I spent several days after the last installment befuddled as to what happens next. If Tatter had been in the attic, there would have been a final showdown, and then Issue 6 could have been the aftermath. Instead, Tatter got away with the box to do her ritual. Now what? I don’t want to do a repeat of the “into the ratfolk warrens” plot as the PCs take chase, nor do I want to have a full planning installment without any action. Should I set the ratfolk plot aside and have something new happen? As I’ve said several times, Crusaders is a game of comic book fights, full stop. Spending so much time focusing on characters and backstory has felt great, but there’s always a clock ticking in my head wanting to roll dice.
And then it finally occurred to me: This is what the Mythic GM Emulator is made for! Many rolls in Mythic are driven by questions like “is this thing true?” or “does this thing happen?” called Fate questions. In this case, when I don’t feel like I have a good idea of what to ask, I am instead going to rely on Mythic’s “Generating Random Events” tables. My hope is that, by exploring a set of random meaning tables, inspiration will strike.
By the book, the first table is a Random Event Focus Table. I roll d00 and get: Current Context. In other words, whatever is happening in the story right now is the context for the event. Cool, and this means that I won’t be setting the ratfolk plot aside. Next, I choose the Event Focus, which I’d like to be somehow related to the box, ritual, Tatter, etc.
Now we get to the meat: the Event Meaning tables. Because I’m stumped, I’m going to start with the Action tables and then fill in blanks as I go. What’s Tatter doing next? I get Agree & Burden. These are obviously broad terms that settle differently in different brains. For me, I think it means that Tatter will finally do the ritual, making a pact with the whatever-it-is inside the box to do… something. Where will this happen? I grab the Locations table and roll twice: Peaceful & Entrance. In the quiet of the basement of Sami Suttar’s home! She doesn’t want to make a big production out of it this time… just get it done.
Finally, what does the ritual do? For this one I’ll use the Curses table: Dominate & Misfortune. I take that to mean that Tatter thinks that she is going to summon something to conquer humanity for ratfolk, but instead something terrible is unleashed that threatens everyone and everything.
Okay, that’s enough to jumpstart me. Wheee!
Kami crossed her arms over her chest and looked down upon the still face of her brother. He was now where Emah had convalesced, in Sami Suttar’s bed on the second floor of the man’s one-time shop and home. Kura’s bandages were dark with blood, his breathing weak and inconsistent. She did not know if he would survive, but if he did, she thought that Kura still faced a long road of recovery ahead of him.
The roil of emotions within her was difficult to separate into individual strands; there was grief, loss, and anger, surely, at their vastly diminished sibling relationship and so many times they weren’t there for one another. The hurt and disappointment were the reason why she had so rarely reached out to connect with her brother these past years. Yet, looking down on his still form, there was also fondness for several shared memories, mostly when their parents had lived. Laughter and comfort. She could see the young boy in his face still, the strong older brother that she had waited to rescue her from the Heron so often as a young girl. Of course, on the heels of those fond emotions, concern and anxiety filled her, too, not sure whether Kura would awaken from his injuries and, if so, what state of mind he would be in. Would the ratfolk priest still be controlling him? If not, how would he react to his strange companion’s death and her presence? Would her brother stop breathing and die, right here as she watched, with so many things unsaid between them? The emotions stewed and churned within her chest and belly. She felt faintly sick at them all.
Through it all, Kami kept her face still and impassive. No tears fell. No nostalgic, wistful smile twisted her lips. She spoke no words, of either comfort or rebuke. Indeed, she regarded Kura so stoically that twice she reminded herself to breathe so as not to unnerve the others in the room.
“I’ve done what I can,” Emah said beside her after a long silence. “I’m not a true healer, you understand. We can find a medic. Inspector Calenta will…”
“…Arrest him and throw him in a dungeon for the rest of his days, never letting the medic’s hands touch him,” Kami said without feeling. “You know this as well as I do.”
Emah blew out a noisy sigh. “Okay, fair. But he and his friend did kill her men. And he’s part of the Dragons…” her voice trailed off, clearly unsure how to complete that thought. “Anyway, Calenta is going to have to see the mess downstairs sooner than later. When the Watchmen don’t check in, she’ll either come over herself or send someone, and she’ll wonder why we didn’t contact her immediately.”
