Cogflower Campaign Post Mortem

When I got the pdf of the Ultraviolet Grasslands early in 2020 I didn’t read the whole thing. Instead I marveled at the illustrations, traced the roads to the Black City with my finger and decided to run UVG from beginning to end. I wanted to experience the Grasslands in a leisurely pace, travelling together with the players over the whole map. We left the Violet City, crossed the Trail of Vomish Dreams, descended into the Three Sticks Lake and climbed the Totem of the Sky. At the City Mountain we fought with the Veterans of the Psychic War and in the Umberlands we fulfilled the last wish of a depressed Autofac. A year later the caravan arrived at the Black City.

Below is a look back at memorable moments, comments on the specifics of our experience with the setting and suggestions about what I could do differently if I’d run it again. 

System and Characters: I love the d40 hero table and chose Whitehack mainly as a flexible system that made realizing these concepts easy, yet mechanically sound. We had a Redland District Folk Hero, Yellowlander Climate Migrant, Secret Azure Cultist, Metropolitan Accountant Monk, Volkan Diesel Dwarf, Purplefolk Doghead Anarchist, Black Gold Industrialist, Tumult Fisher Wizard, Cogflower Necromancer Lawyer, Wildfolk Demon Hunter and a Moon Mountain Witch, and they were all memorable characters. The heroes were rolled completely randomly although when in later stages of the campaign a player rolled a character type that was already chosen they would pick another of the three numbers to determine the hero instead. The two remaining results then decided the reason they were on the road and their starting item. Initially I wasn’t entirely convinced by the second column (Why are you on the road) but the quests turned out to be crucial for wrapping up the campaign and finding a satisfying end. Luka skillfully equipped many discoveries with potentially quest relevant content e.g. it is probably not a coincidence that there are plenty of replacement bodies to be found and a Mother Silicone in the Dark Hospital when “Finding a body for Mother” is one of the character goals. To incentivize pursuing their goal, the PCs earned XP when working towards it. In most cases it meant that there was a certain chance per Discovery they would find something related to their quest or that they ticked a progress clock when they used their action at a Destination to work on a project.

What I’d do differently: Maybe use a different system. The Whitehack “groups” that allow advantages on rolls worked well enough and performing miracles like Doodlebugging, Augury, Ghostly Brotherhood and Fishing in the Sea of Dimensions were fun to see in action and fitted the setting perfectly - but combat was slow and I never worked out how to make the Deft's attunement interesting. I’d probably try something simpler like Will Hilton’s Into the Grasslands or Mike Fernandino’s UltravioletWorld. 

Caravan and Travel: Travelling through the vast landscape felt appropriately epic, every leg of the journey taking at least one week. The travel procedure provided a satisfying structure and we got into the groove pretty quickly. In the beginning market research and trading was fun albeit not entirely successful. However they hit the jackpot when through some random rolls they first found Black Lotus at a discovery and then sold it at the Puce House for a multiple of its value. At that point market research and resource management became less of a focus but the players enjoyed the freedom their wealth gave them. Likewise when they arrived at the Behemoth Shell they encountered (again through a random roll) Great Folk Bone Farmers who sold them the nutritious marrow beets that solved their resource problems for large parts of the journey.

Seeing the caravan grow from one coach to several unique vehicles and numerous retainers was certainly fun. Most of the time I forgot to take vehicle speed into account, they only once accrued additional travel days and we handwaved it away.

What I’d do differently: I’d have more travel vignettes and campfire scenes, give retainers a bit more character by involving the players in establishing their irritating mannerism and alluring quirks. I could see giving vehicles traits as well and letting the players describe how they decorate their rides to make them more memorable. Maybe taking inspiration from Into the Odd and introduce a rival caravan.

Destinations and Discoveries: The stars of the show, incredibly evocative and visually interesting. The encounters and misfortunes helped to reinforce the theme of the place although the middle result of the misfortune table didn’t add anything immediately gameable. I really enjoyed the intro descriptions and often read them aloud as boxed text when the PCs entered a new destination. The weather descriptions were fun as well and further defined the feel of the place.

Memorable misfortunes include mysterious puncture wounds (Gall Grass), blinded by a speck of biomechanical garbage (Trail of Vomish Dreams) and a shard of hard light being lodged in one eye (Fractal Trees). The hands down best discovery was Johnny-7 who became a major NPC in the campaign, followed by the Lurid Pines - which took five sessions to clear out and bestowed Hamish with hamster reflexes.

