Libra, Sessions 8 & 9 - The Wizard Freaks Skip Town

Last time, the party realized they had infinite money and learned how to become immortal. 

I'm going to tell you the truth - I barely remember session 8 and it was mostly a gunfight. The players decided they had gotten all the value they could out of the Vampire's Head, they wanted to stabilize the city and end the Head-Kanopy conflict, and they thought it would make them look good with OSIRIS to do something about it. It turns out no amount of vampires mean much when the PCs have a pocket sun and all the weapons American gun laws and infinite money allow. 

In between sessions, Valrel decided to pick up Satan as her new patron, take him out for dinner, and harass him with questions (in exchange for only a minor timeshare in her soul), Moon Dan figured out how to turn on the alien antenna in his jaw (listening to 🗏︎🗏︎ ☞︎💣︎📪︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎❒︎ ❒︎□︎♍︎🙵 ❍︎◆︎⬧︎♓︎♍︎ ⬧︎⧫︎♋︎⧫︎♓︎□︎■︎ and making the extremely dubious decision to start broadcasting), and the Finance Optimizer put his head down to focus on obtaining the Black Metal of ibn Yazid. 

Of course, this is troublesome. Alchemical authors falsely attribute their work to Classical writers, never city their sources, and cloak their text in ciphers, poetry, prophecy, and gibberish. It would take months... without help. 

1. The Stygian Library would certainly have any relevant texts.
2. Someone with comprehensive knowledge of celestial law and the Astral Plane would know more about the Metal - though all of those are OSIRIS researchers. 
3. And, you could always work with ibn Yazid himself. It's possible that his body is the "Law-Struck Corpse" rumored to be for sale at this year's Black Auction in Washington D.C.

So, especially because they leveled the Vampire Head's tunnels and blew up a Walmart in the process, the PCs decided it would be a great time to not be in Philadelphia.  

Unfortunately, the Black Auction is invite-only - fortunately, flashing around plenty of money and the theater ticket the immortal Abraham Lincoln bought before his unfortunate first death got them through the door. 

They hang around with the rich, famous, and magic in the opulent (and mildly-haunted) Hay-Adams hotel, intervene in a duel between an exceedingly upset hedge fund manager and the Comte de Saint Germain, lose a duel with the Comte de Saint Germain, crack the hedge fund manager over the head with a cane and then kind of stand around not knowing what to do, frantically try to avoid En-men-lu-ana, the ancient Sumerian king Moon Dan shot at back in the 90s, and walk out of the ruins one exceedingly cuboid law-struck corpse and one bottle of comet wine richer.

Hey, wait a sec - the ruins?

The final lot of this year's Black Auction was Tango, the extremely psychic elephant - when "the Officer", dressed in misshapen medals with molten text from the exceedingly nonspecific "Eurasia", lost the bid, she pulled a whistle from her pocket and drove the elephant mad. Tango promptly disassembled the Hay-Adams dining room into floating geometry, then fled into the sky as the PCs stopped the Officer from escaping with her. 

Tango hasn't been seen since - the PCs lost track of her over the Atlantic Ocean. It was generally agreed that this was a perfectly average Black Auction... except for the theater ticket, which is sure to power some kind of presidential-assassination-via-sympathetic-magic, as the PCs realized right after putting it up for sale and right before getting outbid for it by En-men-lu-ana.

Oops. 

Analysis

I'm starting to run out of things to say, honestly. 

The Black Auction was overstuffed - I had six NPCs, all with help from Phlox's wonderful GLOG server, and one packed session is Not enough time to introduce all of these people and what their problems are. They will never show up again - maybe if I run another campaign of Libra in Washington D.C. these'll be the local factions or something. 

