Intrigue at the Court of Chaos (Part I) 2014-01-28

Session recap:

Now this was an adventure! This session I ran the recently released DCC#80 Intrigue at the Court of Chaos at my local game store, making it about halfway through the module in a three hour session. I had six players for this session, five returning and one new to the table, if not the system, she having played Transylvanian Adventures before and easily picked up the core rules and pace. One of the returning players leveled up a new cleric after surviving The Old God’s Return - Boogar the witness of Cthulhu. Along with the aforementioned cleric, the party now consisted of two warriors, a thief, and seven to be introduced 0-levels, one of the other returning players deciding to abandon his level one thief in order to try to keep an 0-level elf alive for the night.

This is my third DCC module to run after DCC#79 Frozen in Time and the 2013 holiday one. Somewhat oddly, it is also the third Michael Curtis module I’ve run - so I might be developing a minor author infatuation. But a further explanation is that I have been focusing on running new releases in an attempt to sequester myself from the earlier published modules - I have a lingering hope that I’ll get to play through them someday and experience them unseen - and Mr. Curtis has just been going through a prolific time of recent publication with Goodman Games.

My games have developed a loosely-connected storyline based on the setting and professions of Frozen in Time, with admittedly, sometimes fantastical, integration points to string the various modules together. There also tends to be a lot of “oh the one village in the north decided to send out more of the flower of its 0-level youth, again” to accommodate the opentable philosophy of my game, but I am a really into the advocacy of DCC, and like the tongue-and-cheekiness of the approach from that regard. This time the bridge was simple: as the broken mountain of ice from the just defeated old god’s abode rained down around them, some of the larger chunks came crashing to the ground, rending long scars in the frozen earth. One such scar, not a hundred feet from the party, revealed a smooth stone face with five strange glyphs carved in its face. While they examined them in the failing light, horses arrived from the north, ridden by seven follow villagers who had followed the floating iceberg at a hard pace. After a brief reunion and introductions, they decided to make camp and return to the village in the morning.

The thing attacked them suddenly, a man-shaped horror seemingly formed of hundreds of wriggling and crawling six-digit hands. Anahk, reacting quickly, drove her spear into the creature as it leapt, impaling several of the hands but seeming to do little real damage. The creature swarmed over her, embracing with dozens of grasping dirty sharp-nailed fingers, and pinning her in a tight hold. Hoping to cause it to release its layered grip on Anahk, Stanwick threw a javelin, but his spear only carried away a rudely gesticulating hand from the creature’s shoulder. Sneaking up from behind, Lou of the reeds managed to do better, impaling a dagger deep into the core of the beast. The hands agitated with convulsions, but kept clinging to Anahk. Sensing an opportunity, with a shout of triumph, Praxis the gatherer threw his flint knife at the struggling pair. It hurled end over end and...landed with a crack against Anahk’s forehead. Just as the creature was about to rake into the disoriented Anahk’s flesh, Nymeria the elven scout struck true with her spear, and the mass collapsed, hands hitting the ground and scuttling off into the night. The nearby glyphs seemed to glow bright blue for an instant, then fade.

Recovering his javelin, Stanwick found the impaled hand had three rings on the elongated fingers, each band a series of clasping hands, with two of the rings capped by a ruby and an emerald respectively. They kept a cautious watch that night, looking out for any sign of the hands that fled, and in the morning searched the ground around the rock face, finding nothing of interest. They decided to return for their village. The sounds of winter wolves cried out from the surrounding cliffs in search of horse flesh, or worse. Before leaving, Boogar carved a symbol of his new god into the rock face next to the glyphs.

Arriving back at the village, they saw that a winter market had arrived in their absence! Colorful southern trade tents dotted the grounds next to the tribe’s drab huts and the sounds and smells of far-off and warmer lands greeted them as they rode past. As they talked of their plans to spend the hard-earned treasure from the various god’s and demons they had defeated, their eyes were drawn to a small theater that had been set up outside one of the more wildly colored tents. Outside, a smiling tow-headed youth beckoned the gathering crowd and gestured at the stage, where the parting curtains revealed a bizarre scene of shadowy figures, some human, others bent and twisted, all dancing in mesmerizing rhythms. They felt compelled to stop, staring transfixed at the unfolding scene while the voice of the youth filled their entire awareness. They seemed to fall into the stage and beyond into blackness as he intoned “My friends, I give you Court of Chaos...”

They awoke in a nightmarish scene of color and confusion: lying on six-pointed star-shaped slab of rock surrounded by a sea of blood, capped at five of the points by enormous stone thrones, the sky overhead a swirling kaleidoscope. The five thrones were occupied by monstrous beings, vast and impassive. A three armed warrior encased in black plate with a cape of screaming human faces, a beautiful dead and decaying woman, noose corded about her neck, a single unblinking eye with no body perched on two spindly legs, a cloaked figure with bandaged stumps for arms and trunks ending in six fingered hands extending from beneath the cowl covering its face, and a hideously deformed entity. The sixth point of the star stood a smaller grey-cloaked figure, half hid by shadow. A crowd mingled on the edges of the platform, comprised of terrible and beautiful beings of all description. Boogar, seeking the divine aid of his god Cthulhu, found no sense of his presence in this place.

The youth was standing next to them, and introduced himself as Tatterdemalion, stating that they were in the presence of his masters, the Host of Chaos. He bowed, and after an expectant pause, gestured for the group to follow suit. They quickly did. The Host then spoke to them in a single powerful voice. Intrigued by their recent encounter with one of the lesser minions of Chaos, they were summoned before the Host to take on a task for them: retrieve an artifact of Chaos from the Plane of Law, where it had lain guarded for eons. Named the Yolkless Egg, it contained a spark of the original primordial Chaos present at the start of time. If they were to return it, the Host would give them suitable boons and gifts. The party were considered ideal for the task as they were deemed too insignificant for the Scions of Law to have yet noticed them, and because the Scions had grown complacent in their duty to guard the egg, making it likely that the group could get past any remaining wards. When asked what would happen if they refused, the Host indicated the sea of blood that surrounded the Court and said they would be welcome to join the screaming faces that could be seen within the rolling waves. They were given a night to consider the offer and presented with well-appointed quarters to retire to.

