Dealing with Unnatural Horrors

Dungeoneers encounter a lot of weird and terrible things. Eventually they get used to it, their sense of terror dulled by repeated encounters with the horrors of the Underworld. Here are some game mechanics to deal with it. When the adventurers encounter some serious weird shit:

• Character: 2d6+WIT+Jaded Points (see below)
• GM: 2d6+Danger (as determined by the vicious monster, terrible dungeon level, or horrific situation)

Outcome	Result	Details
Legendary Success	Jaded	Don't freak out and gain a permanent +1 for Jaded Points
Critical Success	Stalwart	Don't freak out and gain advantage on your next Weird shit roll
Success	Cool	Don't freak out
Failure	Freak Out	Roll 1d4 on the Freak Out Table
Critical Failure	Serious Freak Out	Roll 1d6 on the Freak Out Table
Legendary Failure	Complete Freak Out	Roll 2d4 on the Freak Out Table

Freak Out Table

Die Roll	Result	Details
1	Frozen	Character is stunned for 1d20 counts (plus any initiative roll)
2	Shaken	Roll everything at disadvantage until things are better
3	Cower	Curl into a ball and cower until things are better
4	Flee!	Run away screaming for 5 minutes, then hyperventilate until things are better
5	Everything Out	Evacuate bowels and bladder, drop everything, and roll 1d4 on the Freak Out Table
6	Catatonic	Go full on catatonic for 1d6 hours even after things are better
7	Berserk	Attack everything because you can now see everyone is one of THEM! things may never get better ...
8	Broken	Permanently lose 1 WIT and roll 1d4+4 on the Freak Out Table

"Things are Better"
This is entirely subjective and up to the GM and the situation.  Monsters may need to be defeated or shown to be able to be defeated, the tide may need to turn for a battle, the character may need to be dragged away from the horrible sight, or whatever makes sense. 

Ignoring Weird Shit
If the character's Jaded Points are equal to or more than the weird thing, no roll is needed; the situation has no effect on the character. Characters always begin with 0 Jaded Points until they get to adventuring.

Conditional Success
If anyone chooses a conditional success they don't freak out but, as usual, the GM will add something unpleasant to the situation. Suggestions are phobias, ticks, or odd behaviors than manifest and increase intensity over several gaming sessions.

OSR Rules
Not using playing Sorrow in Haven? Understood.

• Replace WIT with WIS modifier (using the good old -3 to +3).
• Replace Danger with Monster HD or Dungeon Level or encounter level or some gauge of how weird/bad the situation is on a scale from 1 to 10.
• Replace Freakout result #1 1d20 counts with 1d2 rounds.

Killing the Heart of the Dungeon

Sorrow in Haven has a unique mechanic in which the adventurer crew can defeat the "living" dungeons. All dungeons have a Heart that, if destroyed (or mitigated/resolved), will silence the dungeon and stop its growth. The Heart may be a creature, on object, or something more abstract. If the Heart is not dealt with the dungeon will repopulate itself and may continue to grow.

Types of Hearts
If the GM needs some inspiration, roll 1d6 to determine the type of dungeon heart.

1d12	Heart
1 - 8	Creature
9 - 11	Object
12	Concept

Creatures
Monsters at the heart of the dungeon are the most common. In the local parlance of the Guild of Defenestration, these are referred to as the "Boss" of the dungeon. These creatures are invariably more powerful than the general inhabitants of the dungeon, either through physical power (a blood ogre), influence (sneaky goblin sorcerer), or a combination of the two (the much feared dragon). On rare occasion the creature is something innocuous (hellcat kitten) or difficult to identify (invisible stalker).

1d12	Heart	Example
1 - 5	Powerful	Irulux the brute, a demon hound that eats only ash and tears.
6 - 8	Influence	Bishop Crux, an undead cleric that controls a doomsday cult.
9 - 10	Power + Influence	Dormut the Dragon, a massive beast with mind control.
11	Innocuous	Terr, the lost goblin of which the dungeon is her nightmare.
12	Hidden	Os, the ghost of a faerie prince who does not know he is dead.

