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The Tunnelers Campaign Session 7
Played Tuesday, August 5th, 2025
It is June 5th, 2003, 3:30 pm.
Jerry, the party’s new ally, is dying on the ground of his campsite
under the bridge in 0506. The party is horrified and trying their best
to stop the bleeding, using Jerry’s own first aid kit to try to stop the
bleeding. Their fast action keeps him in critical condition rather than
outright dead, but without further intervention he is not long for this
world. Jel and Ash realize that while they do not want a death on their
hands, they also are leery of getting attention: the direct involvement
of law enforcement would end their trip in its tracks.
Like a month ago I had rolled random encounters for the 5th,
and one of those was an escaped entity from the vampire themed
thoughtform in 0406, for which I am using an edited and adjusted version
of the OSE
module Halls of the Blood King. I knew this thing (stats as a Blood
Thrall from the module) would be lurking outside the river dungeon for
an opportunity to ambush, but I didn’t know until now just how perfect
it would be: what better to attract a vampire thrall’s attention than
profuse bleeding. Ash decides to yell for help, and when she spots a
figure walking along the river she gestures to it. As it approaches, the
hot summer day grows cold and sound grows slow and distant, and the
figure comes into focus: a lurching thing halfway between a hazmat suit
and a suit of medieval armor, covered in intricately sculpted red
patterns like distorted muscle and veins, helmet an open mouthed skull
revealing utter darkness. It points at Jerry’s body as it
approaches.
Jel panics as it draws near and tries to block its path, and it lazily
moves to grip her by the skull, so she swings on it with a pickaxe. It
lashes out and misses but continues to be intent on the bleeding body
above all else. Ash takes one of her bladed shovels and severs a piece
of its arm, and I roll morale based on it taking a large amount of
damage. The thrall is briefly shaken into lucidity and asks in a
horrified voice not to be slain, and tries to bargain with the two
tunnelers: “The Blood King can save him, and I need to do my job, please
don’t hurt me any more!” Ash demands Jerry be unharmed, and it promises,
but notices her wound, touching it and sucking the blood off its
fingers. The party hate this enough that they attempt to finish it off,
but cannot before it lifts Jerry and lopes away to the west.
The party follows it, desperate not to lose an ally, and follow the road
in an aura of cold and silence unnoticed by the mundane motorists
passing by. By 4:45 the travelers arrive in 0406, and the party watches
in horror as the thrall enters a vast iron gate that fades like a
mirage. As the cold and silence fade, they take in their surroundings: a
variety of huge boulders strewn around near the highway, many covered in
graffiti. Low quality speakers blast the sound of Poem by Taproot into
the air (not one of the better nu metal songs of the era, if I may
editorialize).
Ash and Jel investigate and discover 11 local teens hanging out in the
rocks. Five of them are older teens (mostly 17) and fully bedecked mall
goths, and have the boom box from which the music emanates. The other
six are nervously standing nearby, trying to keep up the courage to
participate in the the clique. Several of them hide alcoholic beverages
as Ash and Jel round the corner. The mall goths ignore the newcomers,
until Jel (addressing one of the hangers-on) asks if the kids have seen
anyone else come through here, wearing something red and armor-like with
a skull helmet. At this point three of the goths break off from the rest
to confront Jel and Ash. Their ringleader, wearing a trench coat and
sunglasses to emulate a matrix character, is flanked by one carrying the
booom box and another with a binder of CDs. They put in KMFDM’s Symbols
album, for effect, and he announces: “I am a powerful sorceror.”
A confrontation begins. To the party’s surprise the ringleader does
openly admit to knowing something, though it is somewhat askew of what
is expected. He claims that he created the Blood King, and that
he is a powerful sorcerer. He does not believe their friend was captured
by a denizen of the Blood King’s realm, because vampires can only come
out at night (he has failed to account for others becoming independently
entrapped in the thoughtform and being enthralled). As Jel grows angrier
and Ash shows her wound to make a point, things escalate. The goth
ringleader variously asserts his power and denies responsibility, and
finally threatens to curse the party and also tell the cops about them.
“When push comes to shove-” he begins, intending to say that the local
sheriff will believe that some visitors were threatening the local teens
long before they believe that he created a dangerous vampire, but Jel
pushes him over instead. Trying not to cry in front of his cohort he
tells the party that they can enter the Blood King’s realm at night and
that he cant help until then.
Jel and Ash are dissatisfied with this outcome but realize he seems
serious about needing to wait until nightfall. Ash asks about yetis, to
the bafflement of the teens. “Those things are Himalayan, I think” says
the one carrying the CDs.
I was informed after the session by Ash’s player that “believes in
vampires and has an obsession with blood” are guiding parts of Ash’s
character from the session she was rolled up in. I was delighted with
how the random encounter dovetailed so well with that.