They debated what course of action they should take, and seeing no other choice the group decided to go along with the request - for now. Stanwick, and to a lesser extent, Boogar, objected to providing any assistance, but both ultimately relented, agreeing to try and find some means of countering the plans of the Host. During the night they all had strange dreams (see judge’s section below).

The morning brought an exotic, but delicious repast attended by slaves from the Court, as well as the return of Tatterdemalion, who escorted them to the waiting Host. The members of the Court wasted no time in asking for their response, and were pleased by the choice of the party. They were told they would be transported to where the egg was kept in a repository know as the Cataphract. Once they had the egg, they were to return to the Court by plucking a flower to be found next to where they entered the plane. Slaves brought forth black weapons, each matched to a character. Tatterdemalion explained these Chaos-forged weapons would be the only thing that could harm the creatures on the Plane of Law, their mundane arms being of little use there.

With an enormous crack of thunder, they were sent to the Plane of Law. An landscape of orderly perfection awaited, the only object out of place being a single blood-red rose, worms crawling through its rotten pedals. In the distance they could see a huge floating diamond, the Cataphract the Host spoke of. An enormous beast, an ox of huge proportions, lay in repose beneath it. As they walked towards the Cataphract, the ox stirred and slowly rose, shaking its shaggy head and huge spiral horns. Lou of the reeds could see writing on the horns and identified it as the language of the beings of Law. He was able to read the words, which named the creature as Taurziel, first-born of Oxen, and bound until “the final concordance or granted manumission”. It spoke, announcing itself the guardian of this place and warning them against any malice. Hoping to gain its trust through truth, Anahk, stated that they were sent by the Host of Chaos to recover the egg. The ox reacted with a shattering bellow and charged the party. It was among them in a moment, Anahk giving it a mortal blow with her Chaos-born spear as it rushed past and gored Craxis the weaver with its horns. Praxis, newly widowed, stabbed out in blind anger with her knife and managed to slay the beast. After Taurziel fell, a staircase of white light descended from the bottom of the Cataphract leading inside. They buried Craxis, digging with their Chaos weapons and leaving the ground scarred and dead, and ascended the stairs.

Inside they discovered a pentagonal chamber, the ceiling high above their heads where a diffuse light glowed. Five golden doors capped by a scrollwork of runes, one in each of the walls, were the only apparent exits. Lou of the reeds again saw that the words were those of ancient Law and managed to decipher the three of the doors: “Judgement”, “Construction”, and “Sacrifice”. After a quick check for traps, they opened the door labelled Construction and with a blinding flash of light, everyone was transported into the room beyond, the golden door closed and unopenable behind them. The new room was vast, with an iron floor and walls. They judged it to be a several hundred feet long and at least a hundred feet wide. In the middle of the chamber was a bottomless chasm filling a full third of the floor, beyond it was a platform where a single golden door was located - their exit. On the same side of the chasm as the party were six glass pedestals, upon each of which stood a single cup filled with a different colored liquid. From left to right the liquids were colored tangerine, azure, emerald, gold, crimson, and plum.

Boogar called upon mighty Cthulhu to reveal any magic present, and all the vessels glowed faintly. They could see no way across the gap. Stanwick boldly picked up the plum glass and drank its contents. He immediately felt a sense of overwhelming doubt and uncertainty. He returned the glass, and everyone noticed it was refilled with more plum liquid. Boogar decided to drink the tangerine liquid, and with a growing horror, felt something alive stir inside him and distend his midsection. Ahiru the gather tried the emerald liquid next. It seemed to expand as it ran through her body, and she felt painful spasms shooting through her limbs and bones as she swelled to the size of a giant with the frailty of a child. Lou of the reeds then drank the gold liquid, and began sweat, a soft golden glow coming from his glistening skin. In each case when the glass was replaced, its contents returned.

Finally, Nymeria drank the crimson liquid, and feeling no change, returned the glass, which did not refill! They tried experimenting with the liquids, trying to mix them together or pour them into the chasm, but they would not leave the vessels unless touched to their lips. Not wishing to leave a possibility unexplored, Boogar drank the azure liquid; his eyes glowed with a soft blue light and he noticed that he now had to squint when looking at Lou of the reeds. Anahk suggested that the glasses needed to be drunk in the order that one finds in nature - the rainbow, and that it would have to be Nymeria who did so. While everyone watched with suspense ,Nymeria next drank the tangerine glass - nothing happened, and it did not refill. She quickly finished the rest of the glasses: gold, then emerald, azure, and finally plum. As she finished the last glass, an overwhelming feeling of the beauty of the world overcame her, and she began to weep. Her tears poured out in multicolored streams that pooled and ran like quicksilver to the edge of the chasm where they arced across and formed a rainbow span to the other side. The party cautiously crossed and opened the door. With a flash of white light they were transported back to the pentagonal chamber, which now had a 20’ stairway of light covering part of the distance to the ceiling.


Tonight’s worthy characters:

Lou of the reeds, neutral thief
Stanwick, lawful warrior
Anahk, neutral warrior
Boogar, neutral cleric
Nymeria, lawful elven scout
Ahiru, neutral gatherer
Sven, neutral weaver
Praxis, neutral gatherer
Burbie, chaotic elven scout
Burbie II, chaotic elven scout


And the gored fallen:

Craxis, neutral weaver


Some Judge’s note highlights (storyline spoilers below):