There are Four (4) (IV) sessions left of Libra, and I think it'll all line up perfectly. One session for kidnapping some OSIRIS scientist, one session for the Stygian Library, and then a climactic session where they reach the final step of the magnum opus while I the rapidly-expanding teamup of people who want them dead hammer on the doors. (Currently, that's the Zontamanancer, his son (as the idol of Apollo), the last City Bug infectees, the leaderless vampires, and a scout UFO from the alien empire.) OK, that's 3 things and 4 sessions, but I'm sure one of them will go long, or they'll decide to try their luck against Kanopy (now reinforced by the PMC "131 Halley's Comet"), or they'll forget what they're doing entirely, or we'll have to skip one. See? Perfect.

Littlest Brown Book - Encounters at Sea for Not My Destination

My upcoming Littlest Brown Book campaign, Not My Destination, has a decent naval component - much of the stereotypical wilderness between the players' starting town and the central dungeon will be open ocean. While the Littlest Brown Book comes with random encounter tables for rivers and swamps, it does not include one for the sea - so here is my own hacky attempt (I'm not kidding about hacky - this is basically just Rivers but without the things that need "land" to "live" and with some more human encounters, and on 2d10 for some good ol' probability).

This'll be my first campaign using lair chances - that'll be neat. Hopefully. 

2	The lost ancient treasure ship (i.e. dungeon) Column of Electrum Thrice-Bound in Tin.	12	2d8 Giant Fish
3	1d8 Giants (30% in lair - else on a single Giantish catamaran)	13	2d8 Giant Snakes
4	3d10x10 Pirates (15% in lair - else on 1d4 black iron vessels. The distinction between “pirate” and “buccaneer” is allegiance to seething Chaos - Buccaneer leaders are always Fighters and may be Neutral, but Pirate leaders are always Chaotic Magic-Users of the Black or Red Schools).	14	1d4 Manticores (25% in lair)
5	3d10x10 Mermen (15% in lair).	15	1d6 Wyverns (60% in lair)
6	3d10x10 Buccaneers (15% in lair - else on 1d4 wooden vessels)	16	1d20 Rocs (20% in lair)
7	A trading vessel, fat with [whatever the Type A (Water) treasure happens to generate] and guarded by 3d6x10 soldiers, half crossbowmen and half heavy footmen.	17	2d8 Giant Octopi
8	A rival adventuring party (1d4 levels of Fighter and 1d4 levels of Magic-User split between 2d4 people) sailing along. (I'm sure at some point I'll put some premade rival parties together, but just in case I need one quick...)	18	1 Sea Monster
9	A warship, hunting pirates and rescuing the stranded.	19	1 Dragon Turtle
10	1d4 small boats with 3 fishermen each.	20	1d4 Dragons (60% in lair)
11	A previously-met NPC or pursuing encounter. If neither is applicable, result 10.

Littlest Brown Book - Fighters & Auspices

At the end of the Libra campaign and the start of summer, I'm planning to run something Normal™. Wizards and suchlike. In the pursuit of Normal™, I'm going to run Idraluna's Littlest Brown Book, which I chose over other 0e retroclones (or the original white box) completely at random (and because I'm a fan of Idraluna's blog). 

The campaign structure should also be pretty Normal™: town, wilderness, dungeon (100 rooms, perhaps). I'm ripping off Sean F. Smith's Westen Isles for the wilderness - not the exact map, but the general shape of "big island 1 with town, big island 2 with main dungeon, scattered mini-islands". Get some use out of those naval encounters.

To be a little less Normal™, I'm also using Idraluna's Supplement א, which splits the Magic-User into 5 color-coded subclasses (and, in doing so, replaces the Cleric with the M-U's White School). 

