Headhunters! (part 2)
Aug. 21st, 2006 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
subplotkudzu
So the game yesterday went as well as I could hope given that two of the players were missing and there were very few NPCs for me to try to force some semblance of staying in character. The big problem came with too much historical verisimilitude.
At this point the PCs are Captain Fasaad (Karen's Ranger/Fighter, a Taureg Tribeswoman who uses her culture's custom of men wearing a blue veil to pose as a man, and has become a legendary ships captain ala Sinbad) and her crew - her best friend Khalil (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
netcurmudgeon's bard, NPCd this session), the young merchant Haroun (ashacat's Rogue/Wizard, also NPC'd this session), and Hiawang, the strange Asian herbalist they'd picked up when a Roc had deposited them in Java some months back (kriz1818's Monk). Also along are their native guide Jamal (John's Barbarian, who is actually the next chief of the Armec tribe) and Chazmine, the daughter of Haroun's current trading partner who used a magical hairpin to disguise herself as a man and come along for the adventure (Christina's Rogue).
In the last session Fasaad was recruited by Feruzi, Haroun's trading partner, to look into the appearance of several magical gems and precious items that had appeared in Eritrea lately, which he fears are coming from a lost city in the jungle that Zoroastrian fire worshippers (not looked upon kindly by their the Muslim Eritreans or the Christian Ethiopians) are looting. Fasaad agree to look into it and takes his crew, some of Feruzi's porters (including the disguised Chazmine) and Jamal the guide (who knows it's the homeland his tribe was driven from a century ago that is the source of these relics, but he's not sharing that yet) into the jungle by way of the river - the Daud is enchanted to be able to traverse any waterway, no matter how small. Along they way they deal with crocodiles, a birthing of hundreds of giant spiders, discerning Chazmine's true identity and a group that they strongly suspect to be Zoroastrian Fire Worshipers.
This last conflict lets them rescue to members of Jamal's tribe from the Zoroastrian's control - one heads into the jungle to get vengeance on the Zoroastrians who fled, the other is still incapacitated by spider venom and is taken along - Charity being a pillar or Islam after all. They eventually reach the end of the line in Lake Nagoya and know that they'll have to travel on foot from there. The heroes easily determine that the logs floating around their ship are crocodile sand disperse them with some rocks before heading off with the porters, leaving the NPC crew of the Daud to keep watch on her.
The next day they encounter some head-hunters, and that fight went as well as I could have hoped. These are, of course, head-hunters are described by someone who had heard the term but had no idea what they were except that the came from deepest Africa - hence they were headless men with faces on their chest who hacked off their enemies heads and wore them on their shoulders to steal their skills and knowledge. This is not just classic but suitably icky, and the players had a grand time telling friend from foe and tracking down the head of one of their party members that had been chopped off but was still alive thanks to the head-hunter's magic. (that's right, we had spring for the"magical talking head" special effect.) Said head-hunters were fighting members of the Armec tribe, and therefore Jamal immediately got the group involved - as if they wouldn't have been anyway.
Poor Khalil, being an NPC, was hit by a Lockjaw spell fro the Nyambe: African Adventures sourcebook that makes him mute for several days, but that paled before Haroun's "head chopped off" problem. Haroun had been guarding Chazmine away from the fight, and the young rogue had to run through the woods after Haroun's bouncing head ("I think that's an important item to have") hot on the heels of the head-hunter who had removed it. She used her disguising gem to look like a head-hunter and managed to grab it first, causing her adversary to run back to the fight in a huff and tell the witch doctor that someone had stolen his head. Waaaah!
Of course, Fasaad and company were making short work of the head-hunters, and Jamal had already done an enraged power attack critical with a war ax (3d12+27, you don't see that every day), and Fasaad had taken off after their fleeing chief, leading to a desperate battle that Chazmine witnessed (but not Haroun's head, as he had been put down facing the other way) and assisted in - seeing Fasaad without her veil and becoming the only person other than Khalil in on Fasaad's secret.
Once the fight was over they gathered up all their allies bodies and heads they made best possible speed to the Armec camp, given Jamal's statement that their witch-doctor would be able to reverse the decapitation, something Haroun's head was very happy about. The witch doctor succeeds for Haroun and most of the men, and the Armec's losses are limited to 2 - pretty good considering how bad it could have been. In true Minimizing the NPCd players fashion Haroun is suffering from laryngitis from t eh scar and Khalil is still mute from he lockjaw, and will be till next session.