Event 2 - Temptation

• Part of the fun of the adventure is the subplot of party deception that is triggered by the machinations of the competing members of the Court, and the agents of Neutrality and Law that are also present. During the night they spent at the Court of Chaos, each character was visited by one of the Host, or the representative of Neutrality - the Chiaroscuro Envoy, or the hidden agent of Law, the slave Lexaliah. Each sought the egg for their own purposes, and tried to strike a bargain with the character to bring the egg directly to them once it was recovered. Everyone entered into a bargain, though the players own motives were yet to be revealed. The characters were visited as follows: 
• Lou of the reeds - visited by Klarvgorok, the merciless gaze and accepted its pact in return for the Astrolabe of Avarice (infallibly guides the owner to a lost or undiscovered treasure hoard). 
• Burbie the elven scout - visited by Hekanhoda and accepted its pact in return for the Stave of Ekim (enchanted staff that grants a +6 to all spell checks) 
• Anahk - visited by Dzzhai and accepted her pact in return for the Mask of Tears (enchanted mask that grants +6 AC and allows the wearer to pass through solid barriers). 
• Nymeria the elven scout - visited by Magog. At first she openly doubted whether she should help, and in the end reluctantly accepted its pact in return for her weight in rare jewels. 
• Stanwick - visited first by Chiaroscuro Envoy who asked him to bring the egg to him and place it in the care of the Balance. While Stanwick listened to him, he does not commit to do so. 
• Stanwick and Boogar - taken aside by the agent of Law Lexaliah as she poised as a slave during their breakfast service. both agree to bring the egg to her. 
• In my session-haste, I grabbed the wrong player for the Chiaroscuro Envoy meeting. I intended Boogar to be the focus of that one, not Stanwick. We played on one of the coldest nights of the year and I was taking folks outside to talk to them, by the fifth one, I was hurrying too much! It worked out fine, though, and gaves that player a glimpse of two options - Balance and Law. 
• I also didn’t manage to work in any of the suggested tricks such as pulling a player out and talking of nothing or pointing out other deals that had been made. 

Area 1-3 

• I was expecting the construction room to be easier than it was; talking about it afterwards with some of the players, they were truly thrown off by a couple of things: 
• Using non-primary colors, as suggested by the text. 
• My (deliberate) off-hand manner in naming the colors, as if I were just coming up with them on the spot. While I made sure that I was describing each as distinct, the manner in which I described them threw them off track. 
• What happens to the glasses once drunk was not covered in the text, so I made it a bit easier on my group by having glasses drunk out of order refill and when drunk in the correct order stay empty. 
• The big mistake I made was forgetting that the PCs get a DC 8 will save against the potions. I plan to open the next session with the save, the reason being they overcame the room and have a chance to leave the effects behind.. It might end up working favorably as they get a sample of the potions potential this way, if just temporarily. 

General notes

• Intrigue does a great job of playing with alignments, an underused core component of OSR-type games in my, albeit limited, experience. It builds on a lot of concepts presented in DCC with regard to the struggles of Chaos/Neutrality/Law, much of which I took to be an homage to the Elric stories. Elric fascinated me as a kid, though I was much too young to really get the existential facets, but they were a great read a couple of years ago as an adult. I was also a fan of Warhammer RPG, another system that pushed alignment to the forefront as a mechanic and storytelling device, detailing whole armies and arcs of Chaos as a main part of the system. I spent one whole summer saying that my favorite color was puce as a result. 
• It also has a lot of exposition early on, and it was hard to determine how that went over. As a judge, I need to work on techniques for pushing the content of long module text to the players in a captivating manner.. 
• I was a bit inwardly gleeful that they started making all these plans to go shopping that I dashed. It is becoming a bit of a theme of the campaign that they have had no time to rest between adventures. 
• I gave two XP for the Clutchculus fight, which had an interesting tense moment when Anahk was pinned and struck by her own party. In the end it was an easy battle for the group. 
• For slaying Taurziel I only awarded a single XP each as it was not really a difficult fight and they did not find any other possible solutions, even after they deciphered the horns.

The Old God's Return (Part II) 2014-01-07

The conclusion to The Old God’s Return! Another great session and adventure that contained an epic low level story. I had six returning players and three more dropping in for the first time, all of the latter new to DCC. Last session the players made it through about half the module, stopping after the pit trap in 2-2 and a wild battle with the crafty Joulbok and his five Tontuu ambushers. Pleasant business preceded the actual start of the game with Spam the Wild, former animal trainer, leveling as a Halfing wanderer. The party now consisted of three level one characters: a warrior, thief, and a halfling, and a minor horde of seven returning zero level survivors, soon to swell in number.

The action picked up right after the fall of the ram-creature and his minions, the party warily poking at the bodies to make certain they were indeed dead and accounting for their own lost. A quick search of the rest of the icy room where the ambush took place revealed a group of a dozen tribesmen from their village bound and gagged in the corner. Quite glad for the rescue, they quickly decided to throw their lot in with the party and aid the quest to stop the evil behind the stolen souls of the village children. They also came across several ragged bundles of bones and hide containing the meager belongings of the horrid ice imps and their ram-beastman-lord. Searching through the packs they found a few trinkets and trader’s coins that were sure to be worth something at the next southern market.

The group considered whether to go down the hole in the broken ice created from the pit trap or to take the stairs, the bottom of which were dark and filled with a cold silence. Surf Jurples the orphan, a newly freed villager, decided to lead the way down the stairs. The room below was constructed of the same worked dark stone, intact on all sides but the far wall, which had collapsed and had been overrun by a tongue of ice forced in from the outside. Columns supported the ceiling and a ice-filled circular basin lay in the middle of the room. A single door exited out the wall opposite the collapsed one.

With lanterns and torches, they spread out to search the room. The basin turned out to be a frozen pool of water several feet deep with shadowy shapes in its depths. Lou Reed the thief summoned Loptir’s fire to melt the ice down to one of the dark shapes and discovered a frozen salmon, slightly rotten, but still eagerly devoured by the party’s pair of wolf pups. Inspecting the ice of the collapsed wall, they spotted another shape: a man entombed by the surrounding mountain, a spark of gold glinting about his neck from the refracted torchlight. While Anahk the warrior kept careful watch on the far door, the rest of the party swung at the ice with clubs and flint axes, eventually uncovering the frozen body to the waist. The dead man wore rotting ebon-colored robes and was quite tall. His skin was slightly decayed, but well-preserved; a necklace hung from his neck and a large tome lay clutched in his arms.

