.

Take an example from my game this Tuesday. My players were about to raid a warlock’s tower, so the party priest cast Divination. The spell description says this,

“The spell gives information regarding the relative strength of creatures in the area…”

What does that mean?

Gygax doesn’t specify it any more than that. So how do you provide this information?

You could keep it simple, “There are foes more powerful than you in the tower”

You could give metagaming detail, “There are foes of X HD and Y level in the tower”

You could be selectively descriptive, “There are foes that have more powerful magic than you in the tower”, or “There are foes with greater fighting ability than you in the tower”

The point here is that you will decide how the spell works in your game, and when you do so, that’s a house rule at your table. Look at the DMG section on player spells, Gygax discusses how to interpret spells based on his gaming experience, they are official rules as they were put there by Gygax in the game book, but every individual DM in the world has had to make interpretations of this kind, and those are all house rules.

So, with all that in mind, here is a brief taxonomy of house rules:

House Rules that Interpret – A spell or an existing game mechanic doesn’t specific what to do in a particular situation, so the DM comes up with a ruling on the spot.

House Rules that Replace – On a natural 20 you double your damage, normally the rule is that a natural 20 is either a hit or a miss depending on the AC of the target and the attacker’s class/nature, but this house rules substitutes a different result on a natural 20

House Rules that Add – D&D doesn’t have rules for what happens when you fail to groom and feed mounts regularly, so the DM creates rules for this or imports rules from another game.

House Rules that Omit – Say a table doesn’t bother with encumbrance at all, the DM just eyeballs the amount of stuff and says no sometimes to taking more, or the Dm doesn’t like the existing unarmed combat rules, so they drop them.

These are all house rules as they will vary from table to table.

I can see someone saying that they don’t do these a lot, or they don’t do some of these, but it beggars the imagination to suggest that you could play the game for any length of time and not have to do any of them.

It would thus be far more useful to drop all the arguing about whether or not you should house rule, and instead advocate for house rules in particular, or house ruling in degree or in kind, e.g., either argue that particular house rules are better or worse (double damage on nat 20 is good), the degree of house ruling is good or bad (house rule as little as possible, house rule as much as possible), or the kind of house ruling is good or bad (interpretive house rules are good, additive house rules are bad).

Note that this isn’t an “anything goes” post, it’s a “clarify what you mean because we aren’t having a productive conversation” post.

I will also add that, IMO, understanding the rules as written is a key component to running good games, as you can’t even decide that you want to house rule until you know what the rules actually are. Ignoring the rules entirely from the get go is, IMO, not a good way to play. Trying to figure out what the rules mean, rather than ignoring them if they seem confusing or challenging, is the best course.

House ruling is something you do in addition to learning the rules of the game, not something you do instead of learning them.

Peace!

 

 

Building Bhakashal – Session Report

My dad’s group is on a roll, we have met for four sessions of 3-4 hours each, session reports here:

Session 1 - https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/06/

Session 2 - https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/08/

Session 3 - https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/09/building-bhakashal-home-game-session-3.html

Session 4 - https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2024/11/building-bhakashal-session-report_21.html

TLDR – They discovered a plot driven by a Bhakashal Lord and Warlock from House Omander (Mitrax Toma the Bold and the Necromancer Calligaster Naukan) to get access to a cursed glade in the marshlands. The party killed Calligaster in the last session, decapitating him and burning his body, returning the head to their patron, Kamerli the Ivory.

*****

So far the group has been successful in every task they have performed, they have uncovered the plot session by session, and they have done so with clever play and judicious use of magic. Before the session I did some homework and determined that they were eligible for leveling. The Bhakashal system is goal based, not XP, monster or loot based, you compare the relative difficulty of the encounters versus the success/failure of the party, calibrated by class (like AD&D, different classes level at different rates).

So, we spent the first half hour leveling everyone up. In Bhakashal, as in AD&D, some levels bring a little, some a lot, and different classes get differing advantages as they level. As it happened, the party warlock (magic-user) was leveling from 5^th to 6^th, which meant their saving throws and “to hit” rolls improved, as they did for the party Seer (cleric) and Mercenary (fighter). Hit points were rolled, new spells were given out, even a new weapon proficiency slot.

And the party mercenary hit the sweet 7^th level spot, and graduated to 3/2 attacks per round.

Righteous.

Players LOVE levelling up. I know there are advocates for games that don’t involve levels, but its hard to argue against the joy players get from the process. Notably the party Seer (priest) now has access to the whole list of 4^th level spells. He was pretty excited about that.

