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| Things have changed in the Pizza Slice of Doom |
Timekeeping
This session took place on 06/03/2025, and the PCs adventured for 1 day.
Introduction
What's been going on in the PSoD!? Time to do a restocking exercise that restocks the very walls of the Dungeon itself.
Player Characters Present
Slippery Pete (Level 9 Thief, wearer of the Hat of Disguise and wielder of the Black Dagger)Sever (Level 8 Pegasus Corps Ranger of Machodor, wielder of Were'shbane and wearer of the Girdle of Cloud Giant Strength, rider of Maverick)Sheamus (Level 7 Irish Fighter from Brovenloft, rider of the Rocket Cycle and wielder of the Drewblade) with henchman McScales (Lizardman F3)Karshe (Level 6 Fighter, bearer of the Military Trident) with henchmen Harlan (F/T 3/3) Dusty (D4) and Isaac (C4)
Downtime
Session Report
The usual trip up to the high plateau at the top of the volcano's surface was interrupted; the lift platform stopped, and then began to shudder alarmingly. Slippery Pete shimmied up on of the four ropes keeping the party from plummeting to their deaths. There was a fight going on up there!
Combat #1: Irish v Irish (with Sever, and Slippery Pete providing morale support)
Rounds: 3
Result: Party Wins
Highlights: Slippery Pete saw that the Irish troops, about 60 in all, were fighting each other. It was clear that one side was trying to damage the lift platform (by chopping the rope) while the other was trying to prevent them using (mostly) non-lethal means. He used his Hat of Disguise to make himself look like Shaemus as much as possible and then tried to impersonate him when he got to the top of the rope; somehow they fell for it and his bluster raised the defenders morale. Meanwhile, Sever used his Wings of Flying to fly up and help out. I adjudicated this as a mass battle at 1/10 scale, with Sever adding his multi attacks vs 0-levels and attempting to subdue, it was all over in another round.
It turned out that most of the attackers had no idea what they were doing or why, and one of them had lost his mind completely, talking about how "tentacle faces made me do it, to be shurre!". These men were secured by the remaining Irish and soon order had been restored. When pressed for further information, the other Irish guards noted nothing in particular out of the ordinary had preceded this event, except an odd feeling that the skyline of the Cyclopean city, some distance away in the centre of the volcano, had changed and had gotten smaller in some undefinable manner.
The party made their way over to the entrance to the Pizza Slice and climbed in, finding the interior much as they remembered it. That was the case right up until they reached the area leading to level 2. Last time this area had been filled with water and tall reeds that had been washed down from the forest level. Now the whole area was blocked off by a wall consisting of familiar looking greenish basalt cyclopean stone. There was a five-pointed archway standing out from the stone, in the centre of which they found a gem embedded. Hanging on either side of the archway were two metal skull caps connected by wires that disappeared into a conduit in the ceiling. The party had seen similar skull caps before, but Sever had trashed them, and the door they were connected to, before anyone had had the courage the see what happened if one was adorned.
The gem appeared similar to those used by the standard locked doorways in the Sky City. This time, they had the ring that Prince Barin had given Sever, and they decided to try it out. Sure enough a beam of light sprang from the gem set in the ring and it connected with the one set in the stone archway. When it did so there was a sudden change and now a space had appeared in the wall, easily wide enough for the party to walk through.
Not content with this, Sheamus made a sudden play for the skull caps; putting one on himself and having his henchman McScales don the other. There was a visible spark of energy transmitted through the connecting cables, then the light died. Whatever had happened, had happened. When they disconnected the skull caps apparently none the worse for the experience, the pair realised that Sheamus had gained one point of strength, and McScales one point on intelligence! So that's what these skull caps did? However, the process was clearly not without inefficiency, Sheamus had lost two points of intelligence and McScales a like number of Strength.
As this pushed Sheamus up from 17 to 18 strength, I had him roll for the exceptional strength allowed to a fighter and he came up with a 57. Combined with the magic Strength from the Drewblade, the Irish fighter's current strength was now 18:00 (after a quick check of the rules to see if it could go even higher confirmed it could not).
