The Cut of a Certain Blade -Cha'alt & Breaking The House Campaign Plus OD&D's Eldritch Wizardry Session Report Now With More Cha'alt

 

Talking about original Dungeons & Dragons with some friends in the off hours last night & that brings up one of the divine hazards that's been running around in the background of my  Godbound/Cha'alt campaign set in Las Vegas. There was a series of murders of Godbound PC's in our early games. Now a player from another game has approached me about doing something with one of his older Godbounds. The Sword of Kas has been weaving a path of destruction going back to October 9, 2019. The sword recently possessed a soldier around one of the battle fields of the gods. Kas has been very careful & malevolent cutting a path of destruction through the back alleys & deserts of Los Vegas. But going back to OD&D 's Eldritch Wizardry  its always been evil as the Abyss;

"The Sword of Kas - Another item connected with the legend of the lich Vecna is the Sword of Kas, his onetime bodyguard. This sword is said to have a thin, grey blade of some metallic substance. Its powers are only dimly hinted at by legend, but Kas was said to be the mightiest swordsman of his age. The Sword has +3 bonus, +5 vs. undead, demons and godlings, and an Intelligence of 18 and ego of 18. It also has one extraordinary power that is normally available to swords. It is evil, and if possible, it will control any fighter who picks it up and turn him evil. Additionally, it has One power from TABLE I, two from TABLE II, and one from TABLE IV and one from TABLE V. This sword will, of course, attempt to dominate its owner."

Now its gone & done something truely evil. Last weekend I got together with my Los Vegas group of players. The  Godbound paladin 's player Rick wanted to get in on the tracking down the Sword of Kos & its host. In fact this was his all consuming reason for being in Vegas. The rest of the party warned him against going after the sword by himself. 
It didn't take him long to track down the sword's host & it all went South with a series of bad rolls & a very bad misplaced '1'. The Sword drown his character in a park fountain amid the ruins of the war of the gods that took place in Vegas. So why is this evil? Rick's PC along with his party was summoned from The Wilderlands of High Fantasy world setting. The PC's were heroes who came to this Earth to help oppose the Cha'alt invasion after the wave of dark magick took out every last piece of technology. The Earth was plunged into a nineteeth century level of technology. Dungeons & Dragons fantasy races walk the Earth & the godbound are supposed to be helping those around them. Instead they've been fighting & warring among themselves. 
Now Hel has claimed the body soul of the paladin because he had drowned. The sword mocked the rest of the party & vanished from sight leaving the party without a paladin.The US army moved in with Cha'alt mecha & friendy Godbound wizards to drive back the goddess of the unquiet dead. 

"Hermod before Hela" (1909) by John Charles Dollman.

And what about the paladin's god of justice from the Wilderlands?! Well he's got his own hands full in another campaign. So he's hired a possible PC. A half Elven nara'd do godbound who might possibly slip between the cracks of reality to free the soul of the paladin from Hel's grip. Terrence has had dealings with gods before & this isn't his first go around with the forces of Cha'alt. But things have changed up recently. 
Eighteen months have passed & there's lots of new players on the Earth scene from Cha'alt. The alien Mega-corporation, Elysium has increasingly grown desparate as the collapsing ecological system of Cha'alt has invaded Earth in this campaign. Venger has taken it upon himself to pull in more & more Crimson Dragon Slayer Rpg resources into Cha'alt. 


Robert's character Terrence has been tracking the raw supplies & intel on the alien Mega-corporation, Elysium. He's been doing a one man guriella war against the mega corp in hopes of stalling some of the fallout to the Earth. Things have not been good. But now he's gotten wind of Kos being on the move again but can even he stand up to the black blade of Kos? 

Welcome to Vegas baby! Enjoy your stay! 

Vegas Sign artwork by Anasofiapaixao

Purple Blackness & Ancient Swords in The Back Alleys - War 1870 - Campaign Background Session Report

"Another item connected with the legend of the lich Vecna is the Sword of Kas, his onetime bodyguard. This sword is said to have a thin grey blade of some metallic substance. It's powers are only dimly hinted at by legend, but Kas was said to have been the mightiest swordsman of his age."



Today I broke out my copy of Eldritch Wizardry & I began to reread the artifact section on the Sword of Kas. The sword has been travelling  across my game campaign settings for ages now leaving a trail of murder & mayhem in its wake. I'm not even kidding this goes back to my Godbound/Cha'alt campaign in October of last year.  The sword found a new host body & its been cutting a bloody swath across the prime material planes for months now.
The sword has been looking for something & now tonight its made its way to my 1870's War campaign in New York City. This is a part of my diabolical plan to uncloak one of my main big nasties in my Castles & Crusades/ Victorious rpg  hybrid campaign.