Since this, along with showing the non-humans the door, means the class choices would be 1 fighting-type and 5 wizardoids, I'm also adding subclasses to the Fighter (since players avoid doubling up unless necessary, and I know otherwise they'd scatter to the various M-Us):

1. Corsair - you swim at 6" (twice as fast as normal), your drowning chances are halved, and you may carry any weapon while swimming. 
2. Thief - others must roll their listen at doors chance to notice you when you creep.
3. Knight - you begin play with a free, unclassed, perfectly loyal squire. They will enter combat if necessary. 
4. Inquisitor - you recognize demons, spirits, heretical wizards, et cetera on sight, and your attacks count as magical for the purposes of damaging them. If you attack them with a magical weapon, roll 2d6 for damage. 
5. Champion - your target numbers for attack rolls are 1 lower. 

Along with that, I've always had a fascination with Eldritch Wizardry-era psionics - in particular, the random chance of them... ever coming up or mattering at all. So, characters in this campaign will have a chance to be august. 

At the end of character creation, roll a d20. If you roll a 7, (or, if your INT, WIS, and CHA are all above 15, if you roll a 7 or 13) you were born under favorable stars and were taught by those distant intelligences. If you pass this roll, repeat it until you fail.

You have points of Favor with the stars equal to thrice your level, and regain one of those points each day of rest.

For each success on the auspice roll, choose a constellation and associated skill below:

1. Libra - the stars take the measure of the world. Your listen at doors chance increases to 4-in-6, your secret passages chance to 4-in-6, and with a point of Favor and a minute of unbroken focus you can read minds.
2. Sagittarius - the stars reach down to earth. You can lift objects weighing up to 50 coin-weights per level via telekinesis, costing one Favor per minute. 
3. Pisces - the stars swim through the upper air. With concerted effort you can slowly (6" per turn) levitate vertically for a point of Favor per minute.
4. Leo - the stars speak with the voices of kings. For a point of Favor, you may control the mind of a target with lower level than you for one minute. 
5. Scorpio - the stars shine with impossible colors. For a point of Favor, you become invisible for a minute. This ends early if you attack - even the tiny scorpion is noticed when it strikes.
6. Aquarius - the stars pour water from above. You can spend a point of Favor to ignore your need for water, sleep, and food for a day. You do not regain Favor during these days. 

There were more stars, once. Now they are gone, replaced by boiling black in the firmament.  

Libra, Session 7 - The Wizard Freaks Crash the Economy

Last week, the party got baited into an ambush.

Most of the PCs start by questioning Alex Fuller, the last survivor of the cult of Apollo, while Valrel checks the next room, where the great bronze idol of Fuller's god dances and dances around a wine-filled swimming pool. She decides, inexplicably, to take a swim - and is then bodyslammed by the Zontanamancer's golden hunter-ragdoll. 

Unfortunately, she is now stuck under hundreds of pounds of gold. Fortunately, she doesn't need to breathe, and the plodding mind of the ragdoll takes a hot minute to realize hey, I don't think I'm actually killing this person right now.

Long enough, in fact, for the other PCs to go "huh, where's Valrel", find her in the pool, and huck a steel cable in with her. She ties it to the ragdoll, the party above ties the other end to the dancing Apollo, and on his next turn the ragdoll whips across the room, snaps the wire, punches through the wall, and smears itself down two blocks of city street. 

The PCs scatter - a couple run off to make sure the ragdoll's deanimated, Moon Dan makes sure Alex doesn't notice the party had looted his temple, and Joe decides to think about that "EXTREMELY CURSED" book...

Surely C-something the Morally Dubious Skull knows something about EXTREME CURSES, right? Sure, he says. Just give me a body first...

The PCs reunite at Toka's shack - best not to cause too much collateral damage - staple C-something to the body of a dead Apollonian, and toss him the book.

"Well?" they ask. 

C-something nods sagely. "Locusts."

"Can you do something about it?"

"Probably."

"Probably?"

"Probably." 

 C-something surrounds the book in salt, says a couple words, and the salt circle shifts, twists into words in some dead language, and flashes pure white. Then he picks it up, snaps it open to a conveniently ribbon-marked page, and Isn't instantly consumed by a swarm of locusts. 

