Building Bhakashal – Session Report

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

Group 1 – The Raiders

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SWITCH

 Group 2 - the trainers

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

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

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

Fortunately, the weather roll for today had no rain.

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

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

SWITCH

 Group 3 - The camp

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SWITCH

 

Back to the ships.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bring it on.

 

Building Bhakashal - Session Report - Dungeon Crawling!

As it happens, dungeon crawls are not common in our game, but this week my Dad’s group continued their delve into Tamoachan! This is a great opportunity to show how crawling works in Bhakashal and discuss adjudication. I have yet to run a game where there isn’t at least one or more instances where I have to make a ruling on something that isn’t covered directly or obviously in the rules. This is a regular part of refereeing that is ignored by many, but helps to put the RAW vs rules improv issue into a more nuanced light.

The vibe in this module is creepy, it is pitch dark except for torchlight, I’m tracking turns, torch burning times, and rolling for random encounters every turn, 1 in 12 odds. This means that taking time to do anything has a cost. I periodically mention moaning or howling noises, that the party has decided are the air moving through the complex, or maybe not. I’ll randomly announce that they hear a, “hiss”, or “shriek”, or “chittering”, or whatever else comes to mind, to mimic the hundreds of small creatures that inhabit this complex. The whole shrine is waterlogged and hot as hell, miasmatic and fetid, in places the stucco is sliding down the walls, giving the whole place a decrepit, decaying vibe. Their splashing through watery areas masks other noises, one time when they were standing looking at something I told them they heard splashing behind them. That sobered them up fast.

Add that they can see about 40’ ahead from the torchlight, anything further ahead is enshrouded in pitch black darkness, which means that as they explore corridors can look endless and thing sort of appear as they advance without warning.

It’s delicious.

I don’t know why people say AD&D “can’t do horror”, never underestimate the fear of the unknown, my players were genuinely terrified, the atmosphere created a mountain of tension.

This week they decided to double back and go into a corridor they avoided, finding that about halfway down there was an entrance to a side room that was blocked by a giant stone. They heaved on the stone (four of them) and managed to push it back to gain entrance to a room. That movement plus pushing took a turn, so I rolled for a random encounter, nothing, and noted a turn off of the torch burning time. They slid past the stone to a chamber with doors. There was lime on the stone that now began to burn their hands after pushing on it.

So, they spent a turn washing them off to stop the burning. That required another random encounter roll, which came up negative. The party Seer cast Find Traps on the door ahead of them, which lasts 3 turns. They turned up a trap!

At this point the party Thaumaturge (thief/magic-user) came forward and I had to make a decision, does find traps just tell you a trap is there, or does it tell you what kind of trap it is? The spell description says that traps will become “visible to them”. So, I ruled that this allowed the caster to see the outline of the mechanics of the trap, like an X-ray, in this case a trip switch on the door that released when it was pushed in, breaking a glass sphere.

The Thaumaturge rolled to disarm the trap and was successful, she jammed an iron spike in behind the trip switch so it couldn’t break the glass sphere.

They entered the room and looked around there was an axe imbedded in the wall and a raised area of stone. They extended the Find Traps to the whole room. Here again I had to adjudicate. First, there was a vampire in the raised stone area, it was a tomb.

And there is a mechanism to open up the tomb, you have to turn some dials, so there is a mechanism to turn dials and release a vampire. Is that a trap? I decided it wasn’t; it was a tomb.

Then there was the cursed axe. Note it casts a shadow that looks like a severed arm! That was a juicy detail that creeped them out.

It can’t come off the wall until the vampire is slain, but when it does it is cursed and can’t be put down. Is that a trap? I vacillated on this one, but ultimately decided it wasn’t a trap, it was a cursed weapon that would be entirely functional in the hands of a chaotic evil warrior. So, in this case they found no traps. However, the party Seer then got smart and decided to cast Detect Evil, and both the tomb and the axe pinged as BIG E evil. The DMG spell description gives some options, I chose “longing evil”, as both creatures longed to have the PCs interact with them.

They decided at that point to book it.

That was another turn, so we rolled for a random encounter, nothing. They left and headed down the corridor to a rubble filled stairway. They spent a turn digging and then their Find Traps spell expired. They spent another turn digging only to have debris keep falling down.

So, they abandoned the area. Two random encounter rolls in these turns came up negative, then I informed them their torches were about to burn out, there was some scrambling and they lit new torches. At that point the Detect Evil spell wore off. They headed back to the room with the pool and the underwater ledge. I rolled and the Nerid was not there.

