Long-form play and open table on the Gauntlet

Most events on the Gauntlet Calendar are part of a four or five session campaign, long enough to explore setting and characters, to allow for character growth and to emulate the typical story structure of introduction, complication, climax, and resolution. However it is short enough to be manageable for grown-ups trying to juggle jobs, family, and hobbies.

Some games, on the other hand, demand more commitment: While Apocalypse World is designed with a definite end of the story in mind it will most likely take more than four sessions to finish the story arc. While it is possible to play a satisfying single session of Night Witches it can be much more fulfilling to play a literal campaign from Engels Airdrome to the final duty station Buchholz—or to travel on the Orient Express from London all the way to Constantinople.

Not the Orient Express

Challenges

Apart from being difficult to plan and organize, longer campaigns also exist in tension with the open table policy of the Gauntlet: As a player you have to sign up for sessions individually and GMs can’t be sure to have the same players over the course of a campaign, a feature that prevents the balkanization of the community when countless in-groups only ever play with the same few players. On the other hand, the series of events that are supposed to form a campaign might feel disjointed if the cast of players constantly changes. Another challenge is to manage relationships between PCs or PCs and NPCs. Many games track the relationship status—e.g. Strings in Monsterhearts—or prompt players to answer relationship questions. Others have NPCs tied to a certain player, for example in Urban Shadows or Apocalypse World. When the players don't take part in the campaign, Strings, relationships, and NPCs cease to be important or disappear completely.

Discarded NPC judging you silently

Solutions

An obvious way to enforce coherence and continuity is to encourage signing up for all sessions. Almost every event on the Gauntlet Calendar will mention this. The Gauntlet GMing best practices document advises GMs to be cautious about going beyond encouraging this (e.g. by requiring that players sign up for all sessions of a series) so as not to undercut the open table policy.  The GM or facilitator can, however, reserve a spot for a regular player, or—if it is a continuing series—limit signing up for returning players at least for a certain amount of time, usually 24h.

Another less intrusive way to provide a more cohesive experience is to use information on the character keeper (NPCs, places etc) and write session reports or in-fiction documents. Lowell made this adorable session summary in-character for his World Wide Wrestling series and Puckett wrote a slightly exaggerated account of events for our campaign of Ultraviolet Grasslands. However this requires work for the person providing the information and for the new players to actually process them and in general continuity seems to be less of a concern on the Gauntlet. In a casual survey on the Gauntlet Slack most GMs declared that they weren't worried about it.

Wonders of the West

Examples of long-form play on the Gauntlet

One way to organize campaigns on the Gauntlet is as a quarterly. While GMs are normally encouraged to keep all the sessions contained in one month they can opt to either put all 12 sessions of a quarterly on the calendar at once or indicate that the first four sessions are planned to be the start of an ongoing series. Notable examples are David Walker’s Masks campaign (14 sessions) and Leandro running the entirety of the Band of Blades campaign in 15 sessions. Quarterlies can also be linked in order to play even longer campaigns: Leandro ran through all the playsets of Masks playing 41 sessions in total.

Alun R. approached long form play in a different way with his 30+ Eotenweard games: he occasionally would put a couple of sessions on the calendar that are set in the same setting with characters from one campaign leaving their influence on the world: t. Likewise Donogh used the same class room setup and relationship map for his Balhir run of Monsterhearts 2. In Donogh's 20+ 3:16 campaign NPCs had the biggest influence on continuity. Both didn't limit their sign ups although Alun would sometimes reserve a spot for a returning player. Rich runs several sessions of his Star Wars Saturdays each month but picks a different system from one month to the next. Players can bring back characters from previous series or spinoff new ones based on events in the games they have played. There is a wiki for Star Wars Saturdays that lists the PCs, links to the character keeper and the YouTube vids of the sessions. In December several Gauntleteers joined Rich in running Star Wars games in a big community event.

Lastly, long form play can be organized as living world campaigns where several GMs run games in the same fictional world with events in one game potentially having effects on another game. Notable examples are the now defunct Gaunt Marches (a Dungeon World setting with four GMs), and the ongoing Gauntlet Comics, a multiple GM-effort that is set in the same city, with neighborhoods created by players and GMs. An introduction to Gauntlet Comics can be found here: https://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/blog/gauntlet-comics-101

A Super Hero

Conclusions

I am currently running an ongoing campaign of Ultraviolet Grasslands, an epic pointcrawl over a vast map, with more than 30 sessions played and no immediate end in sight. Initially I was worried that the series wouldn't be suitable for  the Gauntlet. Would there even be interest in long-form play? How would it work with a constantly changing cast of characters?

