Session 4: Janitor Needed

The woke up to the sound of hellish screeching and the porters shouting about strange shadows - as if of men flapping their arms - passing over the campsite. Sean, Sloth, and Vlad ran out of the tent, as did Ricin Dexter and his Temple armsmen, Meniscus and Beaker. The three PCs drew their bows and sling, Ricin readied a throwing scalpel, and the armsmen pulled out long rifles.

The weird creatures soared low, silhouetted by the rising sun. As they approached, they resolved into huge winged creatures, half stag and half griffon with many sharp-tipped antlers. The humans got two volleys off, with a few arrows and bullets inflicting minor wounds on the perytons. As they approached, Beaker ran off and hid behind a tree. Then the beasts tried to gore Meniscus and Ricin upon landing, but one missed entirely and the other only slightly punctured Meniscus' side. Ricin fought with poisoned scalpels, but the poison didn't seem to affect the creatures.

The PCs moved to defilade positions so they could shoot the perytons without risking much friendly fire. They did this pretty effectively, getting a few good ranged hits in before all charging in to surround the perytons and chop them to death. Meniscus was scuffed up, and Ricin took a wicked slash into his shoulder. 

Sloth knew that Peryton gall bladders could be used to make a potion that allowed a human to run faster, and had Sloth attempt a harvest. He successfully extracted one, but also removed their hearts and roasted them off the open fire. Sloth and Vlad ate them, and Sloth experienced temporary chills and ghostly visions afterwards. Vlad also plucked some of their feathers and claws. 

Buoyed by this victory over huge magical creatures, the group decided to head back into the dungeon, undaunted by the reports of metallic screeching that emanated from the tunnels the previous night. They opened the "Barracks" door and found themselves in a 30' room with two southern and one northern door. Inspecting it closely, they found many footprints and a large dust-free area surrounding the northern door, which they decided was a trap. Vlad inspected it closely and found that the lever door handle indeed had a strange sort of resistance to being opened. After some discussion, they tied a rope to the handle and pulled the door open. On cue, a large black metal pipe swung down and through the door. A broken piece of metal wire hung down from the ceiling.

Beyond was a 30' hallway ending in another door, with two more on the west wall and one more on the east. The group decided to ignore this hall and try the southeastern door. They found that it opened into some kind of bathroom - they recognized the fixtures as toilets and showers, but of a far fancier and technologically advanced kind than they'd ever seen.  There was another door in the west wall of this room, and they opened it to see a group of eight more automatons.

Unlike the others, however, they hadn't incorporated human bones into their frames, and were friendly. They looked at the party in surprise: 

"Humans??"

"We're uh a janitorial crew."

"There hasn't been any janitors here for hundreds of cycles! Many things need to be cleaned. For instance, the bathrooms you are in are very dangerous."

"Well we'd be happy to clean, but there are other robots we met, that had human bones in them, and they tried to kill us."

"Degenerates! They are despicable fallen creatures. We only use automaton parts to repair, due to our superior moral circuits."

"Could you come help us as we... cleaned?"

"Yes, we will send four with you, and the rest of us will defend our base of operations."

Looking around, it didn't seem like much of a base - lots of broken shards of furniture, and a pile of human bones in the southern end of the room. Nevertheless, four robots stepped forth, and marched north into the large room.

As they did so, the dust at their feet swirled and congealed, lit from within by static sparks.

The robots exclaimed, "Dust ghosts!" and began to attack. The party swarmed from behind, and found their swords and sling bullets effectively dispersed the ghosts. Only 1 automaton was pushed over during the battle, suffering a few dents.

Sloth asked what dust ghosts are, and the automatons said they were the lingering wills of their ancestors. "Robots building other robots? Sounds good to me," said Sean. 

The group headed north and the four automatons grabbed the hanging pipe and started lifting it back towards the ceiling and extruding thin steel wire. The party told them to wait, however, in case they had to pass that way again and the automatons obliged.

They began opening the doors in this hallway in clockwise order, finding a large single bathroom, with a working toilet and shower, but no sink - just like the communal bathroom they visited previously. Next was an empty 20' square room with plastic hooks mounted on the walls. After that, however, was a 20' square room with a huge floor to ceiling mirror built into the eastern wall, and a hole with multicolored wires poking out of it in the north wall. They found that the mirror couldn't be pulled off the wall, and seemed to conceal a hollow space. Sean and Vlad searched every surface of the room but found nothing new, other than that the mirror didn't seem to have any hinges - clearly the wires were some kind of control mechanism. They consulted the automatons, but the metal men said they didn't even know of such a space. They also didn't seem concerned about the party breaking the mirror, so Sloth wound up his sling and took a crack at it. The bullet ricocheted off, and nearly hit him in the face. He decided they needed more power. 

Next, Vlad and Sean examined the wires, and asked the automatons, which said that there used to be a kind of personal lamp there, but they had no idea when it had been detached.

The group tried the final door in the hallway and found it to be nearly empty, except for an unlocked black metal box. Vlad inspected it and found it to be trap free, but had Sean unlatch it. He found two gold pins with some kind of eagle and star insignia. They concluded they were rank pins. Sean picked up the box and found it to be about 10 pounds, but didn't have the room to carry it with him. 

Returning to the surface, they asked if Ricin wanted to take a look at a few things, and the scientist obliged, ordering his armsmen to keep a sharp eye out while he was gone. Vlad pinned the insignia on him and the automatons straightened up and shouted, "Lieutenant!" and asked him what the status of the Company was. "Uh... good. It's like, good," he said. The party cajoled Ricin into lightly interrogating the automatons, and found that they were charged with protecting the Gatehouse, "where we are now," and preventing anything from leaving the Environment "entry is to the southeast," which was "accident free for hundreds of cycles." The environment was closed, however, and had been when the company left - "standard operating procedure." When asked if anything was dangerous, they said that there was some kind of creature - worse than the "degenerates" - in the northeastern section of the Gatehouse, but that the Environment was "filled with danger and opportunity!" The automatons once again tried to get the party to clean the bathrooms but were ignored. Meanwhile, footsteps echoed from the hallway, coming from deeper within the facility, before fading again.