They continued to the next door, and the party Thaumaturge checked it for traps. She’s earning her keep! That takes a turn, so another random encounter roll with nothing turning up. The party fighter stepped up and heaved, opening the old, jammed door.

They sloshed through water (ruining any chance of surprising any foes) and found more doors. The Thaumaturge once again checked for traps and found none. That was another turn, no wandering monsters. This opened up into a long hallway. Because their light only reaches 40’ ahead, they essentially advance into an area of pitch blackness as they move forward.

The Seer decided to cast Detect Traps again, and they set forward down a long corridor. Then came another adjudication question, does Detect Traps find secret doors? The rules don’t specify, but in this case I decided that it would not register, a secret door is not a trap.

However, as they went down the hall they saw some artwork on the wall, the Thaumaturge checked it out and ended up activating the secret door. That was another turn, and another failed wandering monster check. They went a bit further down the hall and the spell pinged on the end of the corridor where there were arrow traps, which they avoided. They went back to the secret door and went through.

They found a corridor with carvings of animal heads on the side, and what appeared to be a bracelet caught in the mouth of one of the animals. The Seer used his spell to check for traps and found that the beak of the animal would close on anyone grabbing the bracelet.

The Thaumaturge jammed in an iron spike to keep it from closing and the party warlock pulled out the bracelet. While the rest of the party investigated the other heads, he spent another turn casting Identify on the bracelet to find out its powers (it allows flesh to stone or  the reverse to be cast three times, then it becomes a ring of stone shape, three times for that and it stops working).

Another wandering monster failed check. They continued down the corridor, pushing through the darkness, when suddenly a mummified human body was floating in the air in front of them. There were screams and jumping in chairs. Soon they could see a number of hanging mummified corpses.

 The Find Traps spell was still active, and they found a pressure plate trap in the middle of the room, they noted it’s location, turned around and took a different corridor.

They found a side chamber in this corridor with a chest. They used the last of the Find Traps here to discover at pressure plate trap. The party warlock cast Levitation and was pushed forward with a rope around his waist, he opened up the chest and took out a statue of a strange fish like being that looked like nothing natural they had ever seen. That creeped them out too.

During this process I rolled a wandering monster encounter with two huge spiders (these are horse sized), crawling along the ceiling. They gained surprise and dropped on the party Thaumaturge and second Mercenary (both NPCs!). The Mercenary took some minor damage but made his poison save, the Thaumaturge was missed.

The Mercenary split the spider in half with his bastard sword, the Thaumaturge cast Burning Hands on the beast and did enough damage to drive it off with a failed morale check. They pressed on to find a door, which the party Mercenary opened handily (and noisily).

They entered into a room, It was filled with statues, they couldn’t see all of the room, so they were a bit spooked. They wandered around the room for a time looking at the statues and the cairn on the far side, then they found doors and left the room.

I told them before leaving that their torches were burning out again.

They replaced torches and moved on, checking the doors for traps then forcing them open. Another turn, another failed wandering monster check. They walked down a long corridor, seemingly endless in the dark, and came to a large stone blocking the corridor. Three of them put their shoulders into it and pushed the stone up an incline on rollers, slowly but surely. That took another turn, and another failed wandering monster check.

At the top of the incline, they settled the stone and continued on. The corridor twisted and turned, and they saw pictures on the walls depicting some sort of game, which they studied for a time. They came to a turn in the hall and a capstone, covered with runes, was in the intersection. The party warlock cast Comprehend Languages on the runes, and they saw the message, “Dare not open this pit unless you be willing to meet the challenge of the game”.

They decided against it and moved on to the end of the corridor. By that time another turn had went by, and another failed wandering monster check. They came to another door, the Thaumaturge checked it for traps again, coming up clean, and the party Mercenary tried to force the door. He failed, and the NPC mercenary tried and succeeded. Another turn, another failed check.

This room had a cat motif, with a cat statue, a bunch of stuffed cats, and a cat mural on the wall. They briefly went around the room then decided to leave and go back to another door they had abandoned. That took a turn, another failed check followed.

They have been mapping, and they traced back the route to the room with hanging mummified corpses. They avoided the trap and checked the door on the far side for traps. The Thaumaturge found nothing, and the Mercenary heaved the door open, in this case releasing a waft of stale, stench filled air that made their torches sputter and give off a wan, greenish light.

