Session III, Part II

With some effort, the party manages to get Ranme the Half-Insane Wizard to calm down enough to be comprehensible.  The hermit then fills their ears about how much he's Winning: "You borrow my brain for 5 seconds, and just be like 'Dude, can't handle it, unplug this bastard', because it fires in a way that is, I don't know, maybe not from this particular terrestrial realm."

After Ranme finishes ranting, the PCs finally get a chance to explain their investigation and the hermit says simply, "Of course.  Dark forces are at work!"

[As the nameless Fighter] K says, "Ummm.. could you be a little more specific?"

[As the nameless Thief] D says, "Yeah, there's lots of dark forces."

Muttering impatiently under his breath about obviousness, Ranme tells the party that "heka" is the Egyptian word for "magic" and says self-evidently, "Egypt is the source of ancient and terrible sorcery."  When pressed for more, the wizard continues, "This situation has all the hallmarks of a Mask of Nyarlathotep":

When this produces blank stares, Ranme explains that a Mask of Nyarlathotep is an artifact that, when worn, merges into the wearer and can only be removed after death.  The Mask causes him or her to become an avatar of the Creeping Chaos and grants said avatar a number of magic powers, including the ability to rewrite someone's personality by gazing long enough at the target.


The Mask of Nyarlathotep (reskinned from Call of Cthulhu) is, of course, my substitute for the naga from the original N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God.  Not only do I think that a naga is rather overpowered as a final boss for a beginning party (TPKs are fairly easy at the end of N1 if the PCs wander just a bit off the railroad), but, in addition, I don't think that nagas fit the type of campaign I am creating.


The PCs ask the barely sane wizard where the Mask might be hiding, and Ranme replies, "There's a ruined fort in the swamp outside of town- that's the most likely place.  Still, to spread his influence, the Mask's victims would probably be coordinating efforts from somewhere in Orlane itself."


The hermit then descends back into incoherence, so the party decides to head back to town.  Thinking that Le Gendarme is far too passive to have put a tail on the party, the PCs speak with Wiggum, who says that, in fact, a committee of concerned citizens asked for the police detail: the owners of the General Store, the local priest, and the richest man in town, Monsieur Burns:

For lunch, the party decides to go to the Golden Grain Inn.  They quickly notice that everyone is way too friendly.

By sofachairz, deviantart.net

Excusing himself, the nameless Fighter surreptitiously gets up to look around and he detects movement at the top of the stairs.  Heading up to the second floor, he only sees a couple of cleaning staff turning over rooms.  After a partial success on a Charisma roll and after the nameless Fighter slips a few coins their way, the cleaning staff points at Room #8.


In my games, being sneaky is not the exclusive purview of thieves.  Thieves are naturally better in that area because of their high DEX and their class abilities, but a good role-player can succeed with any class.


Room #8 is empty but the door to the bathroom is closed.  The nameless Fighter says very loudly, "Gee, I have to go to the bathroom!" and tries to open the door, finding someone is holding it closed.  After winning an opposed STR check, the nameless Fighter finds a wiry guy inside:

[OOC] K deadpans and says, "If we kill this guy, I want that velvet suit!"