Ricin was then brought to the wires, which he said looked like mostly power cables, and a couple that weren't power cables. Vlad decided to try brushing some of them together but was unable to trigger anything. They sent Ricin back to the surface and went back down part of the "Subsurface Research Facility" stairs, inspecting the door they had ignored last section. Upon opening, they found another 20' square room, a lever, and a 5' wide black disk in the floor. Nothing they tried could budge the lever even an inch, and Sloth said it probably needed power. Sean grabbed the black metal box and set it on top of the disk, finding that it appeared to be of the same metal. 

Vlad and Sean opened the drawers and found them to be filled with ancient papers, written in Common but still basically incomprehensible. Vlad also noticed that the dust at his feet was pooling and running in rivulets towards the west side of the room... dust ghosts! The three PC's and four automatons were able to overcome the 7 creatures, Vlad finding that his arrows were much less effective than the heftier blows from Sloth's sling or his sword, but three of the automatons were heavily corroded and one of the dust ghosts pulled down Sean, shoving an abrasive, dusty arm down his throat and into his lungs. Even with Sloth's healing spells, it would take the elf nearly five whole weeks to recover. 

Vlad inspected the automatons and decided to return to the last session's battle site, but found only small handfuls of debris - the 15 destroyed bots were nowhere to be found, and there were two 10' scratch marks along the walls. When Vlad and Sloth delivered the parts to the automatons and described what they had seen, the bots shuddered in fear, and said it was probably the abomination. They thanked Vlad and decided they must retreat to their base in order to repair and assess the situation. 

The party decided they would do the same, and took the papers to Ricin, who was visibly excited by the sight of them, and brought Sean back to camp. 

Session 3: Strange Sightings

Back in Denethix, they gave Terry over to the Scientists as vengeance for his cowardice and betrayal. Hexane Deuterium rubbed his rubber gloves together as the armsman was dragged screaming into the labs. Hexane also agreed to a 1,000 GP fee to revive Vlad, and offered to "improve him" - the party politely declined and Hexane said "we'll do our best to honor your wishes." 

The scientists pumped out his entire bloodstream, removing both the poision and Vlad's hemophelia! (I asked him to roll 1d6 to pick a stat to re-roll, and lo and behold, it came up CON - his weakest stat. And the new stat was 14! The revive machine will have to break soon.) 

The party spent most of the next three weeks looking for lodging, after they found that renting was much cheaper than hotels. Tuan Fen did train heavily, gaining a second level, as well as attempting to foster bravery in his wardog Fluffy. Vlad and Tuan Fen decided to split a two room apartment, finding two available on an alley off of the Street of Students - Tuan Fen feeling that he'd rather be off the beaten path. The first landlord, Tefek, wouldn't play ball and give them a discount if they paid a year up front, so they went across the street and met Crush Grimskull, a pit fighting trainer who recognized Tuan Fen from the practice yard and heartily agreed to the deal. Meanwhile Sean and Sloth, unable to convince their rich friends to let them share a room, found a cheap studio on the Street of Industrious Efforts. Vlad bought a new bow, and then they went out to look for cults to join. 

Only the Church of Starry Wisdom advertised, however, and they were rude to Sloth, calling him delusional and telling him to renounce his vows and join them. He did ask what he'd need to do to demonstrate new loyalty if he did join them - but it was a tall order, as the cultists demanded he steal the God's Eye from the Grand Temple. He ended up declining, though they did find that the Church was looking for a "Shining Trapezohedron," which was prophesied to be buried beneath the western mountains.

Returning to the Scientists, the party revealed Harvinius' map (after making a copy) and got the Temple to send Ricin Dexter, two armsmen, two porters, and a big stack of water and food rations up with them to continue the deceased scientist's research. The Temple demanded half of any resulting loot, and the party surprisingly assented. Ricin was a Shadow Scientist (I haven't converted the ASE classes yet, so he's an amalgam of Rogue and Scientist) who used poisoned throwing scalpels and wore a black lab coat. The party was suitably impressed and decided they wouldn't kill him immediately. Hexane also announced that one of the scientist crew had a life monitoring device that would warn him if the man was killed, but he "didn't remember who had it." 

The crew trudged up the mountain. At one point strange shadows of men flapping their arms passed them, but they couldn't see what cast them. Further up, they ran into a caravan, marked as belonging to the Hodo Brothers - six similar-looking men who said they were taking a shipment of pine liquor to Denethix. Tuan Fen decided he'd buy some, and he'd drink off an entire flask of Purple Lighting to make room.

Tuan Fen's intoxication took a strange form, however. His lips turned purple, and a strange man in a purple robe appeared, telling him that glory was to be found beneath the earth. Tuan Fen started poking at the ground with a dagger, and then the man said that his friends were dragging him down and he should kill them. He found this advice less useful, however, and he told the man to shut up, sheathed his dagger, and continued up the mountain.

The rest of the party looked concerned, but ultimately this wasn't too strange for someone who'd chugged a flask of dubious alcohol.

The hiking sobered Tuan Fen up, luckily, and the man faded away. The map guided them well, and they entered a small cave, mercilessly slaughtering the bear inside. Its flesh yielded two rations, though more were wasted as the group lacked a trained butcher. There was a section of worked stone in the rear of the cave, with a six-inch hole and sealed black metal door. They asked Ricin if he'd brought any sick rock, and Ricin pulled out a large lead flask, and had one of his porters unscrew it and dump the fist-sized lump into the hole. They heard no sound afterwards, until the door hissed open, revealing  a brightly lit hall and octagonal room. 