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| McScales, two points smarter. |
After Sheamus finished strutting about happily, and McScales stopped quoting Flowers for Algernon, the party stepped through the doorway into a corridor beyond that had completely transformed. Although the overall dimensions were the same as before, what was firstly a metal corridor, and then later flooded with water and filled with reeds, was now entirely composed of cyclopean stone, a greenish basalt carved with strange and disturbing figures, just like that from the city out on the surface of the volcano! The stone walls rose up to a groined (snigger) ceiling 30' above, which was filled with deep shadows that their continual light seemed unable to fully dispel.
Still confident, the party advanced towards the end of the corridor, but before the T-intersection (that they knew previously had been a 4-way intersection) a head sized metal sphere descended from above and surprised them. It seemed to have no internal monologue, and first announced that it was scanning the intruders, then had determined that they were a significant threat, and finally sent out a beam that resolved into a curtain like tear in reality; beyond which was another place!
This other place appeared to be the toxic waste room, as seen from the north entrance; and there, atop the large cylinder in the center of the room, was a group of Hawkmen with a crew served weapon of some kind. With them were a number of hulking creatures that looked like Hawkmen mutated by some evil intelligence. These latter flew right through the tear in reality to attack the party, supported by multiple blasts from the weapon. Slippery Pete tried to hide in shadows.
Combat #2: 5 Mutated Hawkmen,
3 normal Hawkmen with an automatic blaster
Rounds: 6
Result: Party victory
Highlights: The Mutant Hawkmen planned to swoop down and grapple anyone stunned by the automatic blaster; but the targeted players shrugged off the effects, and also took one of the mutants down with McScale's net as it flew through the energy curtain. The PCs, led by Karshe and his henchmen, converged on this one while the others flew up to the ceiling. Here the monsters came up with plan b, levering out stones and dropping them down on the players. Not only could this be very damaging, the strange stones could stun a sensitive observer with psychic damage. Sever, having already used his wings for the day, rued that necessity as otherwise he could have flown up to engage the mutants. Instead, the super strong Ranger pulled a huge stone from his pouch and threw it through the energy curtain at the 3 Hawkmen and their weapon. This not only worked, it could actually damage the weapon itself. Later Dusty the druid cast Obscurement, which blocked the enemy targeting them from ahead or above, while they beat the snot out of the downed mutant hawkman.
Having been thwarted by the unlikely efforts of a Druid & Ranger, the monsters retreated back through the energy curtain, which then disappeared. The party pushed their advantage and advanced to the toxic waste room, noting in several places their map was out of date, some corridors were now sealed off with walls of stone.
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| A particularly disturbing mural had been added to the nook in the middle of the north corridor. |
The prince's ring once again worked to open the east door to the room, through which the party saw just a single figure on top off the toxic waste cylinder; as they watched the Hawkman finished packing up the weapon Sever's rocks had damaged, tapped something on his wrist, and turned invisible. They shut the door quickly and then went all the way around, finding the corridors there too were also now rendered in or made of cyclopean stone, and opened the door on the opposite side.
There was no sign of resistance, and Slippery Pete went forward and managed to scoop out the mustardy goop from the pool into a container he had obtained for just this purpose; but, while there, he could also see that from the other side of the pool a green liquid was rapidly displacing it the mustard, and within that liquid something large was moving. At this point he spotted McScale's magic spear sitting on the causeway, within easy reach if he could get over there.
There was a lot of discussion over how to achieve what was a simple 10' jump, but it is easy to be sympathetic with the caution given what was just 10' below. Pete managed to get across and grab the spear, getting a good look at the huge amoeba like creature that he was fortunate enough to surprise (and so could withdraw without engaging). He didn't like the idea of climbing back over with the spear in hand; and so he tossed it over, rolled very badly, and there was a hush while I consulted the ever useful misses table:
As he was simply trying to throw the spear through a doorway, I applied the last sentence of this rule (which I had not really noticed before) and determined that the spear sailed through without hitting the side and bouncing into the goop below. "Mesa had significant concerns man," said McScales, probably.
Having achieved their goal, the party withdrew without further incident*
I think it is interesting that the events of this session could easily be taken for those of a conventional play session: the get-along-gang dig deep to help their friend secure an item for a quest the DM has imposed on him. However, with the BROSR what might look conventional is anything but, player agency made these events happen. Afterwards, Slippery Pete paid each of the PCs 342 Gold Machos, with each henchman getting a half share of 171 Gold Machos. What a guy.
*not quite true, but at least no further incident that the party detected.
Session Statistics:
Wilderness travel: 6 Miles
Combats: 2
Combat rounds: 9
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