Object
Objects have the greatest range of possibilities.  Since dungeons are often thought to be shadows of places that the Underworld has already spread, objects are often localized/specific to the dungeon, but just as easily can be wildly anachronistic or out of place.  Heart objects could be living things that are not "monsters", relics, or treasures that are worshiped by the denizens. Removing relics and treasures from the dungeon have the same effect as destroying them, but there may be other consequences once removed from the dungeon.

1d12	Heart	Example
1 - 4	Localized	Altar of Ket, stained with blood of sweat of the enslaved.
6 - 7	Anachronistic	Simon's Pocket watch, ticking backwards, forever broken.
8 - 9	Living Thing	The Red Oak that lives within the Gardens of Kesh.
10	Relic	The Eternal Chain, unbreakable links and unthinking torment.
11 - 12	Treasure	Crown of Darvik, a horned skull wrapped in flame.

Concept
These are simply the most complex dungeons to resolve, because the concept could be an emotion that needs to be eliminated (fear of the light), a resolution to a conflict (broker a peace between the Almec and Frinda factions), or even more abstract (suffer in salt). The GM will provide numerous clues as to the concept and the players need to determine the solution. These dungeons are thankfully rare, for they provide the most complex challenges to the Guild (and to players).


Repercussions
When the heart of the dungeon has been dealt with, the dungeon will eventually seal up and their shadow fades. How this manifests itself is different from dungeon to dungeon.

1d6	Heart
1	The Slow Burn
2	Immediate Collapse
3	Fade Away
4	Everything Stops
5	Lingering Rot
6	Emptiness

The Slow Burn
With the destruction of the heart, the dungeon begins to erode slowly but surely. It doesn't collapse, but the entire dungeon takes on a wavering astral quality as parts of it simple cease to exist.  Area disappear at about 1 per hour, but not in any particular order.  Dungeoneers can explore a bit more, but if trapped will simply disappear with everything else.

Immediate Collapse
This happens fast - usually within a minute or two of the heart being dealt with.  The dungeon literally begins to collapse in on itself - walls tumbling, rooms erupting, stone and smoke and dust covering everything.  When this happens, the dungeoneers had best beat a hasty retreat, because lingering for even a few moments can seal their fate.  Many have lost their lives escaping collapsing dungeons.

Fade Away
This is similar to the slow burn, but the entire dungeon begins to fade into non-existence at once.  Everything becomes more shadowy and obstacles and creatures can no longer affect the party.  The fade is fairly quick, so tarry too long and one will find themselves in the Gloom.  A few intrepid souls have managed to come back from the Gloom, but never return as they went in.

Everything Stops
The dungeon becomes frozen in time - it is a mural or statue, a point of history that never existed. Dungeoneers can linger and learn, but as soon as they leave the place no longer exists.  Looting is not an option as everything takes on a 2-dimensional quality.  Some Lore Keepers have keep a dungeon in this state open for some time to study it, but they are in danger of causing the Underworld to erupt anew - and it is always much more dangerous that it was before.

Lingering Rot
Everyone hates the lingering rot.  The dungeon begins to rot as though it were a living creature.  Walls bleed, creatures fall apart and decay, the place fills with stinking goop and wretched miasma.  These places linger for a few days, and the area in which they burst into the World of Light fester a bit as well.  Those who explore a dungeon that is rotting are at extreme risk of contracting some rather nasty diseases.

Emptiness
Some dungeons without a heart stop being a threat and become utterly devoid and empty, but do not disappear.  They no longer birth traps and beasts not hold relics and treasure.  They are empty rooms and chambers that are often taken over by the citizens of Haven (for good or bad).  The Undercity is built from these places.  What is most disconcerting is that some of them hold passages deeper into the Underworld ...

Random Event Tables

Wandering monsters are cool, but I've always wanted more than just monsters - I want events!  Events are not necessarily encounters or things the players can directly interact with, but more along with the lines of dressing and setting and tone.

As an example, this is the random event table from the Gardens of Kesh
1d12 every Turn
1: Spores
2: Plants
3: Conflict
4: Facility
5: Wandering Monster
6-7: Lair Encounter
8-12: Nothing

Spores - this helps identify that the dungeon is dangerous
The air quality is pretty terrible in this dungeon because of the spores and pollen.  Characters have to pass a CON save or start to cough and sputter. Characters lose some END, but don't know how much until they lose it through damage or Giving it Their All.

