Campaigns: City of the Damned: Ep 2 – The Celestial Flare

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:07:45 — 62.0MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS

Hello and welcome to the Campaigns, the Actual Play Podcasts from The Rpg Academy. I am Michael and this is the second in a special series of the Campaigns.

This whole adventure, which i’m calling The Cursed City of Kalamot, or City of the Damned, is based on my Synergy concept of using a pack of Magic The Gathering cards to inspire a game.  Once all the episodes are out i’ll share the outline I wrote and used as my adventure guide.

We had an audio issue (I know, I know) where I just forgot to hit record. I remembered an hour or so into the game.  So, we don’t pick up right where we left off. The PC’s started off still in the holding area with a crazed blood and gore covered guard trying to batter his way into their cell. They were able to take him out and the Wizened Goblin in the third cell told them he would help them out of the city if they agreed to help him, help the city. They agreed. He pulled a lantern from the folds of his cloak. It looked like a red glob of lava was floating inside and it cast an odd red light. As long as they were in this light, they were invisible to the the people in the city.

Once above ground they saw that all the people in the city were actually monsters, and apparently this time that was stolen, one of the 13 Wizard Balls, called the ball of Miracles, was the only thing keeping them from changing and without they are attacking each other.

The Goblin took them to the swamp and got them on a skiff and told them to find a temple in the swamp and get the Celestial Flare and bring it back. That would calm things down long enough for them to go get the Ball of Miracles .

They set off and found this temple. It was overrun with Yuan-ti. They fought off and killed couple sentries and then made their way inside.

We pick up this episode with them taking shelter and resting up after killing a couple of these Yuan-ti.

1. Evan is playing a Wizard named Belial.  HIs Wizard is Atypical in that his power comes from a magical artifact he found while hunting/trapping in the woods. His Wizard’s Ball is based on the Wizard’s Glasses from the Stephen King series, The Dark Tower.  Mechanically, this is all just fluff, but in the game the Ball he found has taught him how to cast spells, but he can only cast them through the ball (he can still cast his cantrips without the ball, but that is it).  Evan’s PC (at the time, unnamed) feels like the Ball has been pushing him to leave their current town. Possibly to find another of this items.

2. Dustin is playing a Monk name Ando.  Dustin was a commoner who became injured and was taken to a monastery for healing. Once there he adopted their ways and became a student of Ang.  He became a favored student.  A schism was beginning to grow in the monastery concerning the future of their ways as Ang became ill. Ang summoned for the scrolls he had based his teachings off of to be brought to settle the schism but they were stolen on the way up the mountain. No one saw anything, but when they opened the locked case, all they found was an obsidian Tiger’s paw left in their place.

3. Nick is playing a Bard named Carter. His PC’s parents are part of a gypsy band of traveling performers. His Mother and Father are both very accomplished performers and musicians.  Nick’s Character was hoped to be a prodigy but never quite took to music/performing as his family. When he was quite young, his parents adopted a young child left on the side of the road. This new son, Scott, excelled at music and performing, quickly outshining Nick’s PC.  When he was old enough, Nick’s PC left his family and hopes to someday return having amassed fame and fortune to outshine Scott.

4. Travis is playing a Half-Orc Cleric named Glug. His Domain is War.  Travis wants to play him as a man caught between two inner conflicts. The human side of him wants peace, but the Orc side craves blood and war.  When he was first indoctrinated into the church one of his duties was to assist the Brewmaster. Over time his PC became a Brewer in his own rite.  He now spends his time in the world searching for new ingredients to try and perfect his signature draft.