Ricin declared that he and his team would guard the entrance and inspect the party as they exited. It would be their responsibility to face the dangers below. 

The room had a western door, an eastern door, and a northeast door. They were labelled, respectively, "Barracks," "Subsurface Research Facility," and "Emergency Generator Core" in ancient, but somehow still legible, stencils. 

The party decided to open the eastern door, finding themselves looking down a winding staircase. The stairs turned a corner to the south, and there was a door by the landing. They asked Sloth to open the door, but instead he began waltzing down the rest of the stairs, the rest of the group following at a 20' distance.

At the bottom, Sloth hit a T intersection - nothing visible but more hallway to the south, but a bizarre and frightening sight to the north: a phalanx of fifteen strange automatons, built out of corroded metal and bits of human bone and ribcage. The two groups were equally surprised, and the party gathered around Sloth as the creatures' eyes turned blood red.

Battle was joined. The automatons were eventually all destroyed, Tuan Fen's axe scything down two and three at a time. But first Fluffy was knocked out, tossed to the ground with broken ribs. Then Waddell was killed by a metal claw to the head. And the last automaton, bloodlust lighting its LEDs, cut open Tuan Fen's femoral artery, bringing the stalwart warrior down before being destroyed itself. 

The group fled to the camp to lick its wounds. Fluffy would live, but was out for at least two weeks. Sloth's spells and mundane medicine saved Tuan Fen's life, but he would be unable to fight for the next 48 hours.

Two Sessions in Denethix

Here's a recap of the first 2 sessions of my Land of One Thousand Towers campaign, using Roger's 52 Pages ruleset. So far everything merges pretty well - there's some awkwardness regarding prophets and the players are not fond of the restrictive rules surrounding firing into combat. I have a few thoughts about 52 Pages Prophets and ASE's atomized gonzo pantheon which I will post up later. 

Cast of Characters:

Sean, Level 1 Elf

+Waddell the Soldier

Sloth, Level 1 Prophet of Daog. Dyslexic.

Tuan Fen, Level 1 Fighter. Fat and ugly.

+Fluffy the Wardog

Vlad, Level 1 Hemophiliac Rogue

The group had met on the docks of the River Effluent, when Tuan Fen and Vlad arrived in Denethix bearing large bags of gold - gifts from their parents, who had grown rich from prior adventures on the far side of the world (Qelong). Sean and Sloth, and Sean's follower, the soldier Waddell, were hired on to carry and guard the gold.

In Denethix, of course, there is only one place to go to keep large amounts of treasure: The Bank Inviolable. The group looked around at the building's baroque vaulted waiting area, and especially curiously at the machine gun pods of the Custodians of Fiduciary Duty. The bank staff recognized a prospective large depositor when they saw one, and a functionary came out to take the deposit and explain the 50/month deposit fee. He nodded at the hulking Custodians by way of explanation.

However, Vlad and Tuan Fen wanted to sign wills to prevent the loss of their accounts, should either be killed. For this, they would need a legal notary. The functionary recommended Low, Ball, & Sleigh, a few blocks north of the bank. The firm charged 180 for the service, which they grudgingly assented to. Trustworthiness and expediency was worth any price. Less trustworthy, at least to the two rich adventurers, were Sloth and Sean, who had stalked the depositors all the way to the bank, making noises about wills and bodyguarding and their poverty. These went unheeded, but the four adventurers did band together in search of a good bar.

After an hour or so they entered Hursenbuck's, owned by the efficient bartender Mary Hursenbuck. Business was good today, as two heavily armored men named Terry and Phil were loudly lamenting the loss by ambush of the Temple of Science caravan they were assigned to guard.

Tuan Fen sent the pair drinks, and soon enough they had spilled the beans, along with a significant amount of beetle whiskey. They had been guarding a Temple of Science caravan when it was ambushed by a "horde" of Moktars near Chelmsfordshire, and they had dragged away the scientist Harvinius and a huge, heavy chest. Terry tried to negotiate for a cut of the cargo, but the four adventurers silenced that train of thought with harsh glares. Fleeing from duty, they agreed, meant the guards had forfeited their claim on any gold - leading the way to the Moktars was valuable only for redemption. 

So they set out from Denethix immediately, passing through the town of Retennis and the small, depressed village of Chelmsfordshire. Terry and Phil led them to a location an hour west of Denethix, where the group found the smashed and charred remains of the caravan. A deep gouge in the earth disappeared into the forest to the north.

The Moktars had covered their tracks poorly, and soon the adventurers marched up to the perfectly-square entrance to what was evidently their lair. 

Sean ascended a nearby tree, bow at the ready, while the rest of the group shouted into the cave. They heard no response but the unmistakable sound of tomato breathing. Sean lightly descended from the tree and Vlad was sent in to scout. This he did poorly, rustling very obviously through the dry leaves spread along the passageway. In the darkness to the south, two pairs of shining pupils looked back at him. He signaled to the rest of the group, leaned around the corner, and loosed an arrow. 

Sloth brought his torch, and Tuan Fen brandished his battle axe and charged round the corner. As he stepped past Vlad, he heard a click and felt the ground give way beneath him - a pit trap! - but momentum carried him onto firmer ground, where he slew a Moktar with a single blow. Alongside him, a sling bullet and arrow killed the huge wolf the Moktar had been restraining.