Plants - these events show that the dungeon is alive
The Gardens are a living place where plants have gone crazy.  When this result comes up, roll 1d6:

1. The party will be split as the plants fill the corridor/room
2. PC pined against the wall/floor and takes 1d4 damage every 10 counts
3. Random item is lost in the bramble
4. Vines produce a prodigious amount of green berries
5. Vines produce orange fruits
6. Plants flower that stink like corpses and ooze blood

Conflict - the conflict results shows the dungeon is contested

There are two factions already in conflict in this dungeon. In an area within earshot, the crew can hear the two factions fighting.

Facility - these results show history and background

The dungeon used to be Lab 44A Advanced Botany Facility and while mostly defunct, still functions from time to time.  Roll 1d6.

1. Pages a scientists to the observation deck
2. Sprinklers turn on/off
3. Air Quality update (Evacuate / Warning / Concern / Resolved)
4. Emergency Red Lights turn on/off
5. Underfoot plumbing makes a racket (50% rumbling as well)
6. Electronic beeping coming from 1-3 a small speaker in the wall, 4-6 all over the damn place

So every turn there is a 57% chance that SOMETHING happens. This is a seriously active place. Of the events that do take place, the majority (57%) are things that set the tone and describe the dungeon, may impact play mechanically, or may allow for some problem solving or interaction. The rest (43%) are encounters with a random monster (including the factions) or a definitely faction encounter (lair meaning nearest lair).

Lair Encounter is particularly useful too - as monster "lairs" are changed through play, the encounter table changes simply because the closest lair is something different - faction A is nearly wiped out?  Faction B starts showing up more often.

All of this makes this particular dungeon incredibly interactive and busy outside of the keyed areas. One could easily drop the roll rate to every other turn or roll every turn on 1d20 to lighten the activity load.

Monsters and Encounter Sets

With a new campaign comes the question of monsters. Having all new monsters adds a level of surprise, but i also want players to be able to learn, so if everything is new every time, then they can't make strategic decisions (just tactical ones).  So I've decided on two things

1. a mix of classic fantasy monsters and new content
2. to group the monsters into sets

Set 1: Dungeon Specific Monsters
These are the monsters that live in a specific dungeon. They are often going to be unique things or variants of other more common creatures.

Set 2: Dungeon Type Monsters
Since there is a semi-formal classification of dungeons, similar creatures will be found in all of them. Deshi spearmen can often be found in Garden dungeons, while Children of Silence (a type of undead) are found in Tomb dungeons with fair regularity. Some will be classic and some new.

Set 3: Dungeon General Monsters
These are the buggers that just show up anywhere and will comprise a lot of the classic creatures - fire beetles, giant rats, skeletons, goblins and the like.

These three sets also apply to wilderness settings once I get that far
Set 1: Monsters that live in The Upturn'd Glade
Set 2: Monsters that live in Forest settings
Set 3: Monsters that can be found in any wilderness setting

Stocking & Wandering
But back to the dungeons, once I've got the basics and clearly defined encounters and need to flesh things out, when a random stocking roll calls for a monster I'll roll 1d6:

• 1-3: Dungeon Specific
• 4-5: Dungeon Type
• 6: Dungeon General

But on the random encounter table, when a random monster is called for:

• 1-3: Dungeon General
• 4-5: Dungeon Type
• 6: Dungeon Specific

The reason that the specific creatures get a lesser value is that there is a entry on my random encounter table that is for "Creatures from the Nearest Lair" which are always going to be dungeon specific monsters.

Phantasmagorica
One of the treasures that will be discovered through adventuring are pages from the Phantasmagorica, which is basically the monster manual / monstrous compendium / hacklopedia of beasts for the Sorrow in Haven campaign. Players can add these to a binder and throw whatever additional information they see fit on there - add/remove/whatever.  Once it is in the binder, it is "common" knowledge.

Lore Keepers
Speaking of monster lore and common knowledge, the Guild Of Defenestration also has some info on monsters, but it is the most common of knowledge - if any exists at all.  It is a source for players to get some insight into what their characters know, a little helping hand that makes sense within the campaign structure.  It is not, however, a library of useful facts that can be mined. No telling if what the Lore Keepers know is even true.

