Our game is switching from 5e to Godbound. The characters were up to 12th level and Godbound is a fun system for powerful D&Dish folks.

The group voted for the Winter World to be their next adventure and so I started prepping and daydreaming about how I’d alter Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. They had killed a Mind Flayer that was living under the Rock of Bral last adventure and foolish me, I did not ask if that was the end of it.

It was not the end of it. Kuru’s run-in with an aboleth’s mind control has left its mark; he doesn’t like cthonic mind control beasts. Shit got personal. Then Shepherd, the Corpseflea, jumped into the Mind Flayer corpse. I’m getting ahead of myself. First, the treasure tables…

Nice thing about using the AD&D Monster Manual (and the Monster Manual II and the Fiend Folio) is that I get to use its treasure tables. I rolled, not knowing that there is an automated option. I decided the Mind Flayer kept bodies whose brains it had eaten in its Bag of Holding, doing some light, non-necromantic hobby-mummification for fun.

It seemed like the Sigil 6 wanted to put an epilogue on the slaying of the Mind Flayer from last week, talk to Prince Andru of Bral, maybe get a reward and then leave. I had described Andru’s honor guard as haughty elves in red and gold livery. They were turned away at the bridge to the prince’s palace, leading them to believe that this Mind Flayer wasn’t working alone. Even Jusko’s Leadership Word couldn’t penetrate, furthering the theory that some greater power was behind it all.

Shepherd is a corpseflea, a little spark of sentience that can jump into corpses (taken from the cool af 5 Torches Deep: Heritage supplement). I was straight-up eager for him to jump into the Mind Flayer body. He did. I asked for a Spirit Save and it was a fail. He wouldn’t be able to jump out at will. I got to describe the sense of communal consciousness and connection to the other Mind Flayers in his pod, especially the two others on the Rock of Bral, who he had grown up with from tadpoles. Getting to describe shit like going from primate bodies to something really alien is fun.

My vision of Mind Flayers is that they operate on science fiction logic. When Shepherd-in-the-Mind-Flayer saw their Githyanki-renegate ship captain, he could see the botched breeding cycle of a fine servant species. I described his friends as deliciously sentient. He was able to access his memories easily, not getting vague flashbacks like when he is in primate corpses.

He reached out telepathically to another Mind Flayer and learned that when the first Mind Flayer whose corpse he was riding had died, one Mind Flayer went into the astral plane, seeking reinforcements. The conversation didn’t go well and the third Mind Flayer suggested Shepherd go to the Elder Brain to regain his connection and focus rather than seeking out this primate-like individualism.

Shepherd knew that when they went astral, their body was stowed in a secret area by some Mind Flayer thralls. They secreted back onto the Rock of Bral through Trundle’s almost-constructed Well of Worlds.

Behind the scenes, I rolled an Intelligence check for the third Mind Flayer. He succeeded. The Monster Manual said these things are geniuses. His friend is acting weird and reinforcements might be far away. They are surrounded by enemies. It moved the helpless Mind Flayer whose body was left behind while it went into the Astral Plane.

The thralls were a trap; they unzipped their skin and combined to become some combination of Voltron and John Carpenter’s The Thing. I statted it as a Hulking Abomination from Godbound, which suggested it have access to a Word – I chose Undying from Endurance. The fight was going rough and then Kuru, who can steal Gifts, stole the creature’s Undying. The beast flipped out and killed Kuru the next round but he had Undying. When Jusko finished the creature, screaming Kuru’s name like a killing word, Kuru popped back up, regenerating despite haven taken a cthonic tentacle through the skull.

It was a fun fight and I have just barely gotten my feet under me. This is going to be fun.

What now? Now I’m going to roll up the treasure of the remaining Mind Flayers on treasure tables B, S, T and X. Let’s see what these Lovecraftian assholes are working with.

We’ll get to the Radiant Citadel some day…I think.

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.

Tonight in our game the Sigil 6 see a comet that was their sign to meet up in Sigil, jump on a ship on the Astral Sea and head to the Radiant Citadel…

Kuru

Origin Halfling Ninja Village

Past Career Rogue Arcane Trickster

Relationship: Sigil 6, Council of 3, Cult of Songrim

Words: Deception, Fire and Theft

Shepherd

Origin Corpseflea – Bodychanger

Past Career Failed Soldier

Relationship Attuned to the Raven Queen

Words: Death, Health and Knowledge

Trundle

Origin Dwarven AWOL

Past Career Dwarven Ranger

Relationship Traveller

Words: Journeying, Artifice and looking like Health

Jusko

Origin Exiled from a Noble House

Past Career A knight, a thief, a prisoner

Relationship Welded to the Sigil Six

Words: Sword, Sky and Command

Helewynne

?

(Sorry, Aaron)

Bugwump

?

Normally, I jump in with both feet but for whatever reason, I wanted to re-read the Radiant Citadel info just one more time before the Sigil 6 arrive. In the past month I have started a new job and I’m still figuring out my week-night energy levels. I’m confident I can still run this game and want to continue but tonight I cut things short rather than press on. This new normal is causing me to be cautious.

Everyone was scattered. Each player told me where they were as we began.

Kuru was in front of three hobbit ninja grandmothers who run the village where he was born.

Shepherd was on the shore of the Astral Sea, watching a Corpseflea coming out of the sea for the first time.

Jusko was furiously packing in his beach apartment in Chult with new Chultan tattoos.

Trundle was figuring out the boundaries of his new Well of Worlds, wanting to learn what began the war between the dwarven citadel where he was born and the demons who have been laying siege to it for as long as anyone can remember.

Such amazing starting places.

Kuru was chided by the hobbit-ninja-grandma’s to take a spouse, build a home and settle down. When he refused, they gave him a letter of introduction to the Court of Whispers.

Shepherd, true to his name, guided the newborn Corpseflea to Sigil where this strange species has a small neighborhood. We got a cool guide to how they inhabit bodies and how Shepherd taught this newborn how to control it and find their place in their corpse. The newborn had a vague memory of emerging from some kind of cocoon.

Jusko wished Dacaad well and the Chultan leader gave him an ancient Omuan scroll about the Radiant Citadel. The ancient elders had hoped to move Chult to the citadel somehow.

Trundle’s quest took the most time. He found an ancient glyph carved in stone of dwarves building a prison and then the prison being turned into a temple and there was a Balrog, a Baatezu, a Pit Fiend – it was levitating a few feet from the ground, sword and whip on hooks nearby. It tried to convince Trundle to be a diplomat, talking about how it had taken control of the citadel as akind of demi-god and its Devil comrades did not approve. The Pit Fiend believed the Demons were spillover from the Blood War, sent to punish him for not returning to its duties in Hell. Trundle left, saying he would return to discuss this matter further – wanting the war to end.

We wrote up our new bingo board and just got some role-playing in as the group enjoyed being together again.

If you want to know more about our XP houserule, here’s more about that.

Next week: The Radiant Citadel, Angels, anarchists, rebels, Shadow of the Sun…