Suddenly a shattering crack echoed through the room followed by the sound of grinding: a horrid insectoid shape made of ice rose from the reflecting pool, bits of rotten fish sticking out of its body. Before anyone could react, Luigi the hunter and Yoshi the gatherer, both so recently rescued, were killed by slashes across the neck from razor-sharp claws of ice. The party regrouped and began to fight the demon, chipping away at it with spear and axe before Surf Jurples the orphan landed a crippling blow to the head with his club, cracking the ice and dazing the creature. As it reared-up and wailed a high-pitched scream of pain, Spam the Wild raced up its slippy, chitinous back, and with a bit of luck, plunged his dagger directly into the crack in its head, twisted, and shattered it apart.

With the guardian slain, they returned their attention to the body in the ice. The necklace had an amulet with more of the strange markings that they had seen on the building’s walls, but no one in the party could decipher them. The book had similar writing, though it was also filled with quite detailed etchings of dwarves depicted in various activities. Twiddledum the gatherer pocketed the amulet while Bog the hunter took the dark tomb. After the battle, Stanwick and Lou Reed the tanners, and Slog the hunter, newly renamed Thufuir, each took up the trappings of their new professions: squire, beggar and witness of Ildavir respectively. Thufuir called upon his new god to heal the wounds of Anahk, but was denied twice before his prayers were curtly answered.

Cautiously they opened the door to the next room. An overbearing scent of pine filled the air, and they saw a corridor crowded with huge, corpulent trees, unnaturally pale in color with a sticky sap clinging to the branches and splotching the floor. Thufuir again called upon his new god, this time to send a sign as to whether the trees were harmful, and though he received a feeling that they had some malice for the party, he also knew he had displeased Ildavir who would require his future repentance. Tying a rope about her waist, Peaches the gatherer took a lantern and entered the corridor. Seeing two doors at either end of the corridor, she headed towards the left door, pushing her way through the tangle of branches. The sticky sap clung to her clothes and skin, feeling oddly cold, which numbed where it touched. Unnerved, she tried to brush it off, but the ache from the cold kept spreading until it reached deep inside her chest. Uncontrollable shivers ran through her body as ice gripped her lungs and heart, and with a cry she collapsed. Her tethered corpse was dragged back for inspection.

Bubba two-step, deciding that he was nimble enough to avoid the sap, found a safe path to the far door. The party was encouraged by his example, and devising various ways to cover as much of their exposed skin as possible, dashed through the trees to join him. Not everyone made it without touching the sap, though. Lou Reed the thief brushed against the sap and found himself shivering uncontrollably until he invoked the fire of Lotir to tame them, and Ale the halfling animal trainer, Twiddledee the weaver, and Joxy the gatherer each clumsily rushed through the trees and fell to a shivering death on a bed of pale pine needles. Finally only Fodder the butcher, Meatshield the hunter, and Mario the hunter remained separated from the party on the far side of the trees. Instead of risking the passage, Meatshield decided to light the trees on fire with his torch as he passed, and found the flames took eagerly to the sap. In fact, the trees roared to a blaze as he passed through, filling the air with a choking smoke. Everyone rushed through the doors at the end of the corridor, but Fodder, following behind, struggled for air and collapsed senseless under the inferno canopy. Mario remained on the far side of the fire and rushed to the cleaner air in the chamber above where the pit-trap lay.

The party found themselves in a large forested room, the smoke behind them being confined by some unfelt wind. Through the trees they could make out a large stone altar in the distance, a nimbus of dancing aurora-colored light seeming to surge around it. More trees spread out to their left and right. Lou Reed the thief noticed shapes attempting to stay hidden behind the screen of branches: another large ram-creature and one of the smaller minions. Obliquely alerting the rest of the party, they decided to move towards the distant altar while also preparing to fight. Their enemies shadowed them and rushed from the forest to attack, but they were caught off guard when the party quickly split to engage them, Anahk grasping the spear of Kos and leading the charge against the ram-beast, while Stanwick threw javelins at the leering ice imp.

The party swarmed the two creatures, Loptir’s remaining champions crying out for his aid. Rat the gatherer fell, gutted by the imp’s knife, while Anahk and the ram traded terrible blows. Those who were not too distracted by the fight saw the distant multi-hued lights shift and stir, and the crowns of the nearby trees began to bend as if they were being parted by great arms. When the disturbance reached the the copse of trees next to them, a huge creature emerged: a fifteen foot reindeer-headed monstrosity, skin rotting, its head crowned with massive antlers that enclosed a shifting sphere of color filled with the half-formed faces of silently screaming children. Some of the party could only stare dumbly at the approaching horror, their weapons limp by their sides. With a gesture, a sickly tendril of color extended down the reindeer-god’s arm and wrapped around Anahk’s spear, which began to bend and twist and sprout sharp thorns that cut through the warrior’s hand. Thufuir finally reached his god on the first try and steadied Anahk, who dropped her now-useless weapon and grabbed for a knife, using it to slay the ram-creature. Almost at the same time, Meatshield the hunter was struck down by the small grinning imp, but fell in turn to Lou Reed, who sliced its throat from behind.

Only the god remained. It shrugged off the petty blows of the party and with blazing malice, made another gesture at the cowed party with fingers splayed, but a puzzled look came over its face as nothing happened. Stanwick saw his chance and hurled a javelin at the reindeer god’s antlers, Spam the Wild causing just enough of a distraction to prevent the god from dodging out of the way. With a mighty crack, the horns shattered, spilling the cradled light and toppling the god. A silent concussive wave erupted outwards, bending and breaking the surrounding trees. Reaching the walls, the whole of the mountain of ice shuddered, fractures appearing in the surrounding stone. The party realized the mountain was falling apart and their only chance was to run and hope they could find a way down to the ground. With the building crumbling around them, they reunited with Mario the hunter and fled to the ice plateau above, managing to avoid being flattened along the way. A mad flight down the ice-carved stairs followed, the mountain splintering and calving all around them. They reached the rope ladder and swarmed down it just as the stairs were obliterated by an avalanche of debris. When they looked up, they saw only an expanding shower of ice above them, and reflected within, a faint nimbus of colorful light playing about the drifting crystals. Before long it coalesced into a small multi-hued cloud and streaked off towards the northern horizon.