Dungeon types

The Guild of Defenestration does their best to categorize and classify dungeons because there is some sort of a pattern there - some insight that can be gained.

1. Gorehaven
Violence, torture, blood, and gore are the hallmarks of this type of dungeon. Heads on spikes and pools of boiling pus decorate chambers where the pit traps also crush your legs so you can't escape the flood of salt ants that roll over your body.

2. Gardens
Ruins of other places overrun by nature, often nature with a dark malice.  Sentient plants, poison, and aggressive spores are common. One also must watch out for the humidity and fungal diseases that are common. The ruins vary in type, but many have echoes of the Machine Core or the Temples.

3. Temples
These places have a feel of grand ancient places dedicated to strange and often terrible gods. There are often cultists or adherents of some sort; temple guardians constructs or summoned beasts holy to the gods are common as well.  Temple hearts tend to be abstract ideas rather than things.

4. Tombs
Akin to temples, the tombs are just that - the resting place of something or somethings. While undead are fairly common within the underworld, tombs tend to have a profusion of the damned things. They also tend to have more loot in the form of burial gifts.  Entering without a Templar is ill advised.

5. Underdark
Caves, caverns, and natural formations that are shadows or links to a vast network that which lives below the earth of Eradu. Creatures that do not need light hunt for survival, cruel cultures exist that despise the light, and sleeping titans are all things to be aware of in these dungeons.

6. Machine Core
There is a place where machines are everywhere - machines and technology beyond our understanding. Huge gears with levers, pipes that belch forth corrosive steam, and things more fragile made of magic and copper wire. There is a will, an intelligence, a presence that watches over it all.

7. Voidstructs
The esoterics Martin Caldwell Eascher and Schroeder Bhore describe these places as beyond reason as we can understand it. They are thought to be rare glimpses directly into the deep reaches Underworld; gravity, time, and space mean nothing here - at least to our senses.  The creatures here are often "n-dimensional" and particularly dangerous.

8. Otherworld
Some dungeons are clearly alien worlds or utterly alternate dimensions. These places are the most terrifying, and the things that live here, if they are alive, are known to induce madness wit their mere presence.  Dungeoneers should be overly cautious in these realms.


What is What [GM Stuff]
When creating a new dungeon or even dungeon level, roll to see what the base type is:

1d100	Dungeon
1 - 20	Gorehaven
21 - 40	Garden
41 - 60	Temple
61 - 76	Tombs
77 - 88	Underdark
89 - 94	Machine Core
95 - 98	Voidstruct
99 - 00	Otherworld

Sorrow in Haven Character Creation

Sorrow in Haven is a dangerous game, characters can perish from combat rather easily, traps in the underworld are brutal and unforgiving, and social interactions can turn deadly if you insult the wrong fellow.  As such, I want character creation to be quick.

1) Ability scores

• Roll the 7 scores
• If the total modifiers are less than +1, this is a henchman, set aside and start over
• Assign the scores to the abilities you prefer

2) Background [Optional]

• Roll on the Background table or choose one from the list

3) Select a Character Class

• Choose one of the 6 classes
• write down initial abilities, choose 3rd initial ability

4) Secondary Scores

• Calculate secondary ability scores based on primary ability scores
• END and VIT determined by CON and class
• Damage determined by class

5) Memories and Connections [Optional]

• Roll on the random memory inspiration table ans answer character questions
• Roll and choose form the list of character connections

6) Starting Loot and Gear

• Roll for starting cash
• Buy gear

Nothing particularly mind bending or earth shattering there, but the process allows for 2 things

1. the option stuff is truly optional - skip it and a character can be built in 5 minutes
2. the optional stuff can be done after the first adventure - so players can create characters that, if they survive, can explore their pasts and how they know each other.

Non-Optional Stuff

In a game where a character can die off in the first encounter, have fast character generation so the player can get engaged again immediately is important. However, the background, memories, and connections help create a more fleshed out character that, if they survive, has a place within the world and within the party.  

Background

This works to inspire a starting point for memories as well as offer a soft mechanical advantage in play. This is a single die roll or choice from a chart.

