Primal/Within Chronicles: Say it with Tentacles, Part 1

If you are entirely new to my game posts, hi!  Thanks for stopping by.  Have a look here to retrace what happened up to now.

Scare us Ô Dungeonmaster

It will have been our shortest Summer break ever.

After having skipped one game while I was gone camping with my lovely wife and kids, I told my players that I would be ready to play upon my return from Gen Con 2009.  Of course I had absolutely nothing prepared for that game except the campaign plan I had drawn up earlier this summer, which is to send the PCs on a hunt deep within the Primal Dungeon to take out the 5 High Nexus, the virtual sensory organs of the Primordial trapped in the middle of the Dungeon.

However, my players helped out by giving me some ideas.

Math:  “I read your last email about what you planned for us in the game and I was totally picturing what happened in the Mines of Moria in the LotRs movie.

Chatty(Thinking of the Diablo III demo): Yeah, I guess I could work something out along those lines.

Math: In fact, I’d like you to scare us, give us a sense of doom that we haven’t had since we  started playing 4e.

Chatty (Thinking fast…): Hmmm, yeah, I’ll see what I can cook up by Friday.

Scaring PCs is hard, especially in a game whose default assumption is that PCs are all fearless baddasses who kill level-adequate dragons without staying bloodied more than 6 seconds.

But then I remembered a lesson whose origin I forgot about: “Don’t try to scare the PCs, go for the players!”

A plan was shaping up…

Laying the groundworks for the season

I got to the game and distributed the slew of Gen Con gifts I brought everyone, from autographed novels by Margaret Weis, to Q-workshop dice sets to a set of magnetic area effect templates, I think everyone was happy.

When we got ready to start, we introduced Yan’s new PC.  Having found none of the Avenger Paragon path fitting his PC’s story concept, Yan asked me if he could play a Barbarian instead.  It bears mentioning that a few weeks ago, I played a Barbarian in Yan’s game and we were both astounded by the damage output of that Primal Striker!

Anyway, we started the game with Franky’s dwarven Shaman Dworkin, initiating a group of young apprentice in front of the Focus of Primal Power the PCs bound to the city a few sessions back. I described how the focus flared when Dworkin and the apprentice were concentrating on it.  The Focus exploded in light and flame and a humanoid  with bear-like features stepped out, covered in blood and in some form of frenzy.

The newly transported stranger was soon calmed and shifted back into a half-orc.  Dworkin then learned that the stranger was called Nanoc (yeah, real original no?) and that he had been, until a few minutes ago, a slave in one of the Drow gladiator pens of the Dungeon.  He told Dworkin that after leading a slave revolt that turned sour, he was beckoned by the Great Bear Spirit to follow one of the fabled Spirit Paths… that path led him here.

Franky was of course delighted that Yan and I used setting elements that he created/shaped to create a relationship between Dworkin and Nanoc (I’m going to choke on that name until Yan changes it I swear!)  Then again, he also wanted to know what happened to Jaiel…

We said that with the opening of the Foundation’s Inner Sanctum, she rejoined the Dwarven Lich and spends all her time interpreting the Prophecy.

Right after that, I told Eric (Fangs: Shifter Warden) and Math ( Corwin: Halfling Sorcerer) that they had a very similar dream.  I explained that both of them were standing in front of a basin and  mirror, washing their faces.  When they were done drying their faces, both saw something different.

Fangs saw his reflection as a Half-Elven man sneering at him.  Slowly that face withered and dried, like it aged and died near instantly.  At the end, a shriveled face leered at him, laughing.

When Corwin removed the towel from his face, he heard a wet ripping sound and he saw his own face grinning  back at him from the cloth he used to dry his face!  When he looked up in the mirror he saw a disgusting rictus of muscle and blood stare back at him…

Knock, Knock, tentacle call!

So with these niceties done with, I explained that shortly after the dreams, the PCs were sought ought by various officers of the Sunless Knights, asking for their help.  By that token, we established once and for all that the PCs were by far the most powerful people of the City, with the possible exception of the heads of a few City Factions.   In essence, the PCs were now the De-Facto superheroes of the City Within.

The Knights informed the PCs that a group of very powerful creatures had taken attacked a small neighborhood and were killing and eating the surviving residents.  The Knights had managed to contain them but could not go in losing all members within seconds.

So the PCs approached the area where the monsters were: various buildings whose rooftops were connected with planks.  They say a pair of blind lizards perched on the roofs, throwing bursts of sounds every few seconds, destroying buildings and damaging some of the nearby Sunless Knights barricades.

As they approached, unseen by the aberrant lizards, they heard a sickening tearing sound and blood gushing up over the rooftop.

Chatty: Okay boys, roll initiative…