Sunless Horizon Play Report #3 (Campaign 2 Session 1)

At the start of summer, I started a campaign the newest edition of Sunless Horizon. It's currently on hiatus, but we managed to play a couple sessions first. This is a slightly newer edition than the public one, but everything should still make sense. The campaign started with the Response Engine, a funnel-style campaign start.

As a warning, this play report includes depictions of the following: body horror, torture, brainwashing, and violence.

The Players

The Instrument - Kahva

I - Mihau

You - Mister Kent

The Meddler - Xenophon of Athens

The four characters dropped into a humid, brightly-lit metal room, with dozens of large tubes attached to the ceiling and a heavy coating of thick, reddish-brown liquid on the floor. However, they hadn't dropped into the same humid room.

I and the Instrument had landed in the eastern Growth Chamber, along with a few other clones, while You and The Meddler had landed in the western with a couple more clones and something else - the Hanged King; a pale crawling creature the size of a bus and with a single immense arm, gnawing desperately on something they couldn't see.

While they choked and spat the growth medium, words projected into their eyes: Please move to the Activation Chamber for infohazard injection and psychological testing. An arrow pointed them south, to a metal sliding door.

While the Instrument and I followed instructions, moving towards the Activation Chamber, the Meddler entered a dilapidated side hallway. 

The Activation Chamber was a large room, with a + carved into one wall. Their headsets played another message: Please give the + your full attention. Both of them complied as a hidden projector played an infohazard, filling the room with images of authority and punishment, centering around a single fact: Keter loves you, and you love Him. He knows what to do, and will instruct you. The Instrument's mind opened like a flower, and closed around the idea. I kept looking, but their subconscious resisted the instruction.

A tube on the room's ceiling dropped two sugar cubes. Thank you for your cooperation.

You and the Meddler continued through the ruined hallway, only to find it leading into their version of the Activation Chamber. Both of them covered their eyes as the infohazard played. They could, just barely, hear someone screaming in their Growth Chamber.

All four of them then begin the second stage: cognition tests. A set of circles appears on the wall:

O

OO
OOO
OOOO

along with a one minute timer. After a minute of panic (and obstinacy on the part of the Meddler), culminating in the Instrument shouting "Ten!", they failed the test, and their headsets administered punishment: an electric burning sensation shooting across their faces.
As the second test (O + O, OO + OO, O - O, OO - O) began, You and the Meddler heard an immense crash as something tried to break through the Activation Chamber's door. Both groups passed the test, and were given another cube as the headsets instructed thank you for your cooperation. please face forwards for Registration and every wall flashed white.

The doors unlock, and both groups move into the single Assignment Chamber, meeting each other for the first time. This is also when Mihau's character decides that now that there are four of them, they need names: they name themselves I, Kent's character You, Kahva's character (now muttering constant praises to Keter) the Instrument, and Xenophon's troublemaker the Meddler.

Unsurprisingly, having a character named I and a character named You has wreaked havoc with my narration.

Inside the Assignment Chamber are dozens of opened lockers, and a single breaker box marked with a lightning bolt. The Meddler immediately proves how much they deserve their name by opening the box's front panel and flipping each switch, plunging the room into darkness and opening every door. Then, they sprint to the lockers and loot them as the others try to find their bearings, grabbing a set of clothes and a bottle-sized square battery. As I lunges for the breaker box, the Meddler moves through the southern door into a garbage-filled room. When I turns the power back on, the doors close and a snap echoes through the Response Engine as a door shuts on the Hanged King's arm.


You, I, and the Instrument continue to loot the lockers, finding three sets of paper-like clothes along with a gray nutrient bar and two 30 foot lengths of rope. The Meddler sees that the room he entered is dominated by an immense nest of skin, plastic shards, and rotting meat. Shattered crates, larger than a person, lie strewn around the room.

Another message appears: the Response Engine will be reaching a Black Zone in 3 hours, 2 minutes, 32 seconds, 21 milliseconds. please decelerate the monorail using the control center on the upper level.

The three in the locker room start to hear scratching, and a coughing voice.

"in... i-in, let in. cold, let in, alone?"

They recognize that this is the Hanged King, and are absolutely certain they're never going to open that door again. At this point, I makes an odd decision, climbing on top of the Instrument to give themselves a safe place to stay.