That was just for effect, but it got them nervous.

Another turn to check the door, another wandering monster check failed.

They entered the room and found two bodies lying on slabs with a knife, a flask and goblets in between them. They looked around, avoiding the bodies, and decided to take knife and the flask and leave, thus not triggering the two bodies to come to life. Some of my groups turn over everything in the room before leaving, the Dads were moving along after a short inspection.

Another turn, another failed check.

The warlock, who had been towed along by the mercenary NPC, settled to the ground as his Levitation spell wore off.

They backtracked to the room with the cairn and statues. They decided to explore the room more closely and went to the cairn. They smashed it open and found some jade bead pectorals and a silver amulet.

The party Mercenary tried to pry a lantern off the floor and opened a secret door!

“A blackened humanoid corpse lies in the chamber beneath the floor, it’s skin blackened and cracked with age, it’s clothing mere rags, and an unbearable stench wafting out and filling the room around you. Then, it’s eyes snap open!”

A wight in the secret compartment woke up! It reached out to grab the Mercenary but he managed to dodge it’s grasp. The Mercenary brought his magical trident down on the beast and rolled a critical, doubling damage, and slaying the thing instantly, as it emitted a horrifying, unliving scream!

Another turn, another failed encounter check.

They saw an amulet on the wight and took it off, leaving the room immediately and making their way back to the cat motif room. That took another turn and another failed wandering monster check.

We stopped there.

Observations

This module is very atmospheric. The per turn wandering monster check is a constant time pressure on the party, as well as the torch burning. Systematic exploration of a dungeon with it’s strange distant sounds and encroaching darkness creates a constant low-level dread. Every time they explore an area, use a spell or move around time passes, every time they check for traps they spend a turn. Every turn brings the possibility of some monster descending upon them.

Yes, they have very handy spells, but every step they take is dangerous, so they may be able to avoid traps, but they are still at risk. They also have to abandon potential loot if they find a trap and decide to bail. They unknowingly bailed on a vampire, good call really, but there was loot in that room they abandoned.

I was personally shocked no one tried to take the evil axe.

I have played with refs that want to nerf divination magic like this as it “takes all the challenge out of it”, but they forget how detecting a trap just makes the players dread it and worry about whether or not they should be trying to disarm it. And traps in AD&D can go off when you try to disarm them, so even if you know it is there, it’s still a danger. Not to mention that you have to concentrate to find traps, so you can’t be casting other spells when you are looking.

So, using the spell doesn’t really take away the challenge, it just changes the course of action.

High tension combines with awesome art.

When we finished they were 21 turns, 3-1/2 hours into their delve, and they have 3 turns remaining before their current torches burn out. They have enough torches to last for 4 more hours, at that point they will have to resort to spells, and the Seer has been using up their low level spells for divination magic, so they might end up getting caught flat footed.

This session was a reminder of how valuable each member of the party can be, the Seer and Warlock cast divination magics, the Mercenaries muscled the doors and the giant stone blocks, the Thaumaturge checked for traps regularly, finding several.

Dungeon exploring is a team sport. The claustrophobic, wet, decaying environment, the mysterious sounds and utter darkness of the space, and the unique monsters/mythology of the shrine make this one of the most atmospheric and terrifying modules in TSR’s catalogue.

They are having an absolute blast.

Hopefully we won’t take a month to get back together again.

Building Bhakashal – Session Report – They Split the Party!

Today’s game was a good example of how to handle a complicated session.

My Thursday group split up to do different things:

Group 1 stayed behind in the city to address some housekeeping tasks, one of them wanted to spend a week training his new pet baby wyvern, the other wanted to train for a week riding his new mount, a Kestram (giant bird).

Groups 2 and 3 were tasked with helping Brass Blade Guild raiders (the Brass Blade Spider’s Guild is Bhakashal’s Thieves Guild, the PCs are now running it) who were being foiled by marshland patrols from House Tairn. It’s a delicate situation, and the remainder of the party split into two more groups, Group 2 stayed behind in in the raider’s land camp, Group 3 went along with the raiders as they attacked an incoming merchant ship.

So, we had three groups on three fronts.

I know some referees dislike this sort of play, but Bhakashal is a true sandbox game, which means that whatever the PCs choose is what we do, if they want to split the party, then it’s my job to run the encounters.