To mitigate that I reserved a spot for one returning player (Puckett, who only missed two of the sessions); set up this blog ); created a dedicated channel on the Slack; and designed a sprawling character keeper that tracks trade goods, market prices, locations, NPCs etc. to create a sense of coherence. But looking back I think I shouldn't have been worried at all.

Not only is there a demand for longer campaigns, there is also supply: In October there were 20 events on the calendar that were part of a campaign with 7 or more sessions, in November there were 26.

Not only is it possible to run longer campaigns with an open table policy, but Gauntlet GMs have the will to make new players coming into an ongoing campaign feel welcome and the players coming into a campaign have the ability to make the sessions stand on their own and feel meaningful.

Proofreading by: Alun R and Alexi Sarge

Vicar's Beach II

They enter the narrow tunnel behind the security door, Sarqo’s flashlight revealing countless footprints in the inch deep dust. Saffron checks an air vent which seems to function has an exhaust for a heat source from down below. The corridor opens into a small room with 6 alcoves, one of them illuminated by blue radiation that reveals a motionless vome.

Vicar's Ear

Azure contemplates sending Cataract to interface with the vome but the bone and wire salamander is hesitant indicating that she is pregnant, so Sarqo sends Flux instead. Azure picks up a suspicious looking tiny creature looking like a tiny flash drive with feebly moving legs. Flux returns and spits out a paper tape that reads: *connection established * system programmable * danger of code corruption *. Unsure about the ramifications they leave the vome behind. 

Vome Slacking 

They hear the rhythmic hammering on metal against stone and come upon an excavation site with worker vomes - one of them wearing the overall of a Red Bear villager - breaking the stone with heavy tools. A conveyor belt transporting gravel disappears into a tunnel. Saffron’s thermal vision reveals a blinding heat source in the corner of the room that comes from a dozen corroded metal crates. Sarqo sends Flux down the tunnel and when he reports no apparent danger they surf the conveyor belt. Rattled and poked by stones they emerge on the other side in a large room where the conveyor belt ends in the maw of a giant biomechanical brick making machine with numerous drone vomes carrying the bricks down another tunnel. Sarqo finds green glass shards and a dark stain on the ground under a passageway and when he investigates a glassy slime drops from the ceiling cutting and ensnaring him. Applying snake oil he manages to liquify the slime. The discover a manhole cover hiding a maintenance tunnel leading to a switch board and further down to an airlock that ends under the lake. 

The Switchboard

The switches have different labels: Elevator, Observatory, Rector Door etc. and they flip them all on. Climbing back up they move through another passage way to an entrance room with stairs leading outside, a postmodern fountain and an open door to the observatory. Sarqo ignores the pyramid of stacked green glowing screens where the Crab vomes left seashells and other found objects in reverence and looks through the telescope that is pointed at a strange planet. They return to the entrance room and press the silver button when a friendly android voice announces: “I am Belle, how can I be of service?”

Mapper's Impression of Vicar's Ear

Actual Play: https://youtu.be/odF_RFUXyiY

Vicar's Beach

Saffron connects with the Porcelain Walker through wires growing out of their fingers. While their cybernetic prairie dog body slumps to the side they take direct control of the machine. Naida keeping watch on top of the hill fires a warning shot at the approaching Floating Barge and kills the pony after the caravan guards ignore her. Aida addresses the sharpshooter and insists that she and the other Greenlanders must be allowed to travel to the Porcelain Citadel to work for the princes but Saffron intimidates Formatore through the speakers of the walker until he tears up the contract. They promise the Greenlanders to escort them to the Spectrum Palace where they might find work that doesn’t include selling their body to the abmortal princes. Sarqo takes the Greenlanders back to the Jade Baobab while the others ride the walker back to Vicar’s Beach.

The walker gets trapped in the shallow waters south of the Three Sticks and when Azure dives to free the leg she spots hundreds of geometrically arranged artificial lights glowing on the lakebed.

They arrive at Vicar’s Beach at night and while the others sleep Naida spots half a dozen White Crab Vomes emerging from the waves carrying objects to the inverted dome lying in the middle of multi-colored dunes.

The next morning they find a staircase under the dome leading down but decide to take the side entrance, a metal door embedded into a nearby dune. Azure rips out the retina scanner and sends Cataract to bypass the locked door that opens with a pleasant chime.

