The following is part three in our jaunt into A Red and Pleasant Land, please click here to read the earlier sessions.
I've gotten into the habit of leaving an old pocket watch out on the table when I'm GMing. It serves to remind me of the time, helping pace the action so we don't end up finishing in the middle of a climatic scene or similar. I know its been a good night however when I check the time and realise that half the session has already gone and I've barely had to do any talking. Last night was such a session. To prepare for the night I tried to copy the format of +Zak Smith's sample scenes in RPL; I drew an a4 map of the area, filled it with a points of interest, drafted up a brief arc over the top and ran with it. I think it worked incredibly well and I'll certainly be adopting it again. For the sake of this article, I scanned it in and quickly drew over the faint pencil drawings. It's not pretty but it'll give you an idea of what I was working with.
1. Nevermore! Nevermore!
Entering Dungletop Woods, the party came across a camp site containing dead adventurers. Around the camp-site in the trees there were about 20 ravens who, when Cuthbert tried to speak to them, began crying out "Nevermore! Nevermore!".
The dead adventurers had been drained of their blood via two puncture wounds in their necks. It was felt that this was not a good thing. On one of the bodies they found an elegant scroll bearing the seal of the Red Queen, which stated that the holder of this scroll was not to be eaten unless it was super-important or an extreme emergency.
Maximus secured the perimeter and found an elegant brass key for his troubles which the rest of the party were sure it must be used to unlock a tree. After watching Maximus try and press the key into the nearest tree, they decided maybe that was a foolish idea after all.
2. Home Improvement
Tempted off the path the group came across an old hunting lodge that seemed devoid of life. While Lemule sneaked around the back (discovering a horse that had died of starvation, chained to the post), Cuthbert tried knocking on the door. No one answered but a quick peek through the window showed a young woman seemingly hanging out of a large mirror so he kicked the door in.
The girl seemed to be stuck coming out of the mirror, the surface of the mirror resembling a black obsidian surface much like what had happened to the first portal the party had come through. From what was hanging out the mirror, her body looked malnourished and worn, her face gaunt and ashen. A low groan showed she was somehow still alive. Cuthbert asked if she was ok.
At that point Lemule kicked the back door in. As there was no back door, it was decided that there was one now. Trying to help the girl proved ultimately a futile task as they inadvertently tore her torso free from the mirrors grasp, her dying breaths sounding like gasps of relief. The group decided to camp there for the night, repairing the lodge as best as they could with other bits of lodge, eating some of the jam they had stolen from the children in the well during last week's session and sharing a squirrel that Eric and Lemule had managed to catch after an hour's hunting.
As they took it in turns to take watch, I asked each player a few questions about their past. Eric had the most vivid of recollections as he gazed at the fire, reflecting on the house he burned down, explaining that he had actually known the people who lived there, and how he had argued with them...
3. The Sphinx Unicorn Trap Plan
There was some debate between the group as to which direction they wanted to go when they reached the crossroads: west to the place marked "None of Your Business", east to the place marked "Duel in 5 days", or north to where apparently there was a "Sphinx Unicorn Trap Plan". They decided to go north, reasoning they could always turn back and visit the other places.
Cuthbert was put in charge of scouting ahead, affording the party the opportunity to watch him walk right into a small Red Queen pawn encampment. The pawns explained that they were waiting to use the field for an upcoming battle in a few days but the Sphinx had currently booked it out for the week. She was trying a new plan to capture the Unicorn but sadly due to the bureaucracy of the field hire she had to clearly label her intentions on the sign posts.
As they followed the path round Cuthbert decided he didn't want to stare too closely at the ground this time in case he walked into anyone else, causing him to step neatly into a cream pastry that had been left in the middle of the path. Winnie squealed happily as she saw more treats up ahead, as it appeared to be some sort of trail. Round the corner they found the trail of treats led up to a box that was being held up on one side with the aid of a stick, the stick in turn had a string tied around it that led to a giant shape in the middle of the field hiding under a tarpaulin.
The group announced their presence, causing the Sphinx to reveal herself in frustration. Eric made a comment about her being 'huge'. The Sphinx responded by leading Eric's mind down a mental labyrinth.
Leaving Eric to drool quietly the group tried to be a bit more tactful and, saving one near-slip up where Maximus referred to her as 'old', they managed to gain a lot of information from her. She explained a rough overview of the political make-up of Voivodja, giving some much needed pointers, and in return the group agreed to do what they could to help her find the Unicorn. Winnie asked her if she liked jokes and riddles, to which the Sphinx replied that she did indeed and told Winnie one:
A young man went to see a blacksmith about a job, the blacksmith asks, "Have you ever shoed a horse?" to which the man replies, "No, but I've told a donkey to fuck off."