The survivors huddled together under the quietly falling snow. Somehow they knew that the frozen magic that claimed the spirits of the village’s children had been broken.

The frostbitten heroes:

• Bog the hunter
• Slog the hunter - now Thufuir, witness of Ildavir and level one cleric
• Stanwick level one warrior and former tanner
• Zugbar the hunter
• Boogar the gatherer
• Surf Jurples the orphan
• Anahk, level one warrior
• T. Cib the butcher
• Lou Reed level one thief and former tanner
• Sparn of the wild, level one halfling
• Bubba Two Step level one thief
• Mario the hunter
• Twiddledum the gatherer

The mighty frozen fallen:

• Luigi the hunter
• Yoshi the halfling animal trainer
• Peaches the gatherer
• Ale the halfling animal trainer
• Twiddledee the weaver
• Joxy the gatherer
• Fodder the butcher
• Meatshield the hunter
• Rat the gatherer

The Old God’s Return (Part I) 2013-12-17

My second road crew game! I ran the 2013 Goodman Games’ Holiday module The Old God’s Return by Michael Curtis; it was perfectly themed for the season and I had a rather excellent time. The attendees included eight players: four returning from my first road crew session and four new players. I ran the module as a combined funnel/level one session as two of the returnees had survivors from Frozen in Time that were now level one characters. The players were also delighted with the various DCC branded pencils, bookmarks and buttons that I was fortunate enough to have received from Goodman Games just the day before.

The game started off immediately after the events of the last session with a feast to celebrate the fall of the ice demons from Frozen in Time and to honor the returning survivors Anahk Goldenhand and Bubba Two-step, now a warrior and thief respectively, along with suitable requiems for the many, many dead. As it also happened to be the night of the winter solstice, a priest of Loptir, Lord of Flames, led ceremonies celebrating the coming return of the sun. Suddenly a loud scream pierced the frozen air! A terrified woman ran from a nearby hut clutching a child to her breast, followed by a short gnarled creature, a malicious grin showing through its long white beard and carrying a wicked-looking knife. More of the creatures emerged from the shadows, their gleaming knives reflecting the flickering firelight, and moved to attack the crowd.

Several low-level and clearly not important villagers were killed in the ensuing melee, including Petey the gatherer. Both Anahk and Bubba Two Step showed their mettle as new heros and slew a creature each, Anahk cutting down the one pursuing the woman and child, and Bubba Two-step quietly slitting the throat of another. As the rest of the creatures were either slain or chased away, everyone looked up in amazement: an enormous mountain of ice hung suspended above the village, blotting out the moon and stars and drifting swiftly towards the south!

The priest of Loptir approached the survivors of the battle to thank them for their deeds. He said that the creatures had come for the children of the village as several now lay enscrolled by evil magic - comatose, blue-skinned and cold to the touch. He asked if there were any among them who would follow the mountain of ice and discover a means to break the spell that they had fallen victim to. Eight champions were selected to receive Loptir’s blessing of fire and several more companions chose to accompany them on the chase after the floating iceberg.

Riding horses provided by the village, the group quickly caught up to the frozen mountain, though it hung at least a hundred feet in the air with no means of reaching it. Anahk Goldenhand and the brave, yet inexperienced Gorlick the gatherer, used the power granted by Loptir’s blessing to turn into living flames and flew to an ice platform at the bottom of the mountain, landing just before the enhancement ended. There they discovered a coiled rope ladder and carved steps leading steeply upwards, upon which another one of the horrid small creatures was quickly scrambling up, seemingly alerted by their bright entrance. Anahk rushed to follow but had to proceed slowly on the icy surface and was not able to gain any ground. Gorlick used the last of the power granted to him by Loptir to transform again and ascend to the steps above the fleeing figure, trapping it between him and Anahk.

The creature rushed at Gorlick and grabbed his ankle, sending an icy chill through his body. Frantically, Gorlick tried to stab at it, but missed. Anahk had nearly reached the embattled pair, but with a savage twist of its gnarled hand and a sneer, the creature threw Gorlick off the side of the mountain. Anahk’s revenging spear pierced through the beast and pinned it to the wall of ice where it hung dead.

Anahk returned to the platform and lowered the rope ladder. After a long climb, the party finally reached the top of the iceberg where a strange sight awaited - a hundred feet away in the center of a smooth plateau, there was a stone building half-buried in the ice. The building had a single opening and was surrounded by a number of broken pillars that formed a roughly rectangular courtyard. A few small footprints led from the top of the stairs towards the building. Deciding to split up and scout, Bubba Two-step led a group left along the plateau, another group followed Anahk right, and Dovow the elven scout when directly towards the building. 

As they approached, Dovow’s sharp elven eyes caught the glint of steel in the shadow of a large opening in the building. He saw three more of the creatures half-hidden, and apparently unaware of the party’s approach. Using his handy piece of signaling quartz he always carried with him, he flashed a sign to the other groups letting them know of the danger. They decided on a plan to lure the creatures out into the courtyard and surround them. Dovow emerged from behind one of the broken pillars to taunt them, and they fell into the trap nicely. All three were quickly slain, though Dovow and another companion were killed as well.

Inside the building they found a small room dusted with snow, young evergreen trees growing from the stone floor beneath. Herb the herbalist decided to set one of the trees alight, an act which disturbed the elves of the party. Afterwards it seemed as if they could almost hear a faint sigh as the wind rustled through the branches. Descending a set of cracked stairs, they found a chamber beneath filled with larger trees and two doors along the eastern wall, strange hieroglyphs etched in the stone. The trees had an eerie, almost man-like shape to them and the air was filled with a heady scent of pine. Something tickled just on the edge of their senses and Slogmog the gatherer leaned in close to one of the trees trying to listen. He heard a faint, child-like voice whispering about horns and old beings and almost followed Herb’s example of burning the tree, but decided not to at the last moment.