The Meddler continues to wander through the Engine, finding a room marked "Liquid Oxygen Storage" then returning to the nest room as the other PCs arrive. They continue south as they hear a crunch - the Hanged King shattering its own bones to fit through the halls of the Engine. This new room is covered floor to ceiling in sketches of stick figures giving offerings to an immense, one-armed thing. The ground is covered up to their ankles in rotting, maggot-infested meat.

Meddler begins to poke at the Instrument - who is Keter? What does He actually want? However, the Instrument evades the questions.

Looking south shows a message:  area off limits to A section subjects.

Unsurprisingly, Meddler took this as a challenge and walked right through the door. They could barely see more lockers as a burning, electric pain clouded their vision. This Assignment Chamber was damaged, however - a small hole in one of the walls led to the hallway with the two staircases. Both of them had blood dotting the first and third stairs, so the Instrument stepped on the second as Meddler looted the second Assignment Chamber.

The Instrument had, sadly, made the wrong decision and the stair snapped under his foot, dropping his leg into a small spike-filled pit. (The second stair wasn't bloody because it gets replaced every time the trap goes off. The first and third don't, so the blood stays on them.)

I and the Meddler rush to bandage the Instrument's bleeding leg, as the Meddler takes the lead upstairs into cramped hallway illuminated by a buzzing light. They check both doors - one has footsteps behind it, and the other has a crude drawing of a spear. They choose the second, finding another staircase leading upwards and a mural of stick-figures, armed with spears, fighting against masked people twice their height.

They creep up the stairs, finding another sliding metal door at the top. Behind it, they can hear the soft crackling of fire. They search their meager inventories for firefighting tools, then open the door. The room is covered in a carpet of skin and hair, with a dying fire and hammered pot in the center. 

After planning to contribute whatever food they could find to the stew, they listened at the other doors, hearing breathing from one, and a mechanical whirring from the other. They choose the whirring door, finding Driver B: a set of wheels in a torn-open casing, screeching as they drag the Engine down the track. There's two other doors and through one they could hear an argument. They check the unoccupied room first, finding a staircase, then pick up their weapons, breathe deeply, and knock on the arguer's door.

They could hear as someone placed something on the ground (a pole, used to stop the door from opening), and then it slid, revealing three Ghouls - fragile, scale-less, and bipedal. Two of them point spears at the PCs while the third, wearing a crown of foil and wearing an engraved sword on her hip, barks orders they don't understand.

In the room behind them is a computer console, covered in talismans and maps drawn on skin.

When a guard sets down their spear and moves to arrest the PCs, grappling the Meddler, the Instrument dodges past them both, grabs the spear, and hands it to I. A fight breaks out, where both the Instrument and I attack the leader, stabbing her in the sword arm with the spear and punching her in the face.

The Meddler pulls out his wrench and cracks his captor over the head with it, while You first attempts to grapple the other guard, fails, and overclocks his metabolism to act again, shifting his grapple into a quick stab to the temple.

The leader nicks one of the Instrument's arteries with her sword, causing them to bleed, while the still-armed ghoul cuts You's cheek with his spear. The unarmed guard continues to grapple with the Meddler, hoping to pin them. 

Round 2 begins: the Instrument goes to grapple the leader, but she manages to stab them in the arm before being immobilized. Then, I stabs the unmoving ghoul in the eye, fatally.

The Meddler continues to grapple with one of the guards, until they break free and crush his skull with their wrench. You lunges forwards with their knife, clipping the last ghoul in the arm and getting a stab to the leg in return. 

In the last round of the combat, I leaps from his vantage point to avoid the final ghoul's stab, as the Meddler hits him in the back of the head and the Instrument drives their spear fatally through his ribs.

As the adrenaline fades, the Meddler, the Instrument, and I come to a realization: they just killed someone. I lies unmoving in the corner as the Instrument gazes, catatonic, into the leader's empty eye socket. 

The Meddler walks slowly to the console, and listens to their headset as it instructs them on how to bring the monorail to a safe stop. Then, they bandage their wounds, and think.

The Instrument breaks the silence. "I thought... I thought He would reward us, and provide further Instruction. Upon completion."

I shakes their head. "I don't think the instructions were meant as a reward. I think instructions are provided only as long as service is needed."

The whine of the wheels slowly falls silent.

False Elf (GLOG Class)

(if i wasn't such a coward i would've titled this post "earaboo")

Flip Templates are a new piece of GLOG class design, where a single level gives you two template abilities, but you can only access one after using the other. So, this class has template A1 and A2, and you must use the A1 ability before the A2 ability, and then must do the A2 ability in order to use A1 again.

