Esoteric Enterprises - Session Two, Part One

Session two highlighted the game's high points, but threw its flaws into sharp relief.

I updated the map of Coal City to reflect developments between sessions, and some new points of interest I came up with.

The Occultists, one returning and two new players

• Johan Cilliers, Impulsive “Antiquities Dealer” & Interdimensional Parasite Host (Mystic, Level 2)
• Kaldron, Homeless Antifa Nazi Killer & Hunter of the Alusive “Lichtler” (Criminal, Level 1)
• Luchetti Bruschetti, Gay Italian Dentist, Masked Urban Explorer & Breakdancing Tomb Raider (Explorer, Level 1)

Before offering the players a job, I gave a short "newscast" about the fallout from the previous game.

Mitigation efforts are ongoing at the belt sinkhole, which opened last week on the Western shore of the river, cutting through the belt. Engineers from the DOT are calling it a “freak liquefaction event”, which caused a cave-in through the underlying bedrock. 

Coal City Police emphasis patrols continue in the Hill Mausoleum, after a shooting last week left one dead and several injured. Community leaders decried law enforcement’s attempts to usurp their “sacred responsibility” to defend the tombs of their ancestors. The Chief of Police responded that vigilantism would not be tolerated.

This broadcast brought to you by Ursus Fitness. Ursus Fitness: strong body, strong morals. Follow the great bear to a healthier, happier you.

Mara the Mercenary met the gang at You Have to Eat the Eggs, a 24 hour breakfast spot on the waterfront, just North of Harbor Island. He was happy with their performance on the last job, and offered them another shot at further riches. His client wanted the ruins in the far Northwest of the city mapped, but the company couldn't spare any hired guns. The pay was a cool 1,500 to explore the area.

Johan wanted a new gun, since his existing one was forensically traceable to the shooting of a solid citizen in the necropolis a week ago. Mara directed him to the Blood For Sex, a nightclub in the old industrial quarter. The club was a hangout for the Red Caps, a gang of malformed little cutthroats with distinctive crimson headgear. The bartender could barely see over the counter, but was a huge fan of the Occultists. The Red Caps admired Johan for spreading violence and terror among the Sunflowers at the Mausoleum last week. She was happy to sell him a gun. Unfortunately, he was a little short of her asking price.

(At this point we ran into trouble. Remember last week, when I said that Esoteric Enterprises uses an abstract "resource level" for purchases? None of the items in the game have prices. The way you buy things is by rolling a D10 versus your resource level. Finding lots of money just gives a short term boost to your resources level. Even flush with illegal cash, Johan only had a 30% chance to buy a gun. This is a massive flaw - in a game about dungeon crawling for money, there's basically no way to spend your ill gotten gains. We're already counting dollars and cents for XP purposes, just have a price sheet and let us spend it!)

The barkeep was happy to make an alternate arrangement. Rather than take Johan's money, she stabbed him through the palm of his hand, soaking up the blood with her hat. Because she was feeling generous, she threw in a suppressor with the pistol, AND gave the Occultists a tip about another entrance to the underworld: the closed off wing of a museum in the rich part of town, up on the cliffs.

The players decided not to risk an untested dungeon entrance, and started their delve at club Vinculum. This downtown Jazz Club was run by the Ponda Ray crime family, and doubled as an entrance to the underworld. The rules were simple: anything you take out through the entrance, the family gets a 20 percent cut of. In exchange, they guard the entrance against exit campers.

The backroom with the stairs had a statue of Wallace, the legendary dungeon explorer who first explored the city's underworld with lantern and musketoon. The statue was covered with photographs  and drawings of urban explorers who died in the underground, posted by their caving buddies, going back to the days of tintype pictures. The Occultists descended the long, long staircase into the unknown depths below.

At the bottom of the well, the Occultists found passages leading in all four cardinal directions. They decided to head North and then look for a passage to the West, under the river. The abandoned storm drain they traveled through had been bored out to make a human size passage, indicating someone else had used it recently, but they didn't encounter anyone.

(I rolled a random encounter with a pair of smugglers. The smugglers crushed their perception roll while the players failed theirs, and the criminal duo hid while the Occultists passed, not wanted to risk an encounter with a trio of armed strangers)

The passage to the North opened into an abandoned bomb shelter, quite similar to the one the Occultists explored last week. they found evidence of recent habitation, a huge fuel dump, a generator room that let them open all the blast doors in the shelter, and a secret stash in a supply closet with a valuable clock and a strange metal mask.

(I rolled on the game's artifact generator and created a mask that improved the user's wealth while worn. At least THIS part of the game interfaces smoothly with the resources system)

Their salvage was interrupted by a beautiful crystal squid, glowing with an internal flame, grinding along on limbs of interlaced gems, approaching from the passage to the West. It spotted them instantly and spoke in a voice like the grinding of tectonic plates. It introduced itself as an Emissary of the Lithic Courts, and demanded to know what they were doing in the underworld. 

(The game uses a D6 for reaction rolls, with a 1 being an unfavorable result and a 6 being a favorable result. If the "leader" has a positive Charisma modifier, it's impossible to get the bad result. If they've got a few points in Charm, a good result is all but guaranteed. My impression is that most people don't use reaction rolls enough in these types of game, but in this case I think overusing them would be even worse

EDIT: I misread the table. A 1 or 2 is hostile, a 5 or 6 is friendly. You also only add your Charm score on a successful roll to make a good first impression, rather than always adding it.)

They told it they were exploring the dungeon. The creature was pleased with their reply, but warned them that the route to the West, which they sought, was impassible. The Lithic Embassy had suffered a catastrophic liquefaction event, with much of their cavern reduced to mud in an instant, along with several lithic knights and exalted nobles. He warned them that the mercenaries in the limestone caves on the other side of the river were meddling with forces they didn't understand. The Lithic Embassy sought a geode hidden in a pond, which the mercenaries refused to grant them access to. If they retrieved it, the lithic courts would reward them with a rain of priceless jewels.

(The mercenaries cast "stone to mud" using the tome the players delivered in last week's game, killing a lot of rock people and opening a sinkhole under the river. Johan did not mention this to the rock man).

Dejected, but excited by the prospect of lithic treasure, the Occultists turned around. They filled some of the bottles from the store room with mazut from the fuel dump to make molotovs, and decided to explore the tunnels to the East of the bomb shelter. The passages were carved with a scrimshaw of ocean scenes, prominently featuring cephalopods. They probed the tunnels, but turned around when they reached an ominous looking set of sewer chambers.

Back at Vinculum. The mobsters took their cut, and the players considered their options. The mausoleum would be crawling with police, and the warehouse is the opposite end of town. Their best option was the old museum.

(Continued in Session Two, Part Two)