Actual Play: https://youtu.be/nIwFTf5C05E

Three Sticks Lake III: Return to the Jade Baobab

Characters in Season 10: 

Naida: A  Deft Yellowlander Climate Refugee and Scope (member of the Legion of the Far Sight). The Legion is a semi-secret society that tries to fight crime on the roads of the Grasslands and around the Circular Sea. Bone grenade aficionada. She is accompanied by Ajax, a grumpy exiled Cat Lord with a serpent tail and Otis, the animatronic bear. 

Azure Dee: A Deft Blue God Cultist on her journey to the Black City where she is supposed to bring the apocalypse by sacrificing Vile organs. The Vile are a species of (demonic?) rulers from the Long Long Ago. She is accompanied by Cataract, a Wire-and-bone biomechanical salamander. She has undergone mutation after being exposed to a vome infection that made her muscles grow uncontrollably. The mutation has slowed down after a week of therapy sessions in the solarium of the Pylon Kraal.

Saffron, a Wise Black Gold Industrialist Machine Human whose personality was uploaded to a cybernetic prairie dog after being killed by Johnny-7's auto immune system. Outfitted with positronic double brain, extendable limbs and laser eyes. Accompanied by a furry animate kite. Seeking a prosthetic body for mother.

Sarqo, a Deft Purplefolk Doghead Anarchist, looking for a clue to abmortality in order to break it. After disappearing in the Maze of Light for what felt like a lifetime he is able to cast Full Spectrum Radiation Blast. Honorary member of the Clan of Sanitation in Red Bear Village.  

While Sarqo, Saffron and Azure spend the night in the synthetic baskets, Naida awakes in the Redlander Autowagon to the smell of coffee from the nearby Floating Barge. Chatting with a caravan guard she realizes that they are professionals and although they don't like Formatore very much, they probably won't betray him even if offered substantial bribes. 

Azure visits He-of-the-Second-Hand in the town hall where the current interims leader of the Jade Baobab discusses matters with his advisers from the different clans. But when she inquires about Formatore's reputation has a body dealer for the princes she senses that He-of-the-Second-Hand knows more than he admits.

Saffron meets with Formatore in the Exibitorium, a scrimshaw paneled museum of Biomancy, and channels their Cogflower background to get him to talk shop. Formatore freely admits that he is making deals with He-of-the-Second-Hand and that his employer is Bone Kaolin 2-Body from the Porcelain Citadel. In the past trading Biomancy tech with the princes had been frowned upon among the villagers. Formatore also ponders to offer "service positions" for the Greenlander refugees who the heroes had just rescued from the Vome Nest. 

Sarqo mingles with the Greenlanders but his vague warnings about slavers who sold naive travelers into indentured servitude is met with incredulity. Disillusioned he reunites with the others at the autowagon where they discuss the situation. 

When they see the floating barge being loaded and ready to leave with Formatore and half a dozen Greenlanders they quickly hatch a plan: First they will take out the Porcelain Princes, then they will address the problems at the village. On their way to the hidden camp Azure uproots a tree to block the road. Naida and Ostins take position on the hill above the camp while the others carefully approach the walker. Azure camouflages herself with shrubbery and manages to climb onto the walker unseen, while Naida sends Ajax to support her. To Ajax horror Azure quickly opens the hatch and throws him onto one of the princes while the other shoots Azure in the shoulder. Ajax stuns his victim while Naida snipes the other through the windshield. Covered in gore from the headshot Azure makes short work of the stunned princes.

Actual Play: https://youtu.be/-EoR32FAjl8

Wine River III: The Grey Glow

 They take the road South towards the Jade Baobab past delicate towers rising above a devastated morass of ruins overgrown with slimes and molds. When they make camp for the night a great screen of flickering motes appear on the shore between minimalist ruins. From the glow figures appear phasing in and out of existence resuming their lives from a Long Ago. Hamish, Azure and Kozue decide to pass through the portal while holding hands. Nevertheless a different fate waits for them: While they all pass through the glow to emerge between the buildings they had seen before - now less ruinous - Kozue and Hamish merely flicker while Hamish is lost in phase space, a ghostly echo of him remaining, unable to speak or interact with his environment. 

Among the numerous doors leading to underground shelters one in particular draws Azure's interest indicating the presence of Vile parts. Before they can investigate they hear a nauseating hum coming from a badly vome infected human. Azure delivers them from their pains with a shot to the head. Within its broken body the witch finds the code to open the vault door. Deep inside the shelter they come upon shelves with ceramic tins of biomorphic protein and a boiler room with a Vile lung inside a leaden container.