Memories

Players spending tons of time creating backgrounds for characters is fine, but they don't always mesh up with the vision or the campaign.  The Memories of the Past questions ask strange questions or give inspirational moments for the player to riff off of to help flesh out their character.  This also becomes an interactive process if the other players help refine the answers. This can quite some time depending on how gregarious the players are.

Connections

I've played in far too many games where we either hand-waved or ignored the fact that the characters, as developed, had no place adventuring together - paladins and thieves, barbarians and wizards, good clerics and clearly seedy characters - it always set my teeth on edge.  The Connections section, inspired by Fiasco,  has no mechanical effect, it simply sets up the relationship between characters.  The more characters there are, the more complex this process becomes, but the more satisfying the results.

Massive Overhaul!

For the last several months I've been thinking about the games I've been running over the years.  I had a successful massive campaign spanning several years and multiple groups. I've run some good old fashioned dungeon crawls and a seriously sweet city campaign as well.  The most recent run using Dungeon World was ... not successful. I wasn't having fun running it and it wasn't coming together like I wanted.  I made things too big.

I also have issues with game system.  D&D 5e is OK, but it is too broad of scope and doesn't feel like I want - characters are too powerful.  Basic D&D is sweet, but doesn't have the dynamic action built into the system.  HackMaster is full of awesome ideas and in the end far too fiddly. DW has great focused characters, but is too narrative and the advancement too flat.

Rather than tweak and mod existing systems I took some inspiration from the DIY school.  I looted ideas I liked from various places and systems and combined them.  The campaign setting and system are called (at least for the moment):

Sorrow in Haven and the Endless Grey

The rules manuscript is nearly complete (as far as I can tell).  The setting write-up is still skeletal, but coming along nicely.  The game mechanics and character creation are designed to slot together into the setting. Character creation is straight forward but flexible enough to allow for most character types. Combat is dynamic and deadly, but taking chances comes with sweet rewards. Advancement is quick. The magic system allows for straight forward use or to be as fiddly and complex as the player wants to make it. Action resolution is universal and a simple opposed roll.  All in all it is fast and furious and the mechanics support the style of play it is designed for.

This might be "the one" for me.

see ya!

Just in case anyone is following this blog, I'm signing off. It has been fun, but I've got other things to do for now.  Cheers!

Places of Adventure: The Bloody Forest

I love random generators as inspiration - no doubt about it. I've also been rocking the point-crawl with my players and it has been fantastic. This area does not exist in my campaign right now, nor may it even, but I wanted to post up an example.

The Random Action
Starting here: http://meta-studios.com/dg/dungen.html we get this point-crawl map, which is a perfect start to a location ... which I shall name the Bloody Forest! The meta-studios site is definitely one of my go-to places to get things started.  The site provides much more detail, but I'm really in it just for the maps.

Next up, I run Tablesmith with the tables I've been creating.  They are looting from TONS of different sources as well as plenty of material that I've written up myself. If you use lots of random tables but don't know about Tablesmith, go check it out. This is some of the best money I've ever spent on software!

Results from Tablesmith tables:

	Location (1 of 5): FangClaw territory (Perilous) Site: A neglected machine factory. Unintelligible whispering can be heard from somewhere deep below. Site: One man mini tank with machinegun, improved ones implanted with a human brain and a mechanical voice box Site: A wandering moon rises above the inkfish sea.
	Location (2 of 5): Bound Patchwork Lord (Perilous) Site: Lair: Unique Site: A luxurious sailing yacht. The hull is pierced by several large holes. Site: Compound: Steam plant burns coal or wood to provide mechanical energy Site: Lair: Local Site: A mangy old lion turned man killer from desperation Site: Drinks for the hero. 
	Location (3 of 5): Endless Tower of the World (Dangerous) Site: Minor Ruin: Hospital (1in6 mental facility) Site: Officer executing trooper with pistol Site: Spaghi the flexible of flexible morals and inflexible broomery, a glorious explosion of the masteries of rope magic is essential to attain the truth of the knot without resorting to the sword of the swot.
	Location (4 of 5): Cavern of Dragons (Unsafe) Site: Some young priests practicing being hermits for initiation Site: Strange feral animal d4 1=odd hybrid 2=escaped from lab 3=mutant 4=undead Site: Minor Ruin: Long abandoned fenced construction site with pond and vegetation Site: Knight Spider and the Slug.
	Location (5 of 5): Closed Silver Mine (Perilous) Site: Wilderness Shack: Hair covered mutant boys driven from home by ignorant Site: An ancient ossuary beneath the Winter Palace in Petrograd, Russia. A colossal alien device stands here, surrounded by a miasma of noxious fumes. Site: A hook horror lives here with piles of bones Site: Karizon the Transmuter's Crypt, he studied shape shifters and now crypt is home to a family of doppelgangers and their pet mimic Site: Kudras's Crypt, the snake dancer who kept performing into her 80s in the courts of the city. Some say she was leader of a cult of snake worshiping vampire lovers. Murderers staked her and her followers interned her in the Crypt then committed suicide.Gloomy teens into poetry often come here

