The Haze | Session 5
Session was played on 14 April 2023.
Introduction
As you can see from the note up top, this session was actually played all the way back in April of this year. I had taken notes in-session, but for various reasons I hadn't actually gone through and edited it until today. Now that we had another session as well this past Friday, I hope to get into a more regular posting schedule again.
Where we left off last session, the party had just finished looting the glass house, having left in haste due to occasional tremors in the earth which seemed to escalate the longer they stayed. They now set off on the long road back to the Violet City by way of the Porcelain Citadel.
Roster
| Characters | Failed Career | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Angus McMasters | Anthropology Assistant | An inquisitive student of anthropology whose research has been put on hold after his advisor was executed by a band of “flamboyant” scavengers. |
| Bangle | Wizard Slayer | Comes from a family of potato farmers that were driven out of business when a wizard came to town and created an infinite potato well. Just graduated wizard slaying school to get his revenge, but is now buried in student debt. |
| Electrochromia 2-Step | Porcelain Pretender | Tried to pass as a Porcelain Prince; it did not go well. Despite being outcast as a fraud, they still continue on acting as if they are a Prince, clearly not having learnt their lesson. Can also be rather arrogant. |
And of course we cannot forget our lovely referee NonDairyGiant.
A Chance at Redemption
After escaping from the glass house with their ill-gotten gains, the party headed back to Potsherd Crater. Among the items they had “appropriated” was a sack of wooden signs engraved with poetry, an ivory table, a set of fancy china dinnerware, 8 bars of silver, an arcane cube that worked as a movie projector, a bakelite unicorn head, and a broken-down motorcycle they hoped could maybe to salvaged to rebuild THE POWER, the beloved motorcycle of EAGLE which had been unceremoniously trashed by a group of thugs. It was about a day's travel to the crater, but the time went by quickly as everyone was watching various films using the projector cube.
Upon arrival, they once again noticed the miners at the quarry, though this time it seemed they were on break. Getting up close, they looked vaguely alarming. Heavily armed and armoured, they wore what looked like a cross between a stealth suit and an old diving suit, their suits big and bulky, flat and angular, along with a large, almost organic-looking rifle slung on their backs. The miners were grouped up looking over their El Camino-esc. car which was laden with a full load of rocks of a deep red hue which reflected the light.
The waterlogged miner's quarry.
Also hanging out at the quarry, keeping his distance, was a tall, lanky fellow with what seemed to be a large book protruding from his sack. He wore glasses and was quite pale, a wide-brimmed hat atop his head to protect himself from the sun. He was doing research for his manuscript titled “Self in the Poly-Ego Mind: Porcelain Princes and Identity,” but the research had been on hiatus ever since his advisor was executed by some rather “flamboyant” scavengers.
One of the members of the group, Bangle—a large, muscular barbarian with flowing pink hair holding a unicorn head—stood forward, loudly proclaiming, “Hello everyone!”
The miners all turned their attention and simply stared at him for some time. After a long pause, one of the miners unbuckled the front of his helmet to speak, barking “What the hell do you want?”
Bangle and the miners talked for a short time, from which he learned that the miners were in fact mining sanguine porcelain, which was prized for its pigments and carvings of a deep, fiery red colour.
As that conversation was unfolding, the tall, lanky fellow walked over and started to ask Electrochromia some questions, revealing that he studied Porcelain Princes and would love to speak with them. At first Electrochromia went white, concerned that they might be exposed, but then the thought came to their mind that this guy might be useful to potentially make their entry into the Porcelain Citadel easier.
Eventually the decision is made for Angus to join the group as they make their way towards the Porcelain Citadel. Bangle, always excited for a new friend, shouted, “Huzzah!” as he waved around his magnificent mail-order sword in the air (that sword made up a large part of his debt).
Their journey back was mostly uneventful, save for the strong winds. The group had to cover their eyes as best they could to protect against the large amounts of cinder and ash in the air which oddly had the smell of cinnamon. A pair of big, scary, gorilla-shaped golems were also seen in the distance, but the party made sure to avoid them.