They pass through the gate again: This time Kozue's fetch is wrapped around Hamish to bind him to the mundane world ... but to no avail: The Folk hero remains a ghost of his former self. On the shore Kozue places items signifying the mundane world, phase space, sun and moon and swings a pendulum between them. When the pendulum circles the mundane world and the sun Kozue concludes that Hamish will be fine. Azure is not convinced, though, and performs her own ritual. She sees Hamish fully restored alone on his black metal motorcycle driving into the sun set. All of a sudden her vision changes and she sees calcinated tendrils snapping one by one and a giant floating island unmooring itself.

The next morning when Azure and Kozue awake they are back in their solid form. They continue their journey South, crossing the rusty bridge, carefully walking next to the autowagon while rat mechs eye them cautiously. Hamish, still in his ghostly body spots a giant porcelain walker peeking out from behind a hill. He finds a camp guarded by two porcelain princes and immediately decides to steal their ride - as soon as he is restored!

The caravan continues to the Jade Baobab in front of which a barge floats above ground guarded by uniformed Rainbowlanders. When they enter the village they are greeted by Brother Of the Second Hand in discussion with a Greenlander lawyer. The brother has temporarily taken over from the leadership as Sister Mercy-is-Weakness is on a pilgrimage to the Three Sticks and Father Time-hath-no-purpose has fallen ill. Seniore Formatore, the Cogflower lawyer, inquires about the Greenlanders the heroes have arrived with. Azure, whose suspicion is awaken, reads the lawyers mind:"The Prophet has handed me a business opportunity. I will sell these fools to the princes!"

Actual Play: https://youtu.be/-M-JBG-8PCA

Wine River II: Cholan Woods

After leaving the vome nest they load the survivors into one of the solid wagons, attach it to the Redlander truck and decide to check out the campfires to the North. They find a camp of nomads dressed in pine needle garments and canvas masks. The nomads invite them in and agree to help the party in crossing the river. Saloc, the elder of the clan, offers to break burned Mandelbrot-flatbread with them – a powerful psychedelic drug. While Naida nibbles on it and gets a pleasant buzz, Hamish naturally takes the whole portion and his reality dissolves into endlessly branching fractal patterns. Azure and Kozue approach the shaman of the Pine Nut clan, his face hidden behind a frightening and improbably tall tree bark mask covered in moss and red paint. Colpec warns Azure of the dangers of collecting vile organs and Kozue of spending too much time in the Cholan Woods, where nightmares roam at night.

The next day is spent crossing the river with ropes, poles and makeshift pontoon bridges, Naida unsuccessfully tries to recruit one of the nomads for the Legion and Azure performs another augury looking for dangers ahead. But her vision of a rusty bridge is soon disturbed by a strange blue glowing figure with three appendices and the red glowing eye atop a multi-colored pyramid she had dreamt of at the Behemoth Shell announcing that they are coming for her.

After an uneventful night they send the Redlander autowagon ahead and ascend the path to the Cholan Woods in order to look for omens of the world’s end. The plateau is sparsely forested by pine trees – many of them dripping with viscous slime - and covered with skin sacks the size of houses. Between them float gaseous jellyfish. Kozue sends her fetch to look for apocalyptic signs and spots a place where the trees had fallen as if hit by an explosion. When they finally arrive there, Kozue realizes to her disappointment that the fragments of star metal that could have had a hidden meaning were partly removed. They spend the rest of the day collecting the fragments. After sunset the nightmares emerge from the toxic goo hanging from the trees. Kozue marks all of them with a ward that enables them to face their worst nightmares with some protection and they flee the Cholan Woods.

Azure has a vision of the blue god rejecting her offering at the Black City and decides to kick off the Golden Amber for good. After a painful ceremony conducted by the Moon Witch, the Greenlanders who carry Azure's unconscious body to the wagon avert they eyes from Kozue.

Actual Play: https://youtu.be/IDxnacCRisU

Wine River I: Inside the Vome Nest

Characters:

Naida: A Yellowlander Climate Refugee and Scope (member of the Legion of the Far Sight). The Legion is a semi-secret society that tries to fight crime on the roads of the Grasslands and around the Circular Sea. She is accompanied by Ajax, a grumpy exiled Cat Lord with a serpent tail and Otis, the animatronic bear. Sometimes visited by Laila, a ghost.

