Homebrew Session 4

Notes on session: This is the last session report from a campaign I suspended because I was busy with a music commission. Typically I jot down my observations and then turn it into readable prose. Since this has been so delayed, I'll publish as is.

Fighter, Biomancer, Elementalist playing today.

Reviewed mechanics, geography, loose ends

Fighter had idea go track down one-legged robot from last session (did they look for other gigs, I can't remember... no they spend their time getting their new artifacts ID'd and repaired.)

Players stock up on 2 weeks' rations each

Traveled 3 days to the south along the river

2 encounters:

Mutant behemoth at night, giant eel, 20 feet long, with sarlaac pit month teeth, little tentacle feelers on sides, pill bug colored

Players set up caltrops, which herded it, alonging them to surround it; fired off attacks but missed in 1st round of combat; creature, oblivious, sniffs at fighter (best possible reaction roll) grabs at his pack; fighter fails strength roll; eels begins to eat. The players get away, having lost their pack

The next day they encounter a plant behemoth on the river, soaking up water (the same one that the Scout found?); they avoid it handily.

They get the the ruins from session 3. Before they search for the robot, spend a day foraging (all three); on player gets the best possible result: 1d6+1 days' food, another player gets a middling result: 1 days worth of food. I expanded the range of success because they were immobile.

I roll for encounters on the way back from the foraging trip: 8 walking plants in the jungle. (7 life points each.) Was expecting the players the retreat; they engaged. Why?

Oil flasks thrown, 1 damage each plant. Fighter swing for 3 hits. Two plants attack the fighter, hitting for 3 damage. Elementalist casts enervating mist; causes 3 to halt in place; Fighter gets dropped to -1 life in next round; elementalist casts gale, which blows nearly all the plants back 10 feet and halts their advance; this gives the biomancer time to grab the downed fighter and the whole party backs away to safety.

First opportunity to use the mortal wounds table. +1 to roll because treatment began within one round of falling. Fighter is revived with no wounds, but is stunned for 3 hours. 

They find their way back to their hold-up in the ruins, rest a night, and make it back to Imbaru without incident.

No experience!

They look for gigs. Their vat farmer friends (biotechnical agriculturalists) want an area mapped out, to the east, under a floating "sky pile," but warn a magical barrier prevents entry. No gold reward, but will forward their names to the King of Imbaru if they manage to pull this one off somehow.

Another possible gig: A group of merchants wants them to map out a short cut through Dretch (biogenic slave race freed during the Severing) controlled Mountains to another city. (Actually, this was the colonists from Isu trying to ambush the players for their Phorphorescant Entropy Locator.... shhhh.... shhhh....) 

Players liked the sky pile idea.

The players debate purchasing a new artifact or paying someone to tinker with one they have, but decide instead to see what they can do with what they have. I didnt think they would be able to get by the barrier with their hyperspace combustion inverter.

2 days travel straight east, guided by the Sky Pile in the air. No navigation roll necessary. 

Get to barrier. The elementalist decides to create a force field inside the barrier to pry it open. (Wore out the power source in the process.) I did not think of this and it sounds totally plausible. I inform them it will only last for an hour. They go in and immediately test if it's a one way barrier. It is. They can leave. The players decide to explore. In an hour I ask for a perception check. Fail. MC Echer vision while time-space rearranges itself. Players end up in a totally different area of the area.

We end the session here.

No XP yet!

Designer notes: random mission tables working; also, giving a faction a mission gives better hints at a general political situation than a table for "general political situation." Now just need a table for "what does the faction hope to gain (long germ) from this mission?"

Biomancer wanted to know about monster parts. Figured he would have uses for them as a biomancer. How could I deny this? I'll let him use monster parts (of certain kinds) to fund biogenic spell research.

Prepping missions worked but I want to make a table for obstacles. Then I can base rewards on obstacles.

GM Notes: hyper organized, binder with printed tabs of locations, GM screen. Players content with time spent looking things up and level of detail provided. (Balance between sparseness and info-dump.)

To-do: obstacles and faction motivations (what do they hope to gain from this mission.)