Games are normally on Friday nights sometime after 5:30PM at World's Best Comics, 9714 Warwick Blvd Newport News, Virginia 23601.

We had an extra large half-pepperoni half-sausage pizza.

What has gone before:

The Party is with a small underground civilization named Cynicism (demonym: Cynics) who are constantly stoned out of their gourd due to the poor diet of mushrooms, underground fish, and lack of sunlight. (I think it's mostly the mushrooms.) The Cynics are controlled by a priestly class of Ba'al worshippers and a tribe of Hobgoblins. The Party has aligned themselves with three rebel Catholic factions whose numbers are still too small (450) to defeat Ba'al. (550 plus a tribe of 200 Hobgoblins, and a large family of Ogres.)

++++ START OF SESSION ++++

This session I had prepped the Player for Sham to run the bad guy encounters because his character is on an overland march back the Party's location with a small battalion composed mostly of Tenians accompanied by a BlackMoor company.

The rest of the party accompanied Cadfael to the underground city. Thune the Berserker stayed near the topside entrance to watch the horses and keep watch for Sam'a army. Glaxx the Druid also went topside temporarily to check on Thune (and to make sure he didn't go Berserk). She hadn't come back before the end of this session.

While the leadership of the three factions had agreed to align, it still remained for Cadfael to convince the rank and file of each faction to join the cause. The three Catholic factions had centuries of animosity between them, and mostly had forgot what the source of the original splits were.

Ergo, the underground city of Cynicism's history:

After the city retreated underground to hide from conquering hordes, the discovery of of Ba'al during the dig and his worship overtook the populace. Ba'al worship reigned supreme in the early years underground with the gawd's promises of safety from conquering forces above and a drug induced haze. It was easy while the population was initially large and periodic sacrifices would take the weak, infirm, and the occasional faithful Catholic who got discovered. As the city's population dwindled, friends and neighbors disappeared, and the average citizen came to realize they were just Eloi and the next sacrifice could be himself. This was not helped by the relatively newly arrived Hobgoblin enforcers. Above ground, the once fertile region the Cynicism was once the capital of, became a desert.

Meanwhile the remaining Catholic faithful went into hiding and started quarreling amongst themselves, hence the heretical treatment of each other for the next few centuries. Lately, the Catholic membership has increased in the hope for relief from the perpetual lottery of doom. At least their faith had a promise of a better afterlife, even if taken by Ba'al.

So the onus fell on Cadfael to reunite the Catholic hoi polloi. Rather than go out evangelizing out in public and putting himself at risk, he decided to perform what a Catholic priest should be doing,* holding proper liturgical services. The first day, he began services with the Magi of Jesus faction, then scooted to the Maidens of Mary faction next door. He rolled successful non-Player Character (NPC) reactions check at each.

Next stop was to conduct services with the Brothers of Joseph who were on the other side of town. So Cadfael HAD to go out in public, at least he wasn't advertising himself.

What followed were a series of random encounters on the streets.

The first were a men wearing bird masks and flapping their arms while circling the Party. Taunting them because the Party could not "fly". (These guys were the usual Cynical citizens, stoned out of their gourds.) They eventually wandered off, "flying" away.

The next one was with a Giant Rat. ("Giant" meaning two feet long, not including tail.) It was an escaped penned animal one of several species the Cynics use for meat. Namo our thief nailed it with a critical hit.

Next the party encountered Cynical fishermen from the city's underground lake taking their haul to market. Strangely enough, these guys weren't "high" like the normal citizen. The party bought some fish.

Lastly Cadfael made it to the Joe Bros. redoubt. His NPC reaction check was not so good and the liturgy was a failure. (Cadfael needs a better Charisma score, or he should have done a "miracle" like last time.) Even though the preaching was bad, he was still a guest of the Joe Bros. leadership so he spent the "night" (underground sleeping period).

Additionally regarding Sham the Samurai who was on his first day going towards civilization to recruit his battalion, the 24 hours of Sham's "Undetectable Lie" had worn out and the factions were starting to ask about Sham, "Who was that guy?"

Next "day" Cadfael attempted to leave the Joe Bros. redoubt and headed for the Magi's place. Outside however there was roadblock and a detour blocking pedestrian traffic due to road work supervised by Goblin traffic cops. Cadfael retreated back to the Brothers of Joseph and since it was time for Vespers, his services again failed miserably and he was kicked out. He promised a better sermon next time (and maybe use a "Befriend" spell).

At least it was an hour later and the Goblin traffic cops were on break.

Cadfael had one more important encounter on the way. A group of three Ba'alist clerics on a mission to "cast out demons" from any unsuspecting passerby, of whom the party were the victims. Whether a prospective victim was "possessed" by a demon mattered little, as the Ba'alist Clerics used the old Monty Python logic of "Can you prove your not a witch?"

One of them cast a Hold Person spell on Cadfael and they proceeded to drag him to the ever so convenient Temple of Ba'al next door while Pavel and Namo tried to prevent his capture by fighting back. It was to no avail however and the Clerics took Cadfael into the Temple and the gates shut behind him.

He was now surrounded by upset Goblin traffic cops holding their coffee cups and half eaten donuts.

Cadfael's capture had interrupted their break.


++++ OUT OF CHEESE ERROR ++++
BT







BBBB

PART 2.

++++ CHARACTER ROSTER ++++

CHARACTERS

Paveltepec, first level Painted Mage
Sham, first level Samurai
Cadfael, first level Cleric
Glaxx, first level Druid
Namo, first level Thief
Thune, first level Berserker
10 Sprites, in a musical band called the Pharies
500 Light Infantry, enroute.
1000 Cynics

BT







BBBB

++++ RECORD KEEPING ++++

PART 3.

This is also posted on two forums, and a blog.
http://www.kenzerco.com/forums/forumdisp...ster-Tales
viewforum.php?f=76
http://furiouslyeclectic.com/hackmoor/
http://www.furiouslyeclectic.com/forum/ ... php?fid=13