Session Report II - The Gang Extorts a Man for His House

The party response to a "job board" request, potentially lift a curse, and extort a man for his apartment. 

The Adventuring Party

Jerm (of Perm) - Halfling bard, plays a bone flute, enjoys eviscerating the psyches of his foes with shitty songs.

Reika - Half-elf druid, anarcho-communist, enjoys thrashing foes with thorns and nature magic. (ABSENT)

Gerg - Half-orc rogue (with a whip), large yet sneaky, mostly silent but makes exceptions to grab things with his whip.

Halisstra - Drow rogue, puts up with her "friends" long enough to get what she wants, stabs backs happily. 

Harold Flesh-eater - a small psychic kangaroo/dog hybrid thing that they picked up on a prior adventure (LVL 1-3). He doesn't do much but complain about being hungry, but is happy to eat bodies if given enough time.

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On the morning of their second day in the city, the group awoke to find the ground-floor doors of the Broken Bell Inn shut with heavy iron bars. It was the Day of Desert Feasts, they were told, which meant for the next 24 hours carnivorous lizards would be roaming the streets of the city, eating offerings of fresh livestock. Whatever they did, they were not to venture out at street level. After conversing with some locals, the gang noticed several parchment scraps stuck to a wall near the bar and got leads on several "jobs":

1. Several children have been missing in the area since last night. Please find them.
2. (A bloody scrap of parchment, written hastily) A man may have summoned the Murder Men while drunk. Lift the curse. 
3. A simple request to transport some goods to a nearby neighborhood. 

Our party decided on option 2, as "Murder Men" seemed particularly intriguing and nobody at the bar would give them any information about what this curse entailed. 

The followed the provided directions across the rooftop bridges, buying some rations along the way, and met Gor at his apartment. Gor explained his predicament: while drunk, he attempted to summon the Murder Men by chanting their name, his name, and the names of two business "associates", and then smashing his mirror with his forehead. In his drunken stupor, he had hoped that they would appear to kill him, and then kill the men he was indentured to when they found his body. Upon waking in the morning, he remembered what he had done and panicked. Not knowing how to truly lift the curse, the group figured that mending the mirror would solve the problem. They told Gor they would do so...on the condition that he give them his apartment to stay in as needed. He agreed, also telling the crew that the two men, Vasken and Krawll, were low-ranking members of the White Web, a religious thieve's guild in the city. 

After mending the mirror, and not detecting any residual magic energies, Jerm sent a message via crow to Reika back at the inn to join them. 

Having accomplished their job, and "paid" in the form of a man's apartment, Jerm and Gerg set out to see what was nearby while Halisstra combed through the apartment to find anything of value. Jerm and Gerg were pickpocketed nearby, but managed to catch the thief, who revealed himself to be a White Web initiate (obviously a very poor one). After some coaxing, he revealed the location of a hidden White Web meeting place in the sewer canal in the neighboring district of Cat's Cradle, and also of the object of worship of the guild: a mysterious thieving artifact said to have been used by the God-thief Quizid himself. 

Having this information, the gang released the pickpocket, giving him the formerly-but-potentially-still-cursed-mirror as thanks for the information. 

Zealous Geometers

In a city slowly beginning to flourish with the abnormal and indescribable, the pursuit of pure mathematical reasoning upon which to base the foundations of the world has lead many an academic to utter insanity. These scholars have been left babbling and incoherent wrecks - husks of their former selves.

The Zealous Geometers of Vymrrys represent those men and women for whom this pursuit has reached its conclusion; madness has been transcended and in its place lies cool and calculating logic based on the subtle geometries of the universe. The highest ordained among the Geometers have, in their own minds, discovered the true nature of the world. They have calculated its purest geometrical underpinnings, and reduced all life and all magic to numbers on an infinitely long scroll of parchment. The material plane is but an abstraction to the Zealous Geometer.

The perfect logic of the Zealous Geometers has led them to one conclusion: the material plane must be disintegrated back into its true geometrically perfect form.

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Unlike some of the other cults that have inhabited the Pearlescent City on-and-off for its 10,000 (?) year history, the Zealous Geometers do not take the streets in occasional bouts of bloodshed. They do not, like the babbling Noose of Yal'Sin, create chaos during full moons. And unlike the Blindfolded, they do not pry their own eyes from their heads in acts of fervent worship. By and large, the Geometers confine themselves to their studies, poring over dense, sandy tomes, surrounded by low-burning candles and melted wax. They take up residence in some of the darker, forgotten corners of the Oldest Eye, away from the bustling crowds where they can work in silence and darkness. Here, in their solitary studies, they attempt to determine the proper geometrical calculations that will allow them to dissolve the material plane into its mathematical components.