The rule at our table is this, when the party splits, the referee switches from group to group, splitting up the session time roughly equally between them. Players have two choices, they can stay around the table when it is not their turn, but if they do so they must pay attention and not be disruptive. I will usually get them to roll dice for me or run any party NPCs with that group, so they have something to do.

Alternatively, they can leave the table and come back when it is their turn. I actually somewhat prefer this option as it keeps them in the dark to things happening when they aren’t there.

This week they opted to stay at the table.

We started with the group who was mid-combat at the end of last session. There was one action left from the end of the last round (the first round in combat), when the raider’s ship, The Domino, caught up with the merchant ship, The Astrolabe. The party Spartan (monk) had to shoot his bow from the raider’s ship. He managed to hit the spellcaster on the Astrolabe twice, doing decent damage.

Then the new round started, initiative was rolled and the combatants were sequenced. As an aside, Bhakashal’s combat system is proving to be ideal for large fights between big groups, roll initiative, add modifiers for weapon speed or spell casting time, and the segment of your action is determined.

Easy as pie.

Things moved fast and furious.

The bandit crossbowmen shot en masse, slaying 1 and wounding 2 crewmembers on the merchant ship.

 Their ship was slowly closing the gap, but they were still at medium range and taking penalties.

The House Tairn Chitin Warlock, Umi the Chaolite, cast Flame Arrow on the crossbow bolts of several House Tairn regulars who shot a volley off at the Domino. The party spartan managed to knock two of the flaming bolts aside, but another sailor on the Domino was killed, another wounded, and one of the bolts set the sail alight, sending crewmembers scrambling to set out the fire.

The spell caster on the Merchant Ship, one Asil Merr the Mirach, cast a Protection From Normal Missiles spell as he was spooked by the Spartan's shots.

The House Tairn warlock on the second barge, the Malu, Chilonder Bix, cast Phantasmal Force (as an aside, many people forget that regular magic-users can use Phantasmal Force too). He created the illusion of a group of 4 Malu boarding the Domino from the water. Malu are well known as sailors and it would not have been unusual for a few to enter the water when the fight started and swim over to attack this way, so I did not give the crew disbelief saves, and the PCs suspected nothing, only one noting that Chilonder Bix likely cast a buffing spell of some kind, as they saw him casting something but saw no effects.

Two shots from Domino’s ballistae hit the Astrolabe, both were on the side, high above the waterline, warnings that they could shoot lower and have the ship take on water.

Then Thurva, the leader of the raiders and a Thaumaturge, cast Moonsal’s Ichorous Syphon from a scroll. Thaumaturges are thief/magic-users that only use scroll spells. This particular casting of the Ichorous Syphon was scribed at high level, so this gave her the range to cast it near the Astrolabe, she used the Syphon to collect water and caused it to rise up like a snake and crash down on the  Astrolabe’s warlock, Asil Merr the Mirach. Unfortunately for him, he failed his saving throw and the spell drowned him on the deck of his own ship.

We broke their and shifted to the group doing the training. The party Conjuror (a new player) and the party Mercenary (fighter) spent the day in the Bhakashal marshlands, the Conjuror learning how to ride his Kestram while the Mercenary stayed on land below training his baby wyvern. They were heading back at night when I rolled an encounter.

As an aside, in a factional game there are always people after you, to reflect the possibility that one of these parties might show up unexpectedly, when I roll for encounters I roll an extra d6, on a “1” the encounter is with one of these NPCs/monsters who are out to get the party. I have a list of these NPCs/monsters, it's getting long!

As it happens, I rolled a 1 on the d6 so the two PCs were going to encounter someone who was out looking for them. In this case it was two NPCs that had been sent to spy on the party as they are suspected as being the new leaders of the Bhakashal Brass Blade Guild. House Magnar (Crest: Gold Dragon on Black), who are in command of the commercial/banking ward are angling to take over the guild, so they have sent NPCs to keep tabs on the PCs and determine if they are indeed the new Guild leaders and collect information about them.

They, of course, have no idea about this.

So the PCs, flying on the back of their Kestrem, see two people in the marshland below, with the coils of a purple liash plant around them. This was entirely a set up, they were feigning being in distress to draw the party’s attention.

And it worked.

The two of them flew down, dismounted and used a Charm Monster spell to get the plant to relax, releasing the two NPCs, one was “unconscious” and the other instantly gave him a drink from a potion bottle, acting desperate to save his life.

They fell for it hook, line and sinker.

