1d6 rumours for Pithole Village, 200209
When a PC's in a position to learn about something on the list, I'll choose or roll a rumour. These are generally hooks I've prepped so I have a sense of where the session's adventure could go.
1. Omnipotent Dream of All Knowledge asks the best of scholars takes the most from them, waxing philosophical on critical matters, ie, merits of grain of sand. to be asked is a damning honour
winding staircase to Flamingo-guarded portal; labyrinth and Omni encounter; he'll want Svarku taken care of
2. definite sounds of metal tools on rock coming forth from the Pit. The clanging of picks in stone, the squeaking of pulleys. Knotsmen ascent in search of Badict and compensation for their debt
Knotsmen led by a Bailiff emerge in the shadows to demand recompense, a litany of names felled by the group, esp Zain and Ferris. surprised to find Badict and will insist he return to Forclose to honour his debt to the Knotsmen ruler (not sure who this is exactly, could use City of the Carreg for the city though)
3. Nightmares of the Nightmare-God, the Aelf-Adal Prophet who brought their proto form below. Come in search and meet the God in the Cursed Chateau
meet Aelf-Adal and ask for guidance to the Cursed Chateau; rock maze carved and twisted, no invisible wall. Fonda will allow you, after all, Zain gave his tongue, but she's still waiting on the Radiolarian's husk she was promised
4. Melifluous boar sounds heard in the forest, the singing of curious operas, and hooves crunching glass
Same dungeon as before — the party passed by, and broke the stained glass, couple of hunters have been killed by boar magic. The Sorcerer's Feast (pdf), which they never explored.
5. More fire oil is coming into Pithole Village from Zalzidan, some local youths burn a hovel, Badict's worried he could be next
it's b/x fire oil that ignites on impact, buyable from the youths at 2x price, or sourceable south in Zalzidar. This connects to the Man From Before (pdf) Trilemma adventure featuring Nibolcus.
6. Entropus wants to rescue Drezzta from a pocket prison up in the Hole in the Sky
might buff up some creatures for this but run it on the fly as best as possible.
Prep notes
I've been running an OSR campaign for about 18 sessions now, and I want to share my thinking on prepping, running the game, and homebrew old school roleplaying in general. This is an exercise for me to collect my thoughts and clarify my own thinking that I've decided to make public.
A short history of the campaign so far: We began with Old School Essentials, running a pretty straightforward B/X game. We were using maps and tokens at that time, as per one player's stated preference. Given some of the OSE fiddliness, esp. w/r/t the Thief class (a topic for another time, perhaps), that same player pitched switching the game to Knave, a compact OSR ruleset with more unified, streamlined mechanics, intended as a toolkit with which to develop the ongoing campaign. So, we switched, and found Knave accomodating. Alas, this player soon left the campaign, and we brought on two others in his stead. At this same time, we switched to theatre of the mind style play, again, as per player request.
Further, to note, we play on discord by voice and use roll20 as a virtual tabletop. We play weekly on Sundays.
Along the way, we've done some grasslands and forest wilderness encounter stuff, straight out of OSE, saw much of the Hole in the Oak, explored the Veins of the Earth, delved the Buried Pyramid of the Undergod (pdf), and denounced the Coming of Sorg (pdf). We've seen several PCs die and one be resurrected as a living skeleton.
The campaign is a sandbox, and I'm trying to be responsive to the players' actions and desires. We're playing without a unified map, given the discontinuous travel we've had so far — the Veins are three dimensional and thus tough to map, and the party has also been teleported to a desert and back by a powerful entity. The desert has an entrance to the Veins as well but the party doesn't know it yet.
So, given the party has completed a recent mini adventure and has several threads open and available to them, I'm not sure what they're going to want to pursue. I've built a rumour table, above, with some commentary to stoke my thinking, but I'm concerned about the Knotsmen in the Pit. If the party wants to descend to find the Aelf-Adal, they're almost certain to encounter the Knotsmen. Maybe that's okay, but I'm trying not to force their hand much.
I've formalized some roll20 procedures to make encounter setup the process of a few clicks. I can roll a check, and if it triggers, roll distance, surprise, and a secret reaction roll all together. I think this will be handy because I've often left off this facet in recent sessions, and it contributes a lot to the messy chaos — and beautiful syncrhonicities — of old school play.
Another thread that has been discussed at the table but is not reflected in the above prep is the Dvargir's possession of a potent arcane artefact, the exocharged amethyst. I've developed a not-necessarily-coherent dungeon for the Dvargir to inhabit, and I suppose I could drop it at the bottom, or somewhere stranger still. The Aelf-Adal might even help the party steal it as their war with the Dvargir is eternal. The Buried Pyramid — to which the party has access, thanks to a magic item Entropus bestowed upon them — might contain a route to the Dvargir works, as I'd set up a crack earlier.
Part of the trouble is wanting to use ideas but not knowing which way the party is going to turn. They've been interested in the religious aspects, so I've leaned into Entropus, Prospero, and now the Aelf-Adal Nightmare-God. Had I not thought to reskin Cursed Chateau (still not clear how that will go, but it could work I think) I have no idea what I would have done for that encounter. This module ought to provide the zaniness and fear theme I'm looking for with only mild work to change the flavour.
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