Once the bookkeeping was out of the way, they were on to adventure!

They went to the tower of their patron, Kamerli the Ivory, Kamerli is a tall, thin Emberi (human), dressed in dark red leathers, his hair is a lustrous black and his all-white eyes lack pupils. Kamerli received the PCs and revealed the head of Calligaster Naukan, kept on a pedestal near his fountain. Kamerli had the Seers of Vekka (each House has a temple associated with it) using Speak with Dead on Calligaster to divine his secrets.

On a side note, Speak with Dead has been getting quite the workout in our game, because the target has to answer truthfully, the party has learned to use the spell to interrogate recently slain foes.

Smart.

Calligaster’s spirit has given up many secrets, and Kamerli presented the party with a few options on what to do next. Kamerli doesn’t assign tasks, he collaborates with the party as they have proven quite successful. The options presented were as follows:

Go to the underwater city, Calligaster had line on supply of squid ink for scribing spells, squid ink is one of the most important components in making spells, so it is highly valuable. Securing a supply is a big thing. Calligaster’s potential suppliers had stopped communicating recently, so the party could go investigate that. If they choose this option they might run into the dragon Haekomarl who they encountered earlier. Haekomarl was heading to the coast to hunt and was going to come back to the city to see if the PCs honored their bargain (I rolled a 1 in 20 chance of this each day), so if the party headed to the coast on this task I was going to change the roll to 1 in 6.

Retrieve the body of Fon Jallor, an agent of one of Calligaster’s rivals, Haegamal the Heliotrope, Jallor was slain on a House hunt recently, his body dragged off by a monster. Haegamal wants the body back so no one will retrieve it and use necromantic magic on it to learn his secrets. The party could retrieve the body and offer it Haegamal as a favor in exchange for an alliance with Kamerli against Mitrax.

Calligaster had discovered the location of a powerful magical tome, the Book of Makaramaj, located on a nearby island off the coast. The party could retrieve that.

Break into Calligaster’s tower. As a House Warlock (terminology clarification, Noble Houses have nobility, either spell casters or warriors, the generic term for a House warrior Noble is a Lord, the generic term for a House spell caster Noble is Warlock. Calligaster is a Noble House Warlock, but his class is Necromancer), Calligaster has a group of apprentices below him. They work (and some live) in his tower. The party has slain Calligaster and one of his apprentices (Pholl the Gaunt). So, the head of the snake has been removed. Before they have a chance to regroup, Kamerli suggested the party enter Calligaster’s tower and retrieve a powerful magic item, a Rod of Iospha. Kamerli wants to give the item to the Temple of Iospha to gain favor with them, in order to cement an alliance with House Xandal (the temple of Iospha is affiliated with House Xandal).

Make deal with Mitrax Toma The Bold. This was an interesting suggestion, Mitrax was kidnapped and dishonored, and his primary ally in his own House, Calligaster, was now dead. There are rivals within House Omander that are now planning to move against Mitrax at his time of weakness, so he might be ripe for an alliance. This might lead him to ask for fight in the arena to restore his honor. On a side note, I rolled every game day a 1 in 30 chance that Mitrax might demand an arena fight to restore his honor anyway.

The factions in Bhakashal create an almost endless variety of adventuring hooks based off of PC actions, when combined with divination magic and old-fashioned investigation, the PCs were presented with more options than they could even engage with. Some DM’s struggle with coming up with “adventure hooks.”

Bhakashal refs are swimming in them.

They decided on the raid, break into Calligaster’s tower.

To do this the first task was surveillance.

They travelled to the Ward of House Omander and checked out Calligaster’s tower during the early evening when the streets were active. It was a corner building near the canal, close to a large commercial building (the two were connected at the top by a foliage canopy, many buildings in Bhakashal are so connected). The party warlock has a familiar, a blood hawk, it flew around the building and discovered that there was a giant spider on the rooftop (many rooftops are guarded by monsters/animals in Bhakashal).

They retreated to a tavern nearby and the party warlock had his familiar perch near the tower and used his familiar’s eyes to watch the comings and goings. Of note was a figure that approached later in the evening. He was dressed in reflective silver robes (the moonlight glinting on them) and was flanked by two large Ettercap bodyguards. He approached the tower, and the doors opened for him (telling the party that the doors were being watched by people inside).

