Big Top Circus

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, ReveliaLeave a comment

Heckna has now taken a personal interest in the new folks. Met them after their big retreat. Looking forward to their shows and very amused by their antics. They’ll be heading north in no time. Even paid for them to all play Boat Blasters together. That big guy is light on his feet, or his boat, I guess, picked it right up out of the water. He and the sharpshooter won, of course, wasn’t really any other outcome if you’re a betting man.

Looking pretty rough and soaked, they scattered after. Some to food, some to rest, and some to play more games after not winning the prize, and some to the Big Top. The sharpshooter stopped by Pop a Clown and won the game. Dispara headed to toss more rings – Swoleston is going to get in real trouble if she doesn’t start cutting her off sooner. Kentaro musta been hungry after lifting that boat, he’s off to Babs again. The strange little man got even stranger – he built a fire in the Feasting Orchard! Min had a fit, but he must have charmed her, because she only set a guard on him, didn’t bury him in poison cupcakes. Then he tried to go race the snails, on his very own feet. Liz managed to keep him off the track until after the race, at least. He is certainly getting noticed, though I’m not sure he’s making friends.

The rest of them headed to the Big Top. The sexy lady and the quiet priest tried to audition an act with Arachne while the Janitor cleaned up to get the day started. She picked up the young man, but then they just fell all over each other. The Ringleader told them to come back later after they practiced a bit. They stuck around for the first round of small shows, though. All three of them. Then the young lady, Valara, followed Greenleaves out the back and convinced him to let her join his musical act. Tormirr the Sharpeyed had a great first show, hitting his mark every time, and his fancy friend really worked up the crowd. The Janitor cleaned up then stuck around for the Mentalists. The poor old elf isn’t so good at riddles, though. Maybe he’ll bring his friends next time.

After another gather up, where they said a bit too much in front of McNally, they split up again. Dispara and Kentaro headed out to finish up playing the midway games. Didn’t do so well at Catch a Dragon, but Fizzle just loves to play. The blind man tried to play with Harasken, but Sanza wouldn’t hear of it. Dispara almost won, took a long time to lose anyway. So, they headed back to the Cloud Maze again. The others headed into see Locke again, and came out two missions.

Valara, having made friends with Eena-Meena, and Kentaro headed over to security. Kentaro taking something off the top of the flagpole, and Valara auditioning to join his team. She didn’t do so well, not even attacking Jimmy, other than trying to get rid of his hammer. They love their hammers, it’s not an easy thing to do. He put her down gentle, and Shawn shooed her off. Killjoy, Dispara, and Tormirr headed off to hunt Locke-shaped blimps. This time they didn’t even hurt anybody.

Elian and Zephram headed off looking for the Toymaker, but failing that, headed for Dunkin’ Do Not. She wanted to check on Arms, but he was enjoying his messy tank so much, she didn’t clean it again. Tazrin, Tormirr’s hypeman, headed over to meet Fizzle. He did better than his friends at catching her. Zephram cleaned up after another show, and even asked Arachne about joining his coven, he was very much salivating at the idea of adding another member to his family.

When they all gathered back up again, raiding the Lost and Found for whatever they could find, The Toymaker found them, and handed over some small token. He asked them to go find Pinky, whatever could that be about?

Players stop reading here.

I think I need to take better notes – I’m not even sure if they rested last week. I know they intended to, but then I interrupted that plan with Heckna. It is just so hard to take notes with them all running in different directions. One of the gather back ups might have been a long rest.

We had a lot of good conversations. Valara learned a bit more about the Jawbreakers. Zephram learned a bit more about the werespiders in the Big Top. The Heckna meet-cute didn’t go as well as I hoped, most of the characters just stared at Heckna, but Tormirr and Elian – the two he invited did interact. I think Valara might have asked about her Deck, as well. I was hoping for a bit more interaction, but they were a bit gun-shy after the Jawbreakers.