Azure Dee: A Blue God Cultist on her journey to the Black City where she is supposed to bring the apocalypse by sacrificing Vile organs. The Vile are a species of (demonic?) rulers from the Long Long Ago. She is accompanied by Cataract, a Wire-and-bone biomechanical salamander. She has undergone mutation after being exposed to a vome infection that made her muscles grow uncontrollably. The mutation has slowed down after a week of therapy sessions in the solarium of the Pylon Kraal. Addicted to Golden Amber.

Hamish Mac Rainbow: A Redland District Folk Hero with a black motorbike and rainbow-colored beard. Wielder of the Fractal Blade. Slayer of  a maddened Ka-Elemental. His heroic reputation vastly exceeds his actual deeds but he's working on living up to the legend.

Kozue: An Elven Moon Mountain Witch, a soothsayer from the Sister of the Near Moon. Her singing spirit (appearing as a wingless, serpentine creature to those who can see it) in a pink bottle aids her in her auguries.

Inside the Vome nest Naida, Hamish and Azure kill the acid spitting vomes while Kozue sends her fetch to establish a connection with the vomeish autofac. She realizes that the machine is experiencing fear but not of the heroes but some other faction within the vome community. Kozue senses an opportunity to establish the heroes as allies and deepens the connection. 

It appears that the autofac comes from the void or the Outer Dark as the Sisters of the Near Moon refer to it. Its purpose is to grow and harvest biofuel and it has captured the Greenlanders to add them to its resources. Deep in her trance Kozue doesn't hear the explosion coming from the East. While Naida and Hamish investigate the origin of the sound Azure stays behind to keep an eye on Kozue. Naida and Hamish find a cavern with rail tracks leading into a tunnel, concrete barriers that feel like cold meat to the touch and the dead bodies of three giant white crab vomes. Naida pokes at a smoking pile of scrap metal and concludes that it is a spidery kamikaze vome. She also finds some dead mushrooms and harvests them while Hamish cuts the shell of one of the crab vomes. Kozue learns that the Greenlanders are held prisoner in the mines and when the party reunites they head back North. 

Azure immediately recognizes the place from her vision: A dark room with pools and Spitters sitting inside. Kozue greets them and to her surprise the vomes bow and let them pass. In the mines they find the traumatized Greenlanders who had made part of the caves their home, surviving on pink goo. The leader of the group, a haggard looking woman, approaches them and whispers her thanks when she hears that they had come to rescue them. They lead them out of the nest leaving three of the travellers who had become obsessed with the goo behind. 

Actual Play: https://youtu.be/rnU7sVuSA0I

UVG after 25 sessions: Example of Prep

Running UVG out of the book with no prep whatsoever can be extremely fun. As the referee you can discover locations together with the group, give yourself over to the randomness of encounters, read the entries as boxed text and prompt the players for additional details. One of my favorite location in the ongoing campaign was the Gemstone Tomb in the Lake of Oil, a random discovery at the Spectrum Run. I assigned numbers to the possible discoveries as they show up in the book and when the PCs scouted the area they rolled a 2 (Satrap Outpost) and a 3 (The Tomb) on a d4. I had skimmed the dungeon beforehand but didn't take any notes and improvised the whole thing. 

Gemstone Tomb in the Lake of Oil

You can also take a low prep approach, read likely locations and discoveries beforehand and / or pick the ones you find the most fun, as David Schirduan showcased in his auditory review of UVG.

And finally you can take a location you expect the players to be interested in and use the outline given in the book as an inspiration for a fleshed out place. At the Behemoth Shell the players found the Ideal Island through augury and the Lurid Pines by climbing the Shell and scanning the area. The players were weary of the mysterious eye atop the pyramid on the floating island so they decided to explore the Pines. I had a week to prep the location.

The Lurid Pines

I wanted a small dungeon with several entrances, branching or looping paths, random encounters, someone to talk to and a risk reward structure for loot.

Here is the description of the Lurid Pines by Luka: 

In the narrow defiles of a nondescript mountain ornate and buxom pines have grown fat on the biomantic pollution left behind by a magical test site. The surface has been thoroughly looted, but in the caverns below, amid ancient biomantic gear (€10,000, 40 sacks), generation after generation of mutated rodents has come and gone ...

