Thank you, everyone. I'll write a conclusion soonish.
@Rednal: I'm already on the Spheres of Power one :)
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This post is long overdue. You've most likely noticed that my posting rate has taken a downfall recently. I've been through some changes in my life recently, and I hoped that once the situation stabilized I would go back as before. But it's not happening, and I feel more and more tired whenever I open the latest posts of one of the campaigns I'm GM-ing. At this point it feels evident that I'm going through some GM burnout. I like this campaign a lot, and I want to give it the attention that it deserves. I had planned to bring it to the end of the current dungeon before taking a break, but I don't think I have it in me right now to deal with a boss fight. Still, this should be an interesting one, so I think that the best thing for me to do is to either put things on hiatus immediately or ask someone to take over, at least for the fight. I'd like to know what you think about it. In any case, I'm going to keep on these boards as a player, and I have every intention of coming back to GM-ing with a fresh mind and ideas at a later time, hopefully not further than a few months. However, if you'd prefer to keep playing, feel free to look for another GM on the boards (or someone with Laundry knowledge could take over, or you could rotate, how you prefer). I'd rather see this campaign fly free than take it down with me.
This post is long overdue. You've most likely noticed that my posting rate has taken a downfall recently. I've been through some changes in my life recently, and I hoped that once the situation stabilized I would go back as before. But it's not happening, and I feel more and more tired whenever I open the latest posts of one of the campaigns I'm GM-ing. At this point it feels evident that I'm going through some GM burnout. We have had a similar discussion some time ago, when I still thought that I was going to be OK without a pause, and you suggested that maybe I could write a sum-up post. I'm sorry that some other events didn't come to be, but as a short module it seems futile to put it on hiatus now. Please let me know what you think about it.
This post is long overdue. You've most likely noticed that my posting rate has taken a downfall recently. I've been through some changes in my life recently, and I hoped that once the situation stabilized I would go back as before. But it's not happening, and I feel more and more tired whenever I open the latest posts of one of the campaigns I'm GM-ing. At this point it feels evident that I'm going through some GM burnout. I like this campaign a lot, and I want to give it the attention that it deserves. I had planned to bring it to the end of the current module before taking a break, but I don't think I have it in me right now to deal with an escape from a city (your last round was enough to kill Heydrich). Therefore, I think that I'll write a sum-up of the aftermath, iron out with you any details you'd like (e.g. Ada's mission) and then placing it on hold for a while. Please let me know what you think about it. In any case, I'm going to keep on these boards as a player, and I have every intention of coming back to GM-ing with a fresh mind and ideas at a later time, hopefully not further than a few months. However, if you'd prefer to keep playing, feel free to look for another GM on the boards (or someone with Laundry knowledge could take over, or you could rotate, how you prefer). I'd rather see this campaign fly free than take it down with me.
Ok, I'll move you as soon as possible
GM Rolls:
The doors aren't locked, and despite their size they swing gently on the hinges, revealing a massive room. It looks like nothing more than an immense underground cathedral. Stone doors stand to either side of the main entrance, but beyond this, the walls are carved with strange, spiky runes. In the center of the room is a large pool, with a ring of polished human skulls balanced on stone spikes arranged in a circle around the deeper midsection. At the far end of the room, a pair of stone stairways leads up to a pulpit on which sits a second pool, this one triangular and filled with churning, bubbling water that looks almost like translucent lava. Yet while wisps of what look like heat and steam rise from the strange orange liquid, the room itself is deathly cold. From thin air a winged, horned figure coalesces, behind the pool. Brandishing a sharp-looking, pointy dagger, she shrieks in a bloodcurdling language and slashes at her own hand, sending a splash of water into the water, which immediately becomes murkier. Abyssal:
"Intruders in the Mother's sanctum! Your blood shall feed the runes!"
I'm back from my holidays! You can expect a post in the next 24 hours, barring unforeseen circumstances.
I'm back from my holidays!
