:: View topic - Red Eye of Azathoth Play Report (SPOILERS!)

deinol · Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2011 2:37 am Post subject:

Ran an excellent game of Red Eye of Azathoth Part 1: That Which is Dead Shall Refuse to Lie. I ran the game mostly in real time. Starting at 7PM and playing until Midnight.

I had 6 players so I added two more PCs, both female. I created Drífa, a Viking Battle Maiden, the younger sister to Kiollsig. For variety I made her one of the Vikings who couldn't speak English. That probably wasn't worth it. Actually, what I should have done is allow her to learn English after her first vision. That would have been cool. Learn from my mistakes.

The other female I added was the Herbalist suggested in the book. I made her the niece of Aberthol, to give her another connection to the monks. Her first aid skill helped a lot during the game.

My Viking players were impatient, wanting to go straight to the monastery. When Asturr went to release brother Sterling I used the vision as an opportunity to give them ideas about investigating. Asturr I suggested investigating the chief's tent, and Sterling I told to interrogate the survivor. They had as useful a conversation as they could with Ofeig. On the other hand, they had less luck convincing Erling to allow them into Hygelach's tent.

They set off toward the monastery long before the dead began to walk. Drífa decided to sneak back to talk to her brother and get a look inside the chief's tent. She learned a bit more about the chief's unusual behavior and searched the tent. She was creeped out by the book (receiving the vision) and stashed it inside a sack. She didn't investigate further and never saw the ball.

The others reached the main entrance to the monastery and were creeped out by the entrails. They argued a bit while Drífa caught up with them. Just then the dead began to walk. They watched from a distance, but I figured the site was still terrifying. It was at this point that 5 of my 6 characters gained permanent insanities. Only Winnifred remained sane the entire session. Atsurr became Xenophobic, Fleinn gained Amnesia, Aberthol and Drífa gained Depression. I forget what Sterling got, but he was one of the more resilient of the bunch.

At this point the monks finally tell the Vikings about the secret entrance. The climb up proved a bit dangerous, although only Sterling was seriously hurt. Winnifred mitigated that some with her first aid. With Fleinn's help (lowering the shaft of his spear from above) they all made it up to the catacombs. After wandering about for a while, they finally came upon the other monk survivors. The Vikings almost attacked, but the monks convinced them to talk. When the abbot claimed it was his fault, Atsurr was ready to slay him there. The monks once again curbed his bloodlust. They convinced the Abbot to confess, and learned the truth of St Cither.

Once upstairs, the monks wanted to head straight to the Abbot's chambers. So only Atsurr investigated the reliquary with the bones of St. Cuthbert. He learned of the Zombie spell, but told none. Everyone was creeped out by the cats. The monks set to work studying scrolls. The Vikings left amnesiac Fleinn to watch them as they tried to get to the tower. Atsurr fled at the sight of the corpse spiders, dropping his axe and torch. Drífa bashed one with her hammer and retreated with only minor wounds. Atsurr dashed in to recover his weapon an run back out, his heavier armor protecting him from harm.

They returned to the monks, whose research told them they needed the Lindisfarne Gospels. So they proceeded to the main library. At the sight of a monk feeding blood to a zombie, the Vikings unanimously charged and slaughtered the monk before he could say more than "But..". They cut the heads off all the zombies as well. When I tried to make one speak to them, Asturr bashed its skull in as well. I should mention that at this point, none of the monks had seen Lei Peng's journal. The Vikings had kept it in the sack. After a little discussion, they were finally convinced to relinquish it.

Since the group was resolved to wait for the monks to do research, I skipped ahead 30 minutes worth of real time action. Asturr stood guard in the courtyard, becoming more and more convinced that the cats were spying on him. They learned enough about the lullaby to know they needed to stop the flute playing, but since they never talked to a zombie, they never learned the secret to getting past the corpse spiders.

At this point, with an hour and a half before dawn, they decided to try to run the gauntlet to the tower. Atsurr decided to use his armor and axe to try and hold off the spiders and clear a path for the others. I decided each would suffer two hits as they rushed past, leaving Asturr behind in a hopeless fight against corpse spiders. Sterling, still injured from his previous fall, didn't make it through the gauntlet. They bolted the door behind them.

On the tower they wrestled with zombies for a while. They tossed the Bishop's body into the sea. They finally realized that controlling the zombies with blood was there best bet, although all of them were getting rather weak. Once the last zombie was under their control (having to send another zombie in the circle to drag it out) Hygalech launched his final attack. Most of the investigator's fell to Hygalech. Winnifred used the last of her life force commanding the newly zombied Aberthol and Drífa to kill Hygalech. Fleinn fed his blood to zombie Asturr, who had hacked his way through the bolted door by this point and was still wielding an axe. With all the undead investigators commanded to fight Hygalech, Fleinn threw his spear at the mad Viking king and jumped into the sea. With 15 minutes remaining before dawn, the zombies managed to slay Hygalech, ending the storm just before it completely swallowed the Monastery.

Fleinn, the only survivor, washed ashore on the mainland. His memory wiped clean of his traumatic experiences. When he was found it was assumed he was a surviving monk, and was sent to live the last of his days in quiet meditation at another monastery. The investigators claimed victory, just barely.
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-Jesse Butler

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