Last updated June 3rd, 2008

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Game Summary

Introduction

How long was it, I wonder, that I wanted to run a campaign in Ancient Greece before Mediterranean Plotluck finally began? I'm thinking back to at least September/October 2007, when I played in a local Mage: The Ascension adventure and thought how cool it would be to play Mage in Ancient Greece (AG). Before then, I'm not sure how long I'd thought about running an AG campaign.

I can tell you that the influence of Greek mythology played heavily on me as I worked to redesign the system that DEEP SEKH uses. I was working the background material into the foreground, while I worked on streamlining the system. Somehow, I never unwound the two from each other -- DEEP SEKH and Ancient Greece, so the two stuck together, and now I can continue to develop the setting while I run this game.

Overview

Episode 1

Date: February 2nd, 2008

The game begins with an action sequence. We see Ackrak, Ghamor, and Seikius fighting off several brutish bugbear pirates that have boarded their ship. Ghamor stops Ackrak and Seikius from slaying the pirates, suggesting they instead take the bugbears as slaves, which was the pirates' intent of them. We then go to the opening credits of the show. =P

The prologue sees a montage of our heroes, Ackrak, Ghamor, and Seikius, along with two others, Omelete and Xero being met by gift-laden messengers, traveling to a country estate, and meeting with their mysterious benefactor, Itrix. Itrix takes the five on a tour of his beautiful family estate and introduces them to his wife and children, notably his eldest daughter, Liola.

We then see the party around a table as Itrix is talking, apparently discussing some kind of business venture. We overhear the words "the best thing since pressed olives." Whatever they are talking about, it must be a fabulous undertaking. The men laugh together and adjourn for the evening.

An unknown amount of time passes. We see the party together on the deck of a ship as they take a tour of some nearby islands. Night falls. The men (the party, plus Omelete and Xero) toast to Itrix and prepare to adjourn for bed when they overhear a ruckus coming from a nearby ship -- apparently a party on a "pleasure cruise." The partier's ship drifts nearer and a beautiful woman on deck waves the group over to join them.

Examples of ships

The ships pull alongside one another and Ackrak, Ghamor, Seikius, Seikius's student, and Itrix all go aboard the pleasure ship. Seikius and his student engage in a display of their martial prowess, pretending to brawl when they are, in fact, merely sparring. Ghamor makes side bets amongst the partiers, and garners a small amount of gold when Seikius defeats his own student in a showy display, enhanced by Ghamor's illusion magic.

With the performance over, the beautiful hostess extends a "special invitation" for the party to remain aboard to enjoy her company, and the company of her equally-beautiful friends. Seikius and his student decline and return to Itrix's ship while Ackrak, Ghamor and Itrix go below with the women. Once deep within the bowels of the ship, the women lure the the men into a back room, where they are cornered by a strange, robed man armed with a bladed oar.

The robed man lunges at Itrix and impales the man, causing him to slump back against the bulkhead. The three women that lured them below all leap on Itrix, and began gnawing at his flesh while he is still alive. He groans for help while the robed man shuts the door and prepares to strike next at Ackrak and Ghamor. One of the women leaps at Ackrak, who strikes her down with his greataxe. In a burst of flame, her flesh melts off her bones, leaving only a flaming skeleton, which continues to assault Ackrak. Ackrak and Ghamor dispatch the fearsome creature and then turn their attention to the robed man.

Seikius, sensing danger, quickly arrives on the scene, providing a flanking position for the party. After a few well-placed blows, the robed man is wounded, and with a mighty crash, Ackrak sends the man's body through the floor with a chop from his greataxe. Moments later, five fat tentacles burst from the deck below, and the real battle begins. The hostess and the other woman wail in despair, and are smashed through the side of the ship by one of the tentacles -- the party also loses sight of Itrix's body and he is assumed lost.

One great big eye is visible from the deck below, and Seikius launches himself down at the beast, while Ackrak contends with the individual tentacles and protects Ghamor from attack. Seikius manages to land blow after blow on the creature, causing it to screech with pain and finally collapse from its wounds. As Seikius stands victorious over the creature, it becomes enraged and lunges at him with a mouth full of teeth, missing him, but tearing a hole through the ship's hull, flooding the deck with water.

Seikius is knocked unconscious, but Ackrak and Ghamor manage to pull him free and haul him up on the main deck as the ship begins to sink. The surviving partiers (those who survived the monster's damage to the ship) throw themselves from the ship, while Ghamor grabs a few items of value. With the ship slowly sinking, and Itrix's ship nowhere in sight, the party manages to cobble together a raft and escape from the sinking vessel.

Thinking themselves safe, the party is surprised by another assault from the tentacled monster. Ackrak is only too happy to lay into the beast with a final blow from his axe, sending the creature to the murky depths of the sea. Their raft now in tatters, the party drifts for an unknown amount of time before eventually reaching the shore of a strange island of stone...

Quotes

The first session was very silly. The plank jokes just kept coming ... and coming. Also, we had a ton of laughs over the "combat test pirates" while we tried to work out combat via webcams and maps. The many mini joke came from all the indistinguishable figures I was working with.

ANONYMOUS

Many mini foo foo.

The plank has wood.

> Is it hard wood?

I pimp-slap the plank.

Do you feel lucky, plank?

You going to plank me, man?

You keep that plank away from me!

NICK

You were attacked by random combat test pirates... and a plot hole sank the pirate ship.

Lifeboats? There aren't any lifeboats. This is "BLB" ... Before Life Boats.

Game Review

...

EXP by Player

ACKRAK gets experience...

• For the bugbear's fumble in the beginning -- stabbing himself in the eye with his own hook; it was the already-bad eye (eye patch).
• For getting the last swipe at the tentacle monster before it smashed the raft.

GHAMOR gets experience...

• For smacking the most asses of anyone in the party.

SEIKIUS gets experience...

• For the bugbear pirate that survived his coup de grace (Poseidon spared its life).
• For, quote: "killing everything."

EXP by GM

...

Next Session

Date: February 9th, 2008

Link: mp080209