Session Report: the Haunted Hidalgo Mine

 This last week, I ran my first B/X game (OSE) for my spouse and their parents, neither of whom had ever played a roleplaying game before. The experience was a great learning opportunity for me, and at the encouragement of a couple folks on my GLoG server I've decided to try to write the night up. Generally, I don't care for session reports, so I'll try to keep things lively.

To ground the setting in tropes the players are all basically familiar with, I set the scenario in the Wild West to avoid the difficulty of generating characters, I took the liberty of rolling up three character and allowing the players to choose between them. We've got:

• Magic-User 2: Mother-in-law's character. She spent a long time researching the name of contemporary clairvoyants before deciding on the name C.C. Showers. Knows the spells Charm Person and Protection from Evil, which I related in natural speech on her character sheet. By happenstance, has the most HP in the party.
• Dwarf 2: Father-in-law's character. After I described a miner-surveyor available, he snapped it up and declared his name was Dirk Pitt, apparently named for the protagonist of a certain book series. In off-time, the player would find pictures on google to go with his equipment. Demanded to own a lodestone. Tried to bully me into giving him extra bullets.
• Ranger 2: Spouse's character, James. A veteran scout of the Civil War. Surprised me by deciding to have fought for the Confederacy. My spouses' relative experience played well with the character's role as hired muscle and guide.

The party starts in Arneson's Claim, the nearest town to a mine that C.C. acquired in an estate sale. They are introduced to such ideas as "now is when you can talk in-character and decide what you do" and "this is how you speak to the NPC shopkeeper as you buy your beans, bacon, whiskey, and lard." These establishing scenes turned out to be important to getting the in-laws their sea-legs. They were happy to have me tell them when to roll dice and what numbers were good, but the structure of a roleplaying scene was harder to grasp for them. When she got the hang of it, my mother-in-law would always smile to me when she transitioned the scene, pump her arms as though speed-walking, and go "yes, and now we're going to this thing--" It's quite charming.

Ready to head out, the party loaded up their mule (tended by C.C.'s hireling Juan-Carlos), and I rolled for a couple random encounters. Fortunately for the party, they avoided the more dangerous encounters like "2d6 wild dogs, see page 39". Instead, they encountered a high-level cleric and his assistants, the Hopi elder Nakwaiyamtewa, who mentioned that the mine they were heading to was haunted by ghosts. This encounter is another piece of good practice for roleplaying, and they purchase a poultice from him. C.C. continues an earlier practice of vague suspicion. Her player operated under the suspicion that any encounter must have some story significance, and took detailed notes throughout the journey.

They then encountered a high-level fighter, Deadeye Davis, and his entourage, who mentioned that the mine they were heading to was haunted by ghosts. I note that wilderness encounter tables in OSE have a lot of high-level NPCs with character levels, and that they generally are not restricted by expected level at all. Davis shoots a commemorative medallion for them that is inscribed with the phrase "Deadeye Davis shot this on the first try" on the first try. Rather than buy it, as Davis suggested, Dirk Pitt traded some beans and whiskey.

Cowboys, by Paul Canava

Finally, they arrived at the mine, as well as a cracked adobe house close by. Juan Carlos began to set up camp (not entering the house for whatever reason) as the party approached the mine. They sent Dirk Pitt into the darkness, trusting to his miner's darkvision. Entering the first branch he sees, he finds a sleeping, sweaty fellow taking a break from digging a hole with a chest close by. Pitt wakes him with a revolver in his face, and commands him to jump into the pit. The man, Terrence, begins to babble about how he's got a wife who would miss him and many orphan wards. This generally amuses the party. 