They began to talk, asking who the NPCs were, what happened, etc. The represented themselves as travelers (I rolled a chance that the PCs might have met these men before in their time in the city, but that came up negative), heading to the city on their way through the marshlands. It was a plausible story.

The two NPCs gave the PCs gifts to thank them for the “rescue”, a large gem and a magical dagger (+1). The conversation went quite well, and the party fighter offered to help track and retrieve the mounts that the NPCs claimed were spooked when the plant attacked. He and one of the NPCs (a spartan) went off after the mounts

The PC conjuror and the NPC fighter walked along together discussing the NPCs plans in the city and his position on various issues of the day.

The NPCs are going to stay in the party’s orbit, playing the part of grateful friends rescued from certain death by the brave PCs, offering themselves up as “henchmen”, and report back to their masters when they have gathered enough information to be sure that the PCs do indeed run the guild.

It’s like an onion.

Then it was on to the last group.

The party warlock (magic-user), spider/warlock (thief/magic-user) and Slayer (ranger/assassin) were staying at the raider’s forest hideout with the 10 raiders that did not go out on the Domino, guarding the hideout.

The PCs were gambling with the raiders. When PCs want to gamble in the game we generally break out the cards or dice and actually play a game at the table. Today we played Onitama, it’s a variant on chess where the moves for the pieces change between moves outlined on cards that you draw and play. Games like this are perfect for the table as they are similar to games they know (in this case chess), but different enough that they feel appropriate to the game world.

In Bhakashal you can play a game of chess where the moves for the pieces change as the game progresses, that feels just different enough to fit the vibe of the setting, but it is similar enough that it feels familiar to the players.

That’s the sweet spot.

They played a round of the game then decided to call it a night. I rolled for a potential encounter in the night and one came up. All the PCs were sleeping when it did.

Their ledger of “people looking for them” was actually pretty long. I rolled for the last encounter and the two NPCs came up. This time I rolled the d6 and got a 1 again, so this time it was a Gyre that showed up.

The PCs took over running the guild, the former House Quannar Warlock that ran the Guild before the Raosk and City branches were unified by the party was one Riyan the Raze. She was extremely pissed that the PCs managed to convince the other factional leaders to vote for them and put them in a position to lead the newly unified guild.

Riyan decided to send someone to bloody their noses and keep them off balance.

She sent Ghanglor Terrik a 7^th level Garudin (bird-person) Wind Gyre. Gyres in Bhakashal manipulate raw magic energy into their particular aspect. As a wind gyre, Ghanglor is essentially an air-bender. 

Since the party was sleeping their perspective on the encounter was this,

“You awake to a cacophony outside your tent, screaming winds, crashing, cries of pain and panic, you look outside and you see 8 of the 10 raiders from the camp flailing about in the air, cartwheeling past each other, sometimes crashing into each other, crossbow bolts fall from quivers, as do swords and knives. The wind is deafening, like a concentrated hurricane, and leaves and branches whirl through the air, blinding you.”

Ghanglor can summon air elementals with a magic item of his, and he sent one in.

Elementals are EXTREMELY POWERFUL in Bhakashal, and we'll see how they handle this.

We stopped there.

Each group got about half an hour of direct play while the other groups rolled dice or played NPCs.

It is fascinating as any of these encounters would have been much different if the whole party was there, they are all around 8^th-9^th level, pretty formidable all things considered. Splitting up changed the tenor of the encounters considerably. Next week the fighter and conjuror are supposed to be flying out to meet the party at the raider’s camp, we’ll see if they bring along the two NPCs they “rescued”, and if they arrive to a raider’s camp full of corpses.

Once again I am reminded that once you start up a sandbox game, it runs itself. The consequences of party actions in a factionalized setting will generate an endless array of new encounters and adventures for the PCs.

Good stuff.

Building Bhakashal - Session Report  

My Friday group has achieved status as Bhakashal nobility, based on their successful execution of a task, namely building a teleportation circle between the underworld and Bhakashal. A few sessions ago one of my players asked if we could do a “classic, old-school module”, his dad had played AD&D BITD and had a bunch of modules at home. I was, of course, happy to oblige. The obvious choice was the Drow modules, but I have an almost pathological aversion to elves.

So I decided that the Drow were the ONLY elves in the setting, exiled to the underworld thousands of years ago, and a drow raiding party found their teleportation circle, skirmished with it’s guardians (a group of mid-level chitin archers and a pair of purple worms) and left. The party decided to track them back to their home to assess the threat to their holdings.

