Lankhmar #2: thief! stop!

Session two in a second campaign to my main rural/medieval Belswick one. This one is a city campaign following the adventures of three people of the rogueish persuasion as they navigate the joys and perils of the great city of Lankhmar.

Lankhmar on the river Hlal, greatest city of Nehwon and home to uncountable secrets!

 

ADVENTURE

DCC Masks of Lankhmar, a two-part adventure by Dungeon Crawl Classics. I added material for my home game - will do a review after the group completes the module.

CHARACTERS

• XALO, nosy and curious gnome warlock with trouble understanding the concept of ownership; read a weird book once and is able to cast spells - and take someone's dying breath to strengthen herself.
• SIX BURDEN, half-drow rogue: a thin reed of an orphan who grew up in Lankhmar and knows every little shortcut through its mazy streets. Not a member of the Thieves' Guild, but surely that can only be a matter of time?
• BUNTY, half-orc druid who wants nothing more than to start a bakery and learn how to make the wonderful sour and hard-crusted bread she once got from a passing merchant.

SUMMARY

The trio convince Igris the Collector that they can prevent his beautiful new acquisition - a golden key - from being stolen by the Thieves' Guild; hatch a plan to stand watch during Igris' masqued ball; confront two thieves and their bodyguards from the Slayers' Guild; and are all horribly surprised when a third party takes the Golden Key from the supposedly impenetrable vault, leading to a wild chase across the city until their quarry mysteriously escapes from a walled-off alley. At least the characters manage to recover half of the Golden Key, which turns out to be hollow and contains a rolled up parchment inside...

HIGHLIGHTS

Xalo hatching a wildly complex plan to break into a bakery for the party's breakfast; Six Burden just waiting for the inevitable chaos and walking out with a still-warm apple pie.

The entire party subverting the module's plan ("you all meet in a cellar while you are trying to rob Igris the Collector") because I just had to insert a starting scene showing where the group got the intel for this heist in the first place. "Why don't we offer Igris to stop the thieves that are going to rob him instead?" They turned a heist into a castle defence scenario just like that!

Six Burden and Bunty tag-teaming Igris over second breakfast. They not only negotiate a reward of 20gp each when they manage to successfully prevent the robbery, but also secure longer-term employment as Igris' retrievers of other historical curiosities. Privately-employed thieves, the Thieves' Guild will love that... 

Bunty and Xalo negotiating side deals: 

• Bunty wants to talk with Igris' baker to see if that guy knows the origins of the sour bread Bunty craves (nope, but does know where it may come from: the bakers in either Kvarch Nar, Ool Hrusp or Sarheenmar, three of the Eight Cities across the Inner Sea.)
• Xalo wants access to Igris' library to see if there's any exciting magic to be found there. Instead, she gets a travelogue with handy phrases and sights across the long caravan route from Igris' home city of Kiraay, all the way to Lankhmar, to keep her busy during the stake-out later in the day.

Xalo sneaking off to inspect the new construction that will add to Igris' mansion; an octagonal tower laced with magical wards and conduits, all leading to a ritual chamber at the very top. It's going to be interesting to get in there when the tower is operational!

The party joining the masqued ball as servants, checking out the high and mighty coming to rub elbows:

• Igris the Collector, as be-turbaned vizier from his far city of Kiraay;
• Lord Rannash, a severe-looking man in leathers, a cruel helmet and a riding whip;
• Demoiselle Hisvin, the daughter of Hisvin the grain merchant; a platinum blonde wisp of a girl in sheer silks, silver chainlets and a rat's mask, and her dark-skinned, imperious servant woman in golden slave bands and a lion's mask;
• ...and many important looking merchants, sages, minor nobles and ladies and gentlemen of the night to keep them all company.

Xalo hiding under the stairs into the cellar, where the vault is. Cunningly, she uses her prestidigitation magic to mark the soles of the kitchen staff with an arcane sigil, so that she can recognize them coming down the stairs.

Nice reconnaissance by Bunty and Six Burden, who sniff out the two thieves Issek and Tovlis separately entering the grounds disguised as a merchant and as part a delivery party.

A cellar fight that could have gone very badly for the group, split up as they are; until Tovlis goes down under Xalo's life-stealing blade. The Gnome briefly hazes out and runs her dagger across the fallen thief's neck, while the words LET IT FLOW echo in her mind. Apparently this is a regular thing for her. Gnomes, man...

Rail-thin Issek decides to go for gold rather than combat and jumps through the magical fire ward that Igris had inscribed around the vault; opening the vault door, he then gets knocked on the head by someone hiding inside the vault - and running off with the precious Golden Key in hand! Bunty is nearest and sees the new intruder leave a jade, seven-legged spider in the vault before running off.

