[Playtest Campaign] 1st of December, 2010-

Ymyk used the mechanical bow taken from the Xarj' corpse that Tybylt had fetched after his hideous near-petrification event last session. Although his physical strength isn't high, Ymyk has the equivalent to the GW mutation 'Heightened Strength', which adds a flat +3d6 to all melee damage he does. I have also allowed him, at times, to simply add 3d6 to his various prowess-related rolls to simulate the idea of his great strength. Anywho, this bow adds an additional 3d6, an the javelin-like projectiles do 1d10 each, for a whopping 6d6+1d10 (07 | 26.5 | 46) points of damage. This proved instrumental in the upcoming fight with these things.

Tybylt decided to investigate a malign-looking metal torch the party had picked up earlier in the weird complex (in a vast jungle, under lavender skies) and discovered that its operation required the immersion of the crown in blood. With handy fallen baddies nearby, and after a bit of jumping up and down on the cadavers, said blood was procured and the item (after the undisclosed command word was uttered) spouted a blood-red flame in which the writhing souls of the deceased could bee seen. This fell arcane light was shed to 30' and looked like rivulets of blood in water, and proved effective in countering the effects of The Void in which the citadel was located (behind the mean/nasty door that had led Tyb to the petrification trap he only narrowly escaped).
--Armed with this, the group left their +/- Lightning followers behind, and moved on to retrieve Tybylt's two fey daughters. Coming to one of the many portculli in the citadel's wall, they looked through and saw Khark and Kaukara humans dressed in very little clothing going about their business. I made it clear that this was a caste society, and that many of the porters showed signs of early and frequent flogging; their backs carven with scourge scars.

The party, stealthy as ever, lasso the lever and let themselves in, at which point, one said slave backs away without drawing attention to anyone else, namely the four-armed 12-15'-tall critters. Sadly, that didn't last, as one of the creatures spotted them and moved forward to investigate/hold the choke-point. I rolled for CiCi's behaviour and she lobbed an alchemical firebomb at it and scored a direct hit, but the spatter caught a noble-woman's gossamer 'dress' alight and surprise was utterly lost.
--Although there were four of these creatures, and each had 4 attacks per Round, I was not rolling well, and the party was, and the four were quickly neutralised.
---Horns were sounded throughout the citadel.

Spellcasters cast at the party and Mela was bedazzled by the pretty blue lightning bugs she saw, and was out of commission for three or so Rounds. During all of the fighting, Ashta had pressed on, always looking for a fight, while everyone else was still controlling the gateway of the portcullis, being badasses.
--A glittering whirlwind of chert and gypsum shards would have made short work of Tybylt, but we rolled off to see if his Shield spell was effective, and his player won that Round. His action was to grab the female caster's imp or whatever (that was the one actually casting the spell) and fling it away, upon which time Ymyk shot and slew it.

A shield wall of heavy infantry blocked off the street they were nearest and poked poisoned spears through the wall for added effect.
--A Round or two later, a 'rhino-rider' smashed through the shield wall and used his flaming segmented sword to attack the force-field enshrouded Darius, who took about 30 points, but transmitted about twelve electrical back along the weapon and ticked the rider off. More importantly, Tybylt cast Sleep on the steed and it took a nap, but the rider was able to jump off without getting pinned under it. He didn't last too long: First a Bleeding (Condition Three) leg wound, then enough wallop to KO him.

The party again asked for the two fae-girls, and a few minutes later, down the two streets that hug the citadel's walls, came two litters preceded by scribes and virgins carrying bowls of lit incense, and made their way to the area in which the party had entered, and stayed (hoping to demonstrate that they were not invaders, but merely interested in collecting what was theirs).
--Each street procession was attended by a temple representative carried upon a litter. On the right was a bald man with a bright red chevron painted upon each side of his head and wearing a necklace of large gilded wooden links. He was accompanied by an Undead man thickly covered in aromatic resin. This individual (clearly a reasoning being) acted as the priest's representative and addressed Tybylt, asking him to accompany them back to the temple for a feast. At roughly the same time, down the left street came a reddish-brown haired woman wearing a solid (green) jade torc. She was represented by a perfectly symmetrical and flawlessly beautiful nude woman. Tybylt was forced to attempt a Control (Spells) Critical Test (due to her unearthly beauty and the lust it provoked) and just succeeded.
---The Undead and this Symmetrical Woman both spoke via some sort of translating magic, and both spoke of their patron's respective temple (The Devouring Worm, and The Golden Goddess), and I made certain to demonstrate that their source language was significantly different than anything they'd ever heard before, with only Ymyk understanding one word in ten of untranslated speech. Tybylt, much to the Horse-archer's protests, accepted the invitation to the feast, and was encouraged to hear that the girls were still intact and could be traded for, and slaves were offered but instantly refused, with brief mention that they had battled slavers. This was translated back to the priest of the Devouring Worm by a scribe who had not been addressed by the priest. After receiving the impertinent informant's info., the priest smacked the other's head sending him to the ground, whereupon he was speared by at least three guards in the procession.