This caused Winnie to fall to the ground in hysterical laughter and also her player, +Kathryn Jenkins, to do near-similar. During this, Lemule actually managed to pick up the tracks of the Unicorn in the surrounding forest but sadly only found a horse (which was in turn fed to the Sphinx). Before they left, the Sphinx also warned them of a problem with the mirrors. Something had happened, say 70 odd years ago, that was preventing the vampires of this land from getting through the mirrors and it was causing all kinds of political waves.
4. None of Your Business
Returning to the crossroads, they chose to venture to None of Your Business which turned out to be a small settlement surrounded by crosses. Surely this was the perfect haven, safe from the vampires?
The gates were broken and all the buildings looked run down with not a soul in sight. A large church dominated the far end of the village, while a huge mound of hay bales lay to the north-east. Everywhere they looked though they could see freshly filled graves with, upon closer inspection, straws sticking out.
Eliza listened carefully to one of the straws and could hear what sounded like ragged breathing so Lemule placed his thumb over the straw opening. After a few moments, a dishevelled villager erupted from the mud, coughing and spluttering. The villager explained that their usual defences against the vampires no longer worked (as the vampires seemed even more frenzied recently) and they had taken to spending all their time hiding in graves. The grave digger bravely stayed above ground and kept them supplied with fresh food but no one wanted to be out in the open if they could help it. They were also uneasy with the large house that had appeared on the outskirts of the village so they had surrounded it with hay bales to try and hide it. It was deduced that these people were idiots and that maybe the grave digger would have more sensible answers.
5. Death Jam Doom
The grave digger, while initially appearing more sensible by virtue of not living in a grave, transpired to be just as daft. The general flow of conversation revealed that the strange house had appeared round about the time the vampires began to get more active, some 70-odd years ago. People had ventured into the hay bales previously to explore the house but had never returned.
A small door, the size of a mouse, sat at the base of the hay bales. The grave digger pulled out an exceptionally ornate cake from his hut and offered them slices. Cuthbert, Winnie, and Eric each ate a slice, shrinking to the size of mice and allowing them access to the door.
As they progressed along the tunnel through the hay they could see the house door - it was at this point that I asked Tom (Eric's players) to describe the door to me as it was one that was very familiar to him. Eric accordingly began to panic as he approached the door, repeating, "No... no...." quietly. As they pushed open the door, the door began to grow back to "normal" size, leaving the characters tiny at its doorstep. They were in a kitchen, with something sizzling on the stove but they were unable to see.
Eric ran back out, unable to handle this, as Winnie and Cuthbert carried onwards.
I asked Tom to describe the son of the family. A small child of about 3 or 4, blonde hair and brilliant blue eyes... Winnie and Cuthbert found him in the hallway, hanging from the ceiling as a grotesque chandelier, his insides ripped out and wrapped around behind him, candles pressed into his dislocated limbs, tendons torn from his flesh and wrapped around the hanging chain.
As they stared up in horror, a tear (huge compared to their current size) rolled from the boy's cheek and crashed into the ground next to them.
Meanwhile outside, the rest of the party began to try and dismantle the hay bales around the doorway. Eric was returned to normal size thanks to some medicine from the grave digger, and proceeded to down a large quantity of moonshine. They gained access to the door without collapsing the hay bales and managed to catch up with Winnie and Cuthbert, restoring them to full size. Lemule put the child out of its misery while they raced up the stairs.
I asked Tom to now describe the mum. She was in the bedroom, naked and straddled by an alien creature that had dug its limbs into her shoulders, waist and genitalia. She moaned in pain as she stumbled towards the group so the group chopped her head off then began attacking the beast. The ensuing battle saw the beast dead but at a great cost - Lemule had been disembowelled and was desperately trying to keep his insides inside his body. Across the hall in the other bedroom Maximus found a necklace on the floor, a very pretty and ornate necklace, one that he just couldn't bring himself to hand over to Winnie when she asked to see it.
Conclusion
The group spent the night in one of the empty village huts. Lemule was stitched back together - he'd have a horrible scar but nothing likely to impede his movement greatly - while Eric drowned his sorrows inside the house-in-the-hay. Eliza witnessed two vampires land in the village square at one point but they took off after shaking their heads sadly at the burial plots.
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This session played out exactly how I was hoping a RPL session would play out like. There's a fine line to be tread in the setting, with the risk being to fall into complete parody or go too serious and lose the 'wonder'. I think tonight we managed to tread that line - the players saw a lot of wonder but it was tempered heavily by the deadliness of that wonder.
When I originally drew out the map, I had always intended for the building under the hay bales to be a sort of Death Love Doom Lite. I didn't want to run the whole adventure in there but I certainly wanted players to dip into it. The question I had left up to the last moment was for whom the building should be tied to: would it be the victims of Eric's arson, or the De Grace estate where Lemule and Eliza grew up? After witnessing Tom get very emotional in his role playing, I knew it had to be an anomaly from Eric's past.
A Red and Pleasant Land is continuing to be a genuine delight to play in.
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