Planescape Demo Stories

Here is a run down of my first experience with the Planescape Demo I ran at a local gaming convention. I posted this in another thread but in a wider context with information on the convention overall. I though since it is a campaign story I maybe should have split the posts and put half of it here. Rather than do that I will just repost the campaign story and post further stories from my demos in this thread as well.

Here is a picture of the session at the convention

http://www.d.umn.edu/~kros0034/planescape/

My event was scheduled for 5:00 pm and as 4:55 rolled around I began to worry as no players nor my semi assistant (with his wife) had shown up yet. I began to wonder around a bit trying to see who was interested in playing and found a few maybes. It started to close in on 5:30 my semi assistant showed up with his wife and I went back to check on the maybe people. My semi assistant was involved in helping me create characters and making sure I was ready to run 3rd edition. I was only able to snag one of 4 maybes as EVIL Hero Clix snapped them up with better swag. But I was able to get the game judge for Doom the Board game to play as no one showed up for his second session after he filled up in the first one.

Anyway starting about 6:45 we had a part of 4 people with one NPC ready to wander the planes a little bit. The only character unused was Nuthus the Khaasta as I convinced my assistant to play Bark Leaf instead so her healing staff would be useful to the party. I suppose it would have worked with the illusionist sharing his healing potions but him being my assistant and getting in cheaper for it I had him play the druid.

The party was as follows

Bark Leaf 6th level Shad Druid Female NG (has nice magical staff)
Cubed 5th Level Rouge Modron Fighter TN No Sex (played as an NPC)
Fek Rezni 7th level Nathri Illusionist Male NG
Jalen Open Plains 3rd Level Bariaur Barbarian Male CG
Sarah (Asp) 6th Level Tiefling Rouge Female CG
Nuthus 0 Level Khaasta Male CG (Was not part of the party this game)

The start of the adventure in part because we were running short on time was the party all just happen to be seeking work escorting an Ale caravan to Slyvania from Sigil. It’s extremely popular and expensive (for ale) so guards are justified. All the characters sign the contract and head out with the driver. After they leave Sigil they open the bag the brewery owner gave them “that would provide information” and listen to the opening track of the mimir explaining what it does.

Bark Leaf the Druid is really freaked out by the skull and after hearing the recording starts a discussion on whether to toss the mimir away because there is a line that if the mimir is stolen bounty hunters are out looking for it already. This takes about 20 minutes real life time to get resolved and they decide not to toss the mimir away. Bark Leaf the druid starts to mess with Cubed the modron trying to convince it of crazy laws that exist but is frustrated and settles for feeding the modron random things like grass, acorns, and at one time a rock.

Once they arrive in Slyvania they find the bar easily and deliver the goods and meet an interesting fellow with a bag who is really quiet drinking and offers them work escorting him. The Bar owner comes back pays them and tells them to “get this guy out of the bar and help him if that’s what it takes to get him to leave”. Well at this point the characters discover that the magical contract they signed did not disappear to end the pact. They have a small discussion outside and realize that most likely they need to take the job with the mysterious fellow to fulfill it because at the end it said take care of any of the other requests of the bar owner. Bark Leaf decides to get the bar owner to tell them they don’t have to help this man on his escort but is rebuffed with the bar owner saying he really dislikes magical stuff.

The party discovers that the man wants them to guide him to the Abyss and take over a fortress to help destroy a wand that he stole from a Tanari in Sigil that is “hurting his race”. This is an adventure hook from the Planes of Chaos that I added encounters to. Anyway one of them lets it slip that they are magically bound to help this guy so he gets more confident and starts talking to them like they are already hired. Heading for a gate that transports them to Rib Cage a half day’s travel out of town.

They have no incidents getting to the gate in Plague Mort and once they are in the Abyss the party starts to get a little worried about exactly what they got themselves into. They use the want to get inside the fortress where they defeat 5 body guards and find the rest of the keep unguarded. At this point the man goes into the main room to destroy the wand when he is in fact a Githzerai hoping to start a second stronghold for his race outside of their native plane.

The Party goes about setting oil lines, caltrop traps, and other defenses centered on protecting the room that the man is in. The Party defends the castle for about 3 days (3 small battles (2-3 demons), 2 medium sized battles (4-5 demons) and then due to the game getting started late we have reached 10;15 and are told it closes at 10:00. So we quickly finish up as the characters were just getting to confront the man over what he was doing. Once it is revealed he lied to them the contract disappears because one of the conditions was being the characters had to believe he was truthful.

They decided to abandon him rather than face the ever growing army outside the keep and those that keep sneaking in with small numbers. They find another portal out (or rather Cubed did0 on the far side of the keep that does not need the wand. Also it is likely the Tarnari never knew it was there because it goes to the Astral and the spell key is a free lawful creature. This was supposed to be the halfway or one third point depending on how fast they decided to bail however because of the late start it turned out to the end of the session.

My second Sunday session only had one person show up so I decided not to run but I did promise him and a few others I would run the same adventure (Full Version) as a Demo at local Gaming Store, Robin Goodfellow. So there will be at least one if not two more times to run these characters and test them a little better to see how they work. I think I am going to add 2 or 3 more before I run the demo so players have even more options or heck maybe somehow the session will be massively popular….

I also gave out about 20 ¼ sheet flyers and one big flyer to each of my players. There were 3-4 people who were really interested besides my players who might check it out as well as a game store employee who was glad to hear about 3rd edition PS because he is running a campaign right now that goes to the inner planes a lot.

Below are a few pictures Collectors Connection Gaming store snapped and are likely going to use for advertising next years convention.