Last week’s session was pretty straightforward; they encountered a group of troglodytes. As it happens there are fewer humanoid monsters in Bhakashal, so they hadn’t encountered trogs before. They were fortunate in that they managed surprise on the trogs and used a combination of AOE spells and some excellent melee combat to slay enough of them that the remaining trogs fled, and they followed them back to their cave, slaying enough of them that the remainder fled. A small treasure haul whetted their appetite, and they pressed on.

Play in Bhakashal is factional, and routine hack and slash is not the regular fare for my group, so they found this all to be quite exciting. No need to negotiate or parley, no need to play one faction against another or consider the long-term consequences of their actions, just sword and board then find the loot.

All was good.

They pressed on into the main caves towards the Vault of the Drow, images of piles of loot dancing in their heads.

What they wee not aware of, and what they were to subsequently learn, was that the drow are not easy marks. Every drow has innate spell casting abilities, ridiculously low AC, and they are intelligent. Very intelligent. Many of the foes they have fought have been unintelligent monsters, animals and low to average intelligence 0-level soldier types. They are used to fighting opponents where there will be skirmishing groups with a single mid-to-high level spellcaster.

Bhakashal is different from traditional D&D in a few ways, the HP are on average lower for everyone and they are always rolled, never assigned or inflated. Magic items are always rolled for, never assigned, and thus less common for PCs. Also, AC values are higher (e.g., worse) as it is a tropical setting, no one is running around in full plate, and most of the heavier forms of armor are eschewed as it is part of a martial honor culture to fight without extensive armor protection.

Gygax designed the drow to be a challenge for high level parties who were used to being overpowered due to excessive magic items, with bloated HP and low AC. Your average 2^nd level drow fighter has an AC of 1, anyone higher level than that often has negative ACs.

With all this in mind, they encountered a large drow caravan at the end of last session. They have encountered caravans before in Bhakashal. They usually have a bunch of 0-level soldiers, a few mid-level mercenaries, and a single mid-to-high level spellcaster.

This was a large caravan, with 9 giant lizard pack animals, 14 drow guards, 16 bugbears, 4 drow sergeants, 8 merchants and a train of 20 slaves. What makes this so challenging is that even the Drow mooks are 2^nd level, AC 1 and have innate spell casting ability, and the “merchants” are 4/4 fighter/clerics with innate and clerical spell casting ability and AC: -3!

The party was spotted easily by the drow caravan, who were used to operating in the dark, and they engaged in parley. This is where the party made a fundamental mistake, they saw this huge caravan, with 18 fully kitted out drow guards, 16 bugbears and 20 chained up slaves and thought, “they are just a merchant caravan, no big deal”.

During the parley the party tried to present themselves as harmless travelers, but they were obviously topsiders, and trespassers in drow territory. I rolled an encounter reaction and they got lucky, a mildly positive result had the drow essentially warn them off, tell them to leave immediately or they would be dealt with.

The party took that as a challenge.

Initiative was rolled.

I roll everything in the open, and as it happens I rolled TERRIBLY this session. I think that may be the main reason they didn’t get slaughtered.

The lead drow fired off hand crossbows and javelins and all missed. The players had a good laugh at that, thinking these were low level mooks and that this would be a cakewalk. The two party tanks charged forward and through rolling a pair of criticals got extra attacks and neatly polished off the four lead drow warriors (all 2nd level).

One of the players did note with concern that even the “mooks” had low AC (in Bhakashal you add your opponent’s AC to your to hit roll so you know their AC when you attack them), but they brushed that off.

The party warlock has Power Word Stun. He loves casting it as it is a no save spell, so it takes out whoever he targets handily. What he should have realized was that it only takes out one target, and there were over 40 enemies in this fight. He targeted one of the mounted drow and took him out, there was much back slapping and hooting at the table.

The party gyre (he’s an earth gyre) created a pit between the mounted drow warriors and the party to stop them from charging, it was a good tactical move against mounted warriors. Three of the bugbears fell into the pit, but none died. There was a bit of mumbling about that, they had no idea bugbears were 3HD creatures. The party necromancer and thief took off on the necromancers worra (giant bat), planning to fly to the rear of the caravan and attack from above. A good tactical move, but it took them out of the fight for a short time while they moved from place to place. So far though, everything was going well.

“These guys are going to be easy!”

Then things went pear shaped.

Charging the drow in the front rank put the two party tanks in spell casting range.