There was another loud crack as Vlad overextended his bow and broke it in half (His third fumble in a row - and I admit I misread the crit/fumble chart, he should have just dropped the bow). The two pieces and nocked arrow tumbled into the pit trap. Behind him, he heard angry roars as two more Moktars advanced from the northern hallway. But these looked ragged, with bald patches and open sores. An arrow from Sean lodged in the left moktar's shoulder, and they retreated, around a corner and into the dark. The group heard more loud roars and then a door slammed shut. 

The band regrouped and crossed the open pit, arriving in sort of a guard room with two doused torches lying on the ground. They formed up, opened the door, and advanced cautiously down the hall. This they were right to do, as Tuan Fen quickly noticed eight Moktars, including the two they had seen earlier, crouching in readiness along the wall of the next room. Having nowhere else to go, however, the lion-men were reduced to lambs lining up for slaughter, as the gang used the choke point in the hall to cut them down, two by two, until they were all dead. Even the hulking chieftain, awakened from a deep and terminal slumber by the din, was brought down - though he did manage to club down Waddell and give the soldier a serious concussion. 

Terry and Phil had been no help the whole time, hanging back and offering only cheers and hollers as the adventurers waded through Moktar blood. Now they advanced to spit on the Moktar corpses and congratulate the adventurers on their help. This pleased the merchant Harvinius least of all, and he leaned up from a pile of refuse in the corner to curse them and order them to leave. He also told the adventurers to leave the room, or else they would die! (In 52 Pages, elves don't have dark vision by default, so Sean neither knows of nor can see the sick-light.) The adventurers learn of Terry and Phil's true cowardice while interrogating Harvinius, but he dies after a few minutes. 

The group searches the room and the Chieftain's bed chamber but only find a strange lump of yellow rock. Suspicious that it is probably what sickened the Moktars and Harvinius, they decide to give it, along with some harsh words, to Terry and Phil and send them on their way. 

The adventurers turn their attention to a strange metal plate in the floor of a dead-end hallway south of the Moktar barrack. Vlad sees a lever mounted in the wall next to it an approaches with a ten foot pole, and flips it up. Immediately the plate reveals itself to be the top of an inverted steel pyramid as it flies up and attaches itself to the ceiling with a reverberating clang, revealing a dark shaft. Vlad's weapons also respond, tugging at their clasps but with nothing like the force of the pyramid. The sensation recedes as he steps away.

Tuan Fen is sent forward to test the magnetic field next. As he enters the hallway, his armor begins pulling him up with increasing strength. Soon he's nearly weightless, and he's only halfway to the shaft. He turns back.

Immediately the gang strips itself of metallic weapons and armor, taking up Moktar bone-clubs instead. Tuan Fen selects the chieftain's huge two-handed ceratops femur. Sean tests his arrows, finding that the heads are small enough that the strange force doesn't rip all of them from his grasp - only a few break free and rise to the ceiling as he walks forward.

Sean and Sloth head down first, followed by Vlad. Waddell, dazed but ambulatory, is set to operate the lever if necessary, and Tuan Fen prepares himself as backup, if necessary. 

At the bottom of the shaft is a small natural cave. At the far end sits a treasure chest - doubtlessly the caravan's! - and in the center is a naked, purpled human corpse. Sloth walks right out in the open to investigate... And two huge crab spiders drop from the ceiling. The first sinks its fangs into Sloth's shoulder, and he passes out from pain and poison. Sean begins loosing arrows, and Vlad gets in a few strikes before giant spider fangs find their mark, and he, too, goes down.

With a roar, Tuan Fen slides down the rope and counterattacks, finishing off the first spider and then attacking the second, much larger one, which had been wrapping Sloth's body with silk. (I admit to going easy on the party at this point.) Soon, though, he knocks the creature onto its back and sinks the Moktar weapon deep into its abdomen. 

The survivors take stock. Sloth is alive, though it will take three weeks for him to recover. Vlad is dead, purpled like the other corpse in the cavern. The treasure chest's lock has been smashed off, however, and they are mollified by the discovery of 800 gold coins, and its inch-thick lead lining. They realize it could be used to safely carry the Sick Rock.

Moving the dead, injured, and treasure up the shaft, Waddell greets them raggedly and hands over a parchment he says he found on Harvinius' body. It's a map, to a nearby mountain, with the words "Sick Rock is key." 

The party saunters out of the cave, expecting to see Terry and Phil waiting patiently outside so they can retrieve the rock and put it in the chest. Instead, they see (passing both Notice Detail and Hear Noise checks) the two armsmen leap out of the bushes, snarling with anger! But two drunk armsmen prove a poor match for Tuan Fen's recovered great-axe. Phil is beheaded, and Terry is grievously injured and locked inside the treasure chest with the Sick Rock.

Tower of the Stargazer: ASE Modifications

Going to run Tower of the Stargazer again as a one-off, but this time with a group that might actually turn into a regular campaign. I've decided my main campaign will be Pat Wetmore's Land of 1,000 Towers, so a few things are in order to fit the Stargazer in a little better.

Of course, ASE is gonzo, and the Tower is pretty scientific and nonspecific, so it wouldn't be out of place to just run the Tower straight. However, I do want it to be a good introduction to the ASE style of gonzo, and it will need to hook into the titular megadungeon.

1. The statue. I'm not sure if ASE has any medusas, but some weird folktale just won't cut it. I'm not even sure medusas even exist in the Land. Instead, it'll be a statue of Torpo the Cannibal fighting the Sasquatch Khan, tying in nicely with Obelisk of Forgotten Memories.

2. The prison. While the quasi-spectral undead were pretty effective here, I wasn't quite sure how much I liked that they charged as soon as you open the door. Yes, I get that it's a lesson for listening, first, but not quite in the theme of voluntarily triggered traps. Instead, we'll get a Sasquetron (also replacing the fifteen-armed skeleton) that turns on if the party takes the key ring off the hook. The dead guy and parasite will remain, although it will use the parasite mechanics from Obelisk of Forgotten Memories. 

