The Haze | Session 4
Session was played on 7 April 2023.
Introduction
After failing to get far in the radioactive bunker last session, the caravan is now headed to The Porcelain Citadel, home of the trade aristocrats know as the Porcelain Princes. The Princes are far removed from the reality of everyday life in the opulent upper levels of the citadel and have spread their consciousness' amongst several, often many bodies. They are aggressively lavish hedonists who know nothing of work or toil and live only for experience. Though given their position as traders, those that spend more of their time traversing the Grasslands can be quite astute and knowledgeable.
Both Electrochromia 2-Step as well as Klort, a new member to the party, were in their past discovered to be frauds, outcast from the Citadel for their crimes. While it is not explored as much this session, this is something that will likely haunt the party going forward.
Roster
| Characters | Failed Career | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Bangle | Wizard Slayer | Comes from a family of potato farmers that were driven out of business when a wizard came to town and created an infinite potato well. Just graduated wizard slaying school to get his revenge, but is now buried in student debt. |
| Electrochromia 2-Step | Porcelain Pretender | Tried to pass as a Porcelain Prince; it did not go well. Despite being outcast as a fraud, they still continue on acting as if they are a Prince, clearly not having learnt their lesson. Can also be rather arrogant. |
| Klort | Porcelain Pretender | Went to the Citadel to try and become a Porcelain Prince, but was found out to be a fraud. Is now mentally scarred after being shown enigmatic images of his death. |
| Rick Danger | Rod Racer | Was a hot-shot electric horse racer. Performed a once-in-a-lifetime stunt that wrecked his ride; and he would do it again. |
We Made New Friends
After a two day journey, the caravan finally arrived to the Citadel, home of the Porcelain Princes. The structure was made of drystone coral that has been meticulously shaped into the form of a hand.
The Porcelain Citadel
Surrounding the Citadel were a number of smaller buildings and districts. There was the Broken Line, which was where the bodies of deceased servants were stored to be “repurposed.” Then there was the Two Serais, which were two large trading posts – one of which was controlled by the Princes and the other controlled by the Spectrum Satrap. With Electrochromia though in need of some urgent rest, they decided to go to the Lowest Line: dead coral shacks reserved for outlanders and visitors (essentially functioning as hostels).
There were already three different people in their assigned shack, each occupying a different bunk in the shared accommodations. The first one, Klort, looked to be a Prince, though they did not seem to be in good spirits. Even as others walked past, he continued to stare off into the distance, curled up in the fetal position, rocking slowly back and forth while sucking his thumb. He was still haunted from being shown images of his death as punishment.
Art of Klort made by Chaoclypse.
There was also Rick, an older guy with a scruffy beard wearing sunglasses, despite the fact they were indoors. He held an ice pack to his head looking pretty worse for wear. What stood out most about him though was his cape with go-fast stripes on it.
Then finally there was Bangle, a man of long flowing hair that seemed to change colour depending on his mood. He came from a proud family of potato farmers, renowned for their bespoked potatoes which would have customised nutrients specific to the needs of the customer. They were run out of business though when a wizard came along and made a well that fished out infinite potatoes. Because of that he went to school to become a certified wizard slayer, but now he is broke and in debt.
The rest of the party;
Art also made by Chaoclypse.
Electrochromia at this point saw this as an opportunity. The glass house—the estate of a recently deceased trade baron that they heard early rumours about in first session—should still have some things to loot before word spreads of the baron's death. But due to the radiation poisoning, Electrochromia was not in a state to go without extra assistance. So after some discussion, the four of them (Electrochromia, Klort, Rick, and Bangle) decided to work together for a time.
After a day's rest, the party headed to the Two Serais to get some supplies. Due to their murky past with the Princes, they decided to go to the Satrap market. The clean, smooth surfaces of the Prince market were replaced with a rainbow of bright colours and shining lights. The Satraps were not like any people the group had seen before; bipedal humanoids all wearing hefty radiation suites (Electrochromia could have used that earlier) with their faces obscured. Rather than hauling their supplies in on carts, they had stilt-legged walkers which seemed to be powered by glimmering crystals.
The first thought they had was to try and sell one of the two gold statues they found in the radioactive bunker last session, but Electrochromia was able to convince them they could make more money by finding an antiquities dealer, rather than someone that would just melt it down for gold. The real reason though was that Electrochromia wanted to keep the statue for later in a bid to maybe ingratiate themselves with the Princes, still holding on to hope that they might be able to be convinced to let them become an actual Prince.
Klort then mentioned he could get the party a good price on supplies, calling upon a begrudging contact of his heeding from the Three Sticks. Klort had helped protect the trader from assault by leveraging his status as a Prince, but once Klort was found out to be a fraud, those same thugs ransacked this guy's place. Regardless of their troubled past, he was still able to get the party a deal, selling them 11 sacks of basic supplies for $1 each, in addition to 1 sack of fancier supply for $10 since Electrochromia needed some extra provisioning.
Leaving the Citadel
After fully loading up, the party headed due South towards Potsherd Crater, which should be just a day's trek before they reach the glass house. From his racing days, Rick was familiar of an off-road trail that went directly from the Citadel to the Crater, though they would have to be careful as it was rumoured to be populated by Lime Lomads.
They continued along the path through pallid scrub-grasses, the ground beneath them crunching with the sound of stomped ceramic. There was not a cloud in the sky, though there were occasional bouts of intense, but short-lived rain, seemingly coming from nowhere. After almost a week on the trail, they see rising ahead a jagged rim of white stone. It was flat and looks almost tooled in some way, but also distinguishable natural.
