Blazing Sands campaign diary #5: Out of the frying pan

We last left our heroes standing outside the entrance to the lost city of Kabir. In this week's session, they entered what is essentially a merger of a city and the mountain. There were streets, courtyards and homes, but everything had become a part of the mountain.

Immediately they spotted several faceless creatures covered in whorl scars "feasting" on serpentfolk. A very quick combat encounter ensued with the shaman fireballing most of them.

They opened a stone door to see a courtyard full of these faceless stalkers, along with two huge hulking stalkers. Let's just say it got pretty hairy for the party until Younis cast Wall of Nausea on the bottleneck, causing some of the enemies to start throwing their guts up, falling to their hands and knees.

It was starting to become apparent that the legend of Kabir may have been only half the story.

#AprilTTRPGMaker day two - where am I?

Wasn't sure whether to answer this existentially or not.

I'm based in the city of Leeds, England - one of the bigger cities in the north of the country, but a stone's throw away from vast areas of natural beauty like the Yorkshire Dales.

Since December I exchanged the bright lights and sirens of the centre for a house in a quiet suburb just outside of it. I live here with my fiance and new cat.

#AprilTTRPGMaker day one - who am I?

Kira Magrann is doing this thing so I thought I'd join in.

I'm the ghost piloting the meat cage that is Scott Malthouse, currently a 30 year old game designer (by night) and PR pro (by day). I've created quite a few games and supplements, starting with Tunnels and Trolls adventures, before writing the Unbelievably Simple Roleplaying system, which has fed into several of my games, in addition to some great third party material. I also created Quill - the solo letter-writing roleplaying game, English Eerie, In Darkest Warrens, Wired Neon Cities, Astounding Interplanetary Adventures, Romance of the Perilous Land, Tequendria and more.

If you've never seen my fleshy visage, I give you this image:

Things I fudging love: weird fiction, metal, folklore, comics (non-supers), sword and planet, autumn, Nintendo, Universal Monsters, and Godzilla movies.

Blazing Sands campaign diary #4 - black suns rising

We've reached the third act of the campaign - Ashana the Genie binder led the PCs on a five day desert hike to the Sakran mountains. On the way I obviously had to throw a Death Worm at them. They suffered a couple of acid hits, but they came out on top.

The mountain pass was treacherous - they found a group of serpentfolk undertaking some sort of rite and firebombed the shit out of them. One of the creatures kept mentioning the 'faceless ones'. After the fight they found a number of rock carvings depicting strange winged visitors, two black suns and a strange city.

Some of you will immediately know where this is heading.

There was also a carving of a door flanked by two balls of fire.

They ventured further up the mountain until they reached a cave, into which they delved. At the end was a big stone door flanked by two sconces. On the door was written the words: "Strange is the night where black stars rise, and strange moons circle through the skies".

They lit the sconces and the doors slowly grinded open.

Blazing Sands campaign diary #3: the Ivory City

A three week game break can take you out of it, but last night's session was great.

The party arrived in the Ivory City with the Sunriders. Kiri offered them a batch of Seer's Tea to help them make an important decision in the future. She imoressimon them NOT DRINK THE TEA - IT'S POISON. So, yeah, they're clearly going to try and poison someone at some point.

After some asking around (remember, they're trying to find the genie binder before the Black Viper) , they were led into a dingy folk market she often frequented. One of the sellers gave her location as the Hashin district - a deprived area where crime is rampant.

After reaching the district they asked a street urchin to lead then to her, which he obliged. Amir noticed he was looking a little shifty and realised he was likely a pickpocket leading them on a wild goose chase. After threatening the kid, he took them directly to the binder's door before leaving.

Out of the shadows stepped five dark figures. As Amir was the only one to have lived in the Ivory City, he had an inkling these could be the legendary Holy Slayers assassins. The fight was fierce, Younis managing to both trip and blind one of the slayers, while making another attack his friend through a paranoia spell. 

When all were dead, Razeem found a piece of paper on one of the assassins containing descriptions of the party. Someone had hired the slayers to find and kill them. 

The binder wasn't answering the door, so they broke in and found her hiding in a cupboard. She recognised Amir and Razeem and dropped her guard. After they explained she was being sought by the Black Viper and that the lost city of Kafabi was tied to this somehow, she insisted they go to the lost city. She's been training to bind a genie since she escaped the same cult as Amir and Razeem and she believes a powerful one still lives in Kafabi. This followed a great argument in the party about playing into the hands of the Black Viper but in the end they decided it was the right course. 

That night they left the city under the cover of darkness. 

Fortressmaze: Those who worship the eyes of Thamic

The Cathedral of Thamic takes up a good quarter of the first floor of Fortressmaze. Wrought first by the dwarven stonemasons of the Black Obelisk (ancient bad cult who literally worshipped a piece of rock), the cathedral was taken over by the Brothers of Thamic in a brutal miniature crusade. The Obelisk was reshaped as a sculpture depicting the Brothers' victory over the dwarves. Touching the sculpture heals 1d6+1 of HP and ability damage once per hour.

The Brothers of Thamic worship their god Thamic, a mummified beholder whose latent powers still pop to life every now and again, casting a 'blessing' on its congregation (the blessing being getting annihilated by an eye ray). The Blessing of Thamic doesn't have a set schedule (those who investigate will find a worm parasite living in the beholder that randomly triggers this).

Thamic sits in a dark room smelling of mustard. Only the Great Thod (a high bishop) may address Thamic and it is the Thod who oversees the blessings. Thod claims Thamic speaks to him, giving him orders to continue their crusade against the other denizens of the dungeon. Lately the target has been the Dream Kobolds of the East (brought to life by a dragon's dream - more on this in another post).

A giant organ in the cathedral is haunted by the ghost of the first blessed who often plays it (and is particularly protective of its organ, lashes out at anyone touching it).

The Brothers of Thamic are decorated with jewelled eyes, with eyes also painted on their faces. The more eyes you have, the higher up in the order you are.

Note that there ARE beholders deeper in the Fortressmaze and if the Brothers should meet one they would welcome a fiery doom (apart from the Great Thod, who knows Thamic is a load of bullshit).