Planescape: The Chronicles of Chaos

Hi folks. This is a minibog of my new Planescape Campaign. It pre-faction war using alternative mechanic, a discussion of which can be found here.

The Players
Toari - Female Cat folk hunter from the Beastlands
Kyrian - Noble human Radiance monk from Sigil
Kyrtaan - Noble human shadow weaver from Sigil
Theared - Noble prime elf assassin

Kyrtaan and Kyrian are twin brothers from the house of Lucian, a noble family from The Lady's Ward.

And so it begins....

Toari, a cat folk hunter form the Beastlands makes a drop to SeamusXanthusZenus. He gives the big hunter, all 5’4” of her, a little note, offering work in Sigil for a couple of days from a cutter named Shar-cor in the Fortunes Wheel. The meet date’s at peak tomorrow…

Meanwhile, the young human Sigil noble, Kyrian, of the House of Lucian and of The Athar, is down at the shattered temple patching up a few namers that rattled their bone boxes a little too much in front of a paladin of Tyr is given a job from one of his high-ups to head over to the Fortunes Wheel at peak tomorrow for a job the Lost need to see done, telling him to meet with a basher named Shar-cor

Finally, within the Fortunes Wheel itself, a Clueless is making himself heard across the bar. An Elf, noble supposedly, is rattling is bone box off at a Tiefling sitting at the bar with him. He goes by the name Theared Sabbtin, a ‘distant’ cousin form a prime to the Sabbins that make their home within the Lady’s Ward. The Tiefling has small horns, pure red eyes and faint scales to his skin. The basher goes by the name Shar-cor, a shady sort, but well spoken and has enough respect that people don’t seem to mind him too much within the Wheel. In the end, Shar-cor offers an ‘interesting’ little jaunt that Theared might find interesting and tells him to come back to the Wheel at peak tomorrow.

Just before peak the next day, Kryian arrives first at the Wheel and greets Shar-cor, who has a table waiting off in a corner. Toari arrives shortly afterwards, and is again directed to the table, were she introduces herself to the human. A short time after peak, Theared returns to the Wheel, loud, as always, and walks other and greets Shar-cor and the other two. Shar-cor begins but is interrupted as a shadowy ‘portal’ opening in mid air and a human flies out, head first into the bar stools and for a moment, the bar goes silent, then it quickly gets back to normal.

Kyrian walks other the stranger to find that it is his lost twin brother, badly wounded, but alive. Healing him and bringing his half conscious brother other to the table, Shar-cor seems surprised, but is introduced to the brother, Kyrtaan. Shar-cor deciedes that any cutter that can use teleportation magic like that could be useful for the up coming job, so invites Kyrtaan to the job as well.

Shar-cor tells them that the Dustmen are having ‘problems’ as dead bodies keep reappearing in Sigil and that he wants to find out why and stop it if possible. The ad hoc group accept the job. Shar-cor buys them lunch before they start. Shemeska takes the opportuntity to invite the still pale Krytaan other for a short chat. She seems interested in the young pale man, as she is no fool and recognises a portal when she sees one and also is damn sure that there isn’t a portal where Kyrtaan came flying out of. Kyrtaan is polite and agrees to come back and talk to her again when he ahs finished his current employment. After lunch, the ad hoc group head out towards the Mortuary.

At the Mortuary, they go inside and speak to an old human named Jacos. After some discussion, he gives in and tells them of the problem. After another round of persuasion, he allows the group to head down to the portal level to see what they can learn, but insists on a ‘guide’ to go with them and gets the namer Windle.

Going downstairs, they find everything in working order, but as they speak with Windle about the problem, a wave of magic flows across the room and the zombie’s begin to move towards the group and ignore the commands of Windle and attack him. The group fight off the rogue zombies and protect Windle, Toari cutting apart several with her scimitar, while Theared uses two wickedly curved daggers to slice open several more and Kyrtaan calls forth living shadows to assail the undead. Kyrain protects and heals the badly injured Windle.