...followed by a d6 table of different inhabitants of the dungeon: Sessile photosynthesizing rodents, ornately baroque rats, tinker gerbils, hardy and grim hamsters (grown cannibalistic and vicious in tunnels beneath the pines), an eloquent mole rat hive and a vomish autofac which pumps out cybernetic enhancements to create higher life-form prairie dogs. I rolled the HP randomly and got a 22 for the cannibal hamsters: Ouch!

Terrifying Rodents

There are three entrances to the first level: The main entrance through a vault door, a cannibal hamster tunnel and a service tunnel to the autofac - which I imagined was buried after centuries of immobility. There are two ways to get to the next level: A staircase to the ballroom of the ornately baroque rats and the hamster tunnel. The autofac and the cybernetic prairie dogs would provide a way to communicate and the cannibal hamsters and the ka-zombies served as a threat that made looting the crates of biomantic gear a trade off between risk and reward.

In the ballroom there is an opportunity for conversation (although the rats would never pass a turing test), the organ is slightly problematic loot (as it is fragile and heavy) and the proximity to the hamster nest in level 3 means constant danger. The magical testing site has some toys to play with, hazards and a major price to win: The Fractal Blade.

All in all the players spent five nail biting sessions in a handful of rooms. They never made it to level 3: After blowing up the force field around the Fractal Blade with the overdrive machine and being constantly harassed by the hamsters they decided to leave the place and never looked back.

Actual Play:     Session 1 https://youtu.be/jqlVGNuYNEI

                        Session 2 https://youtu.be/TiFjLBCrWH4

                        Session 3 https://youtu.be/M1Tkmop7pYA

                        Session 4 https://youtu.be/XhYiO1NQPZ8

                        Session 5 https://youtu.be/f6hZdDgKZYM

Gall Grass II

They travel East, leaving the majestic towers of Three Sticks behind until they reach the shores of a strikingly blue river. The wild water swirls around three huge, slightly fake looking boulders with the faces of sages carved into them. As the sun disappears a radiation ghost manifests  and sings a sad song in Old Steppe. Ostens who understands the language is unimpressed. They spot a makeshift dam made from lodged steel pines but it appears to be too difficult to traverse. Beyond the dam the river is less wild but still too deep to cross. Moving North they come upon large whale shaped structures with green patina. Saffron detects a strange time distortion emanating from the hulls that gets stronger the closer they get and which affects their positronic brain until it is completely overpowered. Naida finds a ford across the river and they slowly make their way through the muddy water. After a nights rest they continue travelling through marshland dotted with groping willows and half phantom birches.

Copper Hulls

Finally they arrive at the Garnet Ford, where they expect to find the Greenlander Caravan. There is a campfire nearby and indeed beyond a causeway of cinnamon stones on the burgundy gravel alongside the Wine River they see wagons belonging to the Cogflower Church. While Azure performs an augury and under the watchful eyes of the Legionnaires, Hamish and Saffron search the wagons and the beach. The wagons are picked clean but they find a wide concrete tunnel leading underground and a steel pipe sticking out of the water.

In her vision Azure sees a cavern with pools of water and strange figures with long limbs and elongated heads sitting motionless inside on them. She hears a clinking sound and out of the dark a girl appears adorned with the metal beads and coins of a Cogflower devotee. She puts her finger to her mouth and shushes before the vision fades.

Vomeish Caverns

When they enter the tunnel Azure recognizes the luminescent moss growing on the walls. They reach a cavern with many large silver vats out of which fleshy cables grow that lead East. Saffron finds a straw doll and spots the shell of a large crab-like figure leaning against a vat. They come upon several tunnels and a staircase but follow drag marks South. In another cavern they sense movement and identify a humanoid vome with just the barest of facial  features and large glands growing out of their jawline. When Hamish approaches the vome it produces the whirring and beeping sound of a dial up modem and sprays him with acid from its glands. Hamish burns the acid with a swift movement of his Fractal Blade.

Outside Otis the animatronic bear guards the Redlander Autowagon. On the flatbed something stirs.

Somewhere in the Grasslands: Inside a pyramid. A figure clad in black metal with sharp angles and a glowing red eye. A hologram of the Redlander autowagon. The vile organs in their leaden sarcophagi slowly move.

