Ynn episode 2 - The fall of Alfonso.

Tower amidst the floodwaters

I'm getting the hang of this, and was looking forward to seeing how Alfonso and Serena manage their trip into Ynn.

Reluctant to travel in the dark, the pair of travellers decide to rest in the (assumed) sanctuary of the gazebo. Upon awakening they find themselves still in the depths of a chill night. They decide to consolidate their belongings, as well as making some makeshift torches from the legs of the weatherbeaten furniture in the gazebo. Over a leisurely breakfast they decide that going back so soon would be cowardice. The bugs were not that scary, and they have light now.

PET showing its value again. Both the travellers decided to head deeper, at least until they can find something that will prove they have been somewhere truly otherworldly. They have the wine bottle, a small unmarked vial of liquid, Also three more iron rations that Serena had brought along, some rope, and 4 bottle of lamp oil. Feeling a little underprepared.

The push on through the darkness. The gardens are strangely silent and empty, with old broken seats and overgrown flower beds everywhere. But they are stopped by a drastic change. The ground has become broken - islands of floating paths and hedges. At the edge of the torchlight they see the shape of another gazebo.

• Dex check to jump across the botomless abyss - No stress yet, so I am assuming a failure means that they cannot bring themselves to cross.. Alfonso goes fine, Serena, not so much

Serena remains waiting on the "shore" while Alfonso goes to examine the Gazebo. Only old furniture and a stoppered vial. Again he takes the time to break apart the furniture for some torches as the very very long night is worrying him. When he gets back he hands over the vial. They decide to take another path and head back to where the Bug-man had been killed.

The ground roiled and groaned. Cracks spread around the travellers. Retreating to the Gazebo they watched in horror as black waters seeped up from the now broken ground. Before long the gardens were knee deep in clammy water.

They walked deeper into the Gardens, and almost felt happy when the water became shallower - but instead it became colder as they came across an ice-rink! Both began to shiver and decided that exploring this area was not in their best interests, and tried to hurry onwards. But their luck changed drastically for the worst.

A Basilisk. Luckily for the travellers it was merely curious - I supposed the intense cold was making it more sleepy than anything.

• Do they know anything about Basilisks. I reckoned an int check would suffice. Turns out Alfonso had heard about the dangerous gaze. The Player Emulator told me that Alfonso was being inept - allowing emotion to get the better of him. I decided panic would be appropriate.

"Quickly quickly! Before the beast sees us and turns us to stone. Run! Run if you value your soul!" He prodded Serena into a panic-filled rush through the trees and over hedges. They only slowed when the water had again pooled around their knees. Still no sun, but the darker shadow of a tower loomed above, with flickering fire-light showing from the upper windows.

• At this point they are lost. Running in the dark through gardens that all look too similar is not a recipe for remembering where you went... I honestly have no idea if it is even possible at this stage for their door to be found again. And it has a time limit the characters don't know about.
• Providence or fate. Again with the flooded locations! This time a tower. I actually messed up here and mis-read the entry. I was rolling randomly for each floor as the pair explored, and didn't realise that the top floor was meant to be significantly different... So I ended up plunking an extra floor on top... But I still feel bad as the encounter only happened because I didn't read properly...

The pair are overjoyed at the sight of a real building (that might be inhabited!). They slowly enter and look around. The bottom floor seems to be an abandoned kitchen, with another strange vial of liquid left in a cupboard. The next floors are full of dilapidated furniture, and then a storeroom filled with preserved foods! Serena nibbled at some (rather delicious) fruitcake. There was enough food here for a lot of people. But the flickering light was now visible coming down the stairs. Alfonso paused to check the powder of his arquebus, then took the lead up the stairs. Serena noticed the trails of wax on the stairs...