4.10.06

After the attack, more Dustmen come running down the stairs and accuse the group of murder, as Windle lies unconscious but alive on the floor. Another Dustmen joins them form the shadows and orders the group killed. The dustmen quickly attack but are themselves put in the dead book. The lead Dustmen, who calls himself Nicoli, is captured by Toari. The group talk to their ‘prisoner’ and find that Jacos has been murder and Nicoli accuses the group of it and also points to the unconscious body of Windle. He uses that distraction to dimension door away. Moments later, a large contingent of Dustmen come down the stairs and demand an explanation. After talking it other and being allowed to investigate the dead body of Jacos, it turns out that the original group of Dustmen that attacked them were not true Dustmen and are thought to be Anarchs. Nicoli is not found within the Mortuary and as he was only with them for a few months, its assumed that he was also a plant by the Anarchs. Looking through the dead zombies for any clues, the group find roughly cut white crystals within the rogue zombies. The Dustmen claim they are not the ‘usual’ treatment.

Leaving the Mortuary, they go to investigate some of the clues, splitting up. Kyrtaan goes to the Lower ward in disguise. Going to several different kips, he wines up at the Retched Succubus in the Lower Ward. There he meets a Succubus. She doesn’t other her name, nor does he ask for it, but she offers to put him in touch with some Anarchs if he’ll owe her a ‘small’ favour. Kyrtaan accepts and half hour later, he sits down in the same tavern to chat with a Drow, again no name, but they begin discussing Kyrtaan ‘useful’ skills, but are interrupted when a hooded figure rushes into the bar and needs to speak with the Drow. Krytaan recognises the face within the hood as Nicoli . He makes a deal with the creature and she puts he into contact with an Anarch. After the Drow finishes with Nicoli, he sends Krytaan away as he quickly leaves the Retched Succubus.

Meanwhile, Kyrian heads to the Armoury in search of information on the Anarchs. A namer there points him towards another namer of theirs currently drinking in the Grog and Cog. He meets Jaan, an dirty looking Assimar. After a brief discussion, Kyrian strikes a deal with him, using his family connections to get a Batorian Green Steel sword for Jaan and Jaan tells him about Nicoli, who is really a Githyanki Anarch called Xanderos and where his kip was.

Meanwhile, Toari and Theared go to the Great Bizarre to ask about the crystals. They speak with Siblin, a Dungar. Theared, being rather pompus and arrogant insults the ‘short’ Dugar, who responds by climbing up on his stoll and kicking the leatherheaded elf in the head. Theared almost attacks him in response but Toari stops him and sorts things out. After a little bit more jink that what a random crystal was really worth, it turns out that a few months back a basher called Nicoli stopped by with a load of jink and grabbed a couple dozen similar roughly cut crystals.

The ad hoc group all return to the Fortunes Wheel and discuss their discoveries, plans and briefly speak to Shar-cor again, updating him on what they have found out. After lunch, the group set out to the barracks, where they request a man catcher, which surprisingly, the hard heads give to em as they were expecting the group. The group then make they way back into the center of The Lady’s Ward to a small, but well kept kip. Kyrtaan and Toari manage to get into a first story window, Kyrain and Thered go round the front, with Theared wielding the man catcher. Xanderos meets them at the door, Kyrian opening negoations by punching him square in the face. The group quickly subdue the Githyanki necromancer. Krytaan and Toari search the house and find simple plans pertaining to the use of the crystals. The group return to the barracks andf hand other Xanderos to the hard heads. The hard heads give the group a little jink for their troubles. Afterwards, they head back to the Fortunes Wheel to find Shar-cor waiting for them. After explaining the dark of the whole situation, Shar-cor gives the group some more jink, thanks them and leaves the Wheel. After having a meal on Shar-cor, the ad hoc group leave the Wheel, apart from Kyrtaan, and head their separate ways. Kyrtaan, before retiring for the night, goes and sits down with Shemeska and tells her some of what they had been doing, though Kyrtaan had spent long enough in dark places to know not to give to much to fiends for free….