A foot chase across Lankhmar, in which the young woman clutching the Golden Key leads the party through the masses in the Street of the Gods, crashes through a glass pane carried by two Glaziers' Guildsmen, takes to the rooftops, then down and into the opium-haze of the House of Red Lanterns, finally to run south to the Plaza of Dark Delights before our heroes corner her near Tanitha's Pets, where a feisty jaguar from Klesh is trying to escape.

Six Burden manages to sic the jaguar on their quarry and it tackles the girl into an alley. When the group runs up seconds later, the jaguar is sitting on half a Golden Key, looking surprised at a fading doorway in purplish smoke on the alley wall. On the floor, next to it, is another jade carving of a seven-legged spider, and a mocking note that says no-one is clever enough to catch the Jade Spider - especially not a blundering half-orc, half-elf and gnome.

Lankhmar #1: a golden key

First session of a new campaign is always interesting: I want to introduce characters and immediately give the players something to do, but also want to give them options to approach the situation as they like. In this case, I tweaked DCC Masks of Lankhmar and added an intro scene before the adventure properly starts. Of course my players immediately found a third option and are now completely off the rails. Awesome!

In the seedy Silver Eel tavern in the great city of Lankhmar, the patrons are unnaturally quiet. The reason: two swaggering thieves, openly wearing their silver memberships daggers of Thieves' House. The pair are discussing an upcoming robbery of the eastern collector of curiosa Igrik of the East, who lives in Noble District. At a shadowed table nearby, three sets of pointy ears perk up:

• BUNTY, Half-Orc druid. Bunty's grand ambition in life is to open a bakery in Lankhmar. She wants to learn how to make the utterly crispy breadrolls that she once got from a passing merchant in her village on the trade road. Tattood with a whisk and a rolling pin on her forearms, the young half-orc still needs to scrape up the coin to join the Bakers' Guild somehow. Bunty has a Criminal background and knows the seemingly-cultured fence Ebenous Rilk, who works from Pleasure Park.
• XALO, Gnome Warlock of the Fiend. Xalo was a curious little one, even for a Gnome. She's smart (especially with her Sage / Bookworm background), but has a hard time discerning between "mine" and "thine". That's how she wandered into an old hermit's hut, picked up a shackled book, and unwittingly completed a warlock pact. She's just in it for funsies.
• SIX BURDEN, Half-Drow Rogue and the only native to Lankhmar. A skeletally thin half-elf urchin with dusky skin and a shock of white hair, he was orphaned at a young age by a dad he never knew and a mother drifting out of his young life. The orphanage didn't work out too well, and Six Burden learned to live on the street.

The trio are down to their last pieces of gold and need to come up with money to pay for their rooms in Ivrian's Slophouse.

Home-made map of Lankhmar, based on the city map in AD&D 2137 Lankhmar: City of Adventure.
Locations are from that book, the DCC line of Lankhmar adventures, and a few from the blogosphere.

PLAN, MEET WINDOW

When they hear the lanky thief Issek (named after a long line of sainted martyrs) and his brutish ally Tovlis planning to heist Igrik the Collector's, our trio quickly pay attention. Igrik is planning a big feast to show off his collection of antiquities and ingratiate himself in Noble district, and this is the perfect opportunity to sneak in and steal his new acquisition: a thrice-jeweled golden key.

Where I'd expected them to try and score Igrik' new acquisition for themselves, they instead hatch a plan to warn Igrik and get a reward. There goes my carefully planned heist, straight out the window. Being surprised like this is great stuff, that's why I DM!

Even though it's midnight, the Gnome, Half-Orc and Half-Elf head for Noble district to find the collector's estate walled off and guarded. The original building is very Lankhmart in style, but it seems Igrik is building a new addition: a domed octagonal tower that Xalo (run by a player who is always interested in strange lore) recognizes as specially designed to funnel arcane energies.

The trio try to bluff their way past the guard but fail, Xalo casts a spell to send him to sleep, pilfers a delivery of fish and spices, and the group heads for the kitchens, which are the only place in the estate still active this late at night. Here they meet with the chef, a tanned easterling like Igrik, who tastes recipes with a long copper spoon of office that promptly gets nicked by Xalo. Bunty manages to convince the chef that there's really a heist being planned and Six Burden weedles a signed note out of the overworked chef that says they can come back in the morning.

...and that's where we end this short first session!

LOOT

• two bowls of food begged in Igris' kitchen
• a bunch of raw salmon sprinkled liberally with saffron
• an unwieldy official master chef's spoon (5 sp or 15 gp to the right collector)

STARTING TROPHY

Each character got to roll at the start of the session to get a special item. These aren't directly useful, but may drive stories further down the road. From Against the Wicked City's 20 things your trickster might have 'acquired' and not be quite sure what to do with.