They are all high level PCs, with great saving throw numbers, however, there were 8 fighter/clerics and 14 fighter drow with innate spell casting ability in range at that point. D&D is a numbers game at some point, and with that many saving throws to make, sooner or later you fail.

In addition, when the party first appeared the caravan dispatched 4 drow warriors, with their elven cloaks and boots to conceal them, two to either flank of the party. When the fight started they fired off their sleep poison coated bolts at the party.

First, the party Myrmidon was blinded by a Light spell from a drow warrior.

Then the Justiciar was blinded by another warrior drow.

The Warlock was paralyzed by the lead fighter/cleric’s Hold Person spell.

The Necromancer was paralyzed by a Hold Person spell while passing over the caravan.

The Slayer guide (an NPC) was paralyzed by a Hold Person as well.

Finally, the party’s newest member, a Theurgist (Bhakashal fighter/illusionist) was put to sleep by a crossbow bolt.

The only two party members that made it through this FIRST ROUND of combat was the thief and the gyre. Both of whom decided to flee. The thief was already airborne and simply kept flying. The gyre has Wings of Flying, he scooped up the sleeping Theurgist and they fled.

Fortunately for them, although there were four drow close enough to fire at them as they fled, all missed due to my terrible rolling.

Now they are in a panic. The party members who were blinded and paralyzed were quickly rounded up, stripped of magic items and chained, prisoners who would be taken back to the drow homeland to be either sold as slaves, slaughtered or left to some other nefarious fate.

The remaining three PCs are trying to figure out what to do. Initially they planned on flying back to the teleport circle, heading back to Bhakashal and coming back with a few House Quannar patrols to raise hell, until I pointed out to them that by the time they did that the caravan would be long gone and they might never find them again.

They considered maybe tracking the caravan from a distance until it got rid of the PCs somewhere, but at that point if they went back to the city for reinforcements who knows where the captured PCs would be, or even if they would still be alive when they returned.

They will have the week between sessions to contemplate this dilemma and come up with a plan. In the mean time, the captured PCs will be marching, in chains, along with the caravan. Perhaps they will figure out some way to gain their freedom, but that seems unlikely.

The only slim hope they have IMO is that there is a NPC drow fighter/magic-user who is travelling with the caravan but not aligned with them, if they can somehow gain his trust they might be able to swing something with his help, but that is a long-shot.

One of  the benefits of running a number of campaigns in Bhakashal for the last 5 years is that I have a lot of playtesting data. Sessions like Fridays are a reminder that the system works. The party is all 9th - 10th level in experience, they have a collection of very effective spells and abilities. They are formidable in the right circumstances, but at any time they can be brought down by low level threats if there are enough of them or they just roll badly. 

Combat should always be risky, Bhakashal caps HP so the classes don't experience 1e style HP bloat, Bhakashal gives up the scope of HD by restricting the HD to d8 and d6, no more d4 or d10. In addition, after 5th level instead of rolling new HP you RE-ROLL an old result, this means fighters have a maximum of 40 hp, warlocks a maximum of 30 hp. 

The net effect, along with the impact of saving throws, which similarly mean there is always a chance of failure, means that PCs are at risk at all levels, even if they are more formidable, and will have more protections/immunities, by high level.   

Big fun!

Building Bhakashal - Session Report

My Thursday group had a fun session this week. Bhakashal has rules for generating ships and crew so you can have naval battles. Most ships have a spellcaster in the crew, something that makes it even more interesting. A former group spent 8 months traveling across the globe on a ship having adventures, and I ran a solo-campaign for a friend who played a warlock who signed on as a ship’s magician and spent his adventuring time protecting them from pirates and monsters.

My Thursday group are Bhakashal nobility, this means they can send out underlings to deal with many of their problems. They are also now in charge of the Bhakashal Brass Blade Spider’s Guild (Thieves guild), and they are balancing running the guild and operating in the House.

The guild supports raiders that attack incoming merchant ships that don’t pay their guild dues, and recently one of their raider groups has been getting pushback from marshland patrols in House Tairn territory. The PCs decided to address this issue in person, instead of sending underlings.

But rather than all of them going, they split up. The party fighter stayed back in the city training his new pet baby wyvern, while the party’s newest member, a conjuror, stayed back to train his new mount, a Kestram (giant bird). This left the party warlock, spider/warlock and Spartan (monk). They traveled to meet the raiders at their camp, and after some discussion the party Spartan decided to accompany them on their next raid so he could sort out the patrols that were harassing them. For some reason, they decided that sending out one party member was the best course of action, and the other two party members stayed behind at the raider’s camp.