Following the priest's procession (they would have been carried upon shoulders, but all refused, and those kicked away by Ymyk were also slain by the guards for failing to please the 'demons' --as the PCs were addressed). The central plaza contained a cubic temple decorated with electric blue and electrum-inlain murals of the dragon-headed Devouring Worm, replete with images of wailing corpses and undead falling from his maw and clawed hands as he writhed in and out of the ground of the surrounding jungle countryside. The Golden Goddess' temple was a tall, stylised phallus atop an irregular-faced dais.

The party entered the temple of the Devouring Worm where they were asked to kindly extinguish their blood torch. Tybylt asked for blood to re-ignite it, and a temple virgin girl was slain on the spot and her blood collected in a golden bowl. The players were dismayed, and my SO, Tybylt's player's sister, made a comment about morality as did Ymyk's player, to which Tyb's replied that having already died once and his spirit being used to power a Dryvv Shadowdrive craft, there wasn't much worse he thought could happen in an afterlife. I laughed knowingly and we proceeded. The party saw that the priestess of the Golden Goddess and her retinue entered from an underground passage on the side nearest their temple.
--Within the rather large structure were hundreds of face-painted adherents, dragon-masked warriors, undead, and other monsters, including upright reptilian warriors, some of whom sported maces at their tail tips (this starting to sound familiar yet?). These reptilian warriors demonstrated feats of strength by fighting amongst themselves in mock combat with their wickedly curved and serrated longswords, and then fought 7-8' tall powerfully-built humans in dragon-motif armour > wink < who invariably lost the fight and were torn, limb-from-limb as the party either sat or stood at the banquet table (only Mela partook of the fare and found it richly flavoured: for example, long-grain and wild rice with blanched almonds and currants, mixed with cinnamon and slivers of mango-like fruit). Eventually the two fae-girls were brought out, and Ahni (the eldest of the three girls) Jaunted to the stage and attempted to save her favourite of the two (Vania), but was prevented from doing so by one of the lesser Worm priests.
---Ymyk took that cue to shoot the man, but suffered half of the damage as both he and his target saw that the 'arrow' occupied both places simultaneously before disappearing in a flash. This, however, was enough to disrupt the psychie/spell, at which point Ahni Jaunted back with Vania and urged their father to ingest the Shadow Travel potion he had received directly from Lord Shadow. The chief priest then cast a mass Hold spell, and only Mela saved, but had to burn through two DP to be able to act and re-ignite the torch by lifting the bowl of blood to the item and encanting the command word. Rather than leaving one of his daughters behind, Tybylt used his new combination of Levitation and his Shadow mysteries to pick up the cage in which the third (we've forgotten her name) was held. There was a moment where all looked lost, but as the priestess of the GG and her retinue departed, one dispelled the priest's Hold spell and the party dipped by falling into Tybylt's shadow. There were shots fired and a few characters took hits, but not enough to '86 them. He left last and made certain they weren't being followed.

They emerged, not in Shadow, but back at the canal in the underground gypsum city of the Lightning Undead. They navigated the marketplace after purchasing a few grounding staves, and DiDi'd back to the still-cloaked Aelbaan craft (outlined nicely by the rain).
--We held it there. The secondary characters (and Ymyk) each received about 4500 Adventure Points, and the Primaries one half that much. A few were close to matriculating to the next higher Magnitude, but were still at least 1k or so away.

[Playtest Campaign] Down, down, down, and the flames grew higher...-

(c) Copyright Kyrinn S. Eis All Rights Reserved

After surviving the tentacular horror that erupted from the Qerzyk sewers; the fire-storm from the docks; and the run-in with the Hierophantic Church wizard, the parties have decided to stay together in their Kherstic League assigned exploration of the Undercity. Some of the party went to ask for the improved armour and weapons for their larger force, and had a funny series of vignettes with the K-League personnel: From the ore-cart 'train' operator and their crash at the end of the line; the snobbish subterranean terrarium 'Druids'; the distracted Armoury clerk who was reading a colour comic book; the shipping and fulfilment workers in the shop; and the interaction with the less than delicate war veteran NPC, Byllys. The hydraulic freight elevator was operated by tiny green humanoids clearly well-integrated to Kherstic League.

A continuation of events in previous sessions involving human Spacers encountering difficulty upon reaching Urutsk was had just as the characters emerged with their gear being loaded onto wagons and carriages.
My fiction and games tend to be rather bitter-sweet and in this scene, three survivors were aloft in some sort of sail-'chute gondola, and through the use of Clairvoyance, and then Clairaudience, one of the party members came to understand that of the three occupants, one had died of his wounds, a second felt he was too badly injured to make the attempt to 'ditch' the craft, and he suggested to the woman, that she take the entire potion, rather than the two of them likely not receiving the benefit at all. She imbibed the entire potion, bade him farewell, mentioned 'to the 909th', and made her leap. The woman glided, and used a sash to brake and finally landed not far from where the party ran to meet her. She was then asked a few questions, before being picked up by a Kherstic envoy.