11.10.06

After heading back to their own kips, a little after anit peak, each one of them is attacked. Their attackers are Dustmen. Toari fights her’s off and puts him in the dead book pretty quick, though he does manage to hit her with some kind of necromantic ray and rot part of her chest away. She decides its best to take the Dustmen back to the Mortuary to avoid suspicion. After a little walk she gets to the mortuary, where one of the guards on door duty recognizes the dead body as a Dustmen of some 60 years. Getting someone higher up then himself to talk to Toari, the Dustment refuse to let her try to investigate the murder of one of their own, as Toari sticks with the line of finding the poor sod in an ally. Meanwhile, at the Fortunes Wheel, Kyrtaan is attacked by a large, burly human wearing Dustmen robes. He quickly flees using his shadow magic to appear in the main room of the Wheel, but the human is quick to come looking, so he jumps again to a nearby dark alley and watches his attacker wonder off into the dull night. He decides its best to find another tavern for the rest of the night and heads into the Guildhall. Kryian, at home at his family’s manor house within The Lady’s Ward, is suddenly woken by the sound of teleport magic, as a Teifling wearing Dustmen robes appears in his room and jumps him holding two knives. Kyrian first tries to talk to the bramy, but sees his eyes glazed other, so with his training of unamred combat and divine magic from the unknowable, Kyrian reluctantly kills his attacker, finishing him with a conjured blade of fire into the Tielfing’s throat. He then calls up the household servants and send runners to the Barracks and to the Fortunes Wheel, forgetting that his family know nothing of his brothers return and so sending rumours flying through his families household staff. The Harmonium arrive and take Kyrian’s story and take the body with them and leave for the night. Theared, staying elsewhere within The Lady’s Ward, as he’s not really welcome in the Wheel anymore, is also attacked by a human wearing dustmen robes. Theared, easily opens the sod’s neck up. Seeing as he just killed a Dustmen or possibly an Anarch, he decides that things are getting a little to interesting at the moment and decides to go visit some more of his extended family, somewhere other than Sigil.

As morning comes around, Toari heads to the Barracks to try and sort things out before they get out of hand. Kryian is meet leaving his home by a Harmonium patrol and is asked nicely if he would come with them to the Barracks for ‘further’ investigations to the attack last night. Meeting at the Barracks, Toari and Kyrian find out they and Theared and Krytaan, are up on charges of murdering four members of the Dustmen, all of whom were real members of the faction it would seem. They are told that they are to be taken to Courts just before anti peak, but the Hard Heads seem to be on their side and although they do have to detain them for a few hours, they don’t bother to search them or take their weapons away.

Kyrtaan contacts his brother via his shadow magic, whispering into his brothers ear, and finds out what is happening, though he doesn’t know Theared is. Kyrtaan heads other to the Courts early to find out which Judge they will get. It turns out that it will be Haksaw, an old Orc of the Guvners, who’s guff nature and distain for politics has given him a harsh but honest reputation within Sigil. Kyrtaan disguises himself and heads into the Courts to wait for his brother’s trial.

Being walked to the Courts, Kyrian spots his parents within the crowds, who cant even meet his eyes. Within the Court, things do not go well, seemingly the Dustmen having forgotten the groups previous efforts and even going so far as to get the Guvners to agree for the ‘incident’ not to be spoken of within the public court room. Eventually, with some strong points from Kyrian himself, Haksaw rules that the four of them, even though two are not present, have 24 hours to prove themselves innocent, otherwise the Harmonium and the Mercykillers will hunt them down.

Leaving the Courts, Kyrtaan meets Kyrian and Toari. They discuss their options and what happened to each other the night before. Krytaan raises the point that he didn’t kill his attackers, so someone else did. Kyrtaan tells them how he got in contact with the Anarchs, mentioning a female demon, as they believe it is the Anarchs that are setting them up. After some time, the brothers decide to head to the Gathering Dust bar near the Mortuary to ask about the Dustmen that attacked them and Toari heads to the Retched Succubus to look out for the Drow. Kyrtaan advises his brother to go in disguise, as a human with pale skin, silver white hair and grey eyes stands out, even in a place like Sigil. However, Kyrian instead merely walks into the Gathering Dust, hoping that his words of peace will be enough. It isn’t, as the Dustmen within the bar, ie every basher in there, rises to their feet as he walks in and jumps him. Luckily, Krytaan was also in the bar and uses his command over shadows to ensure the legs of the angry Dustmen. Cooling off their heads, they agree to hear Kyrian out. They learn that the four Dustmen were all in the bar at different times the previous evening and that they al left with different females, all of which were somehow fiendishly tainted. Kyrian leaves the Gathering Dust. After a more subtle approach to information gathering than his brother, disguised as a Dustment, Kyrtaan also leaves and heads to the Retched Succubus to meet with Toari.