They won’t buy healing potions, though. I don’t get it. Not from Locke, not from the machine Heckna called over. I know they’re worried about money, but they were hurting. If Dispara hadn’t broken the Helper in the Hostile, maybe they would have kept buying some there. They haven’t figured out the Cream Soda Potions are also healing, but those cost more anyway.

I need to do a better job at the Lost and Found’s magic offerings. This group is very used to being able to buy all sorts of magic items all the time. But it’s not a magic shop, it’s a carnival lost and found. Mostly Tormirr is trying to get stuff. I shouldn’t have edited what the bolt did, the price made no sense that way. Should have just had him reroll. I’ll have to toss a few good things in this week. But they’ll still be expensive. I need to make them use Identify or talk to Locke about things instead of just reading descriptions. A couple people have things they don’t know what they do, though Dispara actually asked about their spider toy. Might put one of those in Lost and Found soon.

Might also have a conversation about who has worked out a constant money source, who hasn’t. Do they want to keep running games half the night, or just make their rolls and keep going. Valara might want at least one show to describe before we gloss over things. I think I have a vegetable heist to run tonight, so they can make more veggie stew,. I’ll need to flesh out the Snail Race area today.

We’ve gotten to Pinky though, so maybe things will pick up and take off from here. And I was worried they wouldn’t want to engage with the midway. Players never do what you expect.

Double Feature

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, ReveliaLeave a comment

These new folks are trouble, I tell ya. Turning tents inside out, not even trying to pet the poor monkeys in sweaters. That Dispara lady even smashed the head of that hapless Helper in the Hostel. The big fellow, Kentaro, is doing a number on the Sweet Suite, but you can’t blame a fellow like that, I’d be hungry, too if I was that tall. Looks like Babs’s takin’ a liken to the bloke, offering to cook him up anything he brings her. They even picked a fight with some Blimps in the party room. Best and worst place to do that, I guess. Had to take a big rest, they did, after that.

Then they all split up into twos to check out the midway. Better’n ones, I suppose, but a dangerous thing, still. Dispara’s going to make Swoleston go tickets up at the Dead Ringer, but she don’t care. Rather be off at the food court. That strange elf turned the Dunk’n Do Not into a Bubble Bath! Poor Arms’s gotta muck it up again if Puddles wants to get anyone to play.

The strange young man with a gnarly stick and old Mr Tazrin, who come back to us finally, went shopping. Looking for things in Locke’s old trailer, and gettin’ an old poison shirt at the Big Nose. Helped the kitty with her kiddos, too. Awful nice of them. Needs to work on his jokes, musta got rusty out in the real.

Got all back together at the Court, writin’ all over McNally like he ain’t even alive. Maybe he liked it, didn’t hear no complaints. They’ll be wanting to make some Red, wanting to keep eating. It’s important to keep your strength up. Most people get played by the midway, but these folks are lookin to play it themselves.

First they run off back to Lost & Found and disappear in there awhile. Big ol’ Kentaro can’t fit though, so he goes and gets more to eat. Then the Dispara lady heads out for Felix’s place, causing a ruckus and slipping away again ‘fore the gumballers show up. Bunch of the rest of them head off to talk to The Toymaker, give him a silly little note, but it makes him happy. Strange ol’ contraption.

The Cleaning Lady and the fancy dwarf head off to the Big Top and interview with Arachne. She wants to clean even more things, ruining the atmosphere, I tell ya. He lets her go to it as she will. The other one, Tormirr he calls himself, the Sharpeyed, wants to join the show. I’ll grant him some fancy shooting, but I bet he regrets bouncin’ one off the mask of a Child. No one wants to see what’s behind there.

A trio head off to fight a donkey, and they put on quite the show, not one actually trying to use the carrots they were given. Nah, they just wrassle the poor beast around the ring and back into the cage. Ol’ Tazrin don’t even fight, he just hypes up the crowd to cheer folk on. Gets his prize anyway though.

Big Fellow and Sneaky Lady head on over to the Cloud Maze. Thinking they can just cheat and fly up, but cheaters don’t prosper or whatever. The lady takes to the game, but I think the big fellow’s still flying. But they land on the clouds and that’s enough. Supposed to be fun friends. Laugh, smile, and jump for joy ya rubes!