At this point something wonderful happened, the party waited until about 2 in the morning when the tavern closed up. They went to an alleyway between the tower and the nearby commercial building, and the party warlock cast Rope Trick while the party Mercenary (fighter) and the NPC Thaumaturge (thief/magic-user) kept lookout.

The party Seer (priest) and Warlock climbed into the Rope Trick extra-dimensional space, and he cast Divination.

Divination is one of those spells that is rarely used in game, it is a bit specific and the AOE is very defined, so a lot of players ignore it. In this case the spell was a gold mine,

“The spell gives information regarding the relative strength of creatures in the area; whether a rich, moderate or poor treasure is there; and the relative chances for incurring the wrath of evil or good supernatural, super powerful beings if the area is invaded and attacked.”

This was a necromancer’s tower, so the answer to the second question was “rich”, the third question was “the chances are relatively good” (as the Necromancer’s tower held a number of powerful supernatural beings like demons in captivity, if they were released…)

The first question was one of those cases where the referee has to improvise on the spot.

How do you indicate, “…the relative strength of creatures in the area” in a meaningful way that doesn’t give away too much?

It ends up that AD&D has a mechanic that ROUGHLY and APPROXIMATELY does this for you: Hit Dice. Though there are exceptions, the higher the HD of the target, the more powerful they will be in terms of special abilities/spell like powers, attacks, that sort of thing. The equivalent for NPCs is level. So, I quickly made a notation for each floor of the tower, and then wrote down the HD/Level of every living thing within.

The players didn’t know whether or not the creatures indicated were NPCs or animal/monsters, nor did they know WHERE within each floor the creature was located, but they knew what they were up against in a general way, which floors were more populated and had the greater threat.

People really sleep on divination magic.

There was a discussion about whether they should try again another time and hope for fewer threats to be present (e.g., come back when fewer warlocks are in residence), but they were eager for the challenge, so they decided to go in.

I swear that AD&D and Bhakashal were built for breaking and entering, the whole session was fire.

The party warlock cast Levitation multiple times, which allowed all of them to levitate upwards. I rolled to see if anyone in the tower or in the surrounding area saw them. There are Ward patrols, passerby’s, people in nearby buildings, and the city’s “Long glass” network (a series of towers manned by Ward soldiers and equipped with telescopes, they scan the wards for trouble). If they had done this during the day I wouldn’t have bothered rolling, they just would have been spotted, but they were doing this at around 2:30 am, so I distilled these possibilities as follows: 1 in 6 chance of being spotted per turn of being near and outside the building.

They made it to the roof of the nearby commercial building. From that distance Maglane the Malachite (the NPC Thaumaturge allied with the party) cast Charm Monster on the giant spider, which failed its save. They crossed over to the tower roof and saw four runic circles on the floor, a throne with a table beside it in the middle, and stairs leading down. Before landing on the roof, they cast a Find Traps spell and scanned the whole roof.

They found a magical trap on ground around the throne and on the stairs. They then avoided the area around the throne and cast a Dispel Magic spell on the stairs. This negated the magic on the stairs for a round, and they went down quickly.

About a turn had passed since they cast the Divination spell, so there was a chance that the warlocks on the 4^th floor had moved since it was cast. I rolled for that, and they had not moved from their location.

The party then decided to do something I had not seen coming. A few sessions back the party had picked up the spell Guards and Wards on a scroll. Someone had the bright idea to cast it now, on the tower, to cause confusion. As a side note, I roll for all spells and magic items randomly, so this was not planned by me. What they didn’t know was that one of the warlocks in the tower had Guards and Wards in a ring of spell storing, and a protocol to cast it if anyone broke into the tower.

However, the warlock with the ring was not there at this point.

Delicious confusion.

The party cast the spell, and it got freaky. Multiple doors were covered by illusion and hidden (I rolled randomly for that), all doors were Wizard Locked, all stairs were filled with webs and all corridors with fog. The Thaumaturge (who was casting the spell) targeted two areas on the 4^th floor for stinking cloud spells.

The fog and webs were not visible to the four warlocks on the 4^th floor, they were in a room and didn’t see the effects. However, the guards on all the other floors noticed things, mist, webs and certain doors seemingly disappearing. A captured crimson ape in a cell began to howl when the door to their cell apparently disappeared. Several people were locked in their room without knowing it.