BUNTY has a bundle of incriminating papers, implicating the influential Countess Kronia in a variety of crimes and misdemeanours. About half of them look genuine, but she's pretty sure the rest are high-quality forgeries.

XALO has a land grant, bearing the seal of a dead official, declaring Lord Farhad and his daughter Ara to be the rightful owners of Seven Lake Country. As far as she knows, Farhad and Ara have been dead for years, and Seven Lake Country is way, way out into the wilderness; but still, if she can pass herself off as a descendant, maybe she can find more profit here than out on the frontier...

SIX BURDEN has a hand-drawn map of the temple of Skama the Moon Goddess, with several secret passages marked on it. Next to one of them - which appears to connect the temple with another nearby building - someone has written the words: 'NEVER use this tunnel after dark.'

Second campaign: swindlers and thieves in Lankhmar

 "You know, it's so long since I RPGed - I'd like to play again." How can I say no to that, especially coming from one of the witnesses to our marriage? And so I started thinking about a three player campaign in addition to my Belswick run (the Bronze & Sand stuff petered out over summer, I'm afraid).

Rereading Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories gave me inspiration for a rogue campaign set in the decadent and criminal city of Lankhmar. We held session 0 and 1 this weekend, and I think it's going to be good fun. (By which I mean my wife and our two best friends bullshitting me and my NPCs every step of the way. Awesome!) First here's a setting overview, next up is a brief session log.

SETTING

Lankhmar is the center of civilization on the world of Nehwon - or the largest cesspool on its face, depending on who you ask.

The city grows fat on the grain trade across the river Hlal and the Inner Sea. Its many workshops fill the air with smoke and smog - rare is the night when one can see the stars. There is a guild for almost everything; pay an entry fee and monthly dues, and you too can set up a shop. The Guilds of Thieves, Slayers and Assassins especially do not take kindly to freelancers.

The city of half a million is ruled by the pleasure-seeking Overlord Glipkerio and his council of nobles and advisors. Lankhmar is equally corrupt, decadent and squalid. Luxuriate in the Grand Library or the Great Play House, then turn a corner and slum it in the Marshlight Theatre or opium den. Every appetite can be stilled here.

Plotting nobles and sly merchants rub shoulders with nefarious mages, weary actors, feuding guildsmen, ecstatic cults and conniving thieves. Among the masses one may even see travelers from the Eight Cities, the Cold North, buried Quarmall, decadent Evanmaransee and the Mingol Steppes. Visit the Plaza of Dark Delights after dark to mingle with dubious sages and peddlers of arcana; deal with the underworld in Pleasure Park, then stroll along the Hlal and find your favorite temple on the Street of the Gods to wash away your sins. Lankhmar awaits.

Home-made map of Lankhmar, based on the city map in AD&D 2137 Lankhmar: City of Adventure
Locations from that book, the DCC line of Lankhmar adventures, and a few from the blogosphere, like Vlinderkaai's (Semper)Vivarium

STORIES

I will be using the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser as inspiration, as well as the DCC adventures in Lankhmar and some reskinned adventures from OSR blogs.

SYSTEM AND HOUSERULES

5th edition D&D. Almost no house rules, which is a novelty. Here are the most important tweaks to vanilla D&D and to Lankhmar:

• D&D: spells above 3rd level are incredibly hard to find; beyond that level, casters don't gain spells automatically as the bleeding edge of the art is jealously guarded by isolated practitioners. Join the Sorceror's guild, or seek the patronage of shrouded mages.
• no focus on traditional alignment. I'm using word-pairs as described above.
• Lankhmar: the original books feature mostly humans and 1-2 offshoot races like the invisible people of Mount Stardock or the Ghouls with their translucent flesh. I'll allow all D&D races - Lankhmar is a center of the world, and even rare races have a chance of popping up here.

ALIGNMENT

I can't remember who I stole this from, but I've swapped out aligment with a set of 5 word pairs; to be used as descriptors, not as straightjackets. For session zero, the players just picked the one word that resonated with them the most. The Half-Orc druid is SUPERSTITIOUS, the Gnome warlock is CAREFREE, and the Half-Drow rogue is TOLERANT.

• responsible - carefree
• superstitious - skeptical
• romantic - cynic
• traditional - radical
• tolerant - intolerant

STARTING TROPHY

Each character got to roll at the start of the session to get a special item. These aren't directly useful, but may drive stories further down the road. From Against the Wicked City's 20 things your trickster might have 'acquired' and not be quite sure what to do with.

I'm undecided as to whether I'll incorporate the famous two rogues in the campaign. Since none of the players have read the stories (I think), I might just leave them out or have them as off-screen NPCs. Image by Mike Mignola