Homebrew Session 3: The Rescue of the Red Wizard

I will be brief with today's notes because I have a music deadline approaching. (jaredburrell.com for portfolio and inquires.)

My prep was limited to making a GM screen and reviewing the rules. Design was limited to updating the sprinting rules. Now you can pay 1 stamina to sprint at 4x normal speed for 2 rounds (or 2 stamina for 5 rounds) or 1.5 normal speed for 10 minutes. This lets an unencumbered character run a 10 minute mile or a 24 second 200 meter dash - by no means remarkable but realistic for adventurers.

I had nothing else prepped but did not tell the players, because I wanted to see how well my system allowed me to create scenarios in the fly. 

The players decided to look for rumors. I rolled gather information for each of them. The scout succeeded, two characters failed (one would have passed if he had the gather information proficiency) and one more character blundered, meaning he drew hostile attention from a random faction. I rolled: it was a group of colonists. I decided they wanted the players' phosphorescent entropy detector and plotted to infiltrate their group when they went looking for hired help.

The scout found a group of sorcerer-priests (gods of light) who had a member kidnapped and needed him rescued. I won't go into the details here. Basically, the players had great questions and I lacked the random charts for crimes / clues / motivations to answer them well. I'll fix that.

The players tracked the kidnappers south along the river to a hideout in the jungle. (At the gate they were greeted by colonists disguised as beggars offering to help. The scout declined. Plot foiled.) The players thought it was the cultists main base but it was not, just a temporary hold up. They scouted around: one player was ambushed by two sand-spidermen but ran away before he could be killed. Another (guided by the detection powers of the phosphorescent entropy detector) found a pit where a giant robotic psi-mechanical guardian fell through the roof and shattered its leg. 

Keeping watch on the entrance to the hideout, the players winch-and-pulleyed (one players brilliantly brought grease for this excursion, no use in mind) the robot out of the hole. As it crawled away the players investigated the hole and found a cavern with 3 random artifacts and 4 exits.

The artifacts were:

a...dark steel... vacuum... filter

a... subspace... combustion... inverter

a... universal ...plasma... receiver

We had an amusing conversation musing what these items might do.

After that, the scout, benefitting from dark vision granted by the biomancer via transmogrify, scouted the tunnel and found a second route to where the kidnappers were hiding out. Assuming this was a base, and the kidnappers knew about the robot, they constructed a plan to flush them out and ambush them, using the robot's leg as a ruse. ("Oh no, that smashing sound is the robot!")

The players were unaware that the kidnappers were not familiar with this area and were simply using it as a temporary hold-up, so the rouse simply drew their attention. (Also, the fighter took damage from a wandering slime while carrying the robot leg.) 

A frantic battle. The fighter brought down to 1/4 life points. A heroic dash by the scout which killed a cultist in 1 hit. (Design note: ambushing working as intended.) A successful use of a bola by the biomancer. Additional support from the elementalist. 2 captured kidnappers, 1 rescued hostage, the red wizard. (Design note: wavering characters should not hesitate for an entire round. Too easy to defeat.)

The players were cautious that the red wizard was a traitor. He was not. But that would have been a cool angle. They learned the cultists were Set worshippers who planned to sacrifice the Red Wizard at the Great Eye, whatever that is, on the eastern edge of the southern jungle swamps. They sought the red wizard for his magical power - beneficial for sacrifice.

The red wizard, in wrath, killed one of the cultists, and the players brought him back to Imbaru. 500 gp reward. Each of the artifacts would sell for 1000 gp, but the players have not decided what yet to do with them.

XP awarded: 500 gp for reward, 210 for defeating three cultists. 237 to each player.


Time passed: 20 days. Next session begins in the morning on the 21st day.

Magic items: phosphorescent entropy locator, worth 400 gp. (once activated, for 1 hour will glow if an unusual source of entropy is within 150 feet). Poorly maintained, needs a power source.

Also: dark steel vacuum filter, subspace combustion inverter, universal plasma receiver (haven't decided what they do yet)

Players

(Also tracking proficiency use. Players who use actions tied to proficiencies in play don't have to pay for training for them when they level.)

The fighter (combat 3), who pretends to be dumb but isn't. 1367 xp. (used nature, conditioning: strength, conditioning: agility, gather information)

Elementalist (combat 1, wizarding 2) 1367 xp. (used savvy, influence, signature spell: enervating mist, conditioning: agility, gather information)

Scout (combat 1, roguery 1, scavenging 1) 1104 xp. (Player seems very tickled by the name.) (used influence, tracking, navigation, scouting, conditioning: agility, gather information)

Biomancer (Combat 1, wizarding 1, scavenging 1): 500 xp (nature, gather information, technology)

Ranger (combat 2, scavenging 1): 263 xp from last session

Established NPCs:

-Vat farmers, relationship solidified
-The fighter’s sword master gladiatorial contacts
-N’claws, the lizard man tribal chief who stacks rocks, who now has a fortified cave for his band, weary of the shard land in the west, thinks something is afoot and the broader lizard men effort to expand there is deeply misguided
-Some group of settlers that secured a place “at the edge of the jungle”
-One very angry / confused set of fungus creatures
-A giant plant behemoth near the area where the river meets the jungle, in a clearing that blocks a trail 
west
-The Priests of Light, grateful for the return of the Red Wizard, relationship solidified, can aid with elemental research; will make a favorable recommendation to an artificer's guild
-The Red Wizard, rescued by the players but not grateful

-The cultists of Set, wondering what became of their kidnapper mission

-The Great Eye, whatever that is

Loose ends:

-The upcoming battle between the returning fungi and the lizard men (resolved)
-The players made no effort to hide their presence at the cave (arrows, magical residues); did the fungus men see them? Will they put 2 and 2 together? (resolved) How will they react?  (???)

-Whatever is going in in the shard land in the western part of the jungle (???)

-The colonists trying to get the phosphorescent entropy detector somehow (???)

-The escaped psi-mechanical robot: where is it doing now? (???)

Design / GM notes: I need to create charts for faction motivations / situations and practice creating plausible little mission ideas with possible obstacles, enemies, and rewards. I need to see how much can be done on the fly and how much needs to be prepared. And then, prepare.)

Combat is fast and needs to be just a little bit for dangerous for the players. If I revise the wavering morale rule it should be about right.

The GM screen (which included the players' stats) sped things up a lot.

Addendum: let's decide what the artifacts do:

Dark steel vacuum filter (physically tough, shielding 9 all types; uses micro vacuums to purify materials; 1 activation: purify 2d4 days' worth of food/water for 1 person; 1 activation: refine 3x3x3 ft. volume of ore - must already be ground into loose rock; functional, poorly maintained) 

Subspace combustion inverter (creates a forcefield that protects up to 4 characters within 150 feet range against energy damage for up to 1 hour; 3 hit points, shielding 5 all types; based on the spell forcefield; alternative use: puts out a fire (no larger than 15x15 feet) at a range of 150 feet; missing power source - poorly maintained)

Universal plasma receiver (doesn't do anything by itself, but can be used as a sub-component in nearly any device should it need one; functional, poorly maintained)