[OSH] Mandelbrot's Door

[virgil]

Ran a fairly fun game of OSH yesterday. They loved the IN THE FACE crit system. My players were a goblin (shadowkin), thief (backstab), fighter (weapon of choice), and magic user (book of power).

One of the first things they did when the game started was take the 10 starting Awesome Points in the bowl and evenly distribute it amongst each other, with a couple passing mentions of what cool thing they said during character creation.

I open the game with them entering Sigil by accident, not even caring what world they were from or where they were going originally. They're in the City of Doors now, and it's a dirty alley with razorvine and a halfling woman in pigtails is running to them screaming for help as eight rat-like thugs slowly follow. The initial idea is to sit back and watch, not really caring what happens ("not my problem") until the halfling turns around and proudly defies the thugs, because she now has tough adventurers backing her up (the idea for the lie came from the thief's player cynically saying how they're going to get roped into a fight). The thugs insult the fighter, who decides not to suffer them lightly. A few really lucky hits later, and the fighter (heavy armor, poleaxe, light shield) has two damage and three of the thugs are down. Due to a misunderstanding of the rules, I kept the information about the thugs' next action secret as the players all made their action declaration, which resulted in them all choosing Attack and my Move wasting their round. Rather than trying to give chase to them, as they drew their handcrossbows, they remembered that there was a door they just came in through. They picked up the halfling and walked in as bolts go whizzing by.

I was intending it to be a restaurant, somewhat Italian-inspired (including the distinguished mobsters who run it), and gave vague hints that it was the case. My players, in the conversation before I described the interior, decided it needed to be a whorehouse, and kept ragging on me about it. And so, I gave in. Inside, it's dim. The only light is from a series of hanging bird cages with nude pixies dancing inside. They are stopped by a very large Giff bouncer, who charges 3gp for a seat, speaking only in grunts. The primary 'attraction' is an attractively nude & writhing tiefling woman tied to a table while a neon-green scorpion skitters across her body and periodically stings her, while the patrons sit around passing money among each other in clear gambling. There are a mass of Cantina-varied races (anteater for a head, cat-person, couple humans, drow, etc) seated at various booths, enjoying the sights and the pleasures. In the back corner, next to the door out, is a muscular man with an hourglass for a torso sitting upon a throne (low back) while three spike collared worgs surround him.

The party secludes themselves in a private booth and shake out some information from the halfling. She is a maid for Lord Nackett, and was being bribed by Lady Nadja of Corg (also known as the hanging judge) for information about her master's secret soup recipe. She was attempting to escape the noblewoman's wrath when she came upon the party and tried to think fast. Her master cares for the help, and she assures the party that he will pay them in return for the effort required. He lives in the Lady's Ward, atop an old graveyard.

It's night before the party decides to leave. The party sees one of the thugs speak with the Giff bouncer, stare at them, and leave seeming without gaining admittance. Contemplating their options, they decide it would be simpler to just walk out the front door. They are interrupted by a gray beard coming in, being led in by an urchin with a light on a stick. The magic-user asks the urchin about the option of being led out, while the goblin sneaks by to scout out, hoping the thugs aren't able to see in shadows. Two thugs are just around the corner, seeming to wait, and start prepping for a fight as soon as they hear the magic-user's voice speaking with the urchin. Finished, and not followed by the rest of the party, the urchin walks away while the thugs peer down the alley in wait for the party to get out. Just as the urchin comes between the two thugs at the end of the alley, the goblin leaps out of the shadows and kills one thug and the other thug's face is sliced off by razor gloves before going, thanks to initiative. The urchin runs for safety, away. Taking the gurgling sounds of death to be their cue, the rest of the party pours out and engages in combat with two more thugs at the other end of the alley. They kill one while the other runs like crazy. One of the thug corpses has a vial of Lethe water that will make the imbiber forget everything that happened over the last three hours.

At the Lady's Ward, they walk down the path of a very magically warded graveyard up to a sizeable crypt. Inside is a mansion, built for a halfling (everyone but the goblin will have to stoop, so they wait in the open ceiling lobbey rather than go any deeper). Lord Nackett is a halfling that looks much like Gomez, a renowned gourmet chef. In appreciation, he offers each PC a choice of any one thing from his pantry.

