Geek Related

Sixteenth Session (13 page pdf) – “The Sitdown” – A meeting of all Riddleport’s crimelords is held and Saul and the PCs are invited.  Saul is given Avery Slyeg’s empty seat at the table and they engage in negotiations with Riddleport’s other “serious people” and their demented minions.  It seems like things go well, except when they get sent on a simple message-delivery mission afterward, it’s a trap!  Business as usual in this sixteenth game session of Reavers on the Seas of Fate!

This was a role-play heavy session, which I enjoy.  The big crime lord sit-down was inspired by like very Mafia movie ever made.  It was an adaptation of the opening scene of Madness in Freeport, the third module in the Freeport Trilogy – but in that one, the Freeport Captain’s Council holds a ball.  A ball?  Jeez, this is Riddleport.  So instead we have a standard “goons around a table” meeting.  It served a couple purposes.  One was to give the PCs a glimpse into the larger power dynamics of Riddleport and also to meet personally all the movers and shakers now that they’re a respectable level (character level and level of Infamy they’ve gained).  Another is to help set up explanations for what’s about to happen.  In the Second Darkness Adventure Path as written, there’s this whole ‘the drow are behind it’ subplot that I’m not using a bit of, instead going for more of a motivation/plot from Freeport using the location and NPCs of Riddleport – although the perceptive will notice some Freeport originals making their way in (Milos, Anton Mescher, Karl the Kraken…) .

Running it all this way has let me use recurring characters a lot more.  If you just run Freeport as written, there’s a lot of “who the heck is this new guy” syndrome.  But here, when Avery Slyeg (Riddleport’s answer to Councilor Verlaine) is assassinated, it’s two people the PCs are familiar with doing it.  When they go to this crime lord sitdown, some of the people are new to them, but they know a lot of them.  In fact the PCs were gratified to see that Clegg Zincher had to fill his third accompanying-minion slot with some low level goon since they took out his capp Braddikar Faje earlier.  I worked in people they knew from earlier and tried to throw in other NPCs they’ll be dealing with in the future like Captain Grudge.

One of my general rules of GMing is “use the same NPC when you can!”  It’s analagous to the theory of Chekov’s Gun.  That’s the one place where I felt like the original Freeport trilogy kinda fell down – it kept putting in new hapless guys to rescue (Lucius, Egil, Thuron) and so I’ve collapsed all three of them into one character (Samaritha).  Well, I had Vincenz standing on for Lucius but he got offed.

So now the PCs realize they’re Marked for Death ™!  They’re not sure what to do.  “Bust in and kill Saul” is one of the leading options under discussion, but I’m worried that’s because two of the players know “that’s what’s supposed to happen next” in Second Darkness.  Like I said, I’m using NPCs and encounters from SD but have pretty much already totally left its plot behind.  But I guess we’ll find out – tomorrow!

Fifteenth Session (10 page pdf), “Terror in Riddleport” – The PCs get led into a deathtrap, the serpent temple is back in business, Avery Slyeg gets assassinated, the PCs get framed for it, the Gold Goblin is attacked, and Sindawe beats up Bojask for kicks!  It’s an action packed session where death lurks around every corner.

My mashing up of the classic Freeport Trilogy and the first chapters of the Second Darkness Adventure Path hits full stride in this session.  I was somewhat surprised, but my old gaming group in Memphis cited the deathtrap in Terror in Freeport (the second Freeport adventure) as one of their most vivid memories.  I had been tempted to ax it, as I’m not a big trap guy, but I ran it pretty much as written instead, and had the assassination they happen upon afterwards be crimelord Avery Slyeg’s.  Jesswin (the assassin who tried to kill Saul, and then got tortured by Tommy) is both the lure to the trap and the hitter, and the Splithog Pauper in there too!

Then, both in Terror and in Shadow in the Sky (the first adventure in Second Darkness), the next part is defending a friendly building against a large scale assault – in this case the Gold Goblin.  A whole load more of previously-encountered NPCs show up for the fight –  Braddikar Faje, Angvar, and Thuvalia.  Probably the most entertaining part of the assault was the hard fight against the raging orc barbarian, who got greased and reduced and otherwise tampered with for a long time before he went down.  Anyway, they give them all a good killing.

Warning – Sensitive Topic!  Don’t proceed if you’re not comfortable with the topic of rape in a RPG.

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Fourteenth Session (11 page pdf), “Booty in Riddleport” – Naval combat!  The PCs’ pirate ship takes on a Chelish navy vessel.  They escape, and take a nice plump merchant ship as a prize, and make their way back to Riddleport.  The next couple weeks are a blur of loot, booze, hookers, drugs, and recreational violence.

It wouldn’t be a pirate outing without some naval combat.  The Chelaxian ship from Session Summary 3, the Raptor (Captain Vix Charlo, commanding), appeared as the PCs’ ship, the Wandering Dagger, was leaving the sacked Staufendorf Island.  Wogan immediately had the brilliant idea of loosing their new eversmoking bottle on the stern, which combined with clever maneuvering kept them almost unharmed by the navy ship’s chase gun.  It was back and forth – the Raptor nearly overtook them before they got up to speed, but then they got a lead, but then the Chelish nearly caught up, but in the end they escaped without a full battle.  And that darn Thalios Dondrel made his Will save.

I won’t post my naval rules here yet because I submitted them for the Fire As She Bears competition from Lou Agresta and Sinister Adventures, but they’ll be OGL so you’ll get your paws on them one way or another soon enough.  Hint, I combined my already field-tested OGL cannon rules, chase rules, and mass combat rules (along with a bunch of new stuff) to put it together.

Then they get to be predator, not prey, when they take a merchant ship.  The PCs were initally concerned about the ten gun-ports on the thing, but Captain Clap just roared, “I said, RUN OUT THE GUNS!!!!”  Turns out the gunports were fake and he knew about it.  Being a pirate isn’t all about kicking ass; living long is about being wily is the lesson to take away.

Then back to Riddleport and a taste of the rock star lifestyle that pirates flush with loot enjoy there!  The PCs entertained themselves for the rest of their session, with such stirring quotes as “Hey let’s go double up on a tiefling hooker,” “I can milk anything with nipples,” and “Now we’ll rip off the local drug suppliers and go into the narcotics business!”  I don’t know, I think I might should change their alignments from Lawful Good, what do you think?

By the way, here’s where an iPhone with Google access is bad ass.  The PCs say, “We want to go kidnap some spiders!  What can we get that’ll keep spiders off us?”  Rather than say “No!” or “Uh, anti-spider herbs?” I did a quick search and BAM!  Hedge apples! (aka horse apples, aka osage-oranges.)  I know some people have given up on the roots of D&D as a vector to research weird information, but not me baby!