Actual Play: https://youtu.be/AmRZh7st7fQ

Gall Grass

 

Vicar's Ear

The party discusses their next steps inside the big walker of the Survivalists while outside a glowing fog rises. They decide to hunker down until the fog dissipates. Saffron is lost in thought about the half-meaningful shapes of the gravel sculptures of Vicar’s Beach. Naida takes first watch and spots a suspicious faceless stranger hiding behind one of the red fleshy trees of the Hairwoods. Azure sneaks outside, camouflages herself with mud and hairy leaves and creeps up on the intruder, who wears a trench coat, fedora and mold instead of a face. They speak with a Bluentalk accent and sway like a drunk. Azure constraints the stranger who admits spying on the walker to ascertain whether they pose a threat to “Rudolph, the colony”. Hamish diffuses the situation with his typical charm and the agent retreats into the fog as soon as Azure releases them.

The Hairwoods

The heroes decide to aid the villagers by sending their retainers and the two autowagons with them on their way to the Spectrum Palace only keeping the Redlander Truck and bringing Ostens, the Marksman, with them. In the morning a heavy rain dissipates the fog and they leave the road and travel North-West through the forest. When they reach the high and dry grasslands the rain fizzles out. Naida spots half a dozen wagons on the horizon. Could it be the Purplefolk settlers they are looking for? While they traverse the valley they feel the dryness of the place. Once they arrive at the site they realize to their horror that the wagons do indeed belong to the Purplefolk caravan but all its members are dead and desecrated. Ostens searches the bodies in order to identify the dead while Naida finds tracks of small feet leaving the area. Assuming an environmental hazard they refrain from following the tracks and leave the area in haste.

The Purplefolk settlement

Back in the Hairwoods they find the road and travel West to locate the last missing caravan that had been seen crashed at Garnet Ford by the Survivalists. Beautiful rainbows emanate from the Three Sticks in pulses of healing light and raise the spirits … until they approach the acrophobic madness that is the Skybridge: a razor thin, invisible, three mile long piece of stuckforce high over the Skyriver. Hamish walks in front of the truck tapping the floor, while Naida keeps a steady hand behind the wheel. Halfway across the bridge a cascade of lights and water jets erupt from a plaza abuts the river but our heroes cannot find the peace of mind to enjoy the spectacle. When they finally reach the other sight Naida gives Hamish a big wet kiss while Saffron stares absent minded into the distant where Vicar’s Beach lies.

Skybridge

Actual Play: https://youtu.be/am34DVWvKns

Three Sticks Lake II

Hamish and Azure decide to carouse with the villagers to celebrate rescuing the van Staal caravan and retrieving a Ka-battery to power the ferry. During the festivities Hamish asks Mathilda about a body that could be inhabited. Shortly before Hamish loses consciousness Mathilda mentions a machine human body hidden deep under the vicar’s beach.  When he wakes up from some commotion in the village he finds a metal tube he was sleeping on with a map inside showing the location of the Obsidian Knives, a place where rare weapons can be found.

A drinking duel at night

Azure and a villager called Burbur get into a drinking duel on the lake, that ends in a draw. Burbur drowns and Azure is thrown into the jail. Stressed out by her withdrawal from Golden Amber and the claustrophobic cell, she experiences the final stage of her mutation turning her body into that of a Bulgarian weightlifter on steroids. Enraged by the injustice of it all Azure breaks out of prison and goes on a rampage through Iron Pikes before she is confronted by the villagers. Hamish defuses the tension by shaming Broadgrin, the village leader, for his alleged bigotry. A ferry from the Jade Baobab arrives and they decide to cross the lake in order to reunite with the rest of the group.

Strange Sculptures on the beach

Meanwhile Naida and Saffron take a canoe to scout out the northern shore of the Three Sticks Lake. Between two tall cliffs lies a colorful beach with strange cement sculptures. High above the beach they spot a walker crawling over a road through the woods. On her way up the hill Naida passes the sculpture landscape where an auto vech bulldozer reshapes the cement constructions. She hails the walker and is greeted by a suspicious guard called Susu, who she convinces to invite them all into the walking village. They leave the canoes behind with Swiftstab, a villager from Iron Pike. Susu tells them that they had passed the wrecks of a Greenander caravan adorned with the Cogflower symbol a week ago at the Bolder Ford over the Teal River. The next morning the party is reunited when a guard announces the arrival of a ferry on the beach. 

The updated map showing Bolder Ford, Vicar's Beach and Obsidian Knives

Actual Play: https://youtu.be/7lyUOiNySBM

Ferry Graves II

Night falls while the flames of the burning trees around the heroes die down. On their way to the ferris wheel they spotted earlier, they pass a giant gelatinous cube with several vehicles visible inside, among them a ferry which might hold the battery Kozue is looking for. 