Return to the Porcelain Palace
They finally arrived to the Citadel at daybreak. Angus, ecstatic at seeing the Citadel for the first time, exclaimed “Wowie, I finally made it! Poor Professor MacGoglee, how he didn't get to see this. Poor Professor MacGoglee...”
A bird's eye view of the Porcelain Citadel, showing the surrounding points of interest.
Once on site, the group rented a room at the Lowest Line for $3 and then split up to do a variety of tasks. Wanting to offload their stolen goods as soon as possible, Bangle spent some time at “Your Life Burns Faster in This House,” a local bar known for its eccentric clientele, spending $60 over the course of a few days to grease some wheels, trying to find some buyers for their loot. He was able to sell the 8 bars of silver for $2000, the blanket for $50, the poetry plaques for $200, the ivory table for $400, and the china dinnerware for $500, making a gross total of $3,150. In preparation for the journey back East to the Violet City, he also bought 7 sacks of supplies for $14 total ($2 each).
After finalising the deals for the loot, Bangle started to ask around trying to look for wizards. He found an old man rambling about the evil immortal wizards that controlled the city, enslaving their minds and bodies to their nefarious ends. Apparently, the wizards controlled everything: the Violet City was run by cats, which were clearly wizards; the nomads were lead by shamans, which of course were wizards; and the Citadel was ruled by Princes, which, naturally, were also said to be wizards.
A Meeting with Messian
Meanwhile, Electrochromia hatched a plan to meet with their former mentor in an attempt to get back into good graces. In their youth, Electrochromia was a protege to Messian 13-Unity, leader of a fanatic faction which had the aim of bringing everyone into Porcelain Princedom and bringing back the thought of the properly recorded period. Their beliefs stipulated that only poly-bodies should be permitted in the Citadel, but rather than expelling all the non-poly-bodies, Messian advocated for everyone being made into poly-bodies. Though Messian also had a strict code of ethics, so when he discovered that Electrochromia had lied in claiming to be a Prince, Messian scarred them in retributive justice, forever damaging Electorchromia's memory to this day.
Despite their violent expulsion, Electrochromia, now severely irradiated, was desperate to try and become an actual, real Porcelain Prince, in order to get a new body instead of slowly dying these next few years of radiation poisoning (Porcelain Princes have a single consciousness that is shared among many bodies, allowing them to survive even if one of their bodies dies).
So while the rest of the party was buying-and-selling or doing whatever they needed, Electrochromia decided to sneak into the underground tunnels linking the various offices of the Princes. Messian's office was centrally located due to him being one of the key members in the governing bodies, so the journey was quite treacherous with a high likelihood of getting caught. Eventually though, having barely avoided detection, Electrochromia finally was able to reach the familiar villa of their old master.
The tunnel opened up into a large cavern, in which a coral villa had grown surrounded by a meticulously manicured garden. The premises were guarded by large, stone defense golems with dead eyes and a yellow orb in the centre of their foreheads. Being careful to not be noticed by the golems, Electrochromia snuck up to the front door, which was locked. Adjacent to the door was a magitech doorbell in the shape of a stone face.
Upon ringing the doorbell, the voice of Messian came through, the stone mouth of the doorbell moving in sync with his words. At hearing Electrochromia's voice, Messian spat in disgust, warning the pretender to leave at once before he called the guards. With some convincing though, Messian with time calmed down, though still with a strong sense honour preventing him from directly helping.
Sensing Electrochromia's desperation, he confided in a whisper that he knew of a possible path for redemption, though it would require subterfuge. Further out in the wastes, near the South-Facing Passage, was the refuge of a Prince that had cast off all association with the Citadel. This Prince had a fortress on the plains which he shared with his Satrap partner. Of all the Princes, this was the only one Messian knew of that would be willing to take a chance on a known pretender like Electrochromia. His name was Pineous 3-Drum of the Puse House.
With newfound purpose, Electrochromia carefully made their way out of the tunnels undetected, hoping beyond hope that somehow they might at last be able to become an actual Porcelain Prince.