Now, the guards know that when these things happen this means that there are intruders in the tower. However, they also knew that the warlock that had the ring with the spell, one Zimmerlin Suel, was not in residence. The guards on the 2^nd and 3^rd level didn’t know if he had perhaps arrived on the first floor and they didn’t see it, but the guards on the 1^st floor knew he wasn’t there, so something was up. The warlocks on the 4^th floor knew that Suel was not there, but perhaps he had just arrived and triggered the spell.

Guards started shouting, and after trying the door and seeing it was under the impact of a Wizard Lock spell, one of the three warlocks in the room on the 4^th floor cast Knock on the door to open it. Unfortunately for them, and unbeknownst to the PCs, they had placed one of the Stinking Clouds in front of their door.

While this was happening, the party moved to the stairwell they had just come down, now filled with webs, and the Thaumaturge cast a Burning Hands spell to set fire to the webs, she then did the same to the stairs going down so they could leave.

Unbeknownst to the PCs, one of the warlocks trapped in the room behind the Stinking Cloud had that spell as well, and in Bhakashal if you have the spell in question, you can cast it on the manifestation of that spell as a counterspell to neutralize it, the mechanics work like Dispel Magic.

The PCs ran down to the 3^rd floor and cast Locate Object to find the Rod of Iospha, locating it in a room on the south side of the floor.

In Bhakashal warlocks are free casters, they can cast a given number of spells, of any level, per day, rather than a fixed number of spells per level per day.  Upstairs, the Warlock attempted to break the Stinking Cloud spell again and failed!

A guard on the 3^rd floor rushed towards them and the party Mercenary intervened, dispatching him with a gladius to the neck, killing him instantly.

The PCs were unceremonious at this point as they were in a rush, and they smashed down the Wizard Locked door to the room with the rod. Inside there was a runic circle around a pedestal with a small chest on it. Rather than risk the room, the party warlock, who had just obtained (and successfully memorized) the spell Telekinesis as his “level up” spell, used it to move the chest from the pedestal to him.

Smart.

The warlock upstairs tried to neutralize Stinking Cloud  again… and failed!

I roll in the open so I can’t “fudge” results like this, I know many DMs who would because they resent it when their NPCs don’t get to succeed, but I have grown to love the chaos and unpredictability that this brings.

The party fled up the stairs to the 4^th floor again, all the while hearing the guards and a warlock from the lower floors trying to smash down the Wizard Locked door between floors.

Chaos!

The party bolted across the floor to the stairs to head out the way they came, unfortunately, the warlock on the 4^th floor, Moon Abithin (he was the warlock in the shiny silver robes that the party spotted entering the tower earlier), finally managed to dispel the Stinking Cloud. He exited the room and soon after the party emerged from the stairwell.

I rolled for surprise, and neither side was surprised.

We then rolled initiative.

The party mercenary was the first out of the stairs, he tied with Abithin, so the moment he released his net from his hands to throw at the warlock, the Slow spell culminated.

I really love Bhakashal’s initiative system because of things like this. The net flew from his hands as he, the Thaumaturge and the giant spider slowed down, covering Abithin, preventing him from spell casting until he got free.

Yisen Khas, a Yalan (snake-folk) phantasmist had emerged from the room when Abithin cast his Slow spell, he now cast Color Spray on the party as they emerged from the stairwell. The spell blinded the Thaumaturge and the party Seer (priest).

The only member of the party who wasn’t impacted by either spell was the party Warlock, who then cast Magic Missile on Abithin, doing decent damage but not slaying him.

We stopped there.

 

Observations

MADNESS.

It’s times like this when all of the fiddly little rules on timing (initiative), distance, saving throws and such come together in a magical way. It looked like chaos on the outside, but all of it was governed by clear rules that determined what happened when, and sequence is KEY to resolution. What spells take effect first, the area of effect for those spells, the distances involved between combatants, the open rolling, all of these features mean that combat is chaotic, messy, unpredictable and fun.

Every time someone argues for simplifying the rules I remember crazy sessions like this, sure, you can just arbitrarily rule what you want, but what emerges from the cocktail stew of rules at the table is far, far more fun and rewarding. I also LOVE that I randomize everything, so the party having Guards and Wards and the NPCs using that spell when the tower is breached was completely unpredictable and produced sweet confusion.

The opponents in the lower floors of the tower are confused about what is happening and at least temporarily restricted from coming up. What the party does not know is that there is a third warlock from that room that turned invisible and is moving around the room to cast a spell at them. They know there is a third warlock, but not that they are invisible.

Big fun.