CandleGirl by JennyEight

The figure turned to look at the pair coming in the room. A giant animated candle. It paused, trying to work out exactly what it was looking at. It seemed to slowly decide that the arquebus pointed at it was not a friendly sign. Serena meanwhile looked around the room. What looked like a suit of armor stood at one wall, except it was a mass of leaves and vines waiting for someone to step inside. Alongside it was the finest sword she had ever laid eyes on - encased in a scabbard likewise covered in vines (or just a fine work of artistry).

• Here the Player Emulator showed the way again. Serena is "on point" and the seed that comes up is "destroy" - so I take that to mean she has worked out the weakness of the candle golem (weakness to fire) and knows how to take advantage of it (flasks of oil?)

Serena yells "distract it" and makes a run for the armor. Alfonso fires the arquebus, leaving a gaping hole where the creature's head used to be. But that doesn't seem to impair it as it comes forward swinging.

• Gah! I need to do something about the AC to-hit tables from B/X D&D. the math feels backwards to me. Roll D20+target's AC. I was referring to the tables on every roll. I guess I just got too used to "roll over enemy AC to hit". It is easy enough to do the math to swap...

Alfonso gets lucky as he runs around trying to avoid being hit by the Candle Golem. As he's running around he digs into his satchel for the lamp oil and is throwing them back at his pursuer. The sudden blasts as the oil ignite leave hot wax splattered around the room.

• Throwing flasks of oil at a creature with fire already there to ignite... yes it is deadly! 

Meanwhile Serena leans into the Leaf&Vine armor. It moves and embraces her, sending rootlets into her skin. She grabs the sword and draws it from its scabbard - fire streams along the blade as she salutes her enemy.

• Seriously, this armor and sword were random, but oh so very good!

The candle golem finally manages to corner Alfonso and slam a fist of fire and hot wax through his chest. Serena tries to cut it down, but the shock of seeing her recent companion impaled and burning is too much. The other fist lashes out at Serena and strikes true....

But of its own volition her arm swings the flaming sword and slices the candle golem in twain. To her horror Serena feels the Leaf&Vine armor cooling the burns and knitting together her wounds - it is as if the golem had never struck her... 

And it gets worse... the armor will not come off.

Serena goes to a window and looks out over the gardens of Ynn. She has lost her only companion, and has no idea which direction lies the door back to her home. At least she has shelter and food for the present - but that is only a slower way to die unless she can find a way out.

The Gardens of Ynn are getting better and better for me. I will see about getting a new companion for Serena as this place is frikken lethal! Emmy Allen included a new class, the Stranded Changeling, which looks interesting. 

The lookup tables to work out if the characters (or monsters) manage to land a hit is REALLY annoying. I'm used to d20+mod > target AC. In this version of D&D it behaves more like d20+mod+target AC > thAC0. I really need to do the math and write down the conversion from descending AC to ascending AC. Because that extra check keeps making me doubt the roll and need to double check with the lookup tables in the book...

Although I might get used to it <shrug>

The Gardens of Ynn - A tale of Alfonso and Serena pt1

What is through the door?

I've been experimenting with the Player Emulator with Tags and have found it to be both simple and interesting to use. The basic gist of it is: each character gets an agenda (what kind of PC are they), a few personality tags (how they act) and a couple of focus tags (what they generally try to do). Then throw in a random generator which is modified by the agenda, and out of the random tags a colourful personality emerges.

I have a couple of B/X characters (once again generated by the wonderful Hill Cantons Compendium method) and couple with the PET they have come out shining. Alfonso is a child of criminals, excommunicated by the church, a wannabe criminal who is big, tough, and an aspiring cassanova. While Serena is the daughter of a courtesan, but who was gifted a prophetic vision by god (?) and now travels the world looking for someone to blame.

After talking about travelling between settings, the wonderful people of the OSR discord  pointed me at a module called The Gardens of Ynn by Emmy 'Cavegirl' Allen, which sounds like it will definitely scratch that itch... and so begins the long strange journey of Anfonso and Serena.