Sweet!

Putting It Together

Looking at the area theme, the Bloody Forest, each Location gets a new name to scribe it and the map gets adjusted.

Thick lines heading away from the locations indicate connections to other Areas, the red line means there is some sort of a major dungeon.

I don't know where these lead yet, but likely to other forest locations - this Area seems like part of a much larger forest Region.

The Bloody Forest has many strange things haunting it because of the Endless Tower of Worlds. That junction point has been the source numerous things from other worlds, dimensions, and planes entering Eradu. The forest was once a peaceful sylvan location, but the now-sentient former inhabitants are at odds with the current residents.

From glaning at it I can see a few dungeons and tons of NPCs waiting to be interacted with.  How does the Spider Knight feel about Nicodemus, the mangy old lion who runs a small tavern he uses to poison and kill travelers he feels are making things worse in the world?  How fucked up are the closed silver mines that stumbled onto an area like the Valley of Kings ... but for vampires and worse?

With that written up I've got a couple of Factions, some fun themes to work with, and a reason for some of the super weird shit happening. Also, this is going to be fun to put together.  I'll create separate posts for the different Locations and their just waiting to burst out.

Session Report [T9 & T10]: Exploration and Trouble

Two Session Reports in one post? Again?  Yes ... and we are playing tomorrow

Session 9: The Tower & the Rain


The Players

• Canker - a lost soul that is greasy greasy
• Phi - probably human with a protective instinct and nasty daggers
• Creasy Silo - Wizarding his Arcanity TO THE MAX
• Ariana - the divine adept of Ra blassing, healing, and smashing
• Freddicus - his bioluminescence got a glowing review

The Action

• Continued exploration of the Flooded Tower
• Numerous, but now avoidable bolt traps all over the place
• Down a long corridor the party discovered a room covered in once colorfully painted city diorama
• At the end was a strange well
• After much investgation, the well is a portal to some great city, but it needs to be filled with the tears of children and widows
• The party encountered an Umbriate Expeditionist from the Patchwork
• There was some confusion, and a terrible battle ensued
• In the end the Umbriate fled, but not before a shield and flinloque were destroyed, as well as Ariana almost turning to stone and Creasy nearly falling into the well
• More exploration revealed a tomb of a precursor with a huge stone SPHINX
• The riddle was answered correctly the first time, and treasures revealed, including a rod very similar to the one Cornelius wielded.  Creasy has it.
• Creasy also gained insight into the creature in stasis on the dias
• Using a terrible spell and aided by his companions, the imprisonment was lifted - temporarily rendering the place of power powerless
• the sparrow-headed creature awoke in a furious mood, threatening everyone
• He is the Sparrow Prince, a consort of the Queen of Spring
• He didn't know the war was long over, nor that it is said the Queens of the Four Courts are now vampire
• The party left the flooded tower and the Sparrow Prince flew off
• He bestowed a boon on some of the party, feathers to ingest to gain his aid
• As he flew off, he mentioned something about the "Storm Children"
• The thunder and lightning flashed in a strange chant, and Creasy, struck by a bolt of lightning, learned the chant welcomed the Sparrow Prince back and was vow of vengeance to kill the humans
• Creasy broke the spell the the tower collapsed as the toxic river consumed it.
• The party is standing in the rain ... 

Session 10: Liberation ... and Endless Trouble


The Party

• Phi - protector of the God Queen
• Freddicus - historian and adventurer
• The Traveller - at one with his barbarian nature
• Zigfried - robot arms and a need to tinker
• Ariana - cleric of the one god the sun god Ra!

