Flavor for Better Than Any Man

Some flavor I provided to my players to set the mood for Better Than Any Man. 

Audio: 

"Suspira" Title Theme (1977) by Goblin [Italian Witch Prog-Rock]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pins1y0XAa0

Insect Noises

https://freesound.org/people/RTB45/sounds/325321/

https://freesound.org/people/DunyaninSesleri/sounds/401971/

Tower of the Stargazer

This is the first session with my new tabletop group, initiating an ongoing campaign that's going to consist of mainly Lamentations of the Flame Princess: Weird Fantasy Roleplaying modules/adventures, using the LotFP rules, and, by God, with Raggi's late-modern semi-historical Earth as the setting. This is for two reasons: (1) I love LotFP and have always wanted to run a campaign in this way, and (2) I ain't got time to make up a bunch of original stuff right now and this allows me to run these modules as close to as-written as possible.

This first session with the group was a one-shot run of the LotFP introductory module, Tower of the Stargazer.

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CHARACTERS
•Ingrid "Sea-legs" Selby, fighter, who fell overboard and survived her first sea battle, which killed the rest of her crew [played by Joan]
•Mot Rush, specialist, extremely ugly (part Goblin?), grew up poor but hustled to get into a rather fancy school [played by Alexandra]
•Nocciomo (sp?), Cleric, tormented by Voices from Beyond from youth, which drove him to the Clergy [played by Billie]
•Osram the Brooding, magic-user, who was kicked out of several reputable magick academies, murdered the last headmaster he crossed, and made off with his spellbook [played by Arel]

(Last two origin stories courtesy of my print-on-demand copy of The Dungeon Dozen book)

NARRATIVE

Mot and Osram were aquainted with one another from the Academy days, while Nocciomo(?) had befriended the possibly depressed and alcoholic Ingrid in an attempt to heal her aching Soul

None wanted particularly to make a living the old fashioned way, through tending crops or serving a lord, and so at the town pub, The Phlegmatic Stoat (pub named retrospectively just now), banded together in hopes that their complementary skillsets would mesh in such a way as to produce lucrative outcomes for all (they formed a theft/murder gang).

While lounging around at the Stoat, our heroes overheard a rival adventuring party of stereotypical makeup and aesthetic (Muscley clean-shaven fighter dude, wizard with grey beard and pointy hat, tall blonde elf, grumpy dwarf) discussing their plans to raid an abandoned tower a few days from now. Our protagonists decided to beat those dweebs to the punch.

They wander through the wilderness until they come upon said tower, which, despite there not being a cloud in the sky and really quite lovely out, was regularly being struck by bolt after bolt of lightning. At the base of the tower they found a mangled, dessicated corpse, which Mot identified as none other than celebrity thief Slippery William, known throughout the land for stunts such as sneaking into the King's personal chambers and leaving his calling card (a live tortoise) just to prove he could do it. Mot took the late William's distinctive lapel pin (a tortoise, but with siiick flames shooting out the back) knowing that possession of it would bring major cred in thieving circles. Osram Detected the Magic of the front door, and the group made it inside without being electrocuted.

While poking around this private residence, Mot takes a wild gamble and drinks from a bottle of wine they find, nursing the fine vintage throughout the duration of the adventure. They find a trap door down to a dungeonesque set of chambers, Containing a stone spider (which they smash), chests filled with fake treasure, a demon idol in a glass jug (which they steal), and an array of brightly colored liquids (which they just barely resist drinking). The only cost sustained from these rooms was a spider-bite to Osrams leg and Ingrid getting their dominant hand crushed and mangled by a magical door handle.

Venturing upwards, they arrive at a door with a tiny stream of blood dribbling out of it's keyhole. Upon bashing it in, they are swept down the stairs in a deluge of blood. Beyond the door, they find none other than Calcidius, wizard of this tower, trapped in a ring of salt for the last 59 years. He is at first genial and beseeches their help, but when they refuse, turns quite nasty and rages at them, spittle flying, for the rest of their time in the room. They relieve the wizard of his gigantic Crystal and ascend to the next level of the tower.

Upstairs, they find a books on lensmaking, light physics, metalworks, Communicating with the Beyond and Surviving the Interorbular Ether. Osram puts his soul on the line in a game of chess against a ghost for the chance to pass through a magically sealed door. Osras lost, thus freeing to ghost to sweet Oblivion and taking it's place as the game-playing doorkeeper.

Ascending further, they find the wizards Telescope, and after some fiddling about, catch a glimpse of the surface of Necropoli Centauri. Nifty!

Descending to the deepest level of the wizards keep, our intrepid band gains access to his considerable treasure (and narcotic powder) hoard by outwitting a system of magical force-fields.

DUNGEON MASTER REFLECTIONS

This was fun to run, a bit of a warm up for me and the group, with none of us having rpg'd in a while. No random encounters, classic dungeoney elements, and establishes that this is a fantasy setting in which there will also be Outer Space right off the bat. That one of the players drank wine that was found in the place makes me think I need to do more to impress upon them the dangers that await them.