What I’d do differently: It might be more interesting to replace the middle result on the misfortune table where nothing happens with a minor inconvenience that matches the theme of the area. I could also see adding a destination-appropriate faction encounter (to entangle the PCs with the factions) and maybe a caravan to the encounter table.

Factions: Early on the PCs aligned themselves with Syruss Sensible, blew up the Broken Line and stole a Porcelain Walker. At the Jade Baobab the PCs prevented members of the Second Hand Clan to sell Rainbowlanders into indentured service for the Porcelain Princes. In the second half of the campaign the Ultras organically emerged as the most influential faction of the campaign after the players encountered Soba de Garoba at the Gemstone Tomb in the Lake of Oil and Sama Zivani at the Lonely Lodge. Based on the rumor table on p. 167 it made sense to involve them in Azures plot to cause the end of the world. More important than the major factions were the groups the PCs belonged to, mainly the Cult of the Blue God and the Machine Humans. The setting with its apocalyptic cults, trade companies and revolutionaries has a lot of potential for faction play without actually involving the major factions.

What I’d do differently: To make the factions a bit more visible in the Grasslands I might add an entry to the encounter table that indicates to which sphere of influence an area belongs e.g. have one random encounter result for the Cat Lords East of the Porcelain Citadel

Statistics:

20 months of in-game time 

13 months of real world time from March 14 2020 to April 10 2021

15 characters, 14 players

100+ hours of actual play: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5BBgImD4UPRGy4yIEaL0HwYohPc-X8af

 

The Black City

Characters in the Last Session:

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. 

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.

Kozue: An Wise 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. She has dreams of the world ending and seeks hidden messages about the looming apocalypse.

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.

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.

N’Keth: A Strong Volkan Diesel Dwarf, bat eared, hyena snouted and with furry skin, who is tracking a Vile intruder from the Void. Armed with a fierce Warhammer and protected by his Holy Symbol, an unageing plastic spork.

Kozue and Azure traverse the ash dunes on the stolen motorbike. Sama warns Kozue of the spatial-temporal dangers of the Pre-City and the Moon Witch builds a simple construction from her tripod to indicate distortions in the landscape to Azure. When they pass the brutalist-fungus building of the Dark Hospital Kozue senses the presence of Soba, who wishes her luck.

Naida shakes Hamish out of his drug induced delirium and explains the urgency of the situation but Hamish had already partially been informed by the Secretary and is ready to save the world. They grab N’Keth and the reluctant Saffron (who convinces them to first visit the Dark hospital in order to bring Vicar's body to mother) and pursue the witches in the Redlander Autowagon with Amberto in the turret protected by the ill-fitting diving suit from the Lurid Pines. Naida spots the space-time anomalies through the monocle that N’Keth made for her from the hard light that was lodged in her eye and is able to evade them. They arrive at a moltenstone plaza surrounded by hollowed out sculptures and enter the endless dusty corridors of the Dark Hospital.

Azure and Kozue are hit by the toxic dust of the Pre-City and feel jolts of pain running through their bodies. Azure spots automatons in leather and lead armor who seem to extract something from the grotesquely contorted bodies of dried up travelers with silvery rods. Azure engages with a rather big one, manages to prevail and continues her journey with a new armor ... but when she touches the rod she is overwhelmed by painful memories.

In the hospital old wooden tv-sets hanging under the ceiling show the heroes on black and white vertically shifting screens, a boiler clicks and gurgles, they hear the monotone beeping of a life support machine. Saffron follows the sound of a ringing telephone while the rest fights off waves of plastic faced nuns with blades and syringes. When Saffron picks up the phone they hear for the first time in a long while their mother’s voice, and although she is confused and unable to remember anything she indicates to Saffron her location. They venture deeper into the building passing racks of synthetic limbs and an auto surgery with the replacement body Soba inhabited for a while lying disemboweled in one corner.

The witches arrive at the Black City: And then, in all that structured desolation, that tiered advancement of fractured chaos, was revealed a city beyond the skills and fashioning of any portion of humanity they had ever encountered; a city on a scale that beggared belief; a city of twisted obsidian blades, outrageously curved, bizarrely patterned structures of indecipherable purpose and huge, sweeping vistas leading to canyons and strata and ranks of glistening, glittering edifices, one after another after another. And then they blink and they see before them an elegant city of glassy black towers, elegant promenades, parks and lakes of molten mercury. In the parks they find statues that mock the Blue God and on the walls of buildings the faces of the comrades they are about to betray. But Sama Zivani, the Eater of Dreams spurs them on and leads them through the Black City to a grassy cliff-top with a small black pyramid and a withered altar.