3. The telescope. The control panel will gain an "aiming" dial, with two black ink marks. The leftmost mark points the telescope (rotating the whole fist) at Mt. Rendon - this is the current setting. The right hand one points it at the Inn of the Alabaster Surprise's courtesan changing room. Other settings do move the telescope but refocusing to get a usable image is a laborious week-long process. However, the beam's deceleration process hasn't yet been figured out, and depending on how it's aimed you will either miss your target and go flying into space, possibly becoming an Orbital God, or otherwise blasting a person-shaped hole in the surface and dying instantly. 

4. The books. Some of the books are good as-is, but all the Eldritch Library books about communicating with space aliens are instead equally deranged histories of the Land of 1,000 Towers.

5. Appearance. Obviously, the tower is going to look like a huge stone arm, with the dome being a clenched steel fist. Plus, when the telescope extends, it takes the place of the middle finger.

Review: 52 Pages & Tower of the Stargazer

Tower of the Stargazer is as great an introductory adventure as everyone says it is. I did go easy on the party (there should have been two deaths) but I'll justify it as a one-off with family, so there's less pressure to use the sheer brutality of the first trap to set the tone of adventure gaming in general. I also really let the players go easy on the ghost, letting my partner's stage-magician brother win with a card trick, mostly because it's the one part of the module I actively dislike. I understand why Raggi put it there, but, damnit, if I sign up to play a game I want to play that game. Running it again, I'd probably just have it be a "ghost barrier" they have to knock out by turning, holy water, magic weapons, or some other ritual. I guess riddles also work. Also, there were a few ambiguities with room descriptions and maps, most importantly being Calcidius' position - the map puts his containment circle very close to the staircase, but the room description says he's in the center, which is probably more accurate, as I went by the map position and found myself momentarily trying to figure out what his reaction would be to the party breaking open the door and then falling back down the stairs in a heap. Finally, I like the delicate risk-reward balance the module has. Failing to get the treasure stash is by no means a failure, as a pretty average 1-2 session haul can be pilfered elsewhere, and the lack of wandering monsters pairs nicely with the deadliness of most of the triggered traps - there are a dozen ways to die, but you can spend a good amount of time contemplating them.

The 52 Pages rules worked very nicely, and I didn't have any trouble integrating them with the Tower. Some adjustment would have been required for Calcidius, as the rules don't approach modeling a magic user of his level, and the magic system is distinct enough from the D&D baseline that I can see myself having to rework any NPC magic users that appear in future modules beforehand. I've put together a PDF compilation of all of Roger's Color Magic posts to help with that, but of course his system has evolved since then. The players didn't really use their knowledge rolls much, although I did pre-roll a lot of their characters which gave them less time to inhabit the world before making their selections. In the future, I think the way character creation is highly integrated with the game rules would be very helpful for quickly getting new players on their feet.

I will definitely be using 52 Pages rules for my next campaign (and hope that the Next 52 will be ready by the time characters start to breach 3rd level!). I'll be running ASE, and although my main group will start out with the suggested ASE intro scenario, I'll probably post a Tower of the Stargazer reskin I'm working on in case I need to do an alternative starting module.

Play Report: Tower of the Stargazer

Over the break, I had the opportunity to run Tower of the Stargazer using the 52 Pages ruleset for visiting family. Results were excellent.

The cast of characters:

Zoltar the Rogue, STR 9 DEX 13 INT 12 WIS 12 CON 11 CHA 10, 5HP, wielding a short sword and dagger

Root the Elf, STR 8 DEX 11 INT 10 WIS 10 CON 12 CHA 13, 5HP, wielding a shortsword and hammer, knowing the spells Disguise and Phantasm

Jermandry the Fighter, STR 16 DEX 8 IINT 11 WIS 11 CON 14 CHA 8, 9HP, with Longsword, Shield, and Greatsword

Blooberton the 'Dwarf', STR 15 DEX 13 INT 10 WIS 6 CON 17 CHA 5, 9HP, with Battleaxe and Shield. His CHA of 5 is readily explained by the bizarre wasting disease which left him looking like a hairy mutant flumph.

After a basic explanation of the rules and a fairly lengthy discussion of equipment purchases and distribution, during which Zoltar suggested they all take advantage of the free slings and sling stones mentioned in the equipment list, and the group discovered they couldn't afford any better armor for any of them, the four found themselves standing in the hilly region surrounding the mysterious Wizard's Tower, having heard of another crew's plans to break in in five days' time.

The crew observed the tower for a few minutes, noting the lighting strikes and the four metal spikes, and decided to patrol around the base in order to look for any entrances at a safe distance. They take note of the stairs up to the large double doors, but find no other doors or windows. They also find the corpse of Del Lorenzo, and Blooberton assesses the bent grapple and warns that perhaps climbing wouldn't be a good idea.

Root advises that they might want to avoid alerting any inhabitants of the tower to their presence, but also suggests testing the door in some way to see what happens. The gang decides to load their slings with loose stones and fire a volley at the door. The four stones bounce and ring loudly off the door's metal. Next, they decided to have Zoltar advance and attempt the doorknob. He cautions the rest of them to stay at the foot of the stairs, weapons ready. Ascending the steps, he takes a quick note of the two large knockers, and the two serpent-shaped handles before he grasps one firmly.

Despite his speed, he is unable to avoid the handle's sharp teeth as it darts forward and bites deep into his hand. His companions rush up the steps as he collapses, the handle returning to its former shape. Black and purple corruption spread across his fingers and wrist. Blooberton and Root clean the wound and suck out some of the poison, saving his wrist. His pinky and ring finger, however, crumble and fall off.