This is a Flip Template wizard, based off the four seasons. However, the flip does not come with the seasons themselves. True Elves will do that, but you are no True Elf. You are a thief, so envious of their power that you snuck in while they slept and stole their power.

Instead, you change because of the characteristics of the seasons.

Official 5e Art

A: Switching Seasons, +1 MD

B: +1 MD

C: +1 MD

D: Pinnacle Spells, +1 MD

Switching Seasons

Each of the four seasons has its Activation, its Cantrip, three Spells, and one Pinnacle, unlocked with the D template.

When a season is activated, it stays active for one week. If you have an active season and would activate another one, you can choose whether or not you want to switch.

If you have no active seasons, you are Neutral and cannot cast spells.

Winter

Activation: get frostbite or hypothermia.

Cantrip: your body temperature naturally equalizes you with your environment, preventing creatures that seek heat (which may or may not include Darkvision) from perceiving you in that way.

Spells

Vanish

R: n/a T: self D: [dice] minutes

Become a flurry of snow, vanishing from sight and flying low across the ground at walking speed for [dice] minutes (this flight is affected by wind), reconstituting at the end of the duration. You cannot be damaged by anything except fire, and if you are damaged by fire the spell ends immediately.

Freeze 

R: touch T: an object or person D: instant

At a touch, lower an object's temperature by [sum]*4 degrees or deal [sum] damage to a target.

Halt

R: 60 feet T: a 20' radius, or one object or creature smaller than an elephant D: variable

This spell can either target a radius, a single object, or a single creature.

If this targets a radius, all creatures within the radius have their movement speeds halved, and act in initiative order only after all creatures inside the radius have acted. Any moving object moves at half speed. This lasts for [dice] rounds.

If this targets a single object, it is frozen in place for [dice] minutes. This works on objects in midair, which will hover. When the duration ends, the object does not keep its prior momentum (a fired arrow will fall, not continue to fly). 

If this targets a single creature, it must Save with a -[dice] penalty. If it fails, it is completely immobilized and unable to act for [dice] rounds.

Pinnacle: Cataclysm

R: N/A T: [dice] mile radius D: [sum] hours

At one MD, the temperature within the radius reaches below freezing, and snow begins to fall.

At two MD, the temperature reaches into the negatives (negatives in Fahrenheit, or about -20 degrees Celsius) while freezing rain and snow cover the area.

At three MD, the temperature continues to descend, causing hypothermia and frostbite within minutes. The wind picks up, turning the rain and snow into a blinding blizzard.

At four MD, the sun vanishes from the sky. The temperature hits levels only found in space. Lightning strikes down through the whiteout.

Spring

Activation: create a lasting object that requires effort or money (building a chair or writing a poem counts, stacking two twigs or writing "hello" on the ground do not).

Cantrip: 

Spells

Heal

R: touch T: one creature D: instant

A creature you touch gains [sum] HP. If two [dice] are invested, this can instantly remove a minor Wound (broken bones, etc.) or cure an illness instead of restoring HP. With three [dice], you can regenerate mangled limbs and cure diseases. With four, you can regrow limbs and organs.

Bolster

R: 30' T: one creature D: [dice] minutes

For the duration, a character is supernaturally invigorated, gaining [sum] bonus HP and adding [dice] to their AC. This does not restore lost HP.

Animate Plants

R: 100' T: [sum] small plants or [dice] trees D: [sum] minutes

[Sum] small plants or [dice] large plants or trees spring to motion. They can be commanded verbally.

Pinnacle: Garden

R: 100’ T: N/A D: 

In a 100' radius around you, plants grow uncontrollably, no matter how difficult: in a desert, cacti spring up. Within a dungeon, moss spreads over walls and hardy plants punch through stone floors. The more MD are used, the larger the plants become: in a forest, one MD causes grass and flowers, two will begin to grow saplings, three will create trees, and four grow mythical plants that tower into the sky.

Jim Bahn

Summer

Activation: catch on fire.

Cantrip: if you wrap your hands around an object, it catches fire. 

Spells

Silence Weather

R: N/A T: one mile radius D: [sum] hours

For the duration of the spell, all weather effects stop, replaced with a vaguely-uncanny perfect average (partly cloudy, warm-ish, no precipitation).

Light

R: N/A T: N/A D: [dice] hours

A small pale yellow orb hovers over your head, shedding light as a torch.

Melt

R: Touch T: one object D: Instant

Steel, and anything with a lower melting point, melts as you hold it.