Potsherd Crater
As they got closer, they noticed a little old lady doddering towards them in the direction they came from, walking with a hefty cane. Klort greeted her and she responded with a warm, but sad smile, telling the party that there is nothing of use in the crater and that the miners down there are unfriendly and don't answer questions. She asked them a number of questions on why they are going that direction. Rick was able to convince her that they are a group of rock climbers hoping to get an adrenaline rush, which he corroborated by showing his crash helmet and rope.
After finishing the conversation, they took a switchback trail going down into the crater, the sounds of the miners echoing throughout the area. Not wanting to further complicate the mission or delay their arrival, they decided to simply take a rest in the center of the crater before then continuing South to their destination, not engaging with anyone else.
Arrival at the Glass House
Following a day's travel further South, they finally arrived at the glass house. More than just a house though, it was a whole compound. The central building was an overgrown, modernist structure made with exposed steel beams and glass, with various protruding sections as well as a small zen garden to the side. There were a few smaller buildings on the property too, as well as porticoes and gazebos.
The glass house
The party entered through a large, metal gate which has already been opened, the lock having been smashed in a crude manner. The foliage was out of control there, the grass rising up to their chest, while the smell of rotting flowers permeated throughout.
Immediately to their right upon entering was a large, multi-bay garage. The side door was locked, so upon entering they turned on the bright fluorescent lights, illuminating a speedboat, motorcycle, off-road car, luxury car, and a race car. Upon further inspection though all seem to have been gutted for parts.
Further along the driveway were two little A-frame cottages. Klort snuck up through the grass to each of them, peering through the windows to see what was inside. The first one was very sparely furnished, everything inside being of muted tones, while the other home was almost too colourful, looking as if a rainbow vomited over everything. Klort decided to enter the colourful home to take the comforter from the bed, which seemed to be very well made and of exceptional comfiness.
The party then continued up to the main building, the rooms of which could be clearly seen through the glass walls. Rather than entering through the front door, they walked towards a two-story gazebo to the side which connected to the house via an elevated walkway. As they climbed up the gazebo, they noticed the walls were adorned with handmade wooden plaques with insightful poetry ingrained into them. Klort still was carrying the blanket from earlier, so he opened it up and filled it with the wooden plaques.
Crossing across the decorative walkway to the main building, they entered through a glass door, leading to a small foyer with three doors adjacent to it and a stairway leading downstairs.
Going room to room, they start looking everywhere they can. From a guest bedroom they find a big, abstract art statue of a unicorn made of bakelite, from which they chop the head off as a souvenir. In another guest bedroom they find an ornate, carved ivory table, which Rick picks up. The third room was a fancy, mahogany office, with the merchant Satrasco herself slumped over a chair; a large, cauterized hole in her face and a blaster pistol in her hand. Electrochromia rummaged through the files to see if they could find anything of note, but it seemed conspicuously devoid of any important documents, as if someone had already taken everything of value. Before leaving the room, Klort pockets the blaster pistol.
The Environment Be Getting Angry
At this point they noticed the wind outside becoming much more aggressive, shaking the building while simultaneously the smell of decaying foliage got stronger. Still wanting to get some more loot, they decided to stay a bit longer, but started to go faster in their search. Not wanting to waste any extra time than was needed, at that point they split up, with Klort and Rick going downstairs while Bangle and Electrochromia continued upstairs.
Upstairs, they first went to a fancy dining room, which they loot a set of fancy China from, and then a room with a large bed. When Bangle goes to lay on the bed, it the frame seemed to bump against something metal at the back of the bed. Intrigued, the two of them moved the bed aside to investigate, revealing a large combination safe behind the headboard. Eventually, using the atomsite hand mirror Electrochromia had used to talk with the ghosties in session 2, they were able to crack the lock of the safe, which contained 8 bars of silver.
Downstairs, they first found a small, mostly-looted museum, filled with a number of curios of negligible value for non-collectors. They then entered a small dining room, in the center of which had a head-sized cube sitting on a pedestal. Klort walked up and touched it, which lead it to project upon one wall a bright blue light depicting a number of images with descriptions. One had the image of well-dressed woman smiling in front of a factory, with its description detailing the trials and tribulations of a determined woman who worked her way to the top. There were a dozen or so other images with descriptions, half of which seem to be about hard-working business women, a third about romance, while the last couple seemed to be action adventures.
Upon grabbing the cube, the building shook even more, the wind seemly screaming in anger. Taking that as their cue, the four of them rendezvoused together at the entrance and quickly sorted out their things. Before leaving, Electrochromia hurriedly walks into the garage and wheeled the motorcycle out, attaching it to the back of the cart in hopes they could later use it to help EAGLE reconstruct his beloved motorcycle.
And with that, the party headed out as fast as they could manage, not wanting to stick around to find out what force the wind precluded.
Our travels for the session.
Caravan Inventory Tracking
This is the first time I am including a tallying of what we are carrying on the caravan, but I think it will be helpful to include going forward, especially this time since we got a lot of loot this session.
Items which are large enough to be tallied on the caravan sheet are counted in number of sacks. Each member of the caravan must consume one sack of supply per session.
Given that the inventory can vary throughout the course of play, note that anything marked with a '+' is something gained this session, while anything marked with a '–' is something lost this session.
Capacity: 13
2 Mule
2 Mule
2 Mule
3 Ramshackle Cart
4 Party (1 slot per person)
+0 Broken motorcycle (pulled like trailer)
----------
Load: 13
+11 supply, basic
+1 supply
weekly consumption
-3 supply, basic
-1 supply
loot from glass house
+1 wooden engraved signs wrapped in blanket
+1 unicorn statue head
+1 fancy china dinnerware
+1 8 bars of silver
+1 fancy projector cube
Cash and Debt
Cash:
$1252
-$21
Total
$1231
Debt:
$11120
+$160 (weekly interest, Last Chair Saloon)
Total
$11280