Instead, he presents the party with

from the Splendor solis

[...] rubedo, the red stage. It is at this point, the point of the first gate's opening, that the stone takes on the wonder of its fourth facet, the Solar facet, chrysopoeia.

De re Cauda Pavonis

To approach the final stage of the Great Work demands care. Take up a flask of the black metal of ibn Yazid, that the people of that place call lam yamasa because it is not heated nor cooled (and, they say, only comes from those places where the motionless Fields of Asphodel intrude on the living world) and set it to boil. Place the miraculous stone within and it will take on the aspect of the peacock's tail.

One becomes two. The stone will open and reveal its heart - be wary, as the heartlight strikes like fire. Each hour of the day you a mote from those with a connection to the Fields of Asphodel or to the land of Dream must be put into the heart, and this fire will catch them.

Two becomes three. When this is done, the fire of the heartlight is quelled but it is more vital that you keep your eyes from it. Bring forward the body of glass, and let it gaze upon the heartlight. Only then may you open your eyes.

Out of the third comes the one as the fourth. The heartlight burns in the head of the homunculus. It breathes and stares - it must be kept alive, with food and drink. When you would pass to the hereafter you will, instead, be caught into the homunculus, and live again.

from the Ampitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae

C...ool. Sure. OK. 

While a couple of the PCs do some considering, the rest make a realization. They have the philosopher's stone? Which turns any material into gold? Why haven't we been doing this the whole time? A couple schemes and a few minutes later, the PCs all put a celebratory ∞ in the money section of their character sheet. 

The considerers lay out their understanding - the land of Dream is obviously the Gardens of Ynn. That makes the Field of Asphodel the lawful Astral Plane. I've never heard of a "black metal of ibn Yazid", but it sounds pretty distinctive so I guess we could just to the Astral Plane and... poke around? 

How do we get to the plane of Law.

Actually, not that difficult - Containment Center CATERPILLAR has a "Contact Room" that leads to the Astral Plane, and since Joe Normal remains in good standing with OSIRIS, the door is actually there when he goes to look for it. 

He creeps in, hiding Valrel as a bat and the Finance Optimizer as a 2D projection under his coat, and opens the door to a blank white expanse, the Pyramid hovering overhead.

Joe asks if the Pyramid knows anything about the "black metal of ibn Yazid" and gets slapped down, gaining harmful Notice and an answer of this is on the list of unacceptable questions.

Joe asks if he could, maybe, get a description of the list of unacceptable questions, then cringes, expecting another punishment. unacceptable questions are questions related to the physical integrity of the Pyramid or surrounding objects.

The physical integrity. Of the Pyramid. The black, metallic Pyramid. 

Oh boy.

Analysis

Incidentally - an error. The Vampire Head's hand is not going to "1,000,000% escape" - they buried it in a steel box after bending all of its fingers backwards until they broke and tying them to the back of the hand with cables. It's stayin' in the box.

The Pyramid is, fully and without shame, just the Board from the game Control. When I first started posting about Libra, seven years ago, (seven years ago. bizarre) this was the point. A bare minimum mashup that could fit SCPoid and V:tMoid and Esoteric Enterprisesoid and so forth gaming - it slotted in perfectly next to "literally just Delta Green" and "literally just GRU Division "P"" and "literally just the Gardens of Ynn". Usually I try to be a bit more artful, but eh. I have settings aplenty, I don't have to take them all seriously. 

I am inordinately happy with my alchemy puzzle. Deep on my list of campaigns is a faux-Italian mercenary game, and I was considering alchemical recipes like this as a core of the magic system - especially ones with inefficient instructions. To make an ever-burning fire you must follow these four steps - but actually, if you experiment, step 3 is completely unnecessary and using different gems in step 2 creates different kinds of fire. That kind of thing.  

Having literally infinite money will have... an effect on the game - though it was always, really, part of the plan. The players are hyped to get their FFLs, buy expensive cars, stop living in basements, and see how much societal damage they can do.