Pitt calls back to the party to come help him, also alerting a trio of bandits in another branch of the mine, unbeknownst to them. This leads to a great show-down with Dirk and James clutching the only light source, standing over Terrence, as three bandits in the dark threaten them with their firearms as C.C. quietly approached from the mine's entrance. She attempts to cast Charm Person on the apparent source of the threats, but the bandit leader succeeds on his save. When the party lets slip that she is the deed-holder for the mine, the bandits attack, but have a hard time locating her in the dark. As she flees, Dirk extinguishes the lantern so only he can see, and with James firing blindly into the corridor they manage to kill two of the bandits. The other has already fled to the surface, chasing after C.C., and when they are in the light of day he fires a shot through her shoulder. I told my mother-in-law she would need to make a save vs. wands or be incapacitated by the gunshot, but with luck she succeeded. Juan-Carlos was able to subdue the bandit with a frying pan, concluding the encounter.

The party ended with one gunshot wound, two captives, and a chest. As James checked out the house alone, Dirk twisted open the chest latch, causing a golden snake-carving to shoot forward from within and jab him with a poisoned needle. Luckily, he passed his SAVE VS DEATH, and his hand merely swelled up painfully. Within were hundreds of gold coins and nuggets, recovered from the mine after it shut down under spooky circumstances.

In the courtyard of the house, James found a set of key-chimes, which he carefully dismantled in case someone heard it. (DM's note: seems like a bad idea, like the presence of a set of chimes would not be suspicious to anyone in the house and its absence could be, but whatever.) After clearing the house, the party set up camp there, and C.C. suggested sleeping in shifts to keep an eye out for trouble. I was quite pleased to inform the player that this is standard operating procedure for many groups, and that she should be proud of herself.

In the second shift, Juan-Carlos was on watch. His scream woke the rest of the party, at which point he warned that a ghost had arrived and told them to get out. They loitered until they saw this ghost, a fellow speaking English in a silver conquistador costume. James shot this ghost, causing the man to fall to the ground blubbering about how the other bandits had forced him to impersonate a ghost to scare away scrutiny.  He was tied up with the other prisoners.

In the morning they returned to the mine. C.C.'s player was simultaneously hopeful to recover HP and surprised by how little her gunshot seemed to impede her. Scouting about, they found the bandits' camp, but despite some light searching did not find a treasure (bonds and confederate money) hidden under a pile of rocks. Continuing on, they encountered the true ghost of Paulos Hidalgo, the original owner of the mine. They could tell he was a real ghost because he spoke Spanish and was see-through. He cursed them as English swine and told them to get out. After offering to help him if he would help them, he staggered forward, holding out a ghastly limb. Dirk.... hugged the ghost. He took 3 constitution damage, complaining that he was being punished for trying to be nice to an NPC, as I rerolled the reaction roll of the ghost in light of this tact. Sure enough, this mollified the ghost somewhat, and he told them to look behind "the sign of God" before sinking into the floor.

They decided to continue on, where they saw ghosts of long-dead workers tearing at each others' flesh with mattocks and shovels. James and Dirk, failing their saves, fled screaming from the mine, leaving C.C. to walk after them. On the way back, she noticed a small cross carved into the wall. When the party regrouped, they returned to that cross, and Dirk noticed that the wall in this spot had been added, not simply carved through. This was the result of his inspection despite a failed 2-in-6 roll, and in retrospect calling for a roll was a mistake on my part.

Pulling the false wall aside with a crowbar, they found a skeleton and a locked chest. Retrieving both, they buried the body and James gave his best attempt at a Christian eulogy, propitiating the spirit and allowing Hidalgo to rest. They attempted to pry the chest open but failed, but after searching the key-chime found earlier Dirk used a silver key to unlock it, this time opening it with a crowbar to avoid any traps. Within were thousands of Spanish gold coins, pieces of polished turquoise, and jewelry of various descriptions. Truly, enough wealth to last one person their whole life long. Though I subtly hinted they could turn on each other to take the treasure for themselves, no one was close to biting, and they returned to town with wealth and prisoners. The party was wildly successful in their journey to the Hidaldo Mine.

