A dingy landing with passages to either side greets them. There's no dust on the concrete floor, but the unfinished walls are in need of a clean.
"So," says Athalie, "which way from here?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," says Bassianus.
"Haven't you got the map?"
"No! I only stole the bottom level, so we'd know how to get in."
"Why didn't you steal the rest?"
"It had nothing to tell us of the current situation. Besides, I was afraid the librarians would hear if I tore out another page."
"He's right, my dear," says Isabeau. "Let's go this way. And we'd probably ought to sheathe our weapons until we know what's going on."
Scene 6
Chaos: average (d10)
Setup: explore the council building
NPC List: the Superior Order, PCs' patron, villain, scribe, Mortine, Tail
Threads: investigate location
[Maps are of the Pathologische Institut of the Königliche Friedrichs-Wilhelms Universität in Berlin, from the BL's copy of Die naturwissenschaftlichen und medicinischen Staatsanstalten Berlins (link) -- it's full of good hospital & university maps! The rooms are labelled, and are perfectly weird enough to suit the mysterious machinations of the borough council.
I looked over the maps once (in the process of choosing them) so I had a vague idea of the layout, which handily represents the fruits of Bassianus' research. Unfortunately, he only stole the plate with the sub-basement plan on it, so I covered the map with a solid opaque layer in GIMP and erased as the PCs explored.
Each room has a 1-in-6 chance of an encounter and a 1-in-8 chance of a useful/interesting/important item beyond what would obviously be in the room based on its function.]
d10 Encounter Item
--- --------- ----
1-3 servant useful
4-6 minor personage dangerous
7-8 weird thing spoils
9-0 major personage trap
They continue through to a larger open space with a low vaulted ceiling. All about are stacks of elongated wooden crates. No -- make that coffins [Sarge]. The room is cold enough, as basements go, but the odour wafting through the space tells the explorers that not all of the coffins are without inmates.
A family-sized jar of Dr. Whizzo's Instant Coagulatory Ointment sits unattended atop on of the coffins [dangerous item: bleed Balm]. Bassianus decides to pocket it, as several advertisements he read in a Paper of Record have convinced him of its wondrous efficacy. He doesn't believe the wild stories of mutations and death he's read about it in the more sensationalist newspapers. Or has he mixed up what he read where?
No one chances a peek under any of the coffin lids. They file silently through and then proceed (north) into another vaulted chamber, no doubt intended for more coffin storage. A leafy smell wafts in from the doorway to the north. Within the chamber the smell is more pronounced and joined with a sharp underlying chemical odour. [Experimentalthiere - experimental animals: automatic encounter (random picture)] Along the far wall is a tree-like structure cobbled together from wooden beams. At its base is a pile of organic detritus. [2d3=] Three giant silkworms are crawling lazily over the structure. They drop to the ground when disturbed by the explorers' entrance, and scuttle towards them, grotesque mouths chomping in anticipation.
giant silkworm
5hp
bite (d6 + disease on Critical damage: blood slowly turns to silk threads, no STR regeneration from long rests, fatal in d4 weeks)
The explorers draw their hand weapons (as no one wants to attract undue attention with firearms) and prepare to do battle.
[round 1]
Athalie and Bassianus square off against single opponents, whilst Mortine fights alongside (and sightly behind) Isabeau. The things leak a watery fluid when injured, but are undeterred by blows from axe and sword. Mortine lays one out with a crowbar to the top of the head, but is mildly unnerved by the crunching sound [it took Critical damage].
Athalie evades the snapping jaws of her foe [4 damage to 6hp] but Bassianus' clamps down on his arm. He feels a burning sensation followed by a heaviness in his limb as venom glands inject some sort of toxin, then his vision blurs and he slips to the floor in a daze. [5 damage to 0hp, 5 STR; d20=14, crit.]
[round 2]
Athalie runs hers through with her sword. It twitches and then collapses into a ball [Critical Damage]. Isabeau and Mortine rush to save Bassianus. Their blows dislodge the creature from his arm, but so worried were they about hitting their friend that their attacks merely annoy the creature. [1+2 damage, down to 8 STR; d20=1, no crit.]
But it turns said annoyance upon Mortine! The thing chomps down on her leg, and she too is overcome by dizziness, swooning at Isabeau's feet. [6 damage to 0hp, 3 STR; d20=crit]
[round 3]
Isabeau and Athalie skewer the creature from both sides in response. It moves no longer.