Dinner at the Armec's revealed the next plot coupon - the location of the Elephants Graveyard , and the story of how this tribe fled from there a hundred years ago. Classic Arabian nights meets Indiana Jones tropes with the big feast in t heir honor. In one very funny bit the players root through Haroun's bag of magical trinkets to find something to give as a guest gift to the tribal chief, settling on Haroun's remaining 5 dragon teeth (Each acts as a Summon Monster IV). For the rest of the session Haroun kept pointing out "you know what would be helpful here? Dragon teeth." so which Captain Fasaad replied "you like your head?"
So the next morning off into the jungle again for the trek to the EG, and with lots of lost world imagery and grand vistas of throne-shaped volcanoes and planes of bone and ivory in the hidden valley. A nice Harryhausen battle with an assassin vine where they distracted it with a fireball and ran, and then a lovely scene with them facing off the harpies that act as scavengers in the graveyard - helpful because two of the "men" in the party are actually disguised women and therefore immune to harpy song (I know it's not in the rules, but still). Hiawang was able to shrug off the effect, but Jamal, who had been dominating fights thus far, was out of the picture with several bad saves. The players perfectly accepted the vulture women with the statement that they were women cursed by the gods for infanticide - some gods then used them as agents of vengeance, some just left them in their cursed state (depending on how frugal the god is, I suspect). Hiawang got to strut his stuff by repeatedly stunning and pummeling one harpy, while Chazmine alternate threw knives and at and hid from a second and Fasaad killed one and drive Chazmine's off with sword and bow.
After that midnight victory they spent the next day searching around, eventually discerning the location of the tribe's old temple and the glorious fertility of the thick volcanic soil. Before they can get to close to it, there is a rumble of the ground, then another one, and the learned PCs all turn to look at the volcano to see if it's preparing to erupt. Nope - it's the Tyrannosaur closing in on them from behind! And that's where we end the session...
... With the players saying "a T-Rex? Well that's just not logical. What is one of those doing here?" Sure, head-hunters, assassin vines and harpies, those are fine, but Dinosaurs? oh who's gonna buy that?
This is what I get for giving them reasons why things exist. It's not worth the effort some days. Still, it's nice to be able to use a module I cut out of Dungeon Magazine some 17 years ago. OK, now I feel old.
At this point the PCs are Captain Fasaad (Karen's Ranger/Fighter, a Taureg Tribeswoman who uses her culture's custom of men wearing a blue veil to pose as a man, and has become a legendary ships captain ala Sinbad) and her crew - her best friend Khalil (
netcurmudgeon's bard, NPCd this session), the young merchant Haroun (ashacat's Rogue/Wizard, also NPC'd this session), and Hiawang, the strange Asian herbalist they'd picked up when a Roc had deposited them in Java some months back (kriz1818's Monk). Also along are their native guide Jamal (John's Barbarian, who is actually the next chief of the Armec tribe) and Chazmine, the daughter of Haroun's current trading partner who used a magical hairpin to disguise herself as a man and come along for the adventure (Christina's Rogue). In the last session Fasaad was recruited by Feruzi, Haroun's trading partner, to look into the appearance of several magical gems and precious items that had appeared in Eritrea lately, which he fears are coming from a lost city in the jungle that Zoroastrian fire worshippers (not looked upon kindly by their the Muslim Eritreans or the Christian Ethiopians) are looting. Fasaad agree to look into it and takes his crew, some of Feruzi's porters (including the disguised Chazmine) and Jamal the guide (who knows it's the homeland his tribe was driven from a century ago that is the source of these relics, but he's not sharing that yet) into the jungle by way of the river - the Daud is enchanted to be able to traverse any waterway, no matter how small. Along they way they deal with crocodiles, a birthing of hundreds of giant spiders, discerning Chazmine's true identity and a group that they strongly suspect to be Zoroastrian Fire Worshipers.
This last conflict lets them rescue to members of Jamal's tribe from the Zoroastrian's control - one heads into the jungle to get vengeance on the Zoroastrians who fled, the other is still incapacitated by spider venom and is taken along - Charity being a pillar or Islam after all. They eventually reach the end of the line in Lake Nagoya and know that they'll have to travel on foot from there. The heroes easily determine that the logs floating around their ship are crocodile sand disperse them with some rocks before heading off with the porters, leaving the NPC crew of the Daud to keep watch on her.
