The second group to play in the Chaos Marches chose the fallen Wizard's Tower for their adventure and have been through two adventures so far. They fought bullywugs and found a dead elf. A rune on a piece of parchment in the hands of the dead elf lead to a basalt platform, perfectly round, with the same rune on it.
In part 2, the group worked together and determined that the platform turned counter-clockwise. This action created a gate and then group went through. It was a magical gate. This leads to a wizard's workshop, but more of a sweatshop. They discover 3 elf bodies that are exactly the same (see notes).
In the wizard's workshop they fought two goat headed humanoids. These were trollocs from Jordan's The Wheel of Time merged with basic D&D humanoids. The bard, who is shiny new to RPGs, uses Vicious Mockery and actually mocked the creatures. This was excellent and shows how playing a particular role and hitting sterotypes can be fun.
They worked their way through the worskshop, finding a diary that talked about a nameless warlock, her patron, and some items recovered from another world. Specifically a hand and an eye. OF course anyone familiar with D&D lore would suspect they know what it is. It is one reason I dropped it into the game. In addition, there are references to the Room of the Void.
Going through a door they come to the Void room. There is a set of hemispheric stairs going down to a floor that reflects the sky, but the sky from "primordial" times. At the edge of the stairs is a gnome with a fishing pole. The pole is made of a flexible black metal. The line is mithril. The gnome is guarded but turns, friendly. He is looking for a stolen gem. They group agrees to help in exchange for other considerations. You can walk on the "floor" but the fishing pole goes through it.
What they catch is a tentacle creature, which they fight. No one gets pulled into the void. The gnome gets his large ruby and he hands each of the players a silver key to come to his world if they want. Session ended with some more of the location to explore.
Notes
- The group had used the dead elf to "test" the gate. Roll20 was weird and would not show me the elf token I had copied over. So there ended up 3 dead elves the players could see, but not me. A weird glitch that would not have happened in other venues. Still I made it into a thing and took advantage of the mystery element.
- The hand and the eye are going back to the pre-D&D source material, so they do not belong to Vecna and in any case, are not in the current location.
- This group chose to talk instead of shoot first. Different from the previous group. I like how the feel of the two groups is different.
- I may see if this group or the other wants to record the audio from one of our games.
9 responses to “Grey Raven: The Fisher Gnome”
Weird is interesting
Ah, using dead bodies of friends, enemies, and even strangers as tactical tools! I need to ask a German friend if they have invented a special verb for that.
I am a little confused about the scenario but it is also weird enough to make me curious. What killed all the elves? Were the two-headed foes supposed to be there (i.e., put there for that purpose by someone) or did they arrive for some reason? Is the gnome the owner or operator of the workshop?
There should be a German word
There should be a German word for it!
This scenario turned weirder than it was at first intended, largely due to the ideas the players were exploring as they explored the laboratory of the Masters, as it came to be known. It was always meant to have a touch of cosmic spice, but the group has now transited to the Outlands and Sigil from the setting of Planescape.
The mystery of the dead elves is still unknown as is the origin of the goatmen. These are threads the players dropped and I can always pick them up later. I am not assuming anything except that the group is following the path they find most interesting.
To answer the question however. somewhat of a spoiler, the goat men killed the elves and the goat men are present because the antagonist had them as her servants. They were to prevent anyone from discovering what was happening in the laboratory of the Masters.
The gnome was a traveler who
The gnome was a traveler who followed the antagonist back to this plane. She had taken something of his and he wanted it back. The gnome may return or play a role down the line.
Excellent! This orientation
Excellent! This orientation helps. I also think it can be productively juxtaposed with the discussions over at Seminar, but that we should wait a little while to let those discussions splinter into multiple improvements.
agreed. I wrote that answer
agreed. I wrote that answer before listening to the Monday Lab.
Gloriously strange
I love the strangeness of this.
The brevity of the report is a plus too – just enough to allow us to imagine things, without the clutter of individual dice rolls, etc.
And I would like to know the German word too. Even if it hasn't been previously created, it should be.
The Masters, Chromium, and Sigil
An update as to what has been happening with this group.
Session 3: They explored the laboratory beneath the ruined tower and discovered some more of the goat men who had been trying to loot the place. After that and some searching the group discovered an area where many golem creatures had been kept but there was only ine alive, deactivated behind a force field. They revived the golem and it told them that its name was Chromium and it had been constructed by the Masters, the Seven Masters of the Tower.
The group convinced Chromium (enough) that they are working for the Masters and so Chromium explained that one of the Masters had brought back an eye and a hand from another world and now the Masters were scattered. This leads to the group using the planar scry to find "The Architect" or the Blue Master somewhere in Sigil. So they travel there…
Session 4: The group runs into some Githyanki and gets hustled. They then run into some Azer, and these folks help them find Sigil. In Sigil, I took the librerty of resurecting some of the source material from Planescape and have set up some of the factions. The Blue Master had been imprisioned by a group known as the Mercykillers for going on a bender and destroying some stuff.
Session 5: The group fought their way into an old temple of a Death God to retrieve the stuff of the Blue Master, including the money for his release. After releasing him and being taken back to his place, they talked to him and agreed to help find the other masters. A running joke is that the group was inly getting paid 20gp each to scout the ruined tower and after having a cosmic adventure, when they get back to the Chaos Marches, they will only get that 20gp each.
Has it been the same players
Has it been the same players the whole time, and if so, all players for each session?
It has been the same players
It has been the same players the whole time. One player missed a session otherwise they have been there consistently.