GM Rolls:
S:FS
Ada's wild charge breaks through the field of chaotic energy surrounding Heydrich, and while her mouth fills with the taste of ash, the blade strikes home in his quasi-solid body. The hierarch coughs up a sputter of blood and growls "Noch... nicht!" between clenched teeth. His form glides to the car, reaching for under the seat and drawing a violin case. As a release button is pressed, a set of springs triggers, revealing a bone-white violin and a bow as black as night. The chord he plays is one not meant for human ears, a song of entropy draining the life from you, feeding on the electricity running through your nervous system and rupturing blood vessels. Heydrich's fingertips bleed profusely and his face is frozen in a grimace of agony, but he keeps on playing through some superhuman willpower.
You have cold resistance 5, Katherine, it should not knock you out straightaway.
"'s the way it's always been in my place!" shouts back Mert as you move to leave. "Use your tiny head next time you come, or there won't be another!"
GM Rolls:
84
Katherine:
Betweenthe rush of adrenaline from the fight and the looming presence, you can't make out much about the plane you are currently in.
From the crater left by Tomasz's grenade Heydrich floats out, his form ghostly and evanescent, a snarl on his features. He snarls a growling curse at you while pointing a hand, and the cold congeals in a flesh-rending gale colder than anything on Earth, sweeping over you.
To the games I'm GM-ing: I'm starting my holidays, which involve juggling myself between several family houses and a trip. I'll be more spotty (even more than I've been lately) until the first weeks of January. In the case of this one, maybe we shouldn't start a combat encounter in such a time, so perhaps we should wait until after the holidays to go in?
To the games I'm GM-ing: I'm starting my holidays, which involve juggling myself between several family houses and a trip. I'll be more spotty (even more than I've been lately) until the first weeks of January.
To the games I'm GM-ing: I'm starting my holidays, which involve juggling myself between several family houses and a trip. I'll be more spotty (even more than I've been lately) until the first weeks of January.
"Do I look like a wizard myself, elfie?" shouts back Mert the Mighty, uncowed. "I can't tell what spell will wipe your nose and which will set fire to the place, so the policy's simple. No spells! It's been this way for two decades and I see no reason to change it now!"
"Don't break it, just... stay clear of it. I don't even what to know what that thing on top is, but it sounds like bad news." says Ameiko, closing in to the door to listen to the voice.
GM Rolls:
Vernon:
"Singing, humming, close enough." says Ellis, waving a hand. "But we should definitely get a choir going at a certain point, it'd add to the appeal of the artistic population. So, how's business for you down in the Library? I know older students aren't supposed to assist, but who cares? Our group was kind of a big deal, you know? Four books out of four, and the added drama of she-who-must-not-be-named and me-" "You mean Messi?" asks Sven, getting only a glare as an answer. "She-who-must-not-be-named. Point is, the more you know of the library, the easier you'll find it to get to the loot. Messi knows of a hidden entrance, and there's always the Music Club's biggest secret-" Sven's eyebrows rise up in attention, but before Ellis finishes his dramatic pause, you take sight of a moment of commotion at your friends' table.
The spell goes through like a whisper in the crowd, but finds little purchase in the half-elf, her mind shielded by a plenitude of drinks.
Answers for Ada:
* Heydrich is only slightly below ground level, moving around to flank you. * Dispel Magic would not be enough. For gameplay purposes, you are in a demiplane, although it's limitless. If you have extra-dimensional travel you can use it to escape. * There is, indeed, no point in attacking it, as shown under.
The gun fires, the incantation goes off and the fireball blasts, and they all lose themselves into infinity. Your mind is baffled, and though your eyes can't fathom it, your brain suggests that this creature is on planetary scale and distance. You would have better luck attacking the Sun. And yet, it has to only be a shade of itself. Nothing that large could be called this quickly, even considering months and years of preparation. But when Tomasz's totem activates, you feel a soft chuckle turn into a growl of surprise and rage.
The tunnel widens here into what appears to have once been a small shrine, for to the northeast, steps lead up to a platform of gray stone. Sitting atop the platform is an ancient altar, little more than a jagged block of black marble with a shallow concavity on top of it. This basin is filled with what appears to be filthy water. "I don't like this." says Ameiko. "Creepy altars in underground ruins are always bad news. " If you get close to the door to the southeast, you can overhear some muffled muttering on the other side.