They must rouse their friends with a nip of the cheap stuff. Once they've collected themselves and decided that the poison is not an immediately problem [short rest, d6=no rand encounter, hp to full] they continue on their way.
The only other door leads east, so they pass through it to a laboratory full of glass apparatus on every conceivable surface [bakteriologische Untersuchung - bacteriological study]. Some of the phials, beakers, and assorted tubes are filled with still liquids, others bubble and froth of their own volition, and at least one is phosphorescing in the shadowy corner.
[Q: Is it super dangerous? likely (3+): O3 C7 - yes
Q: How? Business of Navigation - DEX save required to cross room without knocking something over]
The glass vessels are all interconnected by a series of slender tubes, forming a complex network round the whole of the lab.
"I don't think crossing that would be a good idea," mutters Isabeau.
"I believe you've read my thoughts, dear heart," says Athalie.
"Shall we retrace our steps?" asks Bassianus.
"Let's do!" says a relieved Mortine.
They retreat past the dead silkworms into the coffin storage overflow area [no encounters], then take a passage east to a small anteroom, which contains nothing but a door leading back into the laboratory, so are then forced to retreat again and try the other eastern passage. This leads to the bottom of a stairwell, where a sign points to a lift [Fahrstuhl] nearby.
They climb the stairs and find a door at the top. There's a short corridor beyond with the gaslights on low. The lift is opposite, and doors lead north and south. A threadbare green carpet of a design that was fashionable when our heroes were much younger attests to the occupation of this part of the council fortress.
"Let's see if we can find someone to tell us what's going on," whispers Athalie.
"We'd best douse the lantern," murmurs Isabeau.
"I'm sure our eyes will adjust," mumbles Bassianus.
"Do we put away our weapons?" asks Mortine sotto voce.
"Probably," says Athalie (sc. quietly). "But be ready to use them."
The floorboards groan underfoot. Athalie cracks open the northern door. "Halloooo," she calls in a particularly small voice. "It doesn't seem anyone has heard. Perhaps we should continue our explorations."
Opening the door further causes the mingled smells of camphor and decay to waft over the explorers. The room beyond [Sectiossaal - Dissection Room] is only lit from the corridor. Dissection tables are arranged in two neat rows. On one lies a monstrous corpse, its chest open and the flesh pinned back, with all its organs laid out on an adjoining table.
[Q: But is it dead yet? 50/50 (4+): O4 C3 - no, but... soon will be]
The thing strains against its bonds at the sound of the door opening, and a raspy voice issues from its distended maw.
"Come back to finish the job, have we? Have at, you foul fiends; do your worst!"
"It's still alive!" gasps Mortine.
"Oh! Begging your pardon, I though you were Doctor Butcher and [d6=]her cronies come back to continued their dashed experiments. Say, you couldn't see fit to unshackle me from this table, could you? I'd be ever so grateful, and of course, should you, some time down the line, find yourselves in a spot of bother..." [UNE: friendly - gratitude - future action]
"I don't like the looks of this place," whimpers Mortine.
"Nor I," answers Athalie. "Let's see what we can do."
The chains binding the monster are solid, but the padlocks securing them are enormous and old. It is but a few minutes work to poke about the locks' insides with a scalpel before the fetters are loosened and the thing is freed. [d6=3, no random encounter] As Athalie works and a sheepish Mortine guards the door, the Thing chats away pleasantly, relating the tale of its capture and mutation with extra-stellar matter, and the experiments which followed. It remembers little of its former life in bastion, but its name, [d100=] Katsun Offenpot, is engraved on a golden key fob amongst the Thing's effects discarded in a bin.
[cast of 1000s tables: gunsmith, unreliable genius
surviving PCs will be gifted high quality guns - with additional powers and disadvantages (but they won't be ready for at least 2 more adventures as I forgot to make a note of this at the end of my .txt file like I usually do.)
Q: Have the PCs heard of him? O6 C3 - yes, but... only d4=M]
"Oh!" interrupts Mortine as Bassianus reads the creature's (former) name aloud, "I used to work in a perfumery just a few doors down from your shop. They say you made the cleverest sorts of rifles. And there was that little buckler with a pistol built into it sitting in your shop window. How I always used to admire it, every time I passed."
"I shall make you a present of it," says the Creature, "if I survive this ordeal."