They get the idea better over at the mudwrestling. Kentaro and the sexy demon lady give the boys a good old go. Actin’ like they got a chance before they crush ’em in the muck. The boys don’t care though, they just wanna play all day. As long as the crowds, and Heckna, stay happy.

Then they make their first mistake, cobarooed plum gumballers. Got right in the way of the clown car n made ’em crash. Boy the look on er faces when he didn’t go down. Made ’em turn tail and run though they had to drag the big one away. Gotta get loads more coppers ‘for you go heading past the big tent.

Players stop reading here.

Was out for a week so I have combined the second and third session into one post.

After the initial heavy handedness of the first session, I gave them free rein to explore. They poke through all the rooms of the Hostel, and ended up picking the ones without people or creatures inside. They did get to learn about Blimps though, by virtue of throwing a dagger at one and then getting several to explode all over the party. First real danger of the carnival, but they did learn to retreat. I probably put too many in the room, but it was less a fight and more a trap.

Our rogue has already decided the Handy Helpers are fair game, completely destroying the one in the Hostel to get a single healing potion, when she figured out the tickets weren’t actually staying in the machine. The Toymaker may have to finally go fix it.

They we did the time old tradition of Split the Party, but because we are so many, it was a four-way split. I could have handled this better, going between the groups, but they were mapping out the sections, so it didn’t make sense to skip around. Only the folks who found the shops really took too long, getting into conversations and a mini quest. But they’re started to get a feel for some of the fun and some of the horror of this place.

This week they took on a more divide and conquer, deciding they need to eat and drink, so they need to make sure they’re making tickets. Going for the games they think they’ll get the best returns off of, and some they just really wanted to try. Zephram continues trying to get folk to pay him to clean, and Tormirr has secured a spot in the small acts show in the Big Top.

We also started finding the plot again, or at least allies, in actually talking to Locke and doing a couple of his Tasks. Meeting The Toymaker, and having a second conversation with Dr. Stella. We have a few more steps before they really get to the heart of several matters.

Then they decided to “go find trouble.” And trouble they did find, in the form of a car of four Jawbreakers. Who beat the crap out of the party, but only put Kentaro down, before even one of them fell. They believe me now, when I say the top of the carnival is a dangerous place to go. I think it’s time for them to meet Heckna to kick of the next game, as they retreat from the fray.

Strange Travelers

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, ReveliaLeave a comment

The tickets were sent, the players called,
and I with my carriage went to fetch them all.

A hungover Duergar outside of a tavern.
A young monk praying outside of a cavern.
And an old janitor breaking his pattern.

A demon running from cops. An ogre from slavers.
And a strange running man without any manners.

Lastly, two finely dressed folks,
One with a sword, and one with jokes.

Off to the carnival, quick as a whip,
And gone again, into the ether I slip.


Oh good, they’re gone. You don’t care how they got there, do ya? You wanna know what they did inside, right?

That Kentaro fellow, he ate so many cupcakes, that Mina almost forgot to end the contest! 30 cupcakes in one minute! The nearest competitor didn’t even eat half that! You should have seen her face when he wandered back in to talk to Ellie, fortunately he was still full and she told him he wasn’t allowed to enter again today. Wait until he finds out there’s no tomorrow, just tonight! Hah! Elllywick better watch her mouth though, grumbling about all the changes around here. It’s a great place to be alive!

Better watch out for that red lady, though, Pretty sure I saw her snag some tickets right outa some rubes’ pocket. Nothing saying ya can’t do that, but if the Jawbreakers catch her, gonna be a bad day for somebody.

At least these new folks did some good. Scooter has stop wailing and pounding on the walls in the Hostile. Excuse me, Hostel, Ramona gets very picky when folks call it that. You ever been interviewed in there? I’ve been attacked by Schnoozlings! I think one of the new guys was, too, got those telltale scratches on his face.

