Kal Arath Live Play Episode 3

Transcript

Looting the cultists

What’s up, party people? We’re going to finish up our Kal Arath session real quick at the start of the day.

Rolling on the Kal Arath table for loot: one had a carved ivory idol (very cool — fits our cult theme), the other an enchanted amulet (+1 armor, I think).

Now we have our giant skull, two cultist bodies, and a desecrated shrine. Garen heads back to the skull to see if there are clues.

Reading the skull

Intelligence roll — Garen is at -1. Looking for an 8. We pass. So there is a clue.

To figure out what, I roll on the Insight table again. 2d6, up to three rolls. Got: ancient, strange, flourishing.

So Garen can tell the skull is very old. He can tell from the cave that this is an old, well-established ritual site. And it’s pretty clear there’s been a lot of people here lately — this cult is flourishing. They need to get out of here.

Is there anything inside the skull? Yes/no roll. Got a five — yes.

Roll on the item table: 53 — a brass lantern worth 12 silver. Maybe somebody tried to burn the skull. Bones charred. Somebody desecrated this altar.

This is why I like Prima Materia for this part — when there’s a lot of rolling and table-flipping, the dice keep you in the mystical mode. Not on the fence about tables, though — Kal Arath’s tables are great. They build the lore through every entry. I’ll go back and forth between tables and dice because both are good.

Three threads going forward

Now we have our story:

• The carved ivory idol to learn more about the cult itself
• The brass lantern to learn more about whoever was desecrating the cult temple
• And we still need to get out of this hex to find the battle barge crash site

Three threads. Pretty awesome for storytelling.

Out of the cave, into the wolves

These guys walk out of the cave toward the end of the day. They camp up in the forest where they can see if anyone enters the cave.

Nighttime encounter — needed a 1 or 2. Got one. There is a nighttime encounter. So they take turns keeping watch.

A new day. Embark — but the storm is still raging. We get lost. Give up. Find shelter and camp again.

In the middle of the night, they’re attacked by six wolves. Garen goes unconscious. Mantis-Freddy kills three of them. Garen took down three before going down. The mantis has now eaten the wolves to regain health.

I should have been recording — I thought it’d be boring. It was insane.

Mantis vs himself

Garen’s about to regain consciousness. Time to put the Prima Materia dice to the test.

Garen’s been sharing his food. He’s still injured — hasn’t been able to molt because they’ve been on the run. So I roll: this is self against self. The mantis is battling his nature.

Mantises are solitary predators. He’s fighting the urge to just eat this dude — instead he’s eating the wolves. He’s formed a bond. There’s something pulling him to befriend Garen, against his nature. Unsure, but he thinks he can trust this guy.

Then I just call it Kal Arath style: does the mantis stay? Rolled a six — yes. Not only does he stay, he’s decided he’s with Garen for the long haul.

So I’m spinning up a real character sheet for the mantis. He’s joining as a real character.

Generating the cult

I used the Twin Sun Sutra supplement at the very beginning. There’s a cult/mystic order generator. I rolled up:

The Transcendent Order of the Hidden Mysteries. Their influence is hidden, mysterious, but legendary. Led by a stigmatic charlatan. Headquartered in the barbarous north, where plains give way to tree and white snow. They reside in the Hidden Iron Flower Fortress — completely made of rusting metal, adorned with skulls. Every morning, worshippers stare directly into the sun and offer prayers to prevent its rise the next day. Their current main goal: bring about the great rains, submerge all of Kal Arath beneath the waters, so that the dread ones might rise again.

How perfect is that. We’re in two days of thunderstorms. I rolled all of these before the storm rolls. Dixed it. Stuck in storms two days in a row. No sun. Just rain.

Kal Arath is so good. This is from the second supplement — I want to stick to the first book for a while to enjoy it, but that cult generator was too good not to use.

Building the mantis as a PC

Made him level 1. Two strength, zero agility, two toughness, two intellect, minus one presence. He has his leaping attack from the bestiary entry. I wanted to play with magic and thought it’d be ridiculous to give a giant mantis a spell — so I made him a magic user. Rolled a d6: Pact of Blood. He has the draining spell.

21 HP from the bestiary entry, but that’s probably too high. I’ll knock him down to fresh-character HP and treat the high-HP version as something he was using draining for.

He has 2 points of armor from his chitin. Can’t wear armor.

It’ll be interesting because they don’t share a language — but it’s cool. Non-human party member. Not strictly Kal Arath rules, but we’re playing solo. It’s my show. I can do what I want. So that’s how it’s going to be.

Wrap

That’s how we end episode three, before we attempt to leave this hex for the third time.

Got a lot of painting done, a lot of Kal Arath, a lot of 3D printing, a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff. Very excited about all of it. Stay tuned. Bye.