All across New York City there have been undead sightings, ghostly activities, & undead incursions.Slayers & heroes are getting a work out from this past weekend's game. The Earth is on edge & not because of the appearance of Tegel Manor.. The manor has been drawn here by something big & very nasty. The PC's have a contract to retrieve the body of a nobleman in this  for a resurrection at the temple of Thor. They've been hearing rumors of several cults worshiping dark occult forces on the water front.

The cult of the Ever Expanding Eye & The Hand of Ultimate Salvation have both been hitting the air waves & bill boards of this alternative Steampunk Earth. Day & night the commercials have been really hammering home the creepy message of these new & exciting street religions.
There have been signs of Greyhawk's portals merging with the city here & there across the city. The unmistakable air of something nasty, dangerous, & truly dire coming to the city that never sleeps.



Yet what is happening in Yemen, California, Cario, & across the Earth?! There are whispers of a black pyramid, strange men appearing in the underworld, murders,  dangerous technologies, dark sorceries, and worse in these corners of the globe! The alien men & women from Elsyuim are making their way into the thieves guilds of the underworld of New York. And what is strange new drug  xanthium-183 that many of the wizards,psychics, & occultists of New York are buzzing about!? 


On three fronts dark forces are tracking our PC's! The snares have been laid out & now the simply wait for our PC's to blunder in.. 

The Appearance Of A Certain Sword - Cha'alt & Breaking The House Campaign Plus OD&D's Eldritch Wizardry

Last night was interesting on a number of levels one of which I'm going to talk about today. But one of the books that happened to fall into my hands was the original Dungeons & Dragons quartet of supplements. And one artifact drew my attention to Eldritch Wizardry .  That item is the 'Sword of Kas' which has a whole lot of  Greyhawk back story cannon by now. For the moment I'm going to be sticking with the original Dungeons & Dragons Eldritch Wizardry cannon on the 'Sword of Kas'.



Which is funny because I'm doing a Godbound/Cha'alt campaign set in Las Vegas but its always the original Dungeons & Dragons game that draws me back to those books again.. The Sword of Kas might as well be an NPC in its own right especially if you read the Eldritch Wizardry entry on it; "The Sword of Kas - Another item connected with the legend of the lich Vecna is the Sword of Kas, his onetime bodyguard. This sword is said to have a thin, grey blade of some metallic substance. Its powers are only dimly hinted at by legend, but Kas was said to be the mightiest swordsman of his age. The Sword has +3 bonus, +5 vs. undead, demons and godlings, and an Intelligence of 18 and ego of 18. It also has one extraordinary power that is normally available to swords. It is evil, and if possible, it will control any fighter who picks it up and turn him evil. Additionally, it has One power from TABLE I, two from TABLE II, and one from TABLE IV and one from TABLE V. This sword will, of course, attempt to dominate its owner."

If the sword of Kas  is in play in Vegas then almost every god or goddess is going to be on edge that blade is a god murderer. This blade could be the focus of an entire campaign unto itself! Whose the sword using as its vessel for its power? 



But why would 'the sword of Kas' be drawn to Las Vegas in the first place? The appearance of the mega dungeon of Cha'alt might be upsetting the cosmic balance allowing the sword to appear on the plane Prime. Or it could be that the sword is simply there to murder a god or demigod. We can easily assume that 'sword of Kas' is of the chaotic evil alignment with a whole agenda all of its own. That agenda probably includes a murder list a mile long which might include NPC's or PC's.



In the  last installment I mentioned that the gods were getting ready for war. Violence & a massive up tick in divine activity may have drawn 'the sword of Kas' like a knife to the flame of bloodshed. The sword can't help itself.
A random skeever attack in the desert, a cult ritual murder & sacrifice in some back alley, the dancing of the witches of Hecate, & the list goes on all drawing in 'the sword of Kas' but does it even know why?! Or could it be being drawn to events as the storm clouds gather above Vegas. Meanwhile the sword takes over the mind & body of a demigod for its own dark agenda. This isn't your average +1 sword out of the average treasure haul. This is a sword of dark myth & legend with its own history to pull from.


Vegas Sign artwork by Anasofiapaixao