Can’t wait to have them all join the clown brigade!

My Players: Stop Reading

I think it was a successful first game.

All the players met and got to know about each other. With such a large group, many were having side conversations at the table when others were acting elsewhere. While this made my job a little harder as my voice is soft and ears are old, I’m glad they’re getting to know each others’ characters. Something I’ll have to manage and balance with their help.

I used two of the music tracks, and they did alright at low volume, turning up or down as needed. Even hitting exactly the right beat when I turned it up for the oncoming parade. I think we’ll keep it for now.

We met two out of three NPC instigators and found the plot. The Heckna and Witchlight modules are very upfront about what is going on here. I gave some of the PCs invitations to actually join the carnival, but they quickly discovered that might not be a good idea. Maybe a little too quickly, really, but I wasn’t sure how else to handle it. Dr. Stella was a little vague, but clear enough about the dangers. Ellywick was very upfront about the danger and changes, but not as blatant as the book suggests. I think they’re meant to find her later in that first chapter, but it was only one chapter in Witchlight at the carnival. I think maybe Dr. Stella could have been waiting for them in a different place, or the parade could have interrupted her earlier, but some of the information is important up front.

Meeting Pinky was a bit of a scattered scene, but I think that’s alright. They really enjoyed Maphew, and have already cottoned on to keeping him put away for important conversations. I need to make sure I track that.

Kentaro had a good time at the eating contest, but they haven’t really dug into any of the regular foods yet, other than reading the menus. Looking forward to that, though he wants to stay in the Suite Sweet so he has constant food. Did mention he wants something other than sugar, big guys need protein. He’ll have to check out occasionally though, to let it refresh, I think.

Dispara is already picking tickets out of pockets. I think I’m going with nearest die, round up and roll to see the number of tickets gained. That’s a thing I think can be opposed by Observation maybe? I’ll check that out.

And they took my repeated bait to go do the first quest – find Scooter in the Hostile Hostel. They went at it a bit more skill focused than exploratory, so they didn’t ask Ramona questions or check for a guest book. They also didn’t check out any of the first floor rooms, nor the second floor – just did listen checks until they found the room it was coming from. It’s supposed to be echo-y all over, but I didn’t want to No their skill checks on their first challenge.

Dispara started checking rooms after they figured it out, and folks started finding cards. Which has Valara able to put her knowledge to bear. Though they haven’t let her check anything out, mostly just drawing the cards they find. We’ve found a Healer’s Kit, a Light Hammer, a +1 to attack/damage, and a quick heal if Dispara goes to zero HP – but that hasn’t happened, yet so.

We also had our first little fight, I got a Schnoozling onto Killjoy, but Kentaro cut it off before he made his first save. A simple and quick fight, but I wanted to practice the mechanics, and it was more of a trap than a real combat – they don’t even do damage. I figured out how to roll attacks by the end of it.

Looking forward to more exploring of the carnival next week – meeting Locke, checking out their shopping options, maybe getting to play a few games and some simple quests to get to know the area and people.

And find Water – Kentaro realized he needs to find easier and cheaper things to drink than Felix’s elixirs. Might have to make friends with Puddles or Capt’n Groggstache.

See you next week, Adventurers!

Welcome to the Revelia!

On By ravonlockeIn ReveliaLeave a comment

Last time I ran a campaign, I kept separate blogs for the game session summaries written by a wide cast of NPCs and my DM musings. If you’re a follower of this blog, you’ll have noticed a distinct falloff of posts in the last couple years, and for that, I do apologize <waves at the state of the world>. That said, I don’t want to overpromise by saying I will, again, keep two blogs, so I will endeavor to divide up these posts to hold both session recaps and DM musings, with a heavier emphasis on getting back into the habit of session blogging, and maybe DM musings in footnotes or something. Or maybe it will be chaos to match the campaign itself, only time will tell.

All that rambling aside, let me introduce you to the Revelia.

