Lorn Song of the Bachelor AP - Part I

This is a report from my first session running Zedeck Siew's excellent adventure Lorn Song of the Bachelor.  I will not recount the premise here; you can find that at the link.  Spoilers below, obviously.

Setup


We are using Black Hack 2e.  I offered the players the chance to port over their characters from our Deep Carbon Observatory 2e playtest.  They all took me up on it.  The characters are on a quest to reach one of the things they saw through the telescope at the bottom of the observatory: an afterlife that takes the form of a city of the dead ceaselessly climbing a vast cliff face deep beneath the earth.

Dramatis personae

• Mold Metcash, cleric of Lodite, god of obscurity.  As part of Mold’s priestly initiation, he became ritually lost.  But he became far more lost than the typical initiate, and is no longer sure that he is even on the same plane as his home.  This may mean that Mold has been chosen for great things by Lodite. Mold, however, has no intention of returning home and is content to wander the world as a hapless tourist and a slave to fate.  The Black City is the afterlife for Lodite’s faithful, so he is curious to see it. Favorite spell: speak to animals.
• Wit Tamdoun, teenage thief.  He was an NPC in Deep Carbon Observatory who was taken under the wing of Uxar, the party’s wizard, and indoctrinated into his bizarre search for knowledge.  After Uxar died, the player took over Wit.  Wit wants to reach the afterlife so he can report the secrets he learned in the Observatory to his dead mentor.
• Eve (last name unknown), grown-up thief.  A con artist, possibly a pathological liar.  Loves pretending to care about other people’s problems to get them to do what she wants.  Somewhat impulsive and highly susceptible to reverse psychology.  On the quest because someone told her she couldn’t do it.
• Strawberry Rawlston, the wormomancer.  An NPC in Deep Carbon Observatory who was promoted to PC status after an unfortunate death.  Primarily interested in worms, their lifestyle, habits, experiences, etc.  Excited to meet new worms and learn about them.

Session 1

I tell the party that their journey has taken them further East than any of them have ever gone.  They have made their way to the vast island of Kalamanthana.  The Isles-Like-Precious-Ivory trading company has agreed to give them passage to Sajavedra on the mainland if they can resolve a small difficulty in the territory of the Gleaming Fins, a few day’s journey upriver into the island’s interior.

We open with a random encounter roll.  Kingfishers.  Strawberry notices them watching.  The other party members are socializing with people on the boat.  Then the Bachelor capsizes the boat.  (I didn’t roll doubles, which would dictate that he appears; I just wanted to start with a bang).  Mold casts “speak with animals” and tries to convince the Bachelor to attack another, bigger boat.  “I only need a little snack right now,” he says, and drags Mold’s friend Zarana the navigator down beneath the water.  Mold tries to save her without success.  The party flees to shore.

They are at the cliffs.  Mold and Wit help the crew bring the boat ashore and right it.  Strawberry, suspicious, goes off in search of the kingfishers, but doesn’t find them.  Eve goes up the cliff and listens to the poets singing there.  She meets randomly-generated NPC Vissi si Vissi, who lost his son to the Bachelor and wants revenge.  He tells her that the Bachelor has been killed before and when Eve asks who would know more, tells her to talk to the chief.

With the boat mostly fixed, the party is able to get a ride into town.  Along the way they encounter a single flaming centipede, which I reskin as a worm instead for Strawberry’s sake.  Strawberry casts her speak to worms spell and starts talking to the centipede, who is quite mystified that its prey can talk.  Strawberry realizes that the centipede is losing its body heat as it stays in the water and talks in circles with it until it has to retreat to dry land.  They part on friendly enough terms.  As it leaves, the centipede warns “don’t trust the catfish.”

The village at last.  Mold goes off to investigate the kingfishers, while the rest of the party heads to see the chief, Vartuk si Vartuk.  Vartuk is a jerk and reacts badly to the party’s intent to kill the Bachelor, made worse by Eve’s passive-aggressive needling.  The party learns that there are witches who live in the village, and manage to get the name of Sati wa Sati.  

Mold, meanwhile, has a bizarre interaction with the kingfishers using speak with animals.  I took cues for their personas from the description of their god later on.  They agree to tell Mold why they’re watching the party if Mold pulls off a suitably funny prank for their amusement.

The party reunites. Mold is cagey about what the kingfishers want in case an opportunity arises to prank a party member for the greater good.  They go looking for Sati wa Sati.  They end up talking to another random npc, Arti si Arti.  He’s a Bachelor-worshipping shaman, maybe the worst possible draw for them since he has both professional and religious animosity towards Sati.  Things start bad and rapidly degenerate from there until Strawberry casts charm and uses that to get the way to Sati’s house.  

The party arrives at Sati’s place at dusk, and finally get a good reception.  They learn the song of Vung si Vung, the man who became the Bachelor, and that the Bachelor lives in the Old Ruin.  They buy some random medicine as thanks and go off to look for a place to sleep.

With nightfall it is time for a prank.  Mold has selected the insufferable Arti si Arti as his target.  Mold, Eve, and the (now very sleepy) kingfishers go looking for Arti.  They find him with some other cultists loading a small boat with a large sack filled with something desperately struggling.  Mold and Eve follow the boat into the water, then swim up behind it and capsize it.  The cultists of course think it’s the Bachelor, which the kingfishers find hilarious.  Even funnier is when Mold and Eve rush to rescue the ritual sacrifice, only to discover it’s a large pig.  Mold nonetheless tries to help the pig back to shore - until something grabs onto the pig from below and drags it down into the deep.  Offering accepted after all.  

A deal is a deal, and the kingfishers tell Mold that they are spying on the party because their goddess told them to.  Their goddess is doing the spying because the Thirteen told her to.  And the spying is ultimately on behalf of “him”.  There’s no need to be more specific.  The party discusses whether to start killing the kingfishers on sight.

At long last the party heads to the company compound, where work is finally ending for the night.  They see the tail end of Mahivir the merchant’s negotiation with a desperate local.  Mahivir gives the party a generous 15 seconds of his time before instructing a lackey to set them up in the bunkhouse.  We end the session with them going to sleep.

To be continued...