The Action

• Standing outside of the collapsed tower, the party witnesses 4 of the "ogres", each with human faces pulled over their own faces as masks, watching the party.
• After a few moments, the ogres threw out large, bloody burlap (actually made of spun hair and sinew) sacks.
• Inside were several bodies of what were determined to be the slaves that Cornelius was breeding
• Throwing out their previous thoughts of running to safety like wimps, the party decides they need to finish this situation with the harvest ... an army of savage things is not something to be responsible for.
• While wandering deep into the Flesh Forest the party encountered a bio-mechanical harvester, a foul creation of the Flescreater sorcery mingled with technology!
• The party messed it up - hard core!  They were climbing all over it and ripping it apart - but it was The Traveller, ignoring pain of the scything blades (that instantly infected the wounds with maggots) who destroyed the thing with its own blades.  Unfortunately, this also caused some woe to Phi, Freddicus, and Ariana.  It was a grand battle.
• The party also discovered some strange tubes buried under ground that seemed to be feeding the trees - some sort of protein-based irrigation system
• they followed it deeper into the flesh forest, breaking bones and limbs to hack their way through; dodging pendulous breeding cysts covered in bristling black hairs.  It was unpleasant business.
• Eventually the party came to an area of barren land - and in the center was the tower of Cornelius the Harvester. 
• It was made of brick and living stone, and was decaying and falling apart as the party watches - thin  stinking fluid bleeding out of it as clots of brick and rotting mucus rained down.
• After shutting off the protein vat, the party braved obvious danger and went inside and began looting the place as it fell down around them
• The action here was fast and furious - things fell on people, gouts of corrosive good sprayed in people's faces, walls collapsed, but the party shored things up and keep looting.  Time was short to be sure.
• Then suddenly from the edge of the forest an army of slaves (now called the Savage Breed) stormed in toward the tower.
• They witnessed some of the party flinging things about and joined in! 
• As the party moved out, the savage breed continued to destroy, until the tower collapsed in a repulsive mass of quivering decayed flash and crumbling wet stone.
• Then the 100 or so Savage Breed that were watching from the edge of the flesh forest stepped out ... and the celebration began!
• The party celebrated with these strange primitive folk and earned a special place in their legends and history - as redeemers who slew the vile demon Cornelius!  
• The party left after healing, and made their way toward where they believe Haven to be
• The Gnome Tower, from which the party once escaped, is standing again
• The party made their way through the Thin Trees, catching glimpses of ruins and other sites and discovered the hidden passage
• As they decided to camp in the cave at the bottom of the passage, they also investigated the really terribly rickety looking rope and plank bridge that separates the black cliffs and from the white cliffs over a chasm nearly 200 feet into a raging white water rapids.
• A hawk of prodigious size flew over the party and clearly landed on the black cliffs.
• The wilderness is a dreadful place...

Also, Phi has recovered his memories of being a paladin and Freddicus is an Archaeologist (Indiana Jones style, of course). FUCK YEA!

Animal Mutations of the Flesh Forest

The Flesh Forest is an area within the Great Desh that has been mutated and changed by the wicked sorceries of Cornelius the Harvester.  In addition to the horrors of that place, there are plenty of "normal" animals that have fallen prey to his arcane foolishness.

Random Critter Mutations

1. Another pair of fully functional limbs covered in thick black bristles
2. A pair of external lungs that inflate and deflate and wheeze and are covered in mucus
3. Locomotive means replaced with spliced bio-mechanical treads
4. Skin is translucent and toxic to the touch
5. Head is a floppy human-like hand of absurd proportions
6. Mouth opens to a series of intricate knives and cutting tools
7. Instead of eyes cogs that glow with an unearthly light
8. Numerous "mouths" that cry and whine and leak thick white goo
9. Parts in the wrong places - heads and legs swapped, multiple tails
10. Human face stretched over whatever skull or structure is available - the squirrels are the worst

With sorcerous mutation comes mental aberration as well...