Splitting into two groups, they opened both doors to the next room at the same time. A chamber filled with broken stones and ice lay on the other side. Closest to the northern doors, a huge man-shaped creature with the head of ram emerged from the rubble. It snorted a challenge, hot breath smoking on the frigid air. One of its great hands clutched a long metal chain which it swung in a slow circle above its head, the other beckoned the group to fight. Anahk and Boris, another elven scout, charged in. Noticing a weak patch of ice just in front of the beast and sensing a trap, Boris skidded to a stop a few paces from it. Oblivious to the danger, Anahk’s spear bit deeply into the creature’s side causing it to howl in pain and fury. Instead of striking back, it slammed its chain onto the floor beside her, cracking the ice and tumbling her into the pit beneath. She fell with a crack onto the stone floor of the chamber below, dazed but still alive.

The rest of the party charged in, but were surprised by the five small bearded creatures that were waiting hidden in the rubble. A pitched fight ensued. Boris, who had been fighting the ram-beast after Anahk’s fall, was nearly killed when it wrapped its great chain around his neck, but struggled free and struck a mighty blow in return. Anahk called on the last of the of Loptir’s blessing to change into a living flame and soared to rejoin her companions. All of the small creatures were finally slain, but not before four more of the party were killed as well, including Vox the hunter, T. Cib the butcher and Joxy the gatherer. Poor brave Boris was gored and tossed against the wall, his killer put down by the rest of the party. Another set of descending stairs lay before them leading deeper into the heart of the mountain of ice and part II of the adventure.

Thanks to the players, +Andrew Trent, +paul shelton, +John Dawson, Cliff, Jarred, Norman, Tony, and Brandon, for coming out!

An accounting of the dead (9):
Petey the gatherer
Gorlick the hunter and champion of Loptir
Dovow the elven scout
Joxy the gatherer
Vox the hunter and champion of Loptir
Boris the elven scout
Two more unknown villagers, their names lost to history

Rolls of the living (18):
Stanwick the tanner and champion of Loptir
Rat the gatherer
Lou Reed the tanner and champion of Loptir
Tuk the gatherer
Slog the hunter
Bog the hunter
Milf the Onion Keeper and halfling animal trainer
Artemis Vadelry the dwarven herder
Slogmog the gatherer
Frank the fisherman and champion of Loptir
Sami the hunter
Dob the lore-keepers assistant
Vin the gatherer
Herb the herbalist and champion of Loptir
Slink the Slippery the weaver
Spam of the Wild halfling animal trainer
Anahk Goldenhand, warrior and champion of Loptir
Bubba Two-step, thief and champion of Loptir

Frozen in Time (2013-12-04)

For my first attempt at judging and first road crew game, I choose to run the excellent DCC #79 Frozen in Time by Michael Curtis as a zero-level funnel at Whose Turn Is It? Games in Austin, TX. Twelve players attended, many of them pathfinder vagabonds for the night new to DCC. I instructed them in the basics of the system and to select three characters from the purple sorcerer pre-gens sheets I had printed out, discarding the unused fourth. The pre-gens all used the "Frozen in Time" setting with standard rolls. The resulting horde of primitives included: 

• Kovacs, fisherman and iron demon slayer

• Harley the Red, brewer

• Harley the Red's slave Dieter Hugh

• Bubba Two-Step, canoe-maker

• Loran the hunter

• Jenny the gatherer

• The dwarf Gort, herder

• Broi the potter, brother of Broi the gatherer and Broi the hunter

• Broi the gatherer, brother of Broi the potter and Broi the hunter

• Broi the hunter, brother of Broi the potter and Broi the gatherer

• The orphan Shrew

• Pharon the gatherer

• Harein the hunter

• Sathys the gatherer

• Elias the hunter

• The dwarf Thulin, flintknapper

• The elf Funshway, fletcher

• Ugluck the hunter

• The halfling Zilan, animal trainer

• Yultang the weaver

• Kas the hunter, son of Yultang the weaver

• Anakh the gatherer, daughter of Yultang the weaver

• Scoony the hunter

• Morakin the butcher 

• Gorelick the Indifferent, gatherer and yeti friend

• Rand Hothan the hunter

• Glunk of the Swamp, gatherer

• Cero the hunter

• Aust the gatherer

• Shela Ray the gatherer

+ six others whose character sheets became lost in the evening aether.

The adventure began with a bit of backstory: three days ago the great glacier at the head of the valley where their tribe wintered suddenly calved with a thunderous roar. When the clouds of ice settled, a huge portion of the glacier's face had collapsed and two dark holes were now visible halfway up its shear 300' surface - a strange emerald-colored smoke billowing out from them. The elders of the tribe deliberated for days and decided it was a sign that the power of the ice-demons long thought to inhabit the glacier was finally broken; all that was needed now was confirmation. Happening to have a rather large group of tribesmen on hand preparing for their rites of passage, the elders tasked the characters to investigate and return with proof that the ice demons' curse was truly lifted or, failing that, find another tribe to return to.

The group decided to start by carefully picking their way to the top of the pile of rubble at the base of the glacier created by the collapse. Seeing the two holes now only 50' above them, they tied a grappling hook and rope together from their common equipment and took turns throwing it into the openings - hoping to catch on the lip or something further in - but without success. Abandoning the shear face as too risky to attempt unaided, they headed north to try and reach the top of the glacier from the cliffs along that side of the valley. The paths ascending the cliffs were narrow and treacherous, however, and three unlucky tribesmen never reached the summit. A respectful detachment was sent back down to lay the bodies to rest, and of course recover any useful items they would have wanted the party to carry on with (including the still-living wolf pup they found gently cradled in the broken body of Zilan - a last act of halfling heroism).

Once atop the glacier they began their trek towards the source of the smoke, a distance of perhaps half a league, when they were surprised by an enraged sabre-toothed bear, its white coat blending in seamlessly with the snow. Before anyone could react, it attacked Elias the hunter, savagely biting into his shoulder, and then slashed Sathys with a swipe of its massive claw. The stunned hunters in the party quickly regrouped - surrounding the beast and bringing it down with a half a dozen spear thrusts. In the silence that followed, they almost thought they could hear the forlorn wails of sabre-bear cubs echoing on the icy wind…but were completely unfazed and they skinned the bear while Loran made a helm from its skull.

