The V.A.L.U.E. of International Beer Day

[katnyx]

@Vishous @Col_Mustard_Ret @jboimler @driow123

Thanks for returning the Horn of Bardic Inspiration to the town of Glee and keeping joy alive in the realm. Mayor McSmile offers a lifetime supply of hot cocoa, her biggest thanks, and invited you to add your own verses to the song which will immortalize your doings (just more verses to the song you have already heard).

You receive 480 GP in your bags, each. Blix has a contract with Mayor McSmile’s soul, and Gix has a (mundane) dragon’s horn. You gain 20 downtime days. In your carriage, if you check them out before you set off back to hell or your various other endeavors, you find a choice of a Dragonslayer Weapon or a dragon touched focus.

Thanks for playing Had lots of fun. I love how adventures turn out completely different when you rerun them. Hope you had fun, too. This was loosely based on an adventure called “there be dragons” which is available for free on the internet.

Original Song: The White Death

The arrows they broke.
and the dragon awoke.
the adventurers screamed.
and the dragon’s eyes gleamed.
when they came for his hoard.

The adventurers froze.
so this story goes.
when the dragon exhaled.
and their faces paled.
when they came for his hoard.

He lifted one up.
to the mountain top.
then he let her go.
to hear the drop.
when they came for his hoard.

He yawned, then smiled.
swallowed one with style.
beat down one more.
bodies littered the floor.
when they came for his hoard.

With their friends now dead.
they wanted his head.
but in their final hour.
they were devoured.
when they came for his hoard.

New Verses

Another group came
just a little insane
Through perils and strife.
they stayed alive.
When they came for his hoard

They demanded a duel
invisibility fueled
The dragon had friends.
who met their ends
when they came for his hoard

The yetis got burst.
they weren’t the worst
the wolves were distracted.
by the paladin’s casket.
when they came for his hoard

The mind whipped and slivered
The dragon delivered.
A shower of ice
could have been their demise.
when they came for his hoard

The exit freezes shut
Uthur’s ice wall jut
From the river surface.
preventing escape was the purpose.
when they came for his hoard

A breath of cold.
lo and behold.
Bloodied and pained.
As the ice it rained.
when they came for his hoard.

Weakened and frail
Uthur tucked in its tail.
He flew up and higher.
Couldn’t save his empire.
When they came for his hoard

Adventureres transofmred.
the icy walls were stormed.
The javelins impaled
Uthur’s back, so scaled
When they came for his hoard

He rose higher still
There remained a chill.
An implosion so sweet
Blix sensed his defeat.
When they came for his hoard

Another crack up there
John in his final despair
appeared on Uthur’s back
and the moonbeam’s flare
delivered Uthur’s hoard

Gix speared Uthurs wings.
Steered the creature’s swings.
The web slowed them down.
And they went back to town.
claiming Uthur’s hoard.

[truecrawl]

@Eel_pulp @Tea007 @Disc @Antares you brought the Mills case to a conclusion. Michigan collected its blood tithe, a life for a life, the killer vanished and the kidnapee was returned albeit changed. You purposefully kept your mouths shut about what happened, noone would believe you anyway. The precinct was spared its budget cuts due to 2 exceptional police officers who make headlines and were thanked on public stage by Barack Obama when next he flew in to deal with Detroit. A favor phoned in by a certain dead prosecutor.

True American heroes live long and prosperous. Their psych-evaluations go over without a hitch as well and normality is instated for the time being.

Soon though, you notice a penchant for animal cruelty in William and how he sometimes shoves people into wardrobes. When you attempt to teach him about the word “No”, he regurgitates cigarette smoke and chokes up a bit. Whenever you would decide to get rid of William due to freakish incidents, Martha Mills’s reflection in windows, static on TV or her cigarette burns / meatloaf smell manifests. She’s always watching and protecting her investment from faulty parenting. At other times, the devouring mother shows you how Franklin is doing in Purgatory - as a reward for doing well. She semiregularly reminds you that you can always be put through what Franklin had to endure, should you choose to move against her.

Where the surviving members of the party choose to shack up, fog horns from distant coal tankers can be heard, especially around early evenings.

You know that this isn’t the end, although the rest of the world forgets it quickly. The AVLN has also improved its ties with the police and state penitentiary. Sometimes they chime in over the comms in police cruisers, other times they shoot perpetrators to death who got away from a police chase when approaching the AVLN for succor and a hiding spot from law enforcement. A small thanks for being a shining beacon of hope in the community.

None of you think about marriage. None of you want to have neighbours. None of you ever visit a church.

And so passes November of '15 in Detroit.

• very well played, dear participants! I had a lot of fun. and seeing you people develop roleplay musculature is a thing of beauty.
• how did you - the players - like it?

[Antares]

I enjoyed it alot! Thank you for the opportunity.

[driow123]

dang all of you survived??? actually clutch.

[truecrawl]

Hah, no! Half of them died, but it happened in dramatically stimulating fashion and fit the narrative. Only the cops made it out - quite a difference to the last couple of games where mostly the prosecutor emerges victorious and alone to reap the glory.

[Disc]

This was one of my favorite things ever played. And I’m saying this as someone who actually likes the mechanical aspect of TTRPGs, and this was very much a story-heavy game! The atmosphere, the twists, the betrayals, that the ideas I came up with actually worked (not all how I intended, but the outcome fit the story every time which is the point for me). So many points to highlight. Also I love it how unexpectedly we achieved the good-ish ending, my thought process was at the end when I left William an turned back: “I’m probably gonna die here, might as well take out one more bad guy in the process”.

I have a couple of notes I’ll dm you later, and in my head this is how Aidan’s story ended:

Aidan, still barely believing he had made it out alive, rushed home after settling the necessary arrangements to keep William safe and filing the initial incident report with the responding officers. Amy hadn’t answered her phone, but that was no surprise - he had arrived home just before dawn.

Upon entering the house, he found it eerily quiet. Maybe too quiet. The bedroom and Dominic’s room were both empty. His pulse immediately spiked, and in his frantic search, he initially missed the photograph in the living room. It was an old analogue print, and only upon a second look did he finally notice it. It was the distorted image he had received the second time. On the back, in strange handwriting, were the words: "IT’S REAL."

He knew he had to find a way back.

Then the events you wrote follow.