===

We set our stage in the city of San Gimignano - once a proud trade center, but long ago reduced by the black plague and under the rule of the Medici of Florence. The young traveller Serena overheard the boasting of Alfonso in a local Inn - and now they are meeting in a garden atop the city walls to discuss the hiring of Alfonso as a bodyguard...

• No real threats, Alfonso goes for his "romance" focus.
• Serena just wants to prepare Alfonso for what is coming... her prophetic dreams of Ynn

The sunset spreads its golden light over the disheveled garden. Alfonso is entranced by the honey colour spreading across Serena's face. "Only the Madonna can only be as pure as the beauty I see before me"...

Serena brushes him off (obviously gets this a lot in 15c Italy) and tries to prepare Alfonso without spooking him. Pays him some gold to retain his services, then goes on about her prophetic dreams of a Garden... When Alfonso suggests speaking to a priest, Serena gets angry and goes ahead and writes the words on the wall.. The Garden of Ynn by way of San Gimignano. Nothing happens and she is reluctantly begins to walk away - but when she returns to collect her cloak the doorway has appeared.

And Alfonso is flabbergasted!

• Here we get the wonder of Emmy Allen's Ynn. 
• 2d20 for the location and stuff in it. Then a d12/d20 for things going on.

They go through into an Overgrown Orchard. The ground is covered in rotten fruit and the air is thick with an alcoholic haze. Alfonso the fighter has no problem with this ..the smell that come after a night of debauchery while Serena is nearly overcome by the fumes and wants to move past as quickly as possible. Alfonso starts wandering, plucking fruit from the trees and gorging himself, while Serena follows along, trying to keep her head from spinning.

They come across someone picking fruit, but when the person comes down they are shocked that it is a animated statue of glass - elegant and flowing like art nouveau. It warily watches the pair approach but doesn't say a word. 

• Alfonso's focus is wealth, and his 2d6 reaction to this walking work of art was "reward", so he's trying to figure out a way to sell it.

After some back and forth (and some pantomime and pointed question) Alfonso works out that their new Glass acquaintance is collecting food for some mysterious masters further in the garden. With some (very lucky) rolls he convinces it to return with him to San Gimignano where he knows the finest purveyors of victuals.

The few people in the evening streets cross themselves, say a prayer against influences, and rush away from the glass creature clinking along the cobblestones. At the Inn a number of patrons go pale and run (fail morale) at the sight of Glassy.  The Innkeeper Jacobo is made of sterner stuff, and when he sees Alfonso giving orders and the thing obeying, he gets curious. Alfonso makes an offer for this "miracle servant" who works with food. 

• I normally hate haggling. But these rules make it simple enough. Jacobo turned out to be a hard merchant, driving the price down to 50% of the offer...

Glassy can see the kitchen, and when invited in by Jacobo gladly follows to the Inn's storeroom full of food. Serena drags Alfonso out and berates him for selling something possibly alive into slavery. But he's had his first taste of wealth from beyond the door, and wants to collect a few things before they return. Serena wants something to clear her head and protect her from the fumes.

As they leave they choose to ignore the sound of crashing plates and colourful swearing.

When they meet at the door some half an hour later, Alfonso has brought his (rather ragged) pony and a lot of empty packs ready to be filled. Also armed with an arquebus and sword, and wearing battle harness.  Serena had covered her face with a soaked cloth, carried a mace, and a pack filled with rations, a lantern, and rope.

They quickly passed through the Orchard, only noticing some of the rotting fruit had been cleared away by something. They then entered the gardens beyond - flower beds, trimmed hedges gone wild, statuary and benches. As they walked the sun finally set. They came across a gazebo with lounges and an abandoned setting of crystal glasses, and (mostly empty) bottles of wine. Alfonso finds one still unopened and agonises over keeping it to sell, or trying to woo Serena with it. 

• PET manages to make lots of nice little character moments like this.