They help the Thing collect up its organs, shoving them back in the body cavity and wrapping it round tightly with bandages. They show it the stairwell and outline the escape route through basement, then give it a spare lantern and watch it lumber off on its way.
Closing the stairwell door quietly, they pass by the lift [Fahrstuhl], and go into [Saal für klinische Sectionen - clinical dissection hall] a larger dissection room. In contrast to where they'd met the poor experiment, this one has better lighting, seems much cleaner, and smells strongly of bleach; it is overall less dungeon-y feeling. The rows of tables are neat and spotless. But lest our company forget what sort of place this is, there is a long self full of specimen jars, with unidentifiable beings and parts of beings leering out of the formaldehyde.
[random item = trap : Sharpness of Death]
There is a door to the north, upon which is a brass placard, written in foreign. [Chirurgische Operationscurse und Section durch Examinanden - surgical operation courses & dissections tests] Below it hangs a hand-written notice reading 'Strictly No Admittance!!!'. Above the door is a pendulum-blade attached to a heavy iron mechanism.
"Do we dare...?" asks Bassianus.
"I might have an idea!" says Mortine. "Isabeau, darling, lift me up so I can reach."
She produces a glue pot from her pack. Isabeau bends down, then Mortine hikes up her skirts so she can sit on Isabeau's shoulders. Isabeau stands and holds as still as she is able [STR save succeeds] whilst Mortine coats the mechanism with glue.
Then they have to wait... and wait... and wait... [d6=no encounter]
"It should be set now," she says at last.
The others look on in silence.
"Oh, very well!"
Mortine turns the doorknob. There is an audible click from within, but, [DEX save to have done it right: d20=3, ok] fortunately, the glue holds the mechanism fast.
"See? nothing to fear."
Mortine opens the door, revealing a white-hot radiance within. She receives the full blast of its fury and is gone. The others throw the door shut in haste. Nothing remains of Mortine but a heavy whitish powder on the floor.
[Q: Why was it locked? The vengeful Flames
The Star-essence of which the Thing spoke is stored here. Mortine took d12 damage to 1d3=STR. d12=8 reducing her STR to -5.]
After a short rest to (variously) wipe the tears from their eyes / have a drink in Mortine's memory / say Kaddish, they file silently through the southwestern door into an empty hallway. [Short Rest, d6=no encounters] From there a door leads south to a stairwell with a door opposite [west] and a passage running beneath.
The little passage leads immediately to a small, cosy chamber [Retirade - retreat], smelling of dusty books and old tobacco. The lighting is dim, and barely penetrates the smoke suffusing the air.
[50/50 chance of encounter here: minor personage, which I rolled up on the Cast of 1000s tables in the Oddpendium, including their relationship to the council heretic/villain]
Ilmen Regal
-Tax collector, wedded into career
-powdered wig
-rival of villain
-found a major arcanum
[reaction roll=19, fail]
And old man in out-of-date fashion and a powdered wig appears out of the gloom, brandishing a pistol.
"Intruders! get back, or I'll use this!"
Athalie tries to plead with him, but he won't have it. She finds herself staring cross-eyed down the pistol's barrel, scarcely a finger's breadth away from her nose.
[Q: Does he take the shot? 50/50 (4+): O2 C7 - no]
She backs away slowly, as do her companions. They file silently up onto the stairs, out of sight.
"Let's wait to see what he does," whispers Athalie. Isabeau nervously draws her own pistol.
[encounter check whilst they wait: d6=1, encounter = major personage
Q: Is it the Villain? unlikely (5+): O4 C8 - no]
They stand guard some breathless minutes, all eyes and weapons trained at the bottom of the stairs. But it is soft footsteps and the rustle of crinoline above them that breaks the silence.
next post: a lady of rank
5hp
bite (d6 + disease on Critical damage: blood slowly turns to silk threads, no STR regeneration from long rests, fatal in d4 weeks)
The explorers draw their hand weapons (as no one wants to attract undue attention with firearms) and prepare to do battle.
[round 1]
Athalie and Bassianus square off against single opponents, whilst Mortine fights alongside (and sightly behind) Isabeau. The things leak a watery fluid when injured, but are undeterred by blows from axe and sword. Mortine lays one out with a crowbar to the top of the head, but is mildly unnerved by the crunching sound [it took Critical damage].