The presence that has been called in this mockery of a world between worlds has come. But not in any shape that you can rationalize. You can feel it, impossibly vast, a size to blot out the stars in the sky, and too distant to be seen. You can just feel its presence as a difference between the world as it is now and as it should be. And then, it stops, the difference between your sizes so incredibly vast that it can't directly attack you any more than you could single out a microbe. And suddenly, realization strikes: the creature is absorbing heat, feeding on ambient energy and causing the arctic icyness that's gnawing at you, an accelerated heat death of the pocket universe that contains only you, the creature, and the currently hidden Heydrich.
The muscled halfling introduces himself as Mert the Mighty. He takes your orders, turning an inquisitive eyebrow at the mention of butterbeer, then scurries back to the counter.
If you drink:
The beverage is rich, sweet and creamy. It appears to be made from warmed ale mixed with egg yolk, honey, butter and several spices. You feel it warm you up from inside and leave a pleasant tingly sensation in your throat.
Sven, Ellis and a few others from the club welcome Vernon with smiles and a mug of frothing, dark bitter beer. "Ah, there he is! Come, hummingbird, this round is on us!"
"Don't worry, I was keeping watch." smirks Ameiko. "Let's check the other corridors, shan't we?" You backtrack and turn left at the first door, proceeding carefully forward. The next room you meet is cylindrical, built around a circular pool of surprisingly fresh and clean water. Beyond that, a stairwell would lead up, if it wasn't obstructed by rocks and other debris. Fresh air comes from the narrow fissures, only large enough to accommodate a mouse or another small animal. Only one corridor remains, to the south.
GM Rolls:
84
Two of Titus' blasts hit their mark, drawing a grunt from the hierarch. You barely catch a hint of something whispered in German before the silhouette behind the snowstorm becomes more indistinct, then disappears downwards, apparently uncaring of Richard's spell.
The Queen's Arms pub is appreciated more for the low cost of its drinks than for their quality, something that makes it appealing for the students. The barkeep is a burly halfling, tall for its species and adept at climbing shelves to reach the several nondescript bottles of spirits behind his counter. Near the entrance is a sign reciting: No admittance under the age of…
Ellis and Sven are sitting at a table to the side, holding frothing mugs. They wave at Vernon when he enters, although Sven also shoots a glare at Lindaer.
So, is it the Tavern for all?
GM Rolls:
"You barbarians! See what you make me do!" snarls the hierarch between your blows, crushing two fragile fetishes in his hands. As a wave of slight nausea washes over you, a slight distortion akin to a Fresnel lens surrounds his figure, evidently a sort of summoned protection.
Empheria is unable to make sense of the book, written in a sharp, angular alphabet. There are, however, frequent woodcut illustrations of particularly vicious-looking monsters attacking different kinds of victims, from animals to humanoids. Abyssal:
This book is a curious blend between a bestiary and a prayer book to Lamashtu. The most horrible and dangerous monsters are seen as vessels for the glory of the Mother of Monsters, and the descriptions revel in describing how painfully they take care of their victims. On the entrance, Ameiko smiles gently as you play and prance around.
It looks OK and it's reasonable to have pre-cast day-and hour-long buffs, just please reroll False Life.
The room is, indeed, the best thing ever.
Artifice:
"Eeeh, possibly. As it stands, it has straps allowing you to carry it, but gods is it heavy. We'd have to redesign the circuits possibly, order a high-frequency quartz capacitor..."
The rest of the session is spent trading ideas and jotting sketches. Even Barsine, after being quite shy at the beginning, throws in some suggestions. Music:
Ellis just chuckles. You aren't unsure whether he knows something you don't or he's just messing with you.
GM Rolls:
The pistol fire clips Heydrich, and he dives to cover behind the car. One moment later, you hear him chanting an algorithm in a language that should be dead by any account: in a moment, the temperature in the area plummets, and a light, icy drizzle starts falling in the area.
Jam session: "Oh, they keep us on our toes." says Ellis, putting his instrument in a case. It looks like your performance has mellowed him out somewhat. "I don't think I can tell you in detail, but you will never look at lizards the same way again. Do you want to come for drinks with the rest of the club, later at the pub? You'll hear some stories."