They are interrupted when Serena sees a man staggering out of the gardens towards them. She shrinks back away from the gazebo doorway, lantern shining. The man stumbled forward and yawns - revealing a mouth full of squirming bugs. It's skin writhes as it tries to move like a human. It stops at the threshold, unable to cross and obviously frustrated. Alfonso loads his arquebus. The Bug-man turns it's attention to the horse. It slaps at the horse, leaving it's neck covered in wriggling, biting worms. Alfonso shoots it in the head. The headless body continues to envelop the now screaming horse. Both Serena and Alfonso rush out to try to save the horse. The Bug-man quickly falls apart under their attacks, but the worms franticly eat into the horse-flesh. No matter how they try they cannot save the horse, which collapses and dies screaming.

Serena is shocked, but Alfonso is distraught. He drops the arquebus and lays hands on his long suffering friend. But leaps back when the body shudders and writhes and starts to get to its knees. Serena throws the lantern, the oil and flame covering the body - the bugs popping in the heat until nothing is left but a charred body and puddle of bug-ichor.

Without a lantern neither is overly anxious to walk back through the gardens to the Doorway. Since the creature seemed unwilling to enter the gazebo, they decide to sleep inside. Hoping that they will be able to continue safely when the sun rises.

• Overall I'm bloody impressed with the Player Emulator. It manages to provide very colourful and unexpected (but believable) reactions for the characters. It also plays very nicely with B/X D&D.
• The Gardens of Ynn feels fantastic! Cant wait for the chance to play some more!

Meta-Travel

Lost Worlds by Vimark

So there has been an idea rattling around inside my head.

A "setting" which allows for any and all of the modules I have to be used. Or a "meta-flailsnails"setting essentially.

I was inspired by 2 modules - Fever Dreaming Marlinko , and The Gardens of Ynn. The rattling idea is that somewhere, somewhen, somebody made a big mistake. Some kind of mega-portal magic went wrong and shredded the fabric of reality. This allowed worlds to start to mingle.

The more things leaked between worlds, the bigger the holes.

The play-actions that I want to enable is for a character to be able to walk from one setting to another - say from Waterdeep to Ankh-Morpork, and thence to Night City. As well as maybe allowing things like walking 1000 miles in a few minutes by accident. Conversely, it'd also be fun to allow things like Imperial Stormtroopers to fight against a horde of savage Orcs.

Gonzo as F%&#. :D

So how should this feel?

• In known areas (lots of people in sight, permanent large settlement etc) then there is no difference from normal movement. You can walk around your town, work in the fields while in sight of home, and all that stuff without fear.
• In recognisable areas (handful of people, regularly worked fields, trade roads) then things start to drift. You get where you want to go, but you are headed NW instead of N, or it took the whole day rather than an hour - or it is still sunrise after you spent the whole day walking...
• In claimed areas (no locals around, owned lands, animal trails) things get strange. Not only is time and direction off, but things are out of place. Odd buildings, New forests, encounters from the wrong biome
• Wild Lands (People dont come here, unclaimed, no trails) are downright freaky. Landmarks move when you dont look at them (or are you moving?) Weather freaks out. Loose track of time (months can go by in an afternoon) You find "thin places" and portals. Encounters from different lands or times
• Lost - all bets are off. Skip huge distances (walk to different continent), travel forwards or backwards in time. Watch the landscape change around you. Impossible borders (Creek leads to deep ocean, Forest next to lava ocean. etc) Portals galore...

There should be a way that strong willed characters (or magic users) can manipulate the effects - either purposely drifting, or staying on track to wherever they are trying to get to.

I keep thinking of the encounter dice - (d6, 1:enc, 2:tracks, 3:weather, 4: hazard, 5:fatigue 6:hidden) - but as you keep drifting the encounter die gets bigger (d8, d10, d12, d20) and the things to encounter get stranger.. (7 time, 8 direction, 9: distance, 10: guests, etc etc)

Any ideas/advice?