Reaching the spot directly above the holes, they debated the best way to lower Bubba Two-Step's canoe over the edge when some of the party noticed a large crevice in the ice that opened onto a steep ramp of ice and snow descending into the heart of the glacier. Abandoning the canoe-centric hypothesis of entry, they anchored their grappling hook, tied three of their four ropes together, and began a careful rappel down, eventually entering into a large room partially filled with debris  from the collapse. The walls of the room were white and entirely smooth, like fine glazed pottery. As they looked around, something lunged at them out of the shadows, man-shaped but huge and covered with fur. Seeing that the attaching creature was injured, Gorelick the gatherer quickly held out his basket of vegetables as it charged, which, to everyone's surprise, caused the beast to hesitate, then cautiously take the proffered basket! More food from the party followed while the yeti backed away to one of the walls, hoarding the proffered morsels.

While careful to keep watch on the yeti, they looked around, taking note of a strange white column in the room with a seam running from the floor to the ceiling. Nearby the column was a dark wooden box partially covered with by the snow. They also noticed another seam in one of the walls. Examining the latter, they discovered what looked like a strange door with a small circular depression in it. Looking through the seam, they could see that it led to another room beyond, the floor of which was covered with ice and slush. They managed to force the door open and it disappeared into the wall with a quiet "swish", evidently some sorcery of the ice demons! Even more disconcerting, though, was that it closed on its own a few seconds later.

They returned to examining the rest of the room. While the rest of the party cleared the snow away from the door in the pillar, Gort the herder dug the wooden box loose and, using a handy ten foot pole, prodded at the latch until it opened. Resting on a cloth inside, he found a small blue-grey metal disk with five short tendrils extending from it. As he picked it up, the tendrils wrapped around his hand, hugging the disk to his palm. Realizing the disk was about the same size at the depressions they had seen in the doors, he placed it against the door in the pillar, and it opened, revealing a hollow space inside, entirely dark except for the light coming through the door. Excited by the discovery, Rand the hunter hurried to be the first one iside and found it to in fact be the top of a rather long shaft of which he was now plummeting down rather rapidly.

Deciding Rand did not need any immediate, or indeed future, assistance, they returned to the room beyond the wall, Gort again pressing his hand into the depression to open the door. As they filed out, Gorelick noticed the yeti cautiously following him. The room beyond was covered in the same strange white clay-like material and was illuminated by small glowing rectangles in the ceiling. It was square except for the southwest corner, which was convexly curved, and contained three doors to the east, south and west, all closed. Another set of doors was in the curved corner. Deciding to first turn east, "towards the rising sun representing hope and renewal", as Yultang the weaver noted, the door opened onto a lush room overgrown with flowering exotic plants. They could just make out the shape of another tube on the far side, beyond a tangle of greenery they would need to hack through to reach. They returned to the square room, Broi the potter jamming the eastern door open with a lump of clay he carried.

The west door, "towards the setting sun and the houses of the ancestors," opened into a room with two large metal tables and a wall filled with small doors. Opening one, they found it full of curious miniature tridents, too small even for a dwarf to wield. Another door contained several large metal bowls, which were quickly tuned into helmets by the more enterprising members of the party. Anakh the gatherer prodded a set of tiny undecipherable runes next to another door with a window, and a sweet-smelling orange paste poured out from a hole inside, spreading and dripping to the floor. Aust the gatherer collected some of the paste on his fingers and licked them, the pleasant sweetness turning quickly to bitter horror as cramps wracked his stomach and he collapsed, dead. Inspired, Broi the gatherer unabashedly stepped over Aust to press more buttons and poured the resulting orange goop into a large metal pot, while the hunters dipped the tips of their spears in it.

Leaving the west room, Gort opened the door in the curved section of wall to reveal another hollow pillar, this one going up. Unlike the previous pillar, as this door opened rectangular lights ran up the far inner wall illuminating the tube. Opening the southern door next, "the direction from which comes decadence and civilization", they saw a bizarre room: one wall that used to be made of glass, which now lay in broken shards on the wet floor and scattered with dead fish; walls with odd paintings in the style of the southerners; and three large white stone statues of nude people. But the room was dominated by a raised central platform on which stood a huge lizard-like creature, enormous jaws opened and poised to leap at them – except that it appeared to be frozen in place. Gorlick noticed the yeti hanging back, hesitating to enter the room. Cautious, Harley the Red ordered his slave Dieter to throw a rock of snow and ice at the creature, which bounced off without any sign of having an effect. The three Broi brothers then climbed the platform and were suddenly made still as the creature itself! The rest of the party used the ten foot pole to topple them one-by-one off the platform, releasing whatever spell bound them. Satisfied that the lizard was not an immediate threat, they examined the rest of the room, Bubba Two-Step finding a small statue of what looked like an armored demon with a round helmet in the wall of broken glass. Kovacs the fisherman briefly examined a painting of a woman with an enigmatic smile, dressed in some strange southern fashion, before turning its canvas into a small sack.

The party left the statues and frozen beast and decided to return to the eastern room to hack through the plants. After several minutes, they reached the pillar and opened the door – finding another illuminated tube, this one going down. Broi the gather threw some fruit he collected into the tube, and astonishingly, instead of falling, it slowly descended and came to rest at the bottom, some 50' away. Thulin the flintknapper placed Zilan's wolf pup inside, and it too slowly descended until it reached the bottom.

For the time being abandoning the pup to its lonely mewling, they returned to the pillar in the square room that led up. While peering inside, Broi the potter was playfully pushed in by his brothers, and he frantically kicked as he was grabbed by an unseen force and slowly carried to the top, finally stopping next to a closed door. Ropes were passed up, but he was pulled and tugged down without success. Noticing a raised plate on the inside of the door next to him, he pushed it, and the door opened onto a hallway! The hallway was empty but for a single plant in a clay pot. Appropriately, Broi the potter dumped the plant and soil out, taking the pot as treasure. The rest of the party piled into the tube and joined Broi above.