Polarity Reversed!: "Huh, you're right. Could it be-" Leonard flips the coil, which fits into place with a satisfying click. The device starts a pleasant buzzing as the thaumoelectrical currents stabilize. "I knew it was something minor!" cheers Skrib. "I'd have bet someone's eye that it was the power source! Test it! Leo, try it, try it, tryyyyit!" Leonard scratches his head, then lifts his fingers in the motion of a cantrip. "Jolt!" The spark strikes the Redirector, and the buzzing increases for a fraction of a second before the shock is reflected back at the young boy. "OW! Ouch! I'm all right!" he yells, as Keodrak dashes to his side, a curative spell on his lips. "Bless your mind and hands, Hireath, you solved it! I see it as the start of something brilliant!"
Just in case you are wondering: the reason why you had no save for that shared hallucination was that it was not a hallucination. Heydrich's custom ENIGMA machine was running an algorithm shunting you into a parallel universe. Therefore, everything you experienced was real, although guided by Heydrich. Going in places unfamiliar to him (as you did) and causing enough damage to the world to break plausibility were the two ways to cause the program to become unstable and unpredictable. I'm rebuilding his stats, I believe I'll roll initiative tomorrow.
Artifice:
This device is not too dissimilar in conception to the tools used to distill bottled lightning. But judging from the layout of the device, one of the coils is inserted backwards. Just snap it in with the correct polarity and the device should work. Music: "Dancing Lights, how impressive." muses Ellis, unimpressedly. "So, let's start with a jam, 'lright?" Some confidently, some hesitantly, the various musicians start trying to blend with each other, to varying degrees of success. After a bit, Ellis moves to a simple, nondescript melody you can sing over and gives you a nod of the head.
You move towards the synagogue. You moved. You arrive. You have always been there. When you open your eyes, you are there. It looks as it should. Plain. Rich. Light. Dark. New. Old. The paradoxical contrast of different worldviews finally causes a buffer overflow, crashing this world. It just breaks- You are back at the assassination spot, but the surroundings are blurry and indistinct. You can't see Gabčík or Kubiš, but in front of you is Heydrich, leaning against his car with a pained grin on his face. The driver of the car is in a blur as well.
The jerky bounces against the wall with a very soft plop, and no discernible effect, other than some red glow around the point of impact. The spell in the room allow Isaac to conserve some momentum, and he easily reaches the bird. It's dead, infested with larvae, and, to put it simply, rather gross. "Smarter than a goblin, for sure. A Thassilonian wizard, I'd think. But whatever its purpose, it looks like a place for someone to rest by having a snack, a drink and some reading time."
Artifice:
"Lovely to have you both!" cheers Leonard. "Now, I'll introduce you to our current work, my Lightning Redirector! It's a device for channeling galvanic energy directed at the user back to the origin: the next time you are the target of a lightning bolt just wear one of these and the caster will be in for a nice surprise." The device looks utterly uncomfortable to carry around, but he doesn't mention that. "Or, I mean, it would work like that. It's still not [i]technically[i] working as intended, and I feel that a pair of fresh eyes will do nothing but good. So, how about you take a look and tell us what you think, without bias? Of course, you can ask for any explanation." Barsine whispers in your ear. "Thank you, I'll go later. I just had some bad luck with a bunch of... nevermind, you'd laugh. But we may be getting close to one of the books."
Music:
Ellis looks at Vernon quizzically. "Well, of course the point is to have fun. If you're a total beginner, let's see what we can do. Can you at least improvise? Otherwise tell us some songs you know and we'll work them into our routine."
Knowledge(any) DC 0: This is real. This is true. This is the world as it has always been. Act, and it will change. But you wonder. Was it as it has always been yesterday too?
"I have a few." says Ameiko, going through his bag and drawing some dried meat, which she offers to James. "There's a book, some wine... maybe the crow is a snack and this is simply some goblin's break room?"