Lessons Learned

• It pays to ground your game in tropes the players will be familiar with.
• Explain more than you need to as succintly as possible. My mother-in-law asked what THAC0 was, and I should have started by saying something like "it is a measure of your character's ability to hit someone in combat" rather than trying to define the acronym or talk about the table.
• In B/X, infravision is great.
• In B/X, bandit lairs have a heck-ton of treasure. Even halving the amount of treasure for slightly below-average number of bandits, each player would have enough XP to level up twice, to 4th level.
• That said, dangers truly are deadly. Two different players made saves that, if failed, would have killed them. Luck and skill made the adventure survivable, and common sense rather than system mastery was a big part of that.
• Setting B/X in the Old West is easy and feels right, if you're willing to miss out on most magic and monsters.
• No one wore armor and it all worked out okay.
• Everyone wants to use dynamite.

Session Report: Bonepunk (Wretched Remains)

On December 31st, I ran a one-shot game, a session of Baal's Bonepunk. In accordance with a madcap, light style I prepared little beyond the premise and allowed myself a bit more freedom than usual in adjudicating the game. We guessed and contradicted ourselves in terms of what sorts of technology was commonplace, and we didn't feel bad about it. This was the opening crawl:

We are the people of San Holofernes, a city with no sky.

We are a religious people, who uphold the truth of the Canonikon Scroll. It is so holy, we are not allowed to gaze upon its laws. Compliance is compulsory.

Our gnosticators teach that the evil of the Adv*rsary corrupted the gift of God’s life, and that our distance from God is the reason we are dead. Only with self-denial and obedience to the Parliament can we hasten the day when we are reborn.

The Parliament represents the people. Anyone can claim a seat, as long as they have the independent wealth that makes them incorruptible against bribery and greed. They select among their sons the leaders of the Noble Army.

The Noble Army is comprised of all who do not choose to be independently wealthy, and it is led by the bravest among us. All in the military have seen the monstrosity the gnosticators warn of, save the highest rank which must keep an unblemished mind.

But tonight, a crowd of “soldiers” on shore leave have declared their rebellion. They have no plan, no supplies, and no leaders. They will surely by crushed by the week’s end.

You are those rebels : (

-

Players:

• Dead-Delver, playing gilded former guard
• Dogleaf, playing a former knight with a saint scrimshawed on his skull
• purplecthulhu, playing a gamewarden with a remotely viewing eye
• Ren, playing a ratcatcher that believes himself to be a ghost
• SunderedWorldDM, playing a skeletal former gardener

-

Act One

To start things off, I had each player establish one fact about the neighborhood that their rebellion had seized. So it came that the party, along with about 40 other rebels, was hiding in the bombed ruins of a glow-in-the-dark paint factory. This rebellion was introduced to the players as leaderless, so I opened the floor to anyone to try to propose step two of the Revolution. When no player jumped immediately in (foreseeable since everyone was getting acclimated,) I had two rebels suggest two courses of actions. The zealous Luca proposed marching through the city streets, telling The People to rise up. The cautious Santiago suggested getting supplies. As some members of the party tossed around the idea of getting fertilizer from a farm on the edge of the city, something fell through the ceiling.

Covered in dust and surrounded by corrugated plastic, a ten-year-old girl lay disoriented on the ground. Amazingly, she seemed to have all her flesh and be in all ways normal and living. The party knew that the existence of someone untouched by necrotic energy was a threat to the legitimacy of the regime. Looking up, they saw the hole in the ceiling of the city from which this girl, Evey, fell. As one PC explained to Evey the world she found herself in, purplecthulhu tried to fire an arrow carrying his eye into the hole above, hoping to glimpse heaven. The dart fell short and landed outside the factory, where he saw a gargoyle police inspector leading a team of government soldiers towards the building.

Alerting his comrades, they set a quick trap before fleeing. The party led Evey and about twenty rebels into the sewers where they knew they would not be easily followed. Rolling well for encounters, Ren's ratcatcher led them capably to an underground concourse and from there to the farm they sought. As they went, they discussed what to do with Evey and agreed to help her get home, though their comrade Luca demanded that she do her best to secure them weapons when they got to the surface. By this point, the rebels refer to her strictly as "the messiah."