A Place to spend the Night

The heroes spend the night in a cabin of the ferris wheel. Kozue and Altan try to make themselves comfortable in the cramped space while Azure stays up all night still buzzing from the Golden Amber. She notices an animatronic dinosaur nearby moving. The next morning Altan and Azure check out a shack that caught her interest earlier but they quickly realize that it’s some kind of entity using mimicry to lure them inside. Altan decides to climb the dinosaur and finds a hatch that leads into a tiny control room. 

The animatronic Auto-Vech

He pilots the creature into the bog and tears chunks out of the gelatinous cube. From one of the autowagons three figures appear and wave frantically. One of them, an older dwarf in a green overall they later learn is Henk, turns back to the autowagon. Kozue conjures a flame elemental that surrounds her and Azure. When they enter the cuboid the jelly tissue retracts and leaves space for them. Multiple pseudopods try to ensnare the dinosaur while Altan opens its jaw to allow the dwarves to enter. Kozue and Azure escort Henk and an injured dwarf to the dinosaur. Azure stays with them and fends off red bugs inside the jaw while Kozue salvages the battery from the ferry. The gelatinous cube entangles the dinosaur with slimy tentacles and causes it to trip and fall but the heroes hack their way out of the mess.

The replacement Body

When Kozue awakes the next morning after returning to the Iron Pikes she is watched again by the replacement body. She decides to finally perform the ritual to give Soba, the Ultra, a new body. But the ritual drains to much energy from her and she falls in a coma. The naked body leans over Azure, kisses her, and whispers: “Thank you for keeping your promise” before leaving the village.

While Kozue is recovering, the heroes plan their next step in saving the other two missing caravans  Icing Mathilda points out potentially useful places on the map.

Mathilda's Map

Actual Play: https://youtu.be/HBVs0udAZEw

Iron Pike and Ferry Graves

 New Characters:

Altan, Strong Wildland Demon Hunter, from beyond the Circle Sea, where reality slowly degrades. Snake eyes and sharp fangs. Protected by a Gourd fetish with cowrie teeth. Armed with a Neural Whip

Altan (artist impression)

Kozue, Wise Elven Moon Mountain Witch, a soothsayer from the Sisters of the Near Moon. Her immaterial singing spirit in a pink bottle aids her in her auguries.

Kozue

Ostens threatens to leave the island alone to rescue the Redland Scavengers at the Ferry Graves but Naida reminds him of the standards of the Legion: Reconnoiter, infiltrate, strike! Guided by Swiftstab they cross the islands towards the western cliffs where they scout the swamps of the Ferry Graves. To their horror the place is crawling with gigantic gelatinous monsters and translucent crocodiles.

Iron Pike

Kozue and Altan discuss demons and drugs over a herbal brew. Azure, still high on Golden Amber, asks Kozue for a remedy that calms her down enough to perform an oracle.

Naida returns with unpleasant news about a wet and dangerous place. When Kozue asks her about the unusual crystal she takes out the snail and for Kozue the room explodes in blinding light.

Kozue feels the powerful presence of Soba reaching out from inside the snail and sends her fetch to establish a connection. Soba lashes out instinctively and tries to violently pierce Kozue's defence but the witch calmly allows the Ultra to possess her without losing control.

Soba do Garoba

When Kozue wakes up the next day she is watched over by the replacement body the caravan acquired at the Satrap outpost. Naida tells her about the purpose of the body (Saffron needs it for Mother) and they decide to visit the Ash-eaters for a volunteer who would be possessed by Soba. Alas, the camp is abandoned; a cold trail leaving deeper into the hills of Old Isle. In order to not lose more time on their rescue mission to save the missing Redlander caravan they hire rowers in Iron Pike and take the canoes to cross the lake. Azure has a vision of a burning herd of various swamp animals. Altan senses a demon.

 

Ferry Graves

On the shores of Ferry Graves they find several vehicles engulfed by the gigantic gelatinous cubes. As they move deeper into the wetlands a fire demon appears. Altan attracts his attention with a crack of his Neural Whip. Soon the two are entangled in a dangerous dance of passion and fire. Altan failing to seduce the demon is surrounded by fire but saved by Kozue's fetch. While Azure and Naida are unloading their guns Soba comes forward and summons a wave that extinguishes the demon's flame. 

Actual Play:

Session 20 : https://youtu.be/9drtZbLjs40

Session 21: https://youtu.be/1N0RcdBjYGI