Leaving the Gathering Dust, Kyrian takes things the wrong way, thinking that a female fiend organising women to steal dustmen must have something to do with Shemeska, he heads for the Fortunes Wheel. Though he is quite polite, he does put a foot wrong, and though Shemeska cant get him to spy on his brother’s unusual talents, she still tries to use him to get hold of some soul crystals, but he refuses and leaves, hoping never to have to speak to her again and hurries off to the Retched Succubus.

Kyrtaan leaves the Gathering Dust and once more, Kyrtaan uses the shadows to disguise himself as he heads into the lower ward. As he is walking there, out the a shadowy alley appears the Succubus from the bar. After playing some words games with each other, she asks Kyrtaan’s alter ego to replay the favour. She wants him to interfere with the brothers of House Lucian and their friends, until the deadline is up. Kyrtaan agrees and parts with the Succubus and continues to the bar. As he is arriving, just before reaching the door, his brother, Kyrian, comes flying out, slamming into the opposite wall across the street. Shaking is head, as his brother picks himself up, Kyrtaan walks in, followed shortly by Kyrian. Kyrian doesn’t recognise his brothers disguise and merely sits back at the bar and tries once more to order a drink. The Loth that threw him out he first time rises once more and beings advancing on Kyrian, but some clever words from a Tielfing defuse the situation. The Tielfing, offers the human a drink and asks for him to sit at a table with him. The Tiefling makes some talk and also references an instance from Kyrian’s past, telling Kyrian that it is in fact Kyrtaan in disguise. Unfortunately, Kyrian isn’t a player of such games and almost gives the game away, sort Kyrtaan takes him into a private room to discuss business. There Kyrtaan tells his brother of the favour for the Succubus and they create the plan to set her up. Kyrian then leaves the bar in a fit of rage, supposedly just acting, but even to the bloods of the bar, it seemed pretty real. Kyrtaan then motions Toari to come into the room for more business discussion. He fills her in on the plan. She is to wait in the bar for the Drow, then trail him to see where he goes.

Kyrtaan then heads out of the bar and contacts the Succubus and sets up a meet in an hour or so at the Blue Flame, a bar on the edge of the Hive ward. Toari has some luck and the Drow drops by the Retched Succubus, but only for a few minutes before he heads off again. Toari follows him, and he eventually gets to the Armoury and disappears in. Toari sets up a watch to cover the main gates, but after an hour or so, she gives up.

Meanwhile, at the Blue Flame, Kyrtaan waits in an upstairs room while Kyrian waits in the bar to be on the look out for the Succubus. Unfortunately, she walks straight past him as she has used magic to make herself appear to a be tainted Norse woman so to fit in with the majority of the crowd at the Blue Flame, of Norse men and dwarfs, as the Blue Flame is near many of the forges within the Hive. Meeting Kyrtaan upstairs, he makes small talk as he subtly uses his magics to contact his brother. Kyrian once more knocks on a door, where upon opening he punches the person on the other side straight in the face, which was a female Norse women this time. The cries of a women bring the men from the bar to the stairs, but as the brothers fight her, her disguise falls away and the men see her for what she is. They manage to fight her, though it did cost both of them a kiss, has she tried to use her foul magics on both of them.

The brothers take the unconscious form of the Succubus down and out of the tavern, meeting Toari just outside. They then set out towards the Barracks to clear their names. However, on the way back, they cross paths with a priestess of Loth and her guards. She demands they hand other the Succubus as she will use it to find the wayward male Drow that has been seen with it. Eventually, the priestess insults the party and Kyrtaan responds with the comment “But isn’t your God just a big talking spider?” This is the final straw and the priestess orders her guards to kill the group. The fight is quick but painful, but the group are loft standing and the priestess is in the dead book, the Succubus still unconscious on the floor.