The team discusses various methods of killing the door handle. First, they pour some lamp oil on it ant set it alight – this succeeds only in blackening it. They try pouring water on it next, reasoning that this is a magical contraption and could react to anything at all. This effort only cleans the handle. Next, they gingerly hook the handle with Zoltar's grapple, assigning Jermandry the task of pulling back on it while Blooberton prepares to set the thing alight once it comes alive.

After a sharp tug, the handle twists and slips free of the grappling hook, and Blooberton lights the remaining oil – but too late, as the handle returns to its metallic, impervious position.

The four discuss trying to behead the serpent with Blooberton's axe, and then maybe trying to pull the doors open by hooking the knocker, but the latter plan is rejected as the knocker swings outwards and is considered to be a poor grip. Eventually Zoltar grabs the knocker with his damaged hand and knocks.

A deep gonging rings through the tower and out into the hills. After a pause, both doors swing open, and the party's torchlight illuminates some kind of parlor, with two tables, a north door, and an eastern door. Both doors are oak, with a circular brass handle – but the serpent-handles have set the group on edge, and they spend some time considering these doors and whether they pose any danger. They decide to split into two pairs and simultaneously open both doors. Root and Blooberton take the north door, Zoltar and Jermandry the south. The doors creak open, neither group having decided to take any precautions.

Zoltar and Jermandry find a small closet filled with musty old clothes, and use their blades to push through the robes and check pockets, but they find only chewed holes and moth eggs. Zoltar's player declined my offer to give him any moth eggs.

Root and Blooberton, on the other hand, discover a fancy stting room with a glass cabinet, a stone statue, a table, and stairs up. They are soon joined by the other group, and proceed to examine everything in the room. Jermandry looks under and over the central table, finding nothing, while Root opens the cabinet and looks through the china plates within. They notice that nothing in the tower has been covered with any dust so far, and continue to be suspicious that strange magic could hide within the room. Root picks up a china plate, and the whole group watches intently, weapons drawn, as she smashes it to the floor. They keep their guard up as the sound echoes through the tower, but nothing happens. The party then sets the table, as if for a meal, using the china and one of the four bottles of wine found in the cabinet, to see if it causes anything magical to happen.

Continuing up the stairs, the adventurers arrive in a kind of kitchen/dining room, with a short hallway to the east. They move quickly to the three doors in that hallway, and again decide on simultaneous opening – Root and Jermandry entering the northern door, and Zoltar and Blooberton each taking a southern door. They find nothing but old, musty, broken beds, but Root finds a key underneath the head servant's bed, and Jermandry picks up his diary. They bring this to Zoltar, the only literate party member, who finds that it's the diary of the tower's head servant, which details the time he spent purchasing rare books and other materials relating to the exploration of outer spheres, but cuts out abruptly after an entry discussing the wizard's murderous rage and his plans to escape.

The group progresses to the next staircase, and are disturbed by the trickle of blood oozing down it. Jermandry tries the key, but it doesn't work – and the blood flow increases slightly. Next Zoltar moves forward and tries to pick the lock, succeeding only in pushing a loose object out of the other side before getting temporarily blinded by a blast of blood. He cleans himself off, and the other party members look apprehensive at the prospect of triggering whatever is causing the flow. But the unknown still calls to them, and Jermandry inserts his crowbar into the jamb, and levers it free with a harsh crack.

A massive blood flow knocks him and Root all the way back down the stairs, dealing some heavy bruising and scrapes along the way. Jermandry and Zoltar are able to cling to the walls as the flood slackens, and catch a glimpse of some kind of figure looming in the center of the next room.

Zoltar sticks to the shadows as Jermandry advances into the room, with the other adventurers staying back. There they see the wizard Calcidius, who explains he was trapped in the salt circle by mistake and offers 100 silver coins for Jermandry to free him. Zoltar whispers, “That is some weak shit,” and Jermandry fakes moving to brush away the salt, but stops short and asks Calcidius for at least 10,000 silvers. The wizard tells them, “Free me, or I will pull your guts out of your nostrils,” but Jermandry refuses, and instead makes a great show of walking back down the stairs and wishing Calcidius luck. Zoltar watches carefully to make sure the wizard has no other means of escaping, and sees only Calcidius' red-faced cursing.

The adventurers discuss ways of trying to get information out of Calcidius, and moving through the room, and decide on having Root cast her Disguise spell to appear like his former assistant to see what he does. Unfortunately, the powerful wizard sees right through the spell and declares that he is not fooled by puny Elf magic, and that he finds roast Elf a great delicacy. Then Blooberton walks up the staircase, and the adventurers do their best to ignore the wizard's enraged shouts as they pick their way through the room.

They find a bronze hovering disk, and figure out that it operates as a magical elevator, locating two unexplored floors below them and two above. Blooberton examines the Star Crystal, and prepares to push it out of its holder with a weapon haft when Zoltar stops him, saying that it risks disrupting the salt circle. Instead he gingerly picks it up, apprehensive that it could be trapped, and places the heavy crystal into his bag. Meanwhile, Zoltar finds a book on Calcidius' desk and throws that into his bag, and the rest of the party determines nothing else in the room is worthwhile.

Root and Jermandry ascend to the fifth floor, reasoning that there should be a fighter in both groups, and find themselves in a large domed chamber with a cupola to the north, three large bins to the west, and pool of liquid in the south. They first walk up to the cupola and find another book sitting there, which they send down to Zoltar. Next, they inspect the pool of fluid and find it filled with bizarre fish, which have a set of six fins, a corkscrew tail, and eyestalks. Jermandry crumbles off a bit of hardtack and throws in three pieces. Two are intercepted midair by leaping fish, while the third hisses and bubbles as the fluid dissolves it. Both decide that they won't be sticking their toes in.