The next day they encounter some head-hunters, and that fight went as well as I could have hoped. These are, of course, head-hunters are described by someone who had heard the term but had no idea what they were except that the came from deepest Africa - hence they were headless men with faces on their chest who hacked off their enemies heads and wore them on their shoulders to steal their skills and knowledge. This is not just classic but suitably icky, and the players had a grand time telling friend from foe and tracking down the head of one of their party members that had been chopped off but was still alive thanks to the head-hunter's magic. (that's right, we had spring for the"magical talking head" special effect.) Said head-hunters were fighting members of the Armec tribe, and therefore Jamal immediately got the group involved - as if they wouldn't have been anyway.
Poor Khalil, being an NPC, was hit by a Lockjaw spell fro the Nyambe: African Adventures sourcebook that makes him mute for several days, but that paled before Haroun's "head chopped off" problem. Haroun had been guarding Chazmine away from the fight, and the young rogue had to run through the woods after Haroun's bouncing head ("I think that's an important item to have") hot on the heels of the head-hunter who had removed it. She used her disguising gem to look like a head-hunter and managed to grab it first, causing her adversary to run back to the fight in a huff and tell the witch doctor that someone had stolen his head. Waaaah!
Of course, Fasaad and company were making short work of the head-hunters, and Jamal had already done an enraged power attack critical with a war ax (3d12+27, you don't see that every day), and Fasaad had taken off after their fleeing chief, leading to a desperate battle that Chazmine witnessed (but not Haroun's head, as he had been put down facing the other way) and assisted in - seeing Fasaad without her veil and becoming the only person other than Khalil in on Fasaad's secret.
Once the fight was over they gathered up all their allies bodies and heads they made best possible speed to the Armec camp, given Jamal's statement that their witch-doctor would be able to reverse the decapitation, something Haroun's head was very happy about. The witch doctor succeeds for Haroun and most of the men, and the Armec's losses are limited to 2 - pretty good considering how bad it could have been. In true Minimizing the NPCd players fashion Haroun is suffering from laryngitis from t eh scar and Khalil is still mute from he lockjaw, and will be till next session.
Dinner at the Armec's revealed the next plot coupon - the location of the Elephants Graveyard , and the story of how this tribe fled from there a hundred years ago. Classic Arabian nights meets Indiana Jones tropes with the big feast in t heir honor. In one very funny bit the players root through Haroun's bag of magical trinkets to find something to give as a guest gift to the tribal chief, settling on Haroun's remaining 5 dragon teeth (Each acts as a Summon Monster IV). For the rest of the session Haroun kept pointing out "you know what would be helpful here? Dragon teeth." so which Captain Fasaad replied "you like your head?"
So the next morning off into the jungle again for the trek to the EG, and with lots of lost world imagery and grand vistas of throne-shaped volcanoes and planes of bone and ivory in the hidden valley. A nice Harryhausen battle with an assassin vine where they distracted it with a fireball and ran, and then a lovely scene with them facing off the harpies that act as scavengers in the graveyard - helpful because two of the "men" in the party are actually disguised women and therefore immune to harpy song (I know it's not in the rules, but still). Hiawang was able to shrug off the effect, but Jamal, who had been dominating fights thus far, was out of the picture with several bad saves. The players perfectly accepted the vulture women with the statement that they were women cursed by the gods for infanticide - some gods then used them as agents of vengeance, some just left them in their cursed state (depending on how frugal the god is, I suspect). Hiawang got to strut his stuff by repeatedly stunning and pummeling one harpy, while Chazmine alternate threw knives and at and hid from a second and Fasaad killed one and drive Chazmine's off with sword and bow.
After that midnight victory they spent the next day searching around, eventually discerning the location of the tribe's old temple and the glorious fertility of the thick volcanic soil. Before they can get to close to it, there is a rumble of the ground, then another one, and the learned PCs all turn to look at the volcano to see if it's preparing to erupt. Nope - it's the Tyrannosaur closing in on them from behind! And that's where we end the session...
... With the players saying "a T-Rex? Well that's just not logical. What is one of those doing here?" Sure, head-hunters, assassin vines and harpies, those are fine, but Dinosaurs? oh who's gonna buy that?
This is what I get for giving them reasons why things exist. It's not worth the effort some days. Still, it's nice to be able to use a module I cut out of Dungeon Magazine some 17 years ago. OK, now I feel old.
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Date: 2006-08-28 02:13 am (UTC)Obviously someone with little ferret experience.
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Date: 2006-08-29 02:02 pm (UTC)