1. Try to eat things they are not meant to eat (won't work well in the long run)
2. Burrowing and climbing for creatures that would not do such a thing (the palm-faced tree deer)
3. Highly aggressive nature for docile creatures, some even suicidal
4. Extreme lethargy and gluttony
5. Repetitive OCD-style actions that do not mesh with normal behavior
6. Attempts to communicate that involve vomiting and defecating constantly

Session Report [T7 & T8]: Forays into the Flesh Forest and More!

Two session reports in one post?  Yarp!

Also, a second session of experience running the point-crawl has been great - I'm getting a feel for how my players see the world I'm describing and getting better at describing what I want them to see.


First Adventures in the Dreadful Wilderness [Last Session of 2016]

• Cornelius the Harvester was a Sorcerer
• He is dead, his Place of Falling marked by and endless gyser of black blood and oil
• The Part met and dealt with a gang of savage cannibals, The Royals
• There was some fucking around a mine
• Big explosion and magical chaos
• Results include lost arms (now replaced with robot arms), lost leg (replaced with crutch), and dead Royals
• Later the Royals show submissive behavior and tell the party about the way to Haven
• They also mention that the Fields of Flesh is ripe and they are worried with the Harvester gone
• The party decided to check out WTF was up with the gross flesh trees with big hairy "breeding pods" hanging from them because who wants a horde of whatever-the-fuck rampaging everywhere because of your actions or lack of actions or some combination of the two. 
• After School Special lesson is on the horizon...

So .... Let's Explore the Flesh Forest! [First Session of 2017]

• The party realizes that they are low on food, and decide to all go foraging.
• Xian and Zigfried manage to harvest some berries (dung berries and rashberries) with only minor consequences
• Creasy goes hunting with magic and draw the attention of something ... large
• Meanwhile Katt and Freddicus start setting up snares using his jar of guts ... 
• The thing in the cave is calling out to whatever Creasy just carved up and suddenly errupts
• It seems to be a fur and scale covered worm the diameter of a tree trunk, but it doesn't seem to end!  It undulates a foot above the ground and doesn't have a face so much as a split open ragged end filled with recurved teeth. And it is fast!
• The battle rages on, but in the end, Xian ended up casting a spell that broke time and he sacrificed himself to save the others.
• Now the party has a baby Ian they are carting around!  And all that was just foraging for food.
• Phi joins the party. He has his mouth sewn shut with silver wires and looks ... odd
• Katt recalls that he is an Enchanter
• The next day the party makes their way into the Flesh Forest and starts exploring.  
• An old cache is uncovered under a cairn - it gets looted of course.
• The party also learns that Cornelius was once a soldier in a battle against witches or the faerie
• After a while the party makes their way into the Bone forest where the flesh trees are all dead - their bones cracked.
• The sky is overcast and thunder rolls in the distance
• The party watches an 8' tall humanoid wearing chains and a mask of a human face that appears to be made by a child
• When they attempt to engage it it runs away into the forest just as the rain begins
• Moving toward the place of Power that Creasy sensed the party sees an old collapsing stone tower that the marsh river has flooded
• They find a safe place on the 2nd floor, they also realize that the water is bad news and causes Katt to pick up some sickness
• Creasy breaks out a spell and changes the space between the tower and the river, causing the river to drain out and the trap door on the first floor to be revealed
• It is, of course, magically trapped with some sort of Seizure Spell, but the party deals with that
• In the underplace the party finds a moving mosaics and friezes
• Then the find the real deal ... the place of power is a huge chamber and in the center is a dias
• In the center of that dias is a human figure the size of a young child, but with the head of a sparrow

Next Up!

What will the party do?  What is that in the center of the dias? Where are the slaves that are supposed to be growing from the flesh trees growing in cysts? Is the harvest upon us? WHO KNOWS!

Table of Weird Stuff: Mutant Cat Biz

Unrelated to the above, just a good old fashioned random table. Roll 1d10.

1. Scorpion tail
2. Claws of mythril that rend armor
3. Teleports only to inconvenient places for the adventurers
4. Great dangling teats at which suckle daemons that protect mommy
5. Huge with eyes like headlights
6. They talk in stilted common but some words are wrong ... they know about fret
7. Hovercat. Damnhellyea
8. Butterfly wings that deflect magic
9. So much hair you aren't sure where the cat is
10. Friendly and well behaved. May bring you some tea.