The Long Road to Violet City
As they made their way away from the Citadel, the weather took a turn for the worse. Infrequent, inconsistent winds carrying with them a bitter, sour rain started to batter them. They all found themselves in the next few days with a rattling cough which lasted for about a week. A few days away from their next stop, they passed by a half dozen slender rabbits with chitinous protuberances blocking their path, which they summarily walked around.
After long, sickly days on the road, the group arrived at the Low Road and the High in late afternoon. The site was the convergence of two roads: the low road, which emanated from the Violet City, and the high road, which was an old, decaying highway, the ruins of which had been used to make this the site of a semi-active trading spot.
The party set up camp to stay the night there before then regrouping and continuing onto Violet City in the morning. That night each took turns taking watch by a small campfire to make sure no scavengers tried to rob them in their sleep. Angus, on his watch, decided it was a good time to smoke up some purple haze while everyone else was asleep, so they hopefully wouldn't notice. In the midst of his high, he heard a sharp, canine howl in the distance, scaring him half to death. Not sure if it was the drugs or an actual beast, he ducked behind one of the mules and waited. There was again silence for a few minutes before abruptly being broke by a symphony of howls, closer this time and all round them.
Bangle woke up with a jolt, his hair instantly changing colour to black: stealth mode. Large dogs resembling Tazmanian tigers crept forward, their faces hyena-like with a distinctly predatory appearance, large pointy teeth gleaning in the low light with their tongues hanging out hungrily.
Once realising the beasties were in fact real and that he wasn't hallucinating it all, Angus seized forward, grabbing one of the sticks from the open fire and waving it defiantly at the creatures, the drugs numbing his senses as the flaming stick charred his palm. The dogs, clearly seeing the crazed look in Angus' eyes, ran away back into the darkness.
The night went by uneventfully after that, but not wanting to take any chances, they all packed up and were on the road before dawn. As they started on their final leg towards the Violet City, the sun rose through the violet haze slowly and reluctantly. The further along they went, the more they started to notice a change in the air. It gradually became more and more humid, almost as if rain was to come, yet no rain came.
A few days went by until they reached a point where the road was blocked up ahead. In the distance they could make out a small stagecoach pulled by two large, muscled horses. Surrounding the carriage was a mob of what looked to be Bluelanders, a population seen as degenerates and criminals which had long ago moved to Violet City as refugees.
Not sure how to approach the situation, the group held back for some time to discuss their next course of action.
Our travels for the session.
In the last few days before arriving at the stagecoach, Electrochromia had an upsetting realisation. Throughout their travels so far they had been using a set of standard metal cutlery. Recently the cutlery had started to become strangely bendable, which initially Electrochromia had dismissed simply as wear and tear. That was until one night, over a bowl of hot soup, they were left in complete shock when half of their spoon had completely dissolved. It took them awhile to put all the piece together, but after a little experimentation it became clear that it was in fact their saliva which had been corroding the cutlery. Electrochromia made sure to keep this discovery to themselves, but it seemed this radiation changing them in ways still yet unknown.
Caravan Inventory Tracking
Items which are large enough to be tallied on the caravan sheet are counted in number of sacks. Each member of the caravan must consume one sack of supply per session.
Given that the inventory can vary throughout the course of play, note that anything marked with a '+' is something gained this session, while anything marked with a '–' is something lost this session.
Capacity: 12
2 Mule
2 Mule
2 Mule
3 Ramshackle Cart
3 Party (1 slot per person)
0 Broken motorcycle (pulled like trailer)
----------
Load: 7
Sold loot from the glass house
-1 wooden engraved signs wrapped in blanket
-1 unicorn statue head
-1 fancy china dinnerware
-1 8 bars of silver
-1 ivory table
8 supply, basic
-9 supply, basic
+7 supply, basic
=
Total
6 supplies, basic
1 fancy projector cube
Cash and Debt
Cash:
$1231
+$3150 (selling all the loot)
-$60 (greasing wheels at bar)
-$3 (Staying at the Low Line)
-$14 (buy 7 supplies, $2 each)
=
Total
$4304
Debt:
$11280
+$640 (interest from loan)
Total
$11920