Saffron lowers Vicar’s body gently into a dentist chair surrounded by wired instruments and begins singing with the sweet voice of a 56k modem, modulating and weaving together mother’s time-fractured mind. Outside in the corridor N’Keth holds off the Soba-possessed body of the Quarter-Ling Avatar while Hamish and Naida blow up an army of Dark Hospitallers. Finally Saffron collapses into mother’s lap and she cradles her gently. Later she leads them to an underground metro station that transport them to the Black City.

At the cliff-top spirits in the form of pale mice-deer graze peacefully. Azure performs the ritual placing the vile organs around the pyramid while Kozue constructs a protective structure from the poles of her tripod refusing to aid Azure in her preparations. When the heroes emerge from the Black City they are too late: A blue glow spills out of the five vile parts while at the same time a blue storm escapes the five portals around the Black City. A mass of mouths and eyes and tentacles arises from the oily sea. Naida finds an elevated position to take aim at the Blue God while Hamish and Amberto draw their weapons and jump towards the apocalyptic entity. Mother in Vicar’s body evokes source code that detaches the Black City from their reality. When Azure realizes that she had failed the Blue God she enters the Black City and blows herself up in an eruption of blue light.

N’Keth partially paralyzed from toxins injected by the plastic faced nuns takes out his pipe and - invited by Kozue - sits down next to her, smoking and watching quietly. Far above, inexplicitly, the Near Moon smiles over them.

 Actual Play: https://youtu.be/CnWgsy70yic

 

The Last Camp

Characters in the last Season

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 Bounty, the animatronic bear.

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 who might create new machine humans.

Kozue: An Wise 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. She has dreams of the world ending and seeks hidden messages about the looming apocalypse in order to power the Near Moon's departure from the world. She is a host for Sama Zivani, a powerful Ultra, who she vowed to bring to the Black City.

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 which will summon the Blue God. 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.

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.

N’Keth: A Strong Volkan Diesel Dwarf, bat eared, hyena snouted and with furry skin, who is tracking a Vile intruder from the Void. Armed with a fierce Warhammer and protected by his Holy Symbol, an unageing plastic spork.

They arrive at the Fool’s Wall, a berm of petrified wood and radiation blasted sand, poorly shielding the Last Camp from the bio hazards to the West. Beyond the wall, past dunes of ash they see the swirling black cubes of the Black City rotating in the distance.

The Last Camp

Azure consults her tablet and memorizes the location of the obelisk where the ritual to conjure the Blue God will take place. Kozue notices half-thought glyphs unfurling in the corner of her eyes and sends her fetch to read them. A symbol takes shape in the dust telegraphing urgency and doom at the Black Obelisk.

Hamish checks in at the Spectrum Embassy, a plasteel replica of the Behemoth Shell where he is greeted by techno shaman Aaris Max who runs the Fading Light Diner - and days of wild celebrations follow. Hamish starts speaking in tongues when the Last and Most Devine Secretary of the Black City possesses him. The secretary tells tall tales of voyages a true hero might undertake with a void ship that had been stranded in the city for a long time.

Saffron talks to the Cogflower representative Executive Circolangolo who demands to see the books but is reminded that the journey is not over yet. They also inquire about the Dark Hospital and what lies ahead. A revolutionary tells them about those who enter the hospital but leave with a limb missing and about the plastic faced nuns who took it. Her spies whispered about the time fractured mind of mother that hides in the endless corridors of the hospital.

The Dark Hospital

Naida climbs the Shell to find Ostins reading a message from the Legion. He wordlessly hands over the strip of paper that proclaims Azure a Blue God cultist. They decide to take action.

When Azure performs her augury a vision projects itself into the smoke of the incense: A shadow is cast over the black obelisk while she hears Ostins and Naida discussing her fate. She finds Kozue in discussion with a wildly gesticulating hermit in rags and persuades her to aid her in the final ritual. They bump into a drunken Hamish who happily lends them his bike. Azure and Kozue disappear into the night leaving a cloud of iridescent ash behind them on their way to the Black City.

Hamish's Black Metal Motorcycle

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