Time for another Meetup session at the brewery. This time, I took the leap of actually using a pre-written adventure. In this case, Thom Wilson's "It Fell From the Sky" written for Shadowdark. I have a few of Thom's products, and a what appeared to be a low-level homage to Expedition to the Barrier Peaks sounded like fun. Spoilers ahead, of course.
We had four players:
- Brandon (Dwarf Fighter - Jordan Ironhelm)
- Tom (Half-Orc Wizard - Dakklud)
- Brian (Elf Priest - Anin)
- Seana (Human Fighter - Akiina)
Off to a good start. The premise of the adventure is that the PCs are venturing to the settlement of Fregundle to take part in the "Beggening," an annual humiliation by the local lord, Underduke Ivok.
Thankfully, the event is cancelled by the crash of an alien spaceship into the middle of town. We determined by rolls that Anin was a native of the area, and knew some local lore and personalities. As the remainder of the party waded through the muck surrounding the ship, Anin retrieved a few aids and poultices from a local healer's cabin (she had perished from shock at the crash of the ship).
The remainder of the party was set upon by an apparent zombie, which they slayed. With this, Ironhelm cast a grapple to the ship, and all ascended, finding a breach in its hull.
They were able to access the interior, finding it quiet. A dead alien was the only witness. Some poking around and mishaps with invisible force fields blocking accessways, and it was found that alien body parts were needed to open doors. Dead alien hand on a stick.
Odd technologies were investigated, and a sneaky alien was defeated. More dead aliens were found. Now everyone had their own alien hand.
Down into the heart of the ship. They party circumnavigated around the ship's outer corridor, investigating cargo holds and scrounging as all good adventurers do. They were able to collect a few curiosities and valuables from their investigations and property damage. Including several silver ingots. This was certainly better than the Beggening.
More aliens were encountered, now identified as fungus-people. The party fought them off, and learned that one of the devices they found was a 'spore-gun' capable of causing damage and fungal wasting. Anin used it initially, then passed it on to Dakklud, after the typical failure of Shadowdark spellcasting.
More corridors, mysterious flashing lights, and general poking at buttons. A malfunctioning control panel almost shocked the party. Four fungus warriors attacked. Dakklud was able to burning hands them before his rolls failed. Ironhelm blocked the door as his compatriots stabbed and fired over his shoulders. Unfortunately, Anin perished in the battle before the four warriors were cut down.
As the party treated their wounds, Durl, halfling thief, came traipsing down the corridor... Well met! and what a handy coincidence...
Well, nowhere to go but down. One more set of stairs. The level was partially inundated by the ship's resting place in a marsh. The party backtracked until coming into a chamber occupied by several fungal aliens desperately trying to repair equipment. In the center of the chamber was the horrible visage of the local lord (Underduke Ivok), clamped into a chair and partially transformed by fungal growths.
This is not good.
The party backed off, again using the dwarf as a door-blocker while fighting. Oil was thrown. Many torches were thrown, but extinguished before igniting the oil. Really, how many single-digit rolls can a party make? Plenty. The aliens pressed the party as fungus-Ivok broke loose, randomly attacking the aliens and creating a distraction.
Finally, the oil caught, and fungus were sauteed. As was fungus-Ivok. Ironhelm retrieved the doomed underduke's insignia medallion.
The beaten and bruised party decided this was good enough, and retreated out with their gains.
A week later, a second ship appeared in the sky, activating a tractor beam and hauling the broken ship away to parts unknown...
DM Notes and Mini-Review:
A good, light session with four fun players. Everyone stepped into character quickly. And were assigned random hats, of course. Amputated fungal alien limbs were waved with impunity.
They were able to suss out the door puzzle quickly, as well as other elements where fungal material was needed to either activate or power certain devices.
And we had an honest death. Anin was struck down during combat and no one could reach him in time to stabilize. So they did the honorable thing, which was go through his pockets and wait for the DM to armwave a replacement PC pulled from the pre-gens pile.
As for the adventure - it was well-suited for a quick one-shot. We completed it in less than three hours, including setup and general kibbitzing.
As a one-shot, it does have its slightly railroady elements. The second level, where the party spent most of the time, is a circular corridor surrounding several pie-shaped rooms. Do we want to go clockwise, or counterclockwise? So things got a bit rote. Understanding that this is a low-level adventure, nothing felt very weird-fiction or strange. There is some minor body-horror, but nothing out of the "ordinary."
There isn't any random occurrence/encounter table in the adventure, which would help with flavor and atmosphere (wandering fungus aliens, maybe something else alien, flashing lights, bleating alarms).
I probably could have added some more chaos to the final battle - the adventure outlines a few strategies and actions by the various beings in the room. But everyone was having fun failing to set things on fire, so why ruin that?
The module has several new monsters suited to the marsh environment of the town and surroundings (blood leeches, muck-guppies, etc.). They would be well suited low-level nuisances for similar adventures. As well as a couple of pieces of alien tech to cause trouble with until it burns out.
One major writing mis-step though. One element of the town of Fregundle is its local economy of "carnivorous pigs" (Insert Bricktop speech here). Anyway, one of the players piped up - "Are they truffle hunting pigs?" as the party was wading through disarticulated fungus aliens...
I'll keep this adventure in the bag for other pick-up sessions, though.
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