The Old Loot n'Shoot: Campaign Diary (+ Behind the Screen)

 So Haac!nss lies dead, the room is quiet, and the dust is settling. What now? Well, the players do what any player would do in this situation. They loot. They’ve all very much had a near death experience, but when the room’s empty you gotta do what you gotta do. They spend a few rounds taking back the gold they had paid to Haac!nss, along with several bottles of stolen beauty and as many art objects as their packs can carry. Then it’s time for a hasty exit. With more khaasta approaching, Ragados has the idea of breaking bottled beauty near them in order to cause chaos. With Hraparakk launching a few bottles into the no-man’s land between the barracks and the high-ups’ headquarters and beauty infecting several khaasta, chaos quickly ensues. The party finds a portal and escapes Naphraks without a further scratch. They evade the final parting javelins of the few pursuing khaasta and rush on to Crux, in the hope of some long overdue rest. M’narr conjures a mirror for 12-Bar on the way. Looking at his reflection, 12-Bar sees a creature somehow even less interesting than a modron. His heart sinks.

 

Crux is blissfully quiet. A trading outpost on the trunk of Yggdrasil, the heroes arrive and quickly cut through the local market to find a pub. Ragados just sits on a tree stump for a while in the market, slowing down and taking the world in. The birdsong, the smell of bread, the glance from a well-dressed blond man. In the local tavern meanwhile, M’narr is incredibly disappointed to find out the local landlord is a Githzerai. Just the last thing you want to have to deal with on a day like this. But the rooms are comfy enough. M’narr identifies a string of magic items before falling asleep still in his clothes. 12-Bar takes a bottle of beauty, tentatively opens it, and feels invigorated. He conjures a mirror, sees his restored looks, and smiles.

 

Downstairs in the tavern, 12-Bar and Ragados have a night off. 12-Bar rolls a natural 20 on his check to eat the beetle pate he ordered, and experiences flavours in great depth. The pale pink dip seems to be a combination of wine, vinegar, goats’ cheese, crushed beetle, and salt. Ragados has eaten a great deal of the same dip, but 12-Bar keeps his tasting notes to himself. The tanner pulls up a chair and rattles his bone box about whatever he can think of. Ragados beats the local blacksmith at an arm wrestle with ease, enjoying his new strength. Everyone’s in bed by 9pm.

 

The next morning at breakfast, the party hears shouting outside. The landlord curses and heads outside, with the party close behind. They see a ratatosk on the roof, frantically barking proclamations of death and doom…

 *    *    *    *

Very little for BTS this sesh, other than the common sense decision that it’s better for players to be involved in a ratatosk disturbance rather than to just hear about it second-hand. This chapter of Dead Gods is generally awful for hooking the players into the adventure, but more on that next post! Going off the content in the adventure, the screaming rooftop ratatosk seemed more ominous than the mutilated body (especially given what happens in chapter 3). So have the ratatosk appear when the players are in town.

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