“Well, life is full of disappointment,” Kami said, and turned to regard Emah. The warrior was now fully dressed, kitted for battle, with her signature blade hanging from one hip. Behind her knelt Maly Wywich, looking surly and worried. The young woman’s eyes glanced over at Kami, but never strayed far from the blank panther’s form, laid across a pile of blankets on the floor of the bedroom. Emah had made a fuss about moving Destiny, but Maly had insisted that they get him out of the entryway and somewhere he could rest. Kami had carried the great cat as easily as she did anything requiring strength these days and had tried to be gentle while doing so.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Emah’s face was hard and dour.
“It means that I don’t care what Calenta thinks right now. If Kura can wake before she comes, he can tell us something. I would rather not speed her arrival if I can help it.”
“But–” Emah started stubbornly, but Kami raised a hand.
“Please, Ms. Elmhill. I am not trying to shirk our contract or do anything illegal. I only wish to buy time for my brother to speak with me before he is locked away.” She tried to summon some of the playacting innocence she drew on as a prostitute but couldn’t find it within her. Instead, she looked flatly back at Emah through her wooden half-mask, waiting.
After a heartbeat, the warrior nodded once. “Fine. I just want to do something. How do we get the box back?”
“We are not going back into those tunnels,” Maly protested from the floor. “Besides, Destiny is the only one that could track the ratfolk priest. We’d be lost down there.”
“Agreed,” Kami said. “Our only recourse, it seems, is to hope that Kura can provide useful information.”
“It’s just so frustrating,” Emah huffed, her gloved fists balling. “The priest was right here and we didn’t know it! We could have ended it and–”
The sentence went unfinished.
It’s time to find out what Tatter’s ritual in the basement unleashed! I have a vague idea that this 6-issue arc has a tie to disease and pestilence, so I’m going to say that something along those lines is the evil the PCs must address. But rather than just releasing a plague, I’d like it to be “plague spirits” or “plague demons” or something.
First question: How many? I’ll roll a d4: 3. OOF. Welp, that’s going be the rest of this post, then: Fleshing out these “Lords of Pestilence” that Tatter unleashed upon Oakton.
To do so, I won’t worry about my usual background/origin rolls. Instead, I want some guidance on what sort of creatures/people these are. I’ll arbitrarily stick with the demons idea and fall back on one of my all-time favorite games: Dungeon Crawl Classics. On p.404 of the DCC core rulebook are a couple of random tables for anchoring our gross “filth demons.” Just because it’s fun, I’ll roll a different description for each demon.
Demon 1 on these tables gets: Lion-snake body, with barbs and spines as its unique feature. Since I’m making these tied to disease and filth, I’ll say it’s more of an alley cat-maggot hybrid. Yum.
These are minor demons and so will each be Rank 2 creatures. That’s 3 power rolls each and 1 improvement, with 12 attribute points. For the powers, I roll:
Roll 1: 75 or 25, which is Super Strength, Energy Blast, Telekinesis, Psychic Blast, Mass Alteration, Energy Manipulation, Ninja, and Commando.
Roll 2: 64 or 46, which is Special Attack, Growth/Shrink, Psychic Shield, Psychic Sense, Ice Mastery, Fire Mastery, Martial Artist, and Doctor.
Roll 3: 92 or 29, which is Vigor, Energy Immunity, Telepathy, Psychic Blast, Weather Control, Energy Manipulation, Weapon Master, and Commando.
What a mess of variety there! I don’t see any real pattern. Because of the spines, I’ll take Special Attack from the second roll, giving the thing a Toxic Attack (Slow Death) per the Crusaders Companion. This will be a very deadly attack against the party, so I’ll say that it first needs to hit with an attack and then second turn can attempt injecting the toxin. I’ll also give the demon Energy Blast, which is it firing off its spines. I’ll use my Improvement here too, to let it fire two spines per turn, but reduce the damage to 10 each spine. Finally, since I rolled it twice, I’ll make it a Commando of sorts, unable to be surprised (much like Kura). For attributes, I’ll use my 12 points entirely on two stats: Physique 10, Prowess 17, Alertness 10, Psychic 15.