Artful Artifice:
Hireath finds her way to the Alchemy laboratory. There is no alchemical equipment in sight, likely it has been stowed to make room for the contraption that occupies the lecturer's dais. A mass of copper wires, pipes, dials and crystals of a size between a gnome and a dwarf is surrounded by a handful of students. Leonard beams when the new arrival enters the room, his eyes still showing signs of sleep deprivation. "Well, I think we are all here, so perhaps we should introduce ourselves, I am Leonard- you know, you all met me before, but it never hurts to be thorough. I'm a second year student and deputy head of this club while Susanna recovers from an unfortunate encounter with the galvanic forces." He motions to the boy on his left, a very young dwarf with a still short beard. "I'm Keodrak Silverhand, pleased to meet you. I'm a servant of Brigh, the Whisper in the Bronze. He is the god of invention and discovery, if you haven't heard of Him, and I'm a second year too. If you get hurt while working, I can patch you up somewhat." Then it's the turn of a green-haired gnome. "You can call me Skrib, Jofur, Bob, or just 'you'. Hi all, hello hello, Leo and Keo know me already but I don't know you two others. I'm an alchemist, and as you can see I still have my eyebrows which means that either I'm a very good one or Keo is a very good healer." You can practically hear the dwarf rolling his eyes. The next to speak is the halfling girl who arrived wet at Caladrel's lesson, and it looks like she came straight from an unfortunate foray into the Library. There are cobwebs in her hair, her cloak shows acid burns and one of her legs is bandaged. She forces a smile. "I'm Barsine, first year, I hope to reamin one for a bit, heh heh. Heh. Uhm. I'm an apprentice wizard, and I joined mostly because they told me there were some nice people here..." "Don't worry, Barsine, this club is open to anyone, and I believe in everyone's potential and abilities." says Leonard in his best impression of an encouraging tone, before motioning to Hireath. Might and Music: Ellis is tuning a violin by the time you enter, and a dozen of other students are either waiting or taking care of their instruments by the time you enter. Sven holds the flute you saw in his pack earlier. Vernon still feels some residual hostility from the brothers. "It looks like everyone is here now." Ellis says, retrieving a small block of pitch and taking care of his bow. "Our club tradition on the first meeting is to start some improvisation together, then when I point at one member the others will let them have a brief solo. This way we can focus on our strengths and weaknesses, and decide the best way to play together. If you don't have an instrument with you and want one, you can borrow one from the storage room over there."
Vorin's teleport goes off without a hitch, and a moment later he manages to grab James' hook. The wand keeps spinning idly in the air.
I would like to finish this game. It's meant to be a short module (and it has been made easier by the fact that starting wealth in D&D 5e is wildly lower than in Pathfinder) and you have, indeed, already found a book. However, I must also face the fact that I'm not currently in the absolute best mind state for running my three current games (I recently graduated and on the hunt for a PhD). For some reason, this game is the one that suffered most from this slowdown. There is material enough to finish this game, and I'd really like to: if you can deal with random slowdowns on my side I can promise that I'm not going to disappear completely. And of course we can also wrap most of this up. I'll leave it up to you.
Once again, I have to apologise, I sort of lost notice of this game. I'll see if I can squeeze a post in tomorrow, but in any case if I disappear don't hesitate to drop me a line here or via PM. Chances are I just got distracted or RL got on the way.
As soon as Vorin steps over the threshold, his feet lose contact with the ground. The young dark elf starts floating gently in the spherical chamber, a couple of feet from the ground.
GM Rolls:
"Oh. That's, well, rather more resourcefulness than I was expecting, very well done."
The corridor to the south opens into a spiral staircase blocked by debris and rubble, unlikely to be easily removed anytime soon. Further to the south opens a door to the most unlikely room you have ever seen, built as a hollow fifteen-foot-diameter sphere. Several objects float in the room, spinning lazily in space: a ragged book, a scroll, a bottle of wine, a dead raven surrounded by a halo of floating and writhing maggots, and a twisted iron wand with a forked tip. Yet perhaps the most unnerving aspect of the room is the walls, for they are plated in sheets of strange red metal that ripple every once in a while with silent black electricity that seems to coalesce into strange runes or even words far too often for the effect to be chance.
GM Rolls:
The Josefov ghetto is lower than the rest of the city, prone to flooding. The slums, whose streets have been washed over the years in the blood of pogroms, have been mostly emptied by the regime. Some synagogues remain: the one where the original Golem was apparently built, another which Heydrich
Ada:
You head to Heydrich's residence. You move there. You are still in the ghetto. You are going to the house. It is a different winter. You are still in the ghetto. Part of your mind is screaming at you: Ur pna'g xrrc vg hc sberire. Qrfgebl guvf jbeyq.
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