Two doors marked either end of the hall. Trying the eastern door at the end of the hallway, Gort's disk glowed blue as it was pressed against the depression, but the door did not open. They tried the opposite door and it opened into a spacious chamber, a bed resting on raised platform against the far wall. They also saw several other  interesting objects, including the large floating metal sphere covered in gleaming spikes that spun and began to slowly approach them while making a soft whirring sound. 

The hunters rushed to beat on it with clubs and spears. Attempting to bring it to the ground, Funshway the elf leaped on top of it, but also managed to impale his rather unfortunately fragile body on the spiky protrusions. With the dead elf’s weight atop it, the creature's whir reached a high whining pitch as it struggled to stay aloft. The orphan Shrew ran to the bed and grabbed a blanket, only then noticing a motionless body resting beneath it, and threw it over the whirring thing and its silent sylvan passenger. Broi the gatherer dumped his bucket of neon-orange goop on top of the blanket while Gorlick mimed to the yeti to attack. Gleefully, the yeti proceeded to smash the goop-covered demon with his huge fists, metal and glass scattering across the floor. Afterwards they examined the bed, finding the body to be a mummified corpse of a man, but an abnormally tall man over 7'. Next to the bed were several bizarre long metal rods. Anakh noticed the dead being had a disk in its hand similar to the one found by Gort, except golden in color. Prying it off, the disk promptly latched onto her palm. The party took two of the nearby metal rods with them when they left the room.

The gold-palm disk opened the eastern door, which led to another room. An array of pedestals was arraigned about the room, each with a curious object resting on it. Also strange was that most of the objects were surrounded by spheres of golden light, some solid, some flickering, and some entirely unlit. There was a sword, a full set of armor, a huge shield, and other items they didn’t understand the purpose of - a five pointed star with a hole in the middle, a statue with a grotesque mask, a blank wooden plank, a metal rod with small buttons, and a delicate-looking painted urn. And in the middle of the room stood a huge suit of strange armor with arms that ended in claws.

As they walked in, the armor came to life and began to shout in an incomprehensible tongue. To their horror, it grabbed Morakin with its claws and snipped his head and legs off. Chaos swept over the room: hunters surrounded the iron demon and attacked, their spears sliding off the smooth metal armor; someone snatched the sword and shield from their pedestals; the orphan Shrew again tried to throw a blanket, but missed; Glunk was also rent apart; Bubba Two-Step picked up the strange metal rod from its flickering housing and a bright blast of light shot out of one end, causing a smoking hole to appear in the opposite wall; the iron demon was tipped over by swarming hunters into one of the fields on the pedestals and fiery sparks lit the room; Kovacs managed to grab the wooden statue from its pedestal, but as Ugluck the hunter reached to grab the urn, the surrounding field of light activated and sliced his outstretched arms of; Anahk ran down the corridor and cut the head off of the mummified corpse; at Gorlick’s prompting, the yeti rushed into the room and ineffectually swung at the demon. Finally Kovacs drove his spear into the panel of blinking lights on the iron demon's torso and impaled it on his harpoon, bathing him in a shower of sparks as it fell motionless and inert.

Moments later, a huge distant boom echoed through the room while the ground shuddered. The white light panels went out and returned, now casting a blood red glow throughout the room. At the same time an oddly calm voice started speaking from somewhere insubstantial, but no one recognized the language. Everyone rushed to the tube back in the hallway, and though it opened at Anahk's touch, it stayed unlit on the inside. They secured the party's last rope to the iron demon and everyone started to descend. At the bottom, the calm voice called out again. Kas the hunter opened the door at the bottom and rushed over the slush and ice coated room, making for the door on the opposite side where they originally descended the ramp. Suddenly, there was a huge crash behind him! The southern door was torn apart as the unfrozen lizard-beast rushed through with a scream. Terrified, Kas ran and slipped on the ice, fell prone, and was snatched in the jaws of the terrible lizard and torn apart. Some of the party attacked while others fled to the northern door, slipping and sliding as best they could, and only remembering once they reached it that it was closed except to the two party members with palm-disks. The great beast crushed Jenny the gatherer with a huge foot, but was torn apart by a blast of light from the strange metal rod Bubba Two-Step had taken with him from the room of the iron demon.

Safe for the moment, they rushed up the ramp using the still-secured rope. As they crested the top, the ground shuddered, and panicking, they all decided to run for the cliff edge a mile and half away; only the yeti loped further up the glacier. With a huge roar, the glacier below the party fell apart and they all were carried away in a cascade of ice and debris. Four lucky survivors were favored by the gods and rode the ice flow all the way down. They returned to the village, Anahk Goldenhand leading the procession and holding the head of the ice-demon aloft in triumph.

Roll of Surviving Heroes and Future Level Ones (all received 10XP each at the adventure's end):

• Bubba Two-Step, Wielder of Light

• Loran the Lucky

• Anahk Goldenhand, Slayer of the Ice Demon

• Broi, Last of His Name

(Note: This game almost didn't happen. The weekend before play I had one confirmed person signed up and almost postponed. But I decided to press on, leaving some of the awesome fan-created DCC flyers at the game store Sunday night to force me to stay committed and spamming my social media sites on Monday to try and get at least a couple more people to show. By game time, twelve people had signed up across my various invites and I was in for a delightful judge hellride)

On Origin Stories

My tale is as humble and ordinary as a gongfarmer's sack. I was introduced by a friend who danced the praises of this cool new system, and he ran three of us through 'Portal Under the Stars'. I lost three characters, survived a level one wizard with my first taste of corruption, and was hooked. That was August 2012. Our little group only managed to play a couple more times though, life and luck getting in the way. Without actual playtime, DCC RPG faded into the background processes a bit...

Fast-forward a few months and I managed to make it to my first GenCon, signed up for a couple of sessions thinking it would be cool to try again, and played two amazing games with Michael Curtis and Dieter Zimmerman that brought it all back and more. Since then I’ve been driven to get more involved with the DCC community on g+, burning through Spellburn episodes, and just becoming an typical gushing fanboy of the game, publisher and the amazing folks behind them. And by hook or by crook I just had to play more, hence my first leap into judging: Frozen in Time.