Meanwhile, Zoltar goes up alone to the fourth floor, finding two doors and deciding to open the eastern one, which is encased in a heavy rubber gasket. A rush of cold air greets him as he gazes on a small metal chest and another gasket-cased door to the north. He pries open the chest with his blade, and is hit by a gust of even colder air. Inside are forty-seven vials of some kind of frozen red fluid. He decides that anything kept frozen in an already-freezing room can't be good, and opens the door to the north.

Below him, Blooberton tries unsuccessfully to taunt the wizard, who simply jeers at Blooberton's unfortunate appearance. The dwarf soon tires of this and ascends to the fourth floor, deciding to open the western, normal door rather than follow Zoltar's path through the frozen room.

On Level 5, Jermandry and Root throw a couple coal hunks into the fish pool. Some are eaten, only to be quickly spit back out. Others hit the fluid and dissolve. Next they find that the third bin is filled with a small amount of a fine black powder, which they unsuccessfully attempt to scoop up with their blades. Root scoops up some with her right hand, and, suffering no ill effects, throws the clump into the fish pool. The fish ignore the powder, which also dissolves into the fluid.

After opening the second gasketed door, Zoltar finds himself in a large library, filled with glass and metallurgy works. He finds a second door in the south wall, and opens it to meet Blooberton shuffling into a kind of reading room. On a table in the room is a thick book called “Surviving the Interorbular Ether,” which he quickly ascertains as complex enough it could take a week for him to read. Instead, he opens the other two books and quickly pages through them, discovering that one of them is incoherent and clearly written by a madman, and the other seems to be a fairly lucid description of creatures on the sphere Necropoli Centauri.

Upstairs Root and Jermandry run out of ideas of things to throw into the fish pool, and take the elevator to the first dungeon level. They find themselves in a large room, with a door to the west and one to the south, an alcove to the north with five mirrors, and a lab space with tons of dissected animal and bird bodies – and one human. They move up to the mirror hall, where Jermandry stands with weapon readied as Root steps up and peers deeply into the northernmost mirror. The glass brightens, and then bursts – unable to resist, she falls back, face and upper body covered with serious burns. Jermandry runs back to the elevator shaft and shouts for help.

Zoltar and Blooberton had already descended to the lowest dungeon level. They had spent only a couple minutes browsing the Eldritch Library, which they found filled with scrolls about knots, books about alien creatures, and strange encyclopedias. Zoltar defeated a ghost in a hand of poker (a foregone conclusion for this Referee) in order to gain access, but they were uninterested in spending much time browsing the contents. At the very bottom of the tower, however, they found what they were looking for – over 40,000 silvers worth of gold and jewels!

Rushing back up to the first dungeon level, they perform first aid on Root and Blooberton washes her wounds, bringing her up to one hit point but leaving her still very exhausted and disoriented. The party then moves to the south door, and Blooberton rushes into the room, weapons readied.

The precaution is proven necessary when four cadavers, which had been resting in the prison Blooberton finds himself in, rush forward, shouting “FREE US!” and rending with vicious ectoplasmic claws. Blooberton crushes one with a single heavy blow, and Zoltar pushes forwards as Blooberton's shield and heavy armor ward off the corpse ghosts' blows. Root comments that these ghosts are irrational, as she can't save them if they try to kill her, but I as Ref said that it could be like how drowning people are liable to drown their rescuers in their panic. Despite these humanizing comments, the party has no trouble destroying the ghosts, although some of their lesser blows do annoyingly pass straight through, and the party stands triumphant in the long prison hallway.

First, they approach the strange fifteen-armed skeleton, visually inspecting it and fearing that it could jump up and attack them. It doesn't, and they take special note of the cobwebs spun throughout its bleached form.

Next, they gather around the fifth cadaver, which is dressed in rags and didn't attack when they entered the room. Blooberton moves forward and pokes it with his 10' pole. Unfortunately, nobody notices the cadaver's throat squirm before a large slug-thing leaps majestically from its mouth, aiming directly for Blooberton. Fortunately, he (somehow) ducks and the thing lands on the floor, and escapes into a drain before anyone can react.

Finally they return to the workshop room and examine a lab table with an intricate microscope, slides of red liquid, and a rack of red vials, similar to those in the freezer room. Jermandry decides that looking at the slides probably isn't a good idea, but he takes one of the vials to compare it to the freezer vials and see if they can figure out what's in them.

The group next opens the western door, finding hundreds of crates of strange bones, and a rope ladder hanging from a trapdoor in the ceiling. They decide that opening the crates won't be necessary, and split up again – Blooberton and Zoltar returning to Calcidius' bedroom to attempt an interrogation, while Jermandry and Root ascend to the fourth floor to compare vials.

Calcidius proves to be as unresponsive a subject as ever, his disposition being completely unchanged as the party makes various threats, like setting two of his metallurgy books on fire and describing plans to sell the Star Crystal, buy a bomb and bring the whole tower down. He says only that he'll bring their puny lives crashing down far more painfully than any explosion ever could, and tells them that sooner or later he'll be out of the circle, and then he'll string them up by their entrails.

On Level 5, the whole party turns to the cupola and its control panel, succeeding in opening the roof, extending the telescope, and retracting the lens. The fourth switch only causes a hum to start, but then stop after about thirty seconds. Zoltar peers through the telescope and watches strange creatures bop across an orange horizon under a fuchsia sky. They retract the lens but leave the roof open to the lightning-filled sky, and turn back to the fish pool.