Through a convenient sewer grate, they spy the farm. Like all farms, it is under military occupation, with towers surmounted by skull searchlights and fences that resembled neuron webs. Sundered's character offered to sneak onto the compound and turn off electricity feeding into these, but failed to account for the neural fence being electrified. As the searchlights shrieked, he ran for the electricity booth, dodging crops of unexplained corpse-hands before flipping the main switch. With the defenses offline but the soldiery alerted, a battle quickly ensued.

I didn't want to adjudicate a full-scale battle, so I abstracted the fight between the soldiers and the NPC rebels, electing instead to throw a zombie bear at the party. This beast of burden emerged from the farm's stable (as well as an example statblock in the host's section of Ball's rulebook.) If I had thought to, I could have simply represented the guards as members of the Horde class and done likewise for the rebels, but this went pretty well. Interpreting the combat rules as best I could, I essentially had each attack take the form of an opposed roll, which meant people hit fairly often but that when they didn't there was no result. I now believe that attacking shouldn't be opposed, just given a penalty for truly tough opponents, or else that failed attacks result in your potentially taking damage. Both would be in keeping with the fast-paced, high-impact ethos Baal describes in the rules, and I suspect the way Baal runs combats would probably not have this potential problem.

Act Two

Triumphant against the soldiery and the zombie bear, the rebels freed the farm-workers, who were literally chained to their beds. They also recovered a (randomly rolled) exoskeleton called a Mule Framework, which Sundered would put to good use. Evey emerged from her hiding place in a nearby dumpster, excited at the bravery she witnessed, and the rebels got to business planning their next move. Taking stock of the materials at hand, they realized they could blow their way through the city's ceiling with three successive charges of fertilizer-based bombs, and thereby get the messiah home and free themselves from the tyranny of San Holofernes forever.

After the first blast, purplecthulhu's character's eye, still outside the factory, perceived mercenaries with dog-faced laser rifles turn and rush towards the farm, followed by a gilded rhinoceros skeleton, filled with organs and organ-grinder machine guns. Rebels hurried to climb up to plant the second charge, but by the time it was set the soldiers had arrived. A pitched battle began, with some player characters aiding in the bloodbath and some scurrying to detonate the bombs, scale up, detonate the third, and hurry through the hole to the surface.

A lot of small moments occurred around this time. One PC confessed his love for Luca before getting seriously injured by a laserburn, fall, and rockfall that destroyed the rhino skeleton. Another was surprised to face his own brother with a laser-rifle, tragically raised to oppose all that they once loved. Another struggled to lift himself up the hole despite his heavy artificial frame. In the end, all but two escaped, and I allowed those stragglers a single roll to see if they survived the battle, since the session was wrapping up. With luck, both survived.

Joining the rest of the party on the surface, they felt the wind on their bones, cooling the warm smile of a sun. Evey took one PC by the hand and led the group to an old house on a hill, from which they could hear music from an old record player-- not one made of bones or anything, just like a normal record player. They found Evey's parents and, while the party bowed to the "angels," she apologized to them for running out of her cousin's quinceanera and they apologized for not taking her seriously. Some kind of lesson was learned.

Evey's father eyed the party warily, despite her assurances. As she explained all about the tyranny of the city below, he tried to brush it all off as not his family's problem. But citing the lessons we all just learned, about taking things seriously and answering problems when they arise, Evey insisted. Her father took out his cell phone, extended its extendable antenna, and called the mayor.

We don't yet know what happens to San Holofernes, to Evey, or to those Bonepunks who found the living world. But I like to think that there are good things in store.