With the 20 veteran Men-at-Arms now wearing cold-cast platemail, and bearing polearms and longswords, the party re-entered the formerly hidden surface entrance. They quickly re-searched the areas they had previously fought a (troll) and six (ghouls). They failed to spot a secret door. BTW, I am using Christopher B.'s Cold Mountain dungeon map, and the players so totally screwed up their mapping so as to make it pointless for them to continue.
Things were weird for them as they encountered nothing but guard posts and torture chambers, clearly hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. However, by the time the entered the second troop barracks, I had successfully lulled them into complacency. Animated corpses, superficially akin to Sons of Kyuss began to appear from the overturned cots and tables. Ceanek (Cici) throw an alchemical fire-bomb, and once the worms began to take damage, their shrill cries subjected the party (including Kitty, the bear) to a Control (Spells) Critical Test and all but two of the characters failed it -- including the cursing M-a-A's. As the affected ran back up[ the stairs, into the first barrack, the cries alerted the critters in that room. At first sight of them, the affected fled down the side corridor, and ran into the Armoury. Once behind the thick door which dulled the sound, the party present were freed of the effect. I am using the three dots on Chris' map as murder holes (it doesn't need to make much sense), and with one good strike, Ashta smashed through the thin stone with a mattock, revealing the 20x20 room that cuts into the Armoury. I placed a psychic Lift Shaft there, and soon that lot began fiddling about with its operation and made an initial reconnoitre of the next higher level (which they realised 'ought' to be at street level).

Cici and the psychic (sounds like '70's sit-com) briefly did what they thought would help, but it was to no avail. Cici was separated between the two barracks, in the parallel corridor. She tried to use her Turning ability, but the fear did not permit that. She settled on throwing a bomb on either side of her down the corridor, and settled in for meditation. Her mace allows her to 'power-up' the +1 to Hit/+2 to Damage weapon by +1/+1 for every full five of her Dodge Points invested in the weapon. We had already discussed that if all of her points were invested, though her body die, her spirit would remain in the weapon. Cici did so, and found herself at the hilltop monastery, on the perpetually mist-shrouded stone bridge. She saw herself as a scared little girl, and eventually took her hand and guided her through the mist. Cici came out of meditation clear of the effect, and immune to it for the remainder of the encounter, and all but 5 DPs still invested in the mace.
Renewed, she was able to turn the lot of critters pounding on the armoury door (I gave her that boost), and she was able to enter the Armoury and join the others.

They discover that while Kitty was cowering at the base of the stairs that lead to the kennel, that it was occupied by Worg who exhibited at least human-level intelligence when contacted by the psychic. The beasts were trying to tunnel to their food source, but the stone was too thick.
Up a level, the characters proceed down a corridor until Ashta realises that it is made of ship metal (the weapons had been identified as full metal (as opposed to alloys or metalloids), now rare on Urutsk), and that something 'odd' was up ahead. The psychic decided to reach out and was contacted by an organic AI which instantly identified him as being other than fully Human, and fired at him but missed --the mechanism being so old and all... ;) Delver, the Western Isles Vrun lesser noble who had continued to change more toward his Aelbaan ancestry after using several doses of Mummy Dust from their first group adventure, was the next to be attacked. His Energy Reflection aberration manifest, and the LASER was disabled by its own beam.

Further down the same corridor they came to a heavy sliding door with no obvious controls. Tybalt cast his Jaunt spell and hopped to the other side of the door.
The Men-at-Arms got bored and started taunting the undead to fall into the shaft, while others tinkered with the hatch the LASER had lowered from. Mela Mela, the apothecary, clambered up once the Grogs had spent four hours dismantling it from its lowered base. Thousands of spiders (the player shivered in disgust) fled from her torch light and allowed her to creep along the conduit until she could see into a room in which Tybalt, three other Humans,an Aelbaan (they'd not yet met one), and a bipedal insectoid with tech gear on its harness were frozen in a shimmering electrical stasis field in what looked like a brig.
Mela reported this to the party and they then fiddled with the door frame until a stream of the liquid-like energy could be seen. When Cici cut the stream with a dagger, she exploded and coated the party with her tiny chunks of gore. But-- the psychic paid his points and we instead wound back the tape to that moment. I gave him and her an Initiative roll, and he won, saving her life.

They then retreated down the other side of the corridor, past the Lift Shaft, and they decided to fire an arrow into it instead. 10d6, and 36 points of electrical damage later, half of the M-a-A's were at 0, the others dead, and the party badly wounded (3/4 made their save for 18). Byllys was one of the hardier ones and was still up, and began resuscitating those of his brothers he could while the party downed 1d6+3 healing potions and with remnants, tried to revive as many of the fighters as possible.

Meanwhile, the field had dropped, and the insectoid began to attack one of the humans. The Aelbaan began trying to tear the bug's head off, and was assisted in attacking the creature by one of the others. Tybalt seemed stunned (his player, actually) and didn't participate in time before the Aelbaan had accomplished his mission. The other human was dead, having been fed upon.
The Aelbaan began speaking in its language, then using its psychic powers to boss folks around as they forced the partially open door.

The party reunited, bolstered by the other humans (an Yirinn, and a Kaukara, both male), and all were bossed about by the Aelbaan who recognised that both Delver and Ashta have diluted kindred blood.

We held it there at 1:40 AM.