The thief, goblin, and fighter each choose a bottle of goodchili tabasco sauce (chili peppers grown like goodberries), that will act as healing draughts (heal to full, 30% of 1 temporary hit point and removes a scar). The magic user chooses the Ravenous Cookbook.

And so begins the next quest. Nackett is willing to hire the party, for 30gp each, to go out and make Lady Nadja stop trying to take his secret recipe for Stonewear Soup. He doesn't know why she wants it, as he normally doesn't move around in the same social circles. It is known that she is hosting a highly exclusive Lizard Folk opera in the city in a week, and occasionally walks her blue lobster around the Mercykiller's HQ.

After a bit of planning and decision making, they split up. The magic-user and fighter will sneak in as actors for the opera, which is known for its ritual combat and improvisation, as well as some dismemberment (lizard folk thing in general) of any potential fallen. The thief and goblin will just plain sneak in and then pose as guests, the thief being the goblin's servant solely for reaching the high stuff for her.

Both succeed in getting in. The opera actor pair because they seem such poor combatants (very bad rolls), that they'd be fun spectacles for the gore; had some fun introducing the red gecko-man as a director. The stealth pair manage to overhear some juicy gossip and scandal; Lady Nadja is due to host a celebration where some Chronovores are attending as major guests, and it's a shame that she can't get Lord Nackett's soup for the meals, as his homeworld was erased by the Chronovore race (he's the only survivor). This makes the chef understandably bitter and not likely to ever attend the same party.

Meanwhile, the opera pair cheesily act out a couple scenes at a bridge with a Charon-like riddler and in a throne room with a despotic Aztec gecko that thinks poorly of his daughter's choice in partners. It ends with the pair fighting a Big Bad Lava Demon, throwing Awesome Points like crazy, and winning. The magic-user, knowing of some lore about Lava Demons, shoves his hand into it's cooling chest cavity to pull out the onyx heart before promptly passing out from the damage of such an act (now has wicked burn scars up to his elbow).

The onyx heart acts as a ranged weapon, shooting fire bolts. The fighter takes it to add to her armory, as the magic-user already has the Cookbook.

AP/XP Totals
Thief - 5/2
Goblin - 3/2
Fighter -
Magic User - 4/10

And so they plot their next move...

Tune in next time, to see what's behind the next door.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Sounds interesting. I'll have to give OSH a chance next time I'm in a position to run a new game. The XP system is my only concern, since I'm not sure how well it would interact with my current group dynamics.

[Orion]

What is OSH?

[TarkisFlux]

Old School Hack. The game that virgil found and liked enough to stop working on his own (relevant thread).

[virgil]

My girlfriend talked me into finishing Parabellum anyway, since all that's left is formatting/layout. Something about completion and practice and such. I'll delve into that soon-ish

[virgil]

Session 2
New player. Elf.

Goblin has a plan, and manages to convince the rest of the party to follow it after explaining the steps three times. It's a rather conniving plan, in my opinion.

Their first step is to seek out the Chronovore that is currently staying in Sigil who's going to be one of the guests for Lady Nadja's party. It's a very exclusive and expensive hotel that he's staying in, and after looking around they can see the Chronovore looking out of a window. Goblin impresses the person holding the lobby with her money and her brazenness of the forgery. Inside the Chronovore's hotel room is complete and solid steel of every feature. The Chronovore looks like an alabaster white human wearing a toga and a face concealing white greek helmet, along with tiny feathery wings (three to four foot wingspan).

They tell the Chronovore that they know of a survivor from one of the worlds it supposedly 'erased' during a feeding. They offer to sell the location of this survivor if they help intimidate him and not deal with him until after the party. The Chronovore will believe their intentions so long as they do a service for it, which is to head down to the local bakery and help the proprietor with his upcoming crisis, then provide give any of his payment to the party to the Chronovore.

The party agrees, goes to check out the bakery, which is a very high-class pastry shop run by a human. He is about to unveil is best creations, custard. However, the speeding bladeling accidentally runs into a fruit cart on the way to the shop and knocks itself out. The chef is quite upset because the bladeling knew of the best customers and was quite fast, as its necessary to sell the custards in 3 hours before they go 'feral'. There are eight custards, and they need to sell for 500gp apiece.