-

This game was a big success. The main system feels so nice, since when you're good at something you get to roll a big die. This session was about big action, but I can easily imagine games with more sedate scenes. It would have been great to get some literally hide-bound priests or earless bureaucrats in there somewhere. In future Bonepunk games, I want to use the 100 miraculous items table more extensively to add variety to potential threats and allies. The first two appendices are also gold. Maybe the only thing that I would do against the recommendation of the book is change the experience system. By default, Bonepunk uses the gold-for-XP standard, though it does have an alternate system which also replaces classes in the appendices. I really like the classes, but I'm not sure I like gold acquisition being central to a game about overthrowing authority. But basically everything else in the book is very good. Character creation is fun and the host's chapter is exactly what I want it to be, including explicit text on what the game is about.

Please consider running a game of Bonepunk. Those of us immersed in the OSR scene read so many games that intrigue us, that we may even wish their creators will run for us. I tell you, it is a rewarding experience to play these games, to run them even if we don't totally know how, to tap into the vision of creators who we not only respect but can communicate with and share energy with. I could have run this one-shot or the one I ran two days before with one of my own systems. But it was so engaging to run in Avatar GLoG and Bonepunk, and to explore them with other people excited to do so. When someone publishes rules for their game, they're giving you permission to use all their best ideas. Please consider running a game you loved reading.

Session Report: Avatar GLoG in Hell (the Only Crime is Pride)

(Content warning: Hell, brief mentions of gender, xenophobia, slavery, studding people, misery, suicide.)

On December 29th, I ran a one-shot game, a playtest of Xenophon's Avatar GLoG outline as well as my Hitch in Hell setting. This required some tinkering to merge the assumptions of both in a small outline. Notably, I ended up writing techniques for different sorts of benders as well as the three classes brought from the Hitch in Hell. Because it was a one-shot, I knew I wouldn't have time to focus on hexcrawling, so I constructed a scenario with a slight traveling prelude before getting into a small dungeon space. I also wanted to design with the potential for any kind of bender to be useful in some part of it.

-

The Players:

• Gorinich, playing a salamander airbender
• Ren, playing a salamander firebender
• Xenophon of Athens, playing an El Doradan waterbender.
• Oblidisideryptch, playing a damned idolator

-

After reading the prelude from Hitch in Hell, I explained that the party had been travelling through a part of Hell called the Braggerlands, searching for magic "Spartan Seeds" in the Caves of Creon. Believing themselves near to their destination, they came upon a fortified camp of Salamandrine Men. Fearing the suspicion of the inhabitants of the camp, they nevertheless approached when they realized that an emberstorm would blanket the area in a couple of hours.

I designed this encounter as an opportunity to set the tone of the sort of social interaction the player characters were used to. None of them, not even the salamanders, had any particular knowledge of this small culture, but they were unsurprised to be threatened and condescended to. These people lived in homes of hollowed-out giant faces and wielded cruel, inefficient polearms. When the party asked for shelter, this was granted, yet the officer speaking with them demanded they stay in separate face-homes according to which of the three genders they belonged to. When this was met with questions, the officer reiterated rather than explaining. After much fruitless discussion, the party elected to claim to just all be men so they would be able to stay together, which the officer accepted.

The party was then shown to a face-home, where a few male salamanders stayed. They bided the emberstorm interacting with them, playing cards and yelling at each other. The party learned a bit more about the society in which they were visiting, about how its men were studded by the state and used as conscripts in endless skirmishes. They were told that by entering the camp they were now slaves, a development that might have frightened them more if they hadn't already decided to escape as quickly and forcefully as possible after the emberstorm passed.

They escaped as quickly and forcefully as possible after the emberstorm passed. It did not prove difficult with the application of surprise and bending. In retrospect, I like this first section of the session. The people they met were sufficiently cruel for the theme of a Hitch in Hell while still being coherent. On the other hand, I worry that the players might have been affected more by the encounter if they saw more of themselves in the sins of the salamander camp. It was enjoyable to see their scummy player characters' disdain for their scummy hosts, but I think in the future I want to create a fruitful opportunity for ethical disorientation.

