Troika! x Barkeep on Borderlands sesh 2
Currently I'm playing with my group a short campaign of Barkeep on Borderlands with Troika! My three-eager-to-play are Witch (ancient undead parchment witch), Assassin (journeyman of guild of sharp corners) and Necromancer (just that). Check pregame: https://vdonnutvalley.bearblog.dev/troika-x-barkeep-on-borderlands-pregame/ and part one
The Court of Unknown Origins 11:40
After the previous session the group went further into catacombs and found a cave with smooth walls based on a rectangle, clearly artificial structure. The stonework was very nice but the woodwork was very shoddy. Apparently it looked like a court room from Yongardy, one of the Crystal Spheres. The group peeked inside and saw also shoddy court proceedings: one judge, one guard, one prosecutor - all in official garments - and on the side of defence there was one mumbling dirty wizard (both defender and defendant) who didn't make sense.
Apparently a few months earlier this crew of Yongardians flew on a Golden Barge through Hump-Backed Sky in order to reach a Sphere that requested someone to bring the Law to their world. There were some turbulences and around 30 people appeared in this world. At some point they migrated into the catacombs in order to follow their own law instead of law of kingdoms above.
As for the trial: the day before a wizard ran into this cave when all Yongardians were gathered in their living area (behind shoddy court benches was shoddy camp) and cast a spell from his wand that turned most of them into pigs. The three left - judge, prosecutor and guard - decided to put wizard through fair trial, in the meantime looking for their pig-turned companions. The cave walls looked so well because among Yongardians was one sorcerer who actually knew a spell for shaping stone. But no spells or carpenters which is why the woodwork was shit.
Trolls, Stone, Mystery 12:00
The group decided to help them so went to one of five tunnels going out of this cave. At the end of it they stumbled upon a solid green door (in a natural tunnel? Weird, but they didn't pick up on it). They have heard two voices from behind, two folks looking for Tomasz, their friend who got lost in the caves. Assassin quickly picked a lock. Behind the door there were two trolls - Jonasz and Izabela 1 , setting up camp in order to cook a pig. Witch came up with an idea that mysterious "golem" from earlier might have been a troll turned to stone.
Witch and Necromancer went with them first, asking a lot of questions about trolls and daylight and turning into stones and all sorts of stuff. Assassin went behind, trying to navigate with a pig. They got paid 2 shillings for bringing a pig (these Yongardians were not wealthy). Turned out without the help of a wizard trolls cannot bring their friend back to life but are strong enough to bring the rock with them. And wizard was hit in the head, so Izabela gave some medicine to the Witch in order to ease the brain swelling of a wizard.
Wizard explained his name is Kerod and he is from Royal Academy (it's still Barkeep on Borderlands) specialising in Adventuring Magic, and went here adventuring, and there was an argument between him and the troll and so he used a spell of turning into statue at the same moment getting strong blow to the head from the troll. And then he lost his memory. Also the spell from his wand shouldn't turn people into pigs indefinitely - it was a spell that temporarily turned creatures into birds but probably some other prankster wizard switched his spells.
Unfortunately the Witch told the trolls that wizard turned their friend into stone (this player cannot hold a secret even from NPCs) and they were ready to kill. Fortunately Parchment Witches know certain spell called Undo that let's one undo spells for the double cost. She did that, paying astronomical 10 Stamina in the process (and Assassin had to steal wizard's wand from evidence chest). Tomasz the awakened troll provided them his version of the story where wizard tried to screw him over with some fake beauty spell so they paid him 7 shillings to calm his nerves and to make trolls go away before they kill the wizard (only guard left of all Yongardians, judge and prosecutor went looking somewhere for pig-friends).
day one, Catacombs below the city, 12:40
Skipped Content
This session was 3 hours long and resolved somewhat like an hour of in-game time maybe? I purposely left out a lot of dialog, and I mean a lot, as my players first spoke a lot with Yongardians, sooo much. Then trolls, also constant questions and clariications. The wizard got his mind back? Talking. I don't mind but for the purpose of session report it's way too much boring exposition. I know these reports are not particularly entertaining but it would make them more miserable.
Also I know Yongardy in Troika! is different, it is just a bunch of duelists that like to explain their will to constantly fight and duel as Law. But I made them into this Kafkaesque infinite bureaucrats that trial everyone for everything and cannot resolve things unless someone just decides "I'm going to duel for it" and the case is resolved. Which works well considering Pratchettian names of Player Characters as well as the whole thing with both Troika! and Barkeep on Borderlands with comedy and japes. And My beautiful goblinoid names.
My players really liked what happened here and were even talking about things that happened "What if we dispelled magic from the troll before coming here, would he kill the wizard on sight and would it end up as a massacre between troll and Yongardians?" and I had no heart to explain that it is all rolled randomly and winged and the explanation comes AFTER, so in truly quantum fashion bois if you would wake up the troll before then this dungeon would probably look a lot different, even if the rolls were the same.
yes, of course trolls count for goblinoids when I give them modern Polish names.↩