The raiders hid in a cove along the Sklar River and the Spartan swam out to meet the oncoming ship and the two barges with House Tairn patrols accompanying it. Last session the Spartan climbed on to one of the barges and slayed two guards, but the leader of the patrol gave as good as he got, and the Spartan fled back into the water.

This session we picked up from there.

The Spartan went to the raider ship, and they set out in pursuit of the merchant ship. The leader of the raiders is a Bhakashal Thaumaturge named Thurva Theyliss, thaumaturges are thief/magic-users who only use scroll spells. Their ship is called the Domino, a small galley, with a red flag of a Black malu head with Red domino mask.

When the emerged from the cove and began pursuit Thurva cast a Phantasmal Force spell and created the illusion of a wall of thick mist between the ships. That wall of mist moved with the Domino and began to overtake the merchant ship.

Thinking this was odd, the spellcaster aboard the merchant ship, the Astrolabe, a rakasta named Willen Smokil the Onyx, smelled trouble, and cast a Mokuul the Mighty’s Monstrous Conjuration spell (Bhakashal’s version of Monster Summoning), obtaining a snapping turtle (a L sized creature). He sent that turtle into the mists to see what was there. Thurva could see the turtle approaching (her crew could not, illusions work like that in Bhakashal), so she decided to deal with the turtle before it damaged her ship.

She took out a scroll and cast the reverse of Stone to Flesh on the giant turtle. The creature failed its save, turned to stone, and sank immediately to the bottom of the river. She then dismissed the illusion, revealing her ship, so her crew could see the merchant ship.

The players thought that was pretty awesome.

At that point the Warlock on the merchant ship realized that they were dealing with another spell caster and cast Globe of Invulnerability on himself. 

I did some quick distance measurements to determine the separation between the ships, and we were off! Initiative was rolled, and the chaos began.

First off were the crossbowmen on the two ships and the two barges. The shots were made from Long range, so the full -5 penalty applied. Most of the shooters were 0-levels, with a mix of mid-level and a small group of high-level fighters.

The fighters from the first House Tairn barge fired off a volley of bolts at the Domino and managed to slay two crewmembers. The crossbowmen from the second House Tairn barge fired and slayed 2 more. The Domino crew returned fire, slaying 3 members of the merchant ship crew. However, their crossbows fired as the warlock on Barge 1 cast Ammon Marr’s Missile Inversion and snatched 7 bolts from the air and returned them to their source, slaying 3 more of the crew on the Domino.

 At this point the warlock on Barge 2 caster cast Magic Missile at Thurva, the players were sure this would be her demise, Warlocks (and Thaumaturges), don’t have the best HP, and Magic Missiles never miss. What they didn’t know was that Thurva had Fregoth’s Rapier at her side:

Fregoth’s Rapier (AR) This thin, razor-sharp blade comes with an elaborate filigree cage hilt encrusted with emerald slivers. It is a +1 weapon with the damage profile of a short sword and a weapon speed of 3. When wielded by an arcane caster it is a +3 weapon, with the damage profile of a longsword and a weapon speed of 2. It also acts as a magnet for Magic Missiles, drawing them in when shot at the wielder. The sword can attract up to the wielder’s level in Magic Missiles per day.

 I tend to make a big deal out of describing spells when they are cast, it adds to the flavor of the game,

“One of the House Tairn patrol warlocks, a stern Chitin named Chilonder Bix, touched his finger to his forehead and pulled out a long, glowing chain of magic missiles, he pulled back the chain and then whipped it forward, the missiles separated from the insubstantial chain and whistled through the air, corkscrewing along in the darkness, their bright crimson glow making them look like embers from a fire blown by the wind. As they approached Thurva they suddenly deviated from their path and struck the blade of her sword, now in hand, there was a sound like crystal smashing, and a brief shudder along the length of the blade. The raider’s leader smiled and winked at Bix in the distance.”

The players LOVED that. One of the nice things about Bhakashal is that it is jam packed with magic items they have never heard of, so when something like this comes up they are genuinely surprised and impressed.

 

We stopped there, and will resume the fight next session. The fighter and conjuror will be arriving on the back of the Kestram on the next day, so they will likely miss most of the fight. The warlock and spider/warlock may or may not appear during the fight, at the moment they are sitting it out.

Adventure awaits!