Still searching for the Caves of Creon, they encountered a lion-ox (first draft was a sphinx) drinking at a sulfurous hot spring. Seizing the element of surprise, they attacked and quickly slew it, freezing the water around its head to blind it. It was here that we saw how powerful bending is in Xeno's outline, especially when it is creatively applied. What followed was a series of considerations on how to best cook or boil the lion-ox's flesh, where to camp, and other practicalities. They also recovered a tablet from the boiling spring explaining a firebending technique. Studying it was beyond the timescale of the game, but I wanted to include such treasures since they seem like an important part of Avatar GLoG.

After camping, the party found the Caves of Creon, surrounded by the wretched and incapacitated forms of over a hundred people, pathetically struggling in the mud. *Slashing* their way through, they met with one damned soul who was somewhat more composed, an unburied suicide named Haemon. He explained his lot, and said that this was indeed the Caves of Creon that they sought. This sequence is interesting to me, because it highlights the tension Hitch in Hell has, where it wants to depict people acting cruelly and yet it also wants to attain some measure of mercy. The player characters were somewhat aloof in dealing with these damned souls, which makes sense since every part of the game has prompted that. Something for me to think about.

I won't summarize the Caves room by room, but the party quickly found a fortune in gold talents, as well as a trio of guardians (Niobe, Edith, and Eurydice.) They also spoke with Creon, who punished himself for his tyranny by staring into a Dolorous Palantir, which showed him scenes of torture in other parts of Hell. In another part of the caves, the party contended with the beheaded Medusa, starting a fight when one of them stabbed her animate headless body and another opened the box containing her head.

(Naturally, she was an Earthbender)

This fight ended with one party member turned to stone and medusa herself falling down a deep chasm. Deciding to cut their losses and possibly return for the PC-statue on another journey, the rest of the party loaded up with magic seedbags and quickly stole a pair of gold talents before cheesing it for the door.

The moment the gold was removed from the caves, the entire place began to sink into the ground. 400 gold richer and one party member poorer, the party began the long journey home. By experimenting with the seeds they learned that throwing one to the ground produced a fully armed and armored soldier. When they got back to the boomtown of Canoe, it would be with an army...

-

As a game, I believe the session was a success. Xenophon noted that his outline resulted in characters of a higher power level than he now preferred, which we could all understand. Poor Oblid, the only player with a non-bender, was also playing the class which is most dangerous, since it summons hostile creatures as its main gimmick. While the bender is powerful, it is fun to play, and while I didn't always understand how to interpret the bending rules I was amused to see then used in the problems the characters encountered.

El Dorado: a Hitch in Hell is focused more on theme and emotional experience than on a particular ruleset, and those themes displaced the ones we might have pursued with a session of Avatar GLoG in its natural setting. I hit on the theme of terribleness pretty easily, but I think there's room to work on its accompanying theme of sorrow. That is something that is easier in campaign-level play, but I'm unlikely to run a campaign in Hell anytime soon.

Kumi's Anthologies: Cursed House of the Twin Axes

 [I was planning to write the first session report for a new short-run weekly game playtesting a dungeon set in Mesomergos, but one of my players, a true historian, took the liberty of taking the most extensive session notes I've ever seen. I present it here, with slight edits, in the belief that it will provide a better view of the game from the players' view.]

[images by my players]

The Ancient Labyrinth

...Fed by the carcass the people worshipped in the mountains. Pigudix the founder of our land, embodied in the emperor, sat as ruler of the world. His rival Aurochs works, gnawing his way out of the bellies of those who ate him first. The sins of the parents have been passed onto their children. The world and balance between gods, mortals, and spirits strive toward balance and order out of chaos and chaos out of order. May the spirits of song and story aid me in telling this the newest chapter in the history of the Double Axe Palace, the Celestial's Home, Asterion’s Bane, and the Labyrinth of Fear.