This campaign will combine Heckna! – a kickstarted horror campaign setting entirely within a carnival, The Wild Beyond the Witchlight – an official WotC product that begins in a carnival and ends in the feywild, and The Book of Many Things – an official WotC product describing the Deck of Many things, as well as many other available decks and chaos in the multiverse (and I may have added a few of my own). To top this all off, we are playing in 2nd Edition ADnD, so after turning on the blender of WorldAnvil to combine the books, I also had to do my best to convert it all to 2nd Ed mechanics. This also means that instead of the feywild, our backdrop is going to be Ravenloft in the second half of the game, depending on what the players choose to do. Success TBD.

Now, a campaign is nothing without the players, so let me introduce to you, in general terms, who will be attending this chaotic carnival:

  • A multiversal janitor
  • A Tiefling rogue from Sigil
  • A Dark Sun jester
  • A blind Ogre Mage gladiator
  • A Dwarven sharpshooter
  • A wandering monk
  • A forgetful pyromaniac pyromancer
  • And a Knight of the Solar Bastion

That’s right, we’re back up to eight players, plus the DM, at the table once again. Exciting and terrifying, but really, once you’re already up to 7, what’s one more?

First game is June 2nd so stay tuned for what happens when all these folks meet and enter Heckna’s Revelia!

The Scarecrow King

On By ravonlockeIn Belladonna, MarathonsLeave a comment

Fires have started around town. 4 specific places.  A couple guards peel off. Barty goes to distract the guards We sneak in and lock the door behind us. Barty ghosts in. Then quietly attack the four scarecrows inside. We eat spme berries and Barty dispels the ward on the trapdoor..

We head down the trap door. Down spiral stone stairs intina catacombs. North chanting,  east combat, west nothing. We head towards the green lit chanting. Finding a guard post. We blow them up. Then Anwin shoots the scarecrow down.

Onward. To a large vaulted chamber with pointy alcoves. Cultists carry materials morth. 4 Scarecrows guard them. Battle signs to the east. Green ritual chamber to the north.  We join battle.

We head forward, berries in hand. Another large room, filled with bodies of dead cultists. And a staircase down, where the glow comes from. Briar found a box in a pillar. Barty dispels the trap. A small black iron hourglass flowing upwards. Briar takes it more more cantripping, and my potion for recovery. 

A tattered priest with burning eyes and eight skeletons come up behind us. Acolyte Mordin. They are sweeping up here and will join us below.

We head down another spiral staircase. Death rites on the walls and pulsing green light from below. Chanting and light from the left. Quiet from the right. Eye goes right. We go left to a semi-circular antechamber with four pillars, with cultists kneeling in prayer. Grren seeps through the far door, which is guarded by a cultist who appears to be Corvus, wearing the black armor of a knight, and four massive scarecrows. We take them all down. I am a tired, injured, wolf by the end.

Massive cathedral room. Glowing green throne. 13 villagers around it glazed and chanting. Lord Blackbriar on the throne with the shadowy Pumpkin King above him.  6 scarecrows behind the cultists.  We bomb Corvus. The scarecrows bomb us to death (Barty, Briar, and me).  Arwin knocks out more of the cultists and Lord Blackbriar kills himself to complete the ritual. The Scarecrow King manifests into the world.

The lich queen enters with her horde and raises the dead to fight again. We rejoin the fight. His throne is destroyed and he is banished back to the netherworld. The scarecrows melt to the floor. The “volunteers” are alive but unconscious. 

The lich queen is satisfied with us kerping our word. She didn’t intend to give us unlife. Grats on your unlife. They will be taking back the temple ward of the city. We cannot attack her. We are bound to the goddess of death. We may leave, but are welcome in her ward. 

We gather up Rico and the survivors. Heading back out into the city through the undead army. The city awakes in confusion and horror. The Lord is disgraced. The rogue guild gains political power. 

We are given a writ of nobility and a manor on the edge of town. Time passes, the Sycthe has half the power in the city. The cult is scattered. The city negotiates with the Lady Templar Lich. 

In the spring, we receive a message. The goblins – the barrow collapsed. Large things moving in the darkness below.