Ghouls, Ghosts, Shadows & More Swords & Strangeness - Actual Play Adventure Event

I got together with my players last night for my Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers Of Hyperborea game taking place in the Judge's Guild  mega dungeon adventure location of Tegal Manor The PC's in last night Tegel Manor session managed to make a good showing. They went over a bit of their treasure & some of the relics they'd picked up over the last couple of games. Things have been interesting as they find out the unsavory & horrid revelations of the family history of the Rumps. A history including piracy, smuggling, slavery, and debauchery of every strip. These are not the family you really want related to you let alone exploring their Roman style house. This was something the party are slowly finding out. The 'safe bedroom' the PC's spent the night in was adjoined to two other rooms and a secret alchemical workshop. 


One of the bedrooms held a really nasty Ye Liveliest Awfulness/yellow mold hybrid monster. The thing resembled a pair of yellow ladies and beckoned one of PC's to bed. The yellow ladies had a victim who was slowly being digested under the covers of the bed. A flaming sphere handled the Lovecraftian bastard & the PC's managed to recover a valuable shield. The horror was brought back from one of the numerous expeditions by the Rumps to Venger Satanis's The Purple Islands of Purple Putrescence.

The PC's managed on to the next room which happened to be the foot of one of the towers of Tegel. There they found another alchemy workshop/ playroom and this one housed a Lovecraftian ghoul blooded member of the Rump clan. She's been having an on going war with her uncle a vampire at the top of the turret & her rather camp & obnoxious cousin a necromancer & reverent of her uncle. He's both insane & a completely nut about games & toys, to that end there's two Roman style ancient Bocce ball courts have been set up in the room. Along with two Roman statues holding some stylized Bocce balls. The balls came to life nearly taking off one of the heads of the PC's.



Photo by Queensland Museum

The PC's managed to blast the two balls & the other metal sets which infuriated our necromancer who then dropped two other black balls down the stair well of the tower. Eight shadows slithered out of three holes on each ball and the fun really began for the PC's a running game of cat and mouse ensued! This encounter taxed the PC's and our alchemist had to help the PC's with the remaining shadows after they managed to make a good show of themselves. They made it over the alchemist's table and she quickly whipped out a potion to take care of the remaining horrors. The PC's decided to parley with the alchemist even as they were taunted by her cousin above.

But the PC's still have to content with her uncle with whom the war of attrition continues night after night. This means the PC's not only have a vampire to contend with but the whole place is riddled with giant rat holes that enable him to direct his minions where and when he'd like. The PC's were able to taunt the bastard cousin back but the encounters left them very nervous and they actually retreated back to their room locking the door behind them for safety's sake. This is a good thing, the players are engaged & interested. Note that unlike AD&D first edition AS&SH's vampires are constitution drainers and very dangerous.

What happens now? Well, that's going to be up to the players. There are a six things that they sort of missed in this past week's game.

1. The corpse hidden in the far corner of the game/play room is a human colonist from some far flung colony. A possible victim as the plane lost manor makes its rounds has been killed by one of the numerous undead. 
2. There's far more going on within the house then it seems and there are other adventurers about within it. 
3. The relics collected by the Rumps always seems to make their way back to the manor.. eventually. 
4. There's other members of the Rump family stalking the adventurers as I write this. 
5. Other corpses in the halls of Tegel Manor hold vital clues to the destiny & fate of the PC's. 
6. The cult of Old Ones is alive, active, and very much on the scene in Tegel Manor. 

Tune in next week for more old school weirdness!