The Party: 

Xiaodi (RenegadeTLA on the discord): from the west. Tall and lanky looks like she is not from here but has the name and speaks well. Is a practitioner of the gigre of circumlocution. Super ambitious, wants power and prestige. [Note: incapable of telling the truth about herself]

Sid (Lotus on the discord): orbseeker, about 40 curly but greying hair and some scraggle. Somewhat squirrelly, perhaps high strung and ferociously curious

The Arm of Kang: The financiers of the party. [a band sent by the oathkeeper who funded their expedition]

Zexian (Oblidisiderptch): a practitioner, flagellator. Can do things like transmute items, non-suspicious of everyone. A golem. Weird half cracked mask. [Veteran of a previous game]

Arnulf: an old man from the city we are sent from. Well past prime, a warrior, part of the fighting men. Pushed to  assignment not necessarily by choice, possibly a forced retirement. Late 50s balding with good sideburns. Generally an orderly.  

Continuation of Double Axe Palace History

        An ancient imperial decree to retake an ancient palace in the mountains of Mesomergos, convinced Oathkeeper Kang, lord of a prominent city, to finance this party’s expedition. The long-destroyed gallery roads approaching the Double Axe Palace having been reconstructed made the initial trek reasonably easy, and the party set out to make it inhabitable, seeking treasure and title to the land

The ancient star-worshipping people claimed the site was cursed, and constructed the original palace to appease their zodiac sign of Fear. In these days the palace was known as the Celestial’s Home or more commonly the Labyrinth of Fear. In time, the emperor of Mesomergos appointed a noble, Duke Asterion, to suppress star-worship in the mountains. His rule was characterized by cruelty and greed as he set to forging a statue of pure iron in his own likeness; additionally the frescos lining the walls capture the likeness of Asterion and his eventual downfall.This fall came when his servants revolted, killing him and his retainers, and burning the gallery road leading to the site. In recent years, that gallery road has finally been rebuilt and the troupe of adventurers set up camp in preparation for a final summit.

On the Journey

• Xiaodi thought she saw a pale woman with an ornate two-headed axe, walking along the mountain above her.
• Sid found a copper flask, hot in the midday sun. When he poured it out, the water seemed to sizzle and foam.
• The Arm of Kang swear they saw a star in the constellation of Fear pulsing in the night sky.
• Zexian dreamt (?) They saw a pale woman with an ornate two-headed axe, walking along the empty air beside the gallery road.
• Arnulf pointed, and you all saw a star in the constellation of Fear burned black in the light of day.
• When we set down to camp, Kumiho saw a outcrop of conical rocks. When we awoke, they were gone. 

Lotus has suggested a methodical approach so as to make our search thorough. The old man, Arnulf, heaved a grappling hook up and created an entrance for all to pass. Xiaodi encountered some gnomes [having caught on one with the grappling hook] and one fell when Arnulf pulled on the rope. The gnome fell into Zexian’s arms and the two began to bargain for passage into the palace. This reminds me of an old children’s tale involving gnomes

Careful one must be when making deals with gnomes or goblins and similar gremlins. Forget their names, forget your promises, or break the rules, and their tiny spears are sure to fly. Remember the story of Faang who asked a gnome to steal his friend’s book but forgot to stipulate his desire to own it. The gnome took off with the tome leaving Faang without his prize and both lads reeling without their treasured knowledge.  

A brief fight broke out, a gnome was drop kicked, as the rest of the party clambered over the wall, past the weathered stone and shrub. A deal was struck between Zexian and the fallen gnome bringing the fight to an end as quickly as it had begun. Dashing into the palace the party gathered with their brokered ally. Zexian decided to follow the gnome in spite of Xiaodi’s protests, he presented a case and all seemed agreed the party should split to better understand the lay of this land. A loaf of bread split many times feeds many a little while a loaf split in two feeds a few much more. 