Athalie evades the snapping jaws of her foe [4 damage to 6hp] but Bassianus' clamps down on his arm. He feels a burning sensation followed by a heaviness in his limb as venom glands inject some sort of toxin, then his vision blurs and he slips to the floor in a daze. [5 damage to 0hp, 5 STR; d20=14, crit.]
[round 2]
Athalie runs hers through with her sword. It twitches and then collapses into a ball [Critical Damage]. Isabeau and Mortine rush to save Bassianus. Their blows dislodge the creature from his arm, but so worried were they about hitting their friend that their attacks merely annoy the creature. [1+2 damage, down to 8 STR; d20=1, no crit.]
But it turns said annoyance upon Mortine! The thing chomps down on her leg, and she too is overcome by dizziness, swooning at Isabeau's feet. [6 damage to 0hp, 3 STR; d20=crit]
[round 3]
Isabeau and Athalie skewer the creature from both sides in response. It moves no longer.
They must rouse their friends with a nip of the cheap stuff. Once they've collected themselves and decided that the poison is not an immediately problem [short rest, d6=no rand encounter, hp to full] they continue on their way.
The only other door leads east, so they pass through it to a laboratory full of glass apparatus on every conceivable surface [bakteriologische Untersuchung - bacteriological study]. Some of the phials, beakers, and assorted tubes are filled with still liquids, others bubble and froth of their own volition, and at least one is phosphorescing in the shadowy corner.
[Q: Is it super dangerous? likely (3+): O3 C7 - yes
Q: How? Business of Navigation - DEX save required to cross room without knocking something over]
The glass vessels are all interconnected by a series of slender tubes, forming a complex network round the whole of the lab.
"I don't think crossing that would be a good idea," mutters Isabeau.
"I believe you've read my thoughts, dear heart," says Athalie.
"Shall we retrace our steps?" asks Bassianus.
"Let's do!" says a relieved Mortine.
They retreat past the dead silkworms into the coffin storage overflow area [no encounters], then take a passage east to a small anteroom, which contains nothing but a door leading back into the laboratory, so are then forced to retreat again and try the other eastern passage. This leads to the bottom of a stairwell, where a sign points to a lift [Fahrstuhl] nearby.
They climb the stairs and find a door at the top. There's a short corridor beyond with the gaslights on low. The lift is opposite, and doors lead north and south. A threadbare green carpet of a design that was fashionable when our heroes were much younger attests to the occupation of this part of the council fortress.
"We'd best douse the lantern," murmurs Isabeau.
"I'm sure our eyes will adjust," mumbles Bassianus.
"Do we put away our weapons?" asks Mortine sotto voce.
"Probably," says Athalie (sc. quietly). "But be ready to use them."
The floorboards groan underfoot. Athalie cracks open the northern door. "Halloooo," she calls in a particularly small voice. "It doesn't seem anyone has heard. Perhaps we should continue our explorations."
Opening the door further causes the mingled smells of camphor and decay to waft over the explorers. The room beyond [Sectiossaal - Dissection Room] is only lit from the corridor. Dissection tables are arranged in two neat rows. On one lies a monstrous corpse, its chest open and the flesh pinned back, with all its organs laid out on an adjoining table.
[Q: But is it dead yet? 50/50 (4+): O4 C3 - no, but... soon will be]
The thing strains against its bonds at the sound of the door opening, and a raspy voice issues from its distended maw.
"Come back to finish the job, have we? Have at, you foul fiends; do your worst!"
"It's still alive!" gasps Mortine.
"Oh! Begging your pardon, I though you were Doctor Butcher and [d6=]her cronies come back to continued their dashed experiments. Say, you couldn't see fit to unshackle me from this table, could you? I'd be ever so grateful, and of course, should you, some time down the line, find yourselves in a spot of bother..." [UNE: friendly - gratitude - future action]
"I don't like the looks of this place," whimpers Mortine.
"Nor I," answers Athalie. "Let's see what we can do."
The chains binding the monster are solid, but the padlocks securing them are enormous and old. It is but a few minutes work to poke about the locks' insides with a scalpel before the fetters are loosened and the thing is freed. [d6=3, no random encounter] As Athalie works and a sheepish Mortine guards the door, the Thing chats away pleasantly, relating the tale of its capture and mutation with extra-stellar matter, and the experiments which followed. It remembers little of its former life in bastion, but its name, [d100=] Katsun Offenpot, is engraved on a golden key fob amongst the Thing's effects discarded in a bin.
surviving PCs will be gifted high quality guns - with additional powers and disadvantages (but they won't be ready for at least 2 more adventures as I forgot to make a note of this at the end of my .txt file like I usually do.)