Pinnacle: Fireball

R: 200' T: 20' radius D: instant

Does [sum] fire damage to everything inside the radius.

Autumn

Activation: destroy a lasting object that required effort or money to create (kicking through a door, tearing apart a book).

Cantrip:

Spells

Shatter

R: 30' T: one object D: instant

An object smaller than your head, made of something no stronger than wood, breaks apart. Every added MD allows you to increase the size and durability of an acceptable target.

2 MD: an object smaller than a person, made of something no stronger than stone

3 MD: an object smaller than a car, made of something no stronger than iron

4 MD: an object smaller than a house, made of something no stronger than adamantium.

Feather Fall

R: N/A T: self D: [dice] minutes

For the duration, you fall at a leisurely 10 feet per round.

Gust

R: 30' cone T: N/A D: Instant

Objects in the cone, with a weight of up to [dice]*100 pounds, or half that weight if they are firmly attached to the ground, are thrown at [sum]*[dice] miles per hour.

Pinnacle: Fatal Touch

R: Touch T: One creature D: Instant

At your touch, a living creature takes [sum]*[dice] damage. If this kills the creature, it is reduced to dust.

Mishaps

1. You catch fire.
2. Frostbite covers your fingers and toes.
3. The wind picks up, throwing objects and pushing people.
4. All MD used on this spell are expended.
5. For the next day, MD only return on a 1 or 2.
6. You lose your current season, becoming Neutral.

Dooms

1. The True Elf you robbed is on your trail. They have cursed you, hoping to put you down and repossess their gifts afterwards. Animals (except dogs) roll 1d6 instead of 2d6 for Reaction Rolls.
2. The curse has a second layer added. You can almost feel it in the center of your heart. If you spend more than an hour near a plant, the plant becomes hostile and attempts to kill you. Trees will fall on you, grass will grow into your nose and mouth, poison ivy will slither into your hands.
3. The True Elf has arrived, as has their Hunt. Fight, or die.

Flip Template Adept (GLOG Class)

wow, that whole "one post a week" thing sure is going well, isn't it?

Flip Templates are a new piece of GLOG class design, where a single level gives you two template abilities, but you can only access one after using the other. So, this class has template A1 and A2, and you must use the A1 ability before the A2 ability, and then must do the A2 ability in order to use A1 again.

(Also Flip Templates are cool and I'm going to be making more classes that use them.)

This is an unarmed fighter, with some MD-based resource management.

A: Gather // Release

B: Durability // Agility

C: Block // Counter

D: Invincible

A1: Gather

Every fight you win without being hit, gain 1 Momentum Die (d6, depletes on a 4+, Cramps on doubles and Atrophies on triples), up to your total Adept templates. With ten minutes of stretching, Flip this template.

A2: Release

You cannot gain MD, but can roll them to increase an unarmed attack's to-hit by [dice] and damage by [sum], or improve a STR, DEX, or CON check or save by [best]. When you Rest, Flip this template.

B1: Durability

While you have Gather, attacks that deal less than 4 damage don't count as hits for gaining Momentum Dice. Attacks that deal 1 damage do no damage. When you Flip Gather into Release, Flip this template.

B2: Agility

While you have Release, you can run across walls as long as you don't stop, jump twice your height from a still position, and sprint at twice your normal speed. When you Flip Release into Gather, Flip this template.

C1: Block

When you are hit by a melee attack, you can spend MD to reduce its damage by [sum]. Then, Flip this template. If you take no damage, this does not count as a hit for the purposes of gaining Momentum Dice.

C2: Counter

During your turn, or when hit by a melee attack, you can make an unarmed attack for free. Then, Flip this template.

Invincible

If you win a fight without getting hit, gain 2 MD. Even if you get hit, you still gain 1 Momentum Die.

Cramps

1. Trip over your own feet. Flip every template you have.
2. Torn muscle. MD only return to your pool on a 1-2 for 24 hours.
3. Pinched nerve. Take 1d6 damage.
4. Slowing down. You cannot Flip any of your templates until you next Rest.
5. Broken toe. Your movement speed is halved until you next Rest.
6. Overextended. Every MD spent on this ability is exhausted.

Atrophies

1. You're going too fast, and something slips. Randomly choose one ability score (roll 1d6 if you're using the standards), and tear it off the page. You cannot make checks with that score and do not add its bonus to anything.
2. The speed is tearing apart your soul. Roll two more ability scores and tear them off.
3. You've been hollowed out. Tear off all your ability scores.