[In a hallway of the palace, the party inspected frescos and noted] horoscopes for each of the birth signs for immediate future and for the rest of the year... On examination the frescos revealed a history of the past 200 years in this place. [The palace has been abandoned for at least a century]   

 

At this same time Zexian was attempting to strike more deals with the gnome to further establish our claim over this land and the palace itself. A feast they discussed roast beef, and potatoes with some lovely asparagus.  The meeting planned Zexian allowed the gnome to give a location and it was decided the theatre to the north east would be best. With a warning to not drink the water [!] this gnome trotted off toward his kin as Zexian returned to his own. 

As the group made its way to the theatre through the courtyard a series of strange vegetables overgrow the area, but more concerning flickers passed through the windows... It is more than likely this place has seen much violence and death, and one would be wise to honor the spirits of the fallen. As Zexian took to marking our way an unknown figure shambled their way past. Arnulf called out and we were met with a woman who promptly bounded up to the group. “Right away!” was all she could seem to say. [This haunted creature is one of many such inhabitants of the palace, with animal-like minds but human habits]

At this moment our attempts to communicate with the woman were interrupted by a young man falling from the second story. Some of the party took concern and went to talk to the man but his terror overcame him and he panicked backing up fast screaming “Right Away!” Her eyes like an eclipse with a thin and bright iris. A man identical to he who fell screamed from the second story heights “I told you not to go in there!” as the woman frantically responded "Right Away" to the mention of Lord Asterion’s name. Zexian, intrigued by this woman’s odd nature, is interested in taking the broom, the merits of which were promptly discussed among the party.

Without other recourse some of the party began to take spirits in order to ascertain any divine influence in these creatures ["as soon as he does that, does anyone want to start doing drugs?"].

    As the party prepares to move on, they have failed to adequately heed the signs of the past, with strong fear overhead the push forward toward the theatre in preparation for their meeting [dinner-date] with the gnomes. Xiaodi [dosing her absinthe to get a sense of anything arcane going on] is led away by her companion and commandeers Zexian’s wine for good measure.

[Zexian confers with the stone stairs in their own language, learning] of a few servants traversing  the meaning halls and winding cases and of the soldier who acts as their master. From an alcove at the top of the stairs a pair can be heard mumbling through the dim light. The frescos in these halls depict mercantile scenes and one character is peddling an orb of solid gold and while it continues a ways down the hall is replaced by other stories. In the hall of red light two servants appear from the dim; one better dressed than the other. They discuss all in nonsense, though, on our approach, stand and present as if waiting for someone to speak. Moving on quickly from these servants who seem stricken with the same fear as the others the party came across an intelligent rat. After a less than formal introduction the rat was questioned on its knowledge of the palace happenings and the palace structure. Sid took a lead in questioning the rat after Xaodi decidedly would not put the poor fellow down.  

[After the rat spent some time yelling and sulking, they decided to help it reclaim its previous, allegedly much nicer alcove.] The rat led the party down the hall to a pair of rats [copulating] and Xiaodi quickly dispatched the rats using a nearby rock. [The party claimed 1d4 soiled coins, their first treasure.] Warned again of the signs of fear, the cruelty and greed of Asterion, and the rights of ownership both for the celestials and gnomes the group pressed on plundering and murdering. 

Those with no respect to history will be doomed to see it repeat in their own lives and actions. 

Closer inspection of the mirror in the center of the room revealed 12 defaced symbols around the frame. Zexian and Sid begin to polish what they now know is an arcane mirror and the defaced symbols appear to be the zodiac. 

Recap

            [This ended up a madcap session, with a one-round combat following the accidental kidnapping of a gnome, the interactions with uncomprehending guards, the always-amusing realization that two party members both speak the language of stone, and the indulgence of an annoyed rat's worst impulses.]

            [The party has made first contact with the gnomes who inhabit part of the palace, and have gotten a gnome to promise to help them forge a peace. They have observed strange behavior by these ancient servants, and do not understand why they act in this way, save that they suspect it has to do with the Zodiac Fear. They have not yet found an orb.]