We decided to take a break of the Knave games, since Mo was not available to play. So I had to organize a game quite ad-hoc, and fast. I proposed to give Electric Bastionland a try, with the following options on the menu:
- Stygian Library - "Go into an infinite library to get a particular tome, or book of information (think Borges, with creatures etc.)"
- Prison of the Worm Queen - "Investigate the disappearance of the Worm Queen in the Dwarmsgarden part of Bastion"
- The Price of Evil - "Go fetch whatever valuables you can from a haunted house in the upper part of the city. The owners want to sell or destroy the property, but are afraid of the bad juju"
They picked the first one, so that's what we ran. They rolled some characters to begin with, and got
| Smiff (Copernico) - a Deconstructor with a smelly dog and a murder lizard. A walking zoo. Ural (iagson) - a Repressed Psychic who worked in a distant mine in Deep Country, and can appear invisible to one person. |
They have a 10'000£ debt to repay to the Under-kin, a faction of androids in the Underground taking all discarded, mutated, and abused humans from the surface of Bastion. How that debt came to be is kept undisclosed. Their contact within the Under-kin is an embedded mouth entity in the sewers that goes by Matka-3QΩ.
2'000£ will be lifted from the group's debt, if they find any information incriminating a charity conglomerate known as the Redway Relief Fund. Your poster of supplying the food banks, going to the shelters and orphanages to help those in need. Oh, and they are all women wearing red&white garments.
To start, they are given the tip to visit the Burn Art Curio Bookshop, and ask for an entrance for the Stygian Library. All knowledge can be found there, but in its vastness lies the complexity. There, Drench, a fox mockery with a disdain for the manager (and any kind of productive work in general). He takes them to his Nth coffee break of the day, explains how the famed library has an entrance here, at the bookshop. When prompted for the entrance, he points the way, and wishes the group good luck.
Once inside, they starto to navigate the infinite Stygian Library. I decide on a target score of 25 for the Information they need. My line of thought is that it's not rough to find some sketchy bits or dirty secrets on the Redway Relief Fund, given its recent popularity within Bastion. The group's run ends up as follows after about 1h50 of exploration, and 2 hours of real play time.
A respectable 12 Information was gathered, and very quickly. Sweet! Perhaps I was too generous with some of those points? I reckon one more session will wrap this one up. Some session notes of this run (in very rough order):
- Ringing the bell at the entrance brought a quartet of eccentric (but helpful) academics (Researchers), in search of books about (factual) recollections of dragons, and politics. They believe both are interconnected! Warnings of the Librarians are given.
- The Mausoleum's sarcophagus is left intact (for sure a trapping!). A lost family of japanese tourists (Visitors) brings in a very wholesome interaction. They continue taking photographs, astonished by the sarcophagus.
- The chained Lectern Book gives Kung-Fu powers to both, as they read the pages of this extraordinary tome. Only at the cost of 1 point of Strength, as their knuckles twist and bend in the process.
- A pair of fighting Bookworms spill into the room, right when the pair is debating "where next?". There's some hesitation ("should we try our Kung Fu?!"), but they decide to retreat.
- Ural fills in 7 bottles with colorful inks from the room with the Ink Vats. Smiff takes his sledgehammer to break some bolted chains and investigate musical books. Clues are obtained, but a gust of wind kicks in (all lights extinguished), and another Bookworm creeps in, this time wanting to dance. Smelly dog gets the worst of it, but decides to keep biting with a rush of canine adrenaline, and they defeat the maggot.
- They finally arrive to a reading lounge, with sofas, tables, cigar smell, and a spiral staircase. After investigating the shelves in this area for a bit and getting some helpful information, the shelves at the entrance move and shift, closing the way they came from. Where to next?
Referee Commentary
- The players seemed to like EB. Avoiding the to-hit roll was very well received. One of the players showed interest in more tactical combat. No surprise, they come from a wargame/models background.
- I had little time to prep the game, and converted monster stats on the fly (based on gut instinct), and used 2d6 morale. This was sloppy, and at some point I might get some better conversion notes in place. Have to check the Bastionland blog again.
- Forgot that mobs don't add their damage in EB, but you only take the biggest results. I'm just too used to Into the Odd!
- For the smelly dog I used 2d6 for stats, assuming it was a Lackey. Not sure if that's the standard, but it worked well.
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