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While not religious (they don't pray to or recognize any deities) the Zealous Geometers do commune  to chant sections of the near-infinite formula they believe underpins the geometry of all creation. They stand at the corners of their sacred geometry inscribed in the obsidian-stone floor and chant in unison, their black robes barely visible in the candlelight. As they chant among the sacred geometry, the formulae imbue the stone with a magical essence, reconfiguring its shape within and without the structure. Irregular forms grow from the stone, and the building slowly twists and turns through the air, night by night, week by week, year by year, animated by the Geometers' forceful incantations.

Session Report 1 - The Gang Comes to Vymrrys

The party arrives in the city, settles down at an inn, and explores the neighborhood. 

The Adventuring Party

Jerm (of Perm) - Halfling bard, plays a bone flute, enjoys eviscerating the psyches of his foes with shitty songs.

Reika - Half-elf druid, anarcho-communist, enjoys thrashing foes with thorns and nature magic.

Gerg - Half-orc rogue (with a whip), large yet sneaky, mostly silent but makes exceptions to grab things with his whip.

Halisstra - Drow rogue, puts up with her "friends" long enough to get what she wants, stabs backs happily. 

Harold Flesh-eater - a small psychic kangaroo/dog hybrid thing that they picked up on a prior adventure (LVL 1-3). He doesn't do much but complain about being hungry, but is happy to eat bodies if given enough time.

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The party awoke in what seemed to be the middle of a desert, half buried in hot sand, surrounded by scrub and cacti. After digging themselves out and determining that they had no rations or water, they set off headed West, attempting to find animal or caravan tracks. Luckily, after scaling a dune, they saw a small merchant caravan of covered wagons about a mile away. After catching up and explaining their situation (aka totally stranded in some desert unsure of where they are) the caravan leader, Lilit Eeben, allowed them to hop aboard and hitch a ride to Vymrrys (the city where the majority of this campaign will take place). 

Lilit proved to be kind and helpful, giving the party a bit of information about where they were and where they were headed. She even offered to put them up in her Inn for a night until they could find work or more secure lodging. 

A day later they arrived, through the giant, fanged gate that merchants from the East use, in Vymrrys. Here, the gang took some time to scrub the sand out of their armor and clothing, and prepared to find some work. They explored to find the nearest open-air market, where Reika bought some food for the party. Gerg took this time to find the neighborhood library, tucked away in the cool shade of the city wall, and being himself, managed to sneak out with a few stolen books, unbeknownst to the snake-men librarians. Unfortunately, none of the books he managed to steal have come in handy yet. Halisstra used her time to meditate and calm her rage at having mysteriously appeared so far from home. Jerm and Harold made some coin by entertaining locals at the market, though a guard approached Jerm and informed him that the forest-green piping on his tunic was a violation of local sumptuary laws. He was forced to remove it and perform half-naked. Reika also stumbled across the neighborhood apothecary, keeping the location in mind for future potion-making endeavors. 

As the sun set on their first full day in the city, the sandstone towers sparkled in a way they had never seen before. The inner mineral pearlescence of the stone itself seemed to shift as it caught the dwindling rays of light. Having oriented themselves to this small slice of the city, they returned to the Broken Bell Inn to drink and chat with the locals. Reika tried hopelessly to hit on Lilit, who seemed too consumed in her work as well as other personal matters, to be so quickly seduced. 

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The first session was slow and contemplative, with the gang exploring their first slice of the city. They had a great time learning more about the local culture and customs, and feel they are adequately prepared to seek out work next session. Gerg was especially interested in the architecture. This urbancrawl campaign is being run using some slightly modified 5e rules, with additions from other sources such as Vornheim by Zak S. Since his book was such a huge influence on my style, I wanted to also name my city with a "V". Corny, I know. 

Introduction to Smash the Dungeon

To whomever are the first readers of this blog,

Hi! I'm Jesse, a tabletop/video game RPG enthusiast from Philadelphia, in my mid 20's. I've started this blog to help me catalogue my DnD-related ideas, write up session reports of one or more of my weekly games, thoughts on RPGs as a whole, and potentially reviews of DnD-related products. I've only been playing tabletop RPGs for about a year now, and DMing for around 4 or 5 months. But I've been heartily consuming related media for most of my life, and so have had lots of ideas stored away for later use. I'm a big fan of both 5th edition DnD as well as some of the OSR systems such as Lamentations of the Flame Princess and Labyrinth Lord. I hope that anyone reading in the future might find my contributions useful, or at least thought-provoking enough to help one do their own creating. 

At the moment, I'm not sure who this will be for or even if anyone will be reading it, but it felt like a good idea, so here we go...