[Actual Play] The World of Tomorrow, Sessions 4 – uh, like, 10?

I’m hopelessly behind on session reports for our science fantasy campaign, The World of Tomorrow! The thing is, we played two more online sessions, then we met up, holed up in our summer house for four days, and PLAYED A LOT OF D&D. A LOT. “Sessions” flowed into each other. So here’s a non-comprehensive re-cap of where the campaign’s at right now.

Session 4 was still online.

The party delved into the Salt-Encrusted Shrine of the Immortal Wave Cult (AKA Dank Cave of the Immoral Weed Gang), a cool little dungeon I wrote. They explored the main hall, caught a glimpse of a red glowing idol, encountered a giant crab, then met with the local cultists, decided NOT to join the cult just yet. They explored the complex, deciphered some reliefs, found the magical Seaweed Orb, then a secret door too, which gave them access to a hidden room. In this chamber, they found the high priest of the cult, dormant in a stasis pod. With a countdown timer set to about 60 years or so. They also gained access to the main temple. And they found a way to lower themselves into the idol chamber: gathered most of the loose treasure, but shied away from grabbing the large crystal from inside the idol. They fled the complex and went back to the city of Cryopolis.

Session 5 was for downtime and city crawling. They managed to hide some of the loot from their boss and divvied up the rest. Then they gathered some rumors. And rented a storage container for their stuff. They went to the Fighting Pits and gambled, winning some money on the gladiator fights. But their main reason to go there was to hire one of the gladiators. So that they have more muscle. They hired Ugazum the Fighter. Then, back at the Atomic Kitten, they got a new quest from their crime boss Ayesha. To go and find a weird dungeon complex in the Thunder Mountains. She assigned a guide and a porter with a pack Stegosaurus to them.

Ultimately, we ended up generating two more player characters: the gladiator and the guide.

So now the party consists of

• Psamtek, the psionic Grey pilot (Halfling 3)
• Keteus, the dark prophet or something (Magic-User 3 with Space Age Sorcery spells)
• Ugazum, the gladiator (Fighter 2)
• Phireus, priest of the Mountain Mother (Cleric 2)

 

Then we had all those long sessions of live play. IT IS SO GOOD TO PLAY D&D FACE-TO-FACE WITH YOUR FRIENDS. Ugh!

 

So, the party of four plus the Stego and the porter went on a big wilderness track through the labyrinthine canyons of Thunder Mountain. There were dangerous pits, undead dragonflies, etc. Then they reached a valley with tour giant crystal eggs.

Cue THE SPIRE OF IRON AND CRYSTAL by Matt Finch.

We had a lot of fun with this module. Very evocative science fantasy environment, good encounters, rather combat-heavy, though, so keep that in mind. Over the course of, like, 3-4 sessions, the adventurers “cleared” most of the first egg/level and found the way to level 2.

They decided to leave the dungeon for the time being. Outside, they found that a flying fungal demon attacked their companions: killed the porter and infected the Stegosaurus L

So they went back to the nearest village (they knew its location from passing by (or rather, UNDER it in the canyon)). The village is quite prosperous, thanks to the fertile soil and the protection of their god, CERES – which is a large golden-age sci fi silver rocket they worship. The shaman of the village told them to find a special type of moss to cure the Stegosaurus’s fungal infection.

Unfortunately, the nearest place to find this special moss is the fuckin DRAGON CAVE.

But, well, this is Dungeons & DRAGONS, right?

So they went to find the cave, ultimately fought and defeated a small-to-medium-sized dragon. Found the healing moss. And even found, under the layers of moss and debris, a more or less intact armored vehicle. However, the vehicle is full of snakes, so they closed the hatch and nope’d out – at least for now.

They managed to heal the Stego!

This was a lot a of D&D cramped into 3-4 days.

 

After that, we resumed online play and had another session, which I arbitrarily call session 10.

After another wilderness track (and avoiding a small tribe of FRANKENTAURS – humans stitched to equines) the party made it back to Cryopolis. Only to find that things have changed in their absence. The paladins (big black robots) of the Cult of the Black Sun had raided the Atomic Kitten. Ayesha is AWOL. Somebody stole some stuff from their storage container. So, there’s a lot to follow up on!

 

Current party stats:

• Psamtek, the psionic Grey pilot (Halfling 4)
• Keteus, the dark prophet or something (Magic-User 4 with Space Age Sorcery spells)
• Ugazum, the gladiator (Fighter 3)
• Phireus, priest of the Mountain Mother (Cleric 4)