Q: Have the PCs heard of him? O6 C3 - yes, but... only d4=M]
"Oh!" interrupts Mortine as Bassianus reads the creature's (former) name aloud, "I used to work in a perfumery just a few doors down from your shop. They say you made the cleverest sorts of rifles. And there was that little buckler with a pistol built into it sitting in your shop window. How I always used to admire it, every time I passed."
"I shall make you a present of it," says the Creature, "if I survive this ordeal."
They help the Thing collect up its organs, shoving them back in the body cavity and wrapping it round tightly with bandages. They show it the stairwell and outline the escape route through basement, then give it a spare lantern and watch it lumber off on its way.
Closing the stairwell door quietly, they pass by the lift [Fahrstuhl], and go into [Saal für klinische Sectionen - clinical dissection hall] a larger dissection room. In contrast to where they'd met the poor experiment, this one has better lighting, seems much cleaner, and smells strongly of bleach; it is overall less dungeon-y feeling. The rows of tables are neat and spotless. But lest our company forget what sort of place this is, there is a long self full of specimen jars, with unidentifiable beings and parts of beings leering out of the formaldehyde.
[random item = trap : Sharpness of Death]
There is a door to the north, upon which is a brass placard, written in foreign. [Chirurgische Operationscurse und Section durch Examinanden - surgical operation courses & dissections tests] Below it hangs a hand-written notice reading 'Strictly No Admittance!!!'. Above the door is a pendulum-blade attached to a heavy iron mechanism.
"Do we dare...?" asks Bassianus.
"I might have an idea!" says Mortine. "Isabeau, darling, lift me up so I can reach."
She produces a glue pot from her pack. Isabeau bends down, then Mortine hikes up her skirts so she can sit on Isabeau's shoulders. Isabeau stands and holds as still as she is able [STR save succeeds] whilst Mortine coats the mechanism with glue.
Then they have to wait... and wait... and wait... [d6=no encounter]
"It should be set now," she says at last.
The others look on in silence.
"Oh, very well!"
Mortine turns the doorknob. There is an audible click from within, but, [DEX save to have done it right: d20=3, ok] fortunately, the glue holds the mechanism fast.
"See? nothing to fear."
Mortine opens the door, revealing a white-hot radiance within. She receives the full blast of its fury and is gone. The others throw the door shut in haste. Nothing remains of Mortine but a heavy whitish powder on the floor.
[Q: Why was it locked? The vengeful Flames
The Star-essence of which the Thing spoke is stored here. Mortine took d12 damage to 1d3=STR. d12=8 reducing her STR to -5.]
After a short rest to (variously) wipe the tears from their eyes / have a drink in Mortine's memory / say Kaddish, they file silently through the southwestern door into an empty hallway. [Short Rest, d6=no encounters] From there a door leads south to a stairwell with a door opposite [west] and a passage running beneath.
The little passage leads immediately to a small, cosy chamber [Retirade - retreat], smelling of dusty books and old tobacco. The lighting is dim, and barely penetrates the smoke suffusing the air.
[50/50 chance of encounter here: minor personage, which I rolled up on the Cast of 1000s tables in the Oddpendium, including their relationship to the council heretic/villain]
-Tax collector, wedded into career
-powdered wig
-rival of villain
-found a major arcanum
[reaction roll=19, fail]
And old man in out-of-date fashion and a powdered wig appears out of the gloom, brandishing a pistol.
"Intruders! get back, or I'll use this!"
Athalie tries to plead with him, but he won't have it. She finds herself staring cross-eyed down the pistol's barrel, scarcely a finger's breadth away from her nose.
[Q: Does he take the shot? 50/50 (4+): O2 C7 - no]
She backs away slowly, as do her companions. They file silently up onto the stairs, out of sight.
"Let's wait to see what he does," whispers Athalie. Isabeau nervously draws her own pistol.
[encounter check whilst they wait: d6=1, encounter = major personage
Q: Is it the Villain? unlikely (5+): O4 C8 - no]
They stand guard some breathless minutes, all eyes and weapons trained at the bottom of the stairs. But it is soft footsteps and the rustle of crinoline above them that breaks the silence.
next post: a lady of rank
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