Goblin takes three to sell at the Lady's Ward, while the rest of the party takes three to the Foundry where they know of a clown guild. Goblin runs into a fortune teller that tells her "a tear will be shed for her in an unknown quarter." After a successful Cunning check, she sells them successfully. Meanwhile, the rest of the party runs into a serious distortion of space and reality...and a family of ducks walks across the now nine-way intersection (all at right angles). This immediately angers Fighter, who kills a duckling, which immediately angers the mother duck, who has been given the same stats as a troll.

It is a brutal and long fight, where Fighter resorts to eating a custard to see what happens (wild surge). She immediately becomes weightless, which I deem to be permanent along with anything she's carrying at the time of eating it. Thief wields her as a reach weapon, also as a way to keep her from floating away. Mage threw his book at the duck and then sat in the back missing everything. In the end, they barely persevered with their lives and got out of the distortion two hours into the future.

At the clown guild, they fail their skill check to sell the custard, ruled the denial to be because they want something they can do repeatedly and at least somewhat predictably for their acts. However, the head of the guild is fascinated by their dead duck (Fighter chose to bring it with her), offering to pay 500gp for it. Fighter, realizing it's of worth them, demands 1500gp. The guildmaster counters with 1000gp, and is counter-offered with 1500gp (Fighter doesn't seem to understand the concept of haggling). Fighter, hemming a bit, accepts the final offer of 1500gp if she throws in the custard with it. With all three custards essentially paid for, Elf decides to eat one, and his tongue is turned into a viper. Four damage later, he manages to spend some AP to use his class's "speak with animals" talent in order to subdue and tame the viper.

Meanwhile, the Goblin goes back to the shop for the last two custards to bring them to another part of the Lady's Ward. This time, she runs into a high-ranking Harmonium guard, not liking the sight of a raggedy goblin walking around a rich neighborhood while selling pastries. Using her Puss'n'Boots eyes of innocence, she convinces the guard to take a custard, completely free if it doesn't prove to be the best custard he's ever tasted. Rolling on the surge table again, the guard gains the ability to teleport at will, and is happy enough with this fortune to give Goblin 1000gp. She continues on and sells the last custard.

The pasty chef offers the party a free piece of food each out of his shop in addition to the usual payment he was going to give the bladeling delivery boy (which is a book of maps for an unknown location). Thief takes a custard, and gains the ability to safely detach any and all of his limbs while retaining full ambulatory control over them. Goblin also chooses a custard, gaining draconic wings. Elf doesn't like his viper tongue, so he spends the 200gp to have it dispelled and eats another custard, gaining the ability to have any fire he makes sing like a robin. Mage takes a rain-check.

They deliver the book of maps to the Chronovore, who then is lead to Lord Nackett's place. Their plan is to intimidate him for the recipe, then give him the Lethe water they have, so they can then sell it to Lady Nadja. This would cause her stop bothering Lord Nacket, who will then pay the party for a job well done. Goblin finds an excuse to get the maid out of the manor for a long enough period of time for the rest of the party to do the deed. There will be a side-quest for this part.

The rest of the party and the Chronovore introduce themselves to Lord Nackett, and discover that they know each other personally. In fact, they discover that the reason Nackett survived the consumption of his world was because he struck a deal with the Chronovores, and this act was intended to be kept secret, the narrative of him being a bitter survivor fitting their respective goals nicely.

Now the party knows too much, and they must be dealt with. The Chronovore notes that Nackett has a one-way portal to his race's trash bin, where all of the remnants and shells of the dimensions they eat are tossed (somewhat of a demiplane in the Astral), and suggests banishing them. Nackett agrees and forces them through, though not before Thief uses his pickpocket powers and steals a small package.

Thief checks the package once they're on the other side. In Lord Nackett's pocket was a Mundane Egg wrapped in a map.

When Goblin comes back, thinking the plan to have been finished, she finds the Chronovore and Lord Nackett having tea. The jig being up, in their own words, she flashes her eyes of innocence to claim to be a dupe to the other party's machinations. Feeling sorry for her, they provide a potion that temporally erase the party's incriminating knowledge as well as make any active magical effect (at the time of drinking) much harder to dispel; which will make them more inclined to drink the potion. Along with directions to a way out of the dimension, they send her on her way (Nackett doesn't know about the missing egg yet).

[virgil]

I only put in part of the session notes earlier, and have finally finished it. These notes will be posted on my blog when I have finished posting the campaign notes for my IH campaign.