Tonight in our game with only half the group at the table, we took a detour to the Rock of Bral.

I was totally floundering. I narrated people gathering at the shipyards to watch some convicted pirates being put out into the void by the Rock of Bral’s ruler, Prince Andru in red and gold raiment made to look like some kind of Napoleonic era admiral with elf mercenary guards, also in red and gold.

Shepherd, being a Corpseflea in an angel-made Flesh Golem, climbed out to talk to one of the pirates, Half-a-Smile Harry Halton, who didn’t believe in any afterlife, since his death was surely the gods’ coin flip that allowed Prince Andru to win and Half-a-Smile to lose.

“If you can, go see the Radiant Citadel; it is the most beautiful place I have seen in all the worlds,” Half-a-Smile said to Shepherd before he climbed back to the Rock.

I have no idea what I wanted to happen with that pirate/prince execution encounter thing. I only know that when I pictured it and daydreamed about it the whole game jumped off from that moment. No idea what I was hoping for.

That is alright. We found our feet eventually.

The floundering continued through some shopping. They discussed robbing Prince Andru but decided against it. I was eager to give Godbound a whirl. Then Anthony mentioned that he wanted to look to see if any Sigil Outlands Expeditioners had left any travelling symbols carved into anything. I asked for a roll and I shoudln’t have done that. The answer to that question should always be, “YES, here’s an interesting detail about this place that you wouldn’t have otherwise known.”

It was clear that a Sigil-born Expeditioner had been press ganged onto a Spelljamming ship, made his way to Bral, uncovered the Mind Flayer on the underside of the asteroid city who was mind controlling the prince and died fighting the creature.

I grabbed the Mind Flayer from the AD&D Monster Manual and off we went. I upped its Hit Dice a touch and frantically looked up what Probability Travel and Body Equilibrium were as the crew planned. I’ll plan monsters a little more carefully but page 171 of Godbound has pretty clear guidelines for making monsters.

When the first round of combat made it clear that the Mind Flayer was outmatched, it phased out of reality into another plane of existence with Probability Travel. Kuru has a power where he can steal powers from other creatures but we had to work out if he had the Effort to do so. He did. Dex save to see if he can grab the power before the Mind Flyer phases out and he made it.

“Do you take on some characteristic of the creature whose power you steal? If so…what?”

“Oooh, I hadn’t thought of that. I like that. Yes…”

The Mind Flayer had 2 of 4 tentacles on Kuru’s head. The Halfling had taken on the Mind Flayer’s ocean creature-but-more-chemical smell from stealing its psionic power.

It was getting late and Trundle rolled a 1 to hit the Mind Flayer with his sword. I told him I’d let him roll damage but he’d have to swing through Kuru, doing whatever damage he did to the Mind Flayer to his comrade too. The math worked out and the Mind Flayer was defeated and Kuru was clinging to life.

Being able to grab monsters right out of the AD&D Monster Manuals and Fiend Folio is going to be just lovely. Looking forward to building monsters out a bit from Godbound’s guidelines.

Worth noting that Trundle grabbed a stone so that he could jump to the Rock of Bral from his soon-to-be-constructed Well of Worlds.