Zoltar and Blooberton return to the workshop and pick up on. of the vials, planning to pour it onto the sewn-up cadaver there. To Zoltar's surprise, once he uncaps the vial, the pungent blood inside takes some kind of strange snake form and begins attacking, leaping past his head and glancing off Blooberton's partial medium armor. Their weapons are ineffectual, and Zoltar's attempts to set it alight with his torch are clumsy and the blood creature easily dodges them. Blooberton tries splashing it with water, to no effect. Zoltar then drops his blade and unfurls a burlap sack, and then – critical hit – scoops the blood up mid-air and ties shut the bag.

Jermandry and Root pick up a frozen vial, and hear Zoltar and Blooberton shouting up from the bottom of the tower not to open either one. Instead, they move to the top of the tower and throw each one into the fish pool, where they both dissolve – a black puff of smoke rising from where the blood burned.

Downstairs, Zoltar and Blooberton try throwing the wriggling bag of blood at one of the mirrors, but are disappointed when it fails to get blasted. They reunite with Jermandry and Root on the bottom level, where they begin trying out all possible combinations of the force-field machine.

After a couple pulls, Blooberton is shocked by a charged lever and begins manipulating them from afar with the 10' pole. However, none of the combinations result in any visible changes to the fields, and none of the party attempts anything other than a visual inspection, so after several dozen attempts they decide to grab the Star Crystal, the remaining china, the bottles of wine, the blood vials, and any books they can carry and flee. They also pause to unravel the gold thread from the cadaver, making short work of the “John Carpenter-esque” entrails which leap to the attack.

Final Thoughts

I'll post reviews of 52 Pages and Tower of the Stargazer tomorrow with more thoughts, but in short – I thought it worked pretty well. The players felt that their haul (the “obvious” treasure) was a tidy profit, even if it was only about 5-10% of what's in the module. Zoltar said that he would try hawking the stolen blood vials as a kind of instant attack device – definitely a novel solution – or else they could try to rig a contraption to get them to kill Calcidius. I liked that the tower actually supported a couple of different motivations – the players weren't just focused on the gold, but also were drawn into the mystery of the place's magic, technology, and especially the fish. 

Saving Throws

I've been dissatisfied with saving throws as normally presented for a while now, primarily because their progression curve is just so confusingly uneven - in LotFP, for example, they generally jump up by two every three levels, but sometimes it's three, and sometime's it's five. Secondly, the periodization - if saves are another method of making characters more survivable the more player time is invested in them, I'd prefer them to scale up in tandem with that time investment, rather than at every third level.

I also really liked Gus L.'s idea of decreasing Death Saves. It's a crutch that helps out starting characters but automatically falls away as they (and the player) gets more experience, it telegraphs the idea that you can't expect to be saved from the consequences of your mistakes as you keep playing, and finally, it works pretty well as an implied aging mechanic. 

So, thinking about it further, I decided to go with a four-save system - Body, Reflex, Mind, and Luck. The first three is the basic three-save system. Body protects you from poison and exhaustion. Reflex protects you from triggering traps. Mind is rolled against magical effects, both live and device-based. Luck is your "Save vs. Death."

Here's the basic progression:

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
Body	17	16	15	14	13	12	11		10		9		8		7		6		5
Reflex	14		13		12		11			10			9			8			7
Mind	15			14			13		12		11		10		9		8		7
Luck	8			9			10		11		12		13		14		15		16

In the same vein of a decreasing Luck score, I wanted each save to behave differently. All of them slow down after level 7, in keeping with the general idea of higher levels providing diminishing returns. (Originally I tried slowing down after level 10, but the progressions I used lined up better at level 7, with all four saves lining up for levels 7, 13, and 19.) 

Therefore, the Body save starts high and rapidly increases - +1 every level, followed by +1 every other level - reflecting your character starting a bit doughy but quickly becoming much tougher, in time to protect against the more powerful poisonous monsters they're likely to face at higher levels. 

Reflex starts high, but only gets +1 every other level, followed by +1 every third level. This way, you start out comparatively well-protected against traps, but it doesn't increase as quickly as the dangers you face - you'll be forced to rely more on your own wits and attention to your surroundings than the saving throw. 

Mind saves take the opposite tack - starting fairly high, but getting a +1 only every two levels at first, then increasing to +1 every other level. I wanted this to reflect the relative rarity of magic-using enemies in the early levels, but with an accelerating scale of improvement as they become harder for players to simply avoid. It also makes in-game sense to me, with the characters gaining better abilities to fight magical effects as they are brought in more direct contact with them.

Luck takes the same scale as Mind, but decreases. -1 every third level, then -1 every other level. 

With a basic progression figured out, I whipped up four specific save progressions:

	Lucky						Physical
Level	1	7	13	19		Level	1	7	13	19
Body	16	10	7	4		Body	14	8	5	2
Reflex	12	9	7	5		Reflex	13	10	8	6
Mind	14	12	9	6		Mind	16	14	11	8
Luck	6	8	11	14		Luck	8	10	13	16
	Divine					Arcane
Level	1	7	13	19		Level	1	7	13	19
Body	17	11	8	5		Body	15	9	6	3
Reflex	10	7	5	3		Reflex	15	13	11	9
Mind	15	13	10	7		Mind	12	10	7	4
Luck	9	11	14	17		Luck	10	12	15	18

Divine, of course, can be used for clerics, paladins, etc. Arcane gets applied to magic-users and illusionist types. Physical for fighter types. "Lucky" for thieves and halfling types. I'm working on a seven-class system for Veil, which applies the Lucky progression to the Pioneer (a frontier-styled Specialist), the Arcane to the Magus and the Illusionist, the Divine to Assassins and Clerics (due to Assassins being based on the original religious Hashishin order) and Physical to Fighters and Barbarians.