What an awful, gross beastie!
Let’s do it again for Demon 2! For my DCC tables I get a Dirt + Skeleton body, which is fun. Meanwhile, its special feature is that it’s Tiny. Ha! Amazing.
Power roll 1: 50 or 05, which is Leaping, Adaptation, Psychic Sense, Astral Projection, Fire Mastery, Darkness Control, Marksman, and Acrobat.
Roll 2: 82 or 28, which is Super Strength, Energy Blast, Telekinesis, Psychic Blast, Probability Warp, Energy Manipulation, Thief, and Commando.
Roll 3: 80 or 08, which is Super Strength, Armor, Telekinesis, Clairvoyance, Probability Warp, Energy Blast, Thief, and Acrobat.
Oh my goodness, I think this little thing will be hyper-annoying. It’s small, so I’ll give it Leaping and Acrobat, but for attacks it will rely on Energy Manipulation, allowing it to use a cloud of dirt and grime as an attack. I’ll also use the Improvement on that last power, creating a weak form of darkness around it. For attributes: Physique 10, Prowess 13, Alertness 17, Psychic 12.
Finally, it’s Demon 3’s turn… My last rolls on the DCC Demon tables result in a zombie body that is covered in rot and scales. Just for fun, I’ll say it has the head of a dead fish to justify those scales.
Roll 1: 45 or 54, which is Growth/Shrink, Regeneration, Psychic Sense, Fire Mastery, Force Field, Doctor, and Marksman.
Roll 2: 23 or 32, which is Energy Blast, Energy Immunity, Psychic Blast, Energy Manipulation, and Commando.
Roll 3: 88, which means I can make something up or choose! Great for a last roll to round them out.
I want this last demon to be a bit more of a bruiser, so I’ll give it Regeneration, which is cool for a zombie and means it’s going to be a tough opponent to bring down. For my power-of-choice, I’ll give this thing Vigor, making it even more of a pain in the ass and nigh-unstoppable. Finally, I’ll drop the second roll altogether for Intensive Training, giving it 4 additional attribute points. Those extra points will make it: Physique 18, Prowess 15, Alertness 10, Psychic 19. That gives the thing a Vitality score of a whopping 90, plus Regeneration! Yeesh.
I am officially worried… those are three tough opponents, and they’ll be without Destiny (more on that next Issue). Well, I wanted a final showdown and a final showdown I shall have!
Final question of the day: Was Tatter killed, either by the ritual or arrival of the demons? This is an excellent example of a Fate Question for Mythic GM Emulator. I’ll set the chances that she was killed as Very Likely, or 75%. The roll: 40. She’s dead, alas.
Something went BOOM! from a lower floor, rocking the entire house as if it were a ship striking a rocky shore. Kami and Emah stumbled, and Maly jumped to her feet, eyes wide.
“What was–” she started to ask, and then a wave of… awfulness swept over them. Nausea, sickness, and despair combined into something that felt like a physical wave that rippled through the room. The three of them stumbled again, and even Kura groaned with unease from his bed.
“Something’s happened…” Maly whispered. “Something bad.”
“The ritual?” Kami stammered, her stomach heaving. “Could the priest…?”
“It was still right here the whole time!” Emah gasped. “Come on!”
The three of them pounded down the stairs to the first floor, looking around wildly. In the entryway, blood was everywhere, along with three now-neatly-arranged corpses, but nothing was obviously amiss. With a quick scan, Emah shouted for them to follow and pushed her way down the inner staircase, to the basement.
The basement, Kami realized with wide eyes. Why hadn’t they checked it after the battle? The basement was where the ratfolk had first infiltrated into this house, and where the ratfolk priest in tattered robes had looked to flee. But the City Watch members, with Kami’s aid, had blocked that hole into the underground warrens. The priest must have, box in hand, snuck down to the basement to return to her warrens. Thwarted, had she decided to pursue the ritual there? Or perhaps she’d touched the mummified hand, somehow activating it?
They reached the bottom of the stairs. Kami realized with finality that she would never truly know the answers to her questions.
Whatever had happened before, the basement was now filled with horror.
Next: Issue 5 reflections!
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