Chester: L1 Loremaster, Neutral (??). E
Maso Menos: L1 Fighter, Neutral, Gladiator template (RIP)
Standing Mountain: L4 Elven Spellsword. E.
Trabajo: L1 Florida Man, Day Worker template. S
Tuck: L6(5) Barbarian. E
Valor: Cleric L5 Lawful, Turas, Undead Slayer template. E
Xanthos: L7 Cleric, Lawful, Mendicant template. E.
Hench Standing Mountain: Indian Jones (L2 Explorer), Red Sky (L3 Mage), Diego (Sabretooth tiger)
Tuck: Kayezeus (idk)
Valor: Honor (L2 Paladin)
Xanthos: Agenor (L4 Fighter), Dolon (L3 Thief)[RIP]
Time: session played 10/25/23 using 7 days can take actions 11/01/23.
Session Report
The party was back in BROvenloft Twin Peaks this week. They started at the Double R diner talking about how they wanted to save their lost henchmen. A couple of hench, Duck and... someone else (???) got lost back in Session 130 when they got affected by the weirding ways of the Ghostwood. They were pulled through a vortex into the MAUVE ZONE.
"What is the Mauve Zone?" you ask. Well I'm not exactly sure, either. There are some strange ethereal scenes in "Twin Peaks Season 3: 'The Return'" with the Fireman and the kind of fat lady who ponders her orb (it has Laura's face in it). My concept of them getting lost in the Mauve Zone was made up zero prep style in session on a random chart so it was kind of a challenge to myself to come up with a meaning or purpose behind it if they hit that random result.
The players had a decent plan this week for finding out about the Mauve Zone which was asking Special Agent Dale Cooper. He's frequently at the Double R diner for their fantastic coffee and their cherry pie which "will kill you!" They found him there on 10/25/23 and asked him all about the place.
"I've had strange dreams about a purple and gray place with a stormy see and a castle upon a mountain" he admitted. Then they convinced him to donate to their cause because they rescued Audrey Horne last time but also because Dale was impressed by the Clerics' various deities. He gave them the Green Ring. Some players who know the tv show were like "oh no!" and took the ring but didn't put it on. 
He also offered to take them to the Glastonbury sycamore tree circle in the woods where they could access the Black Lodge and use it to travel to the Mauve Zone.
On their way out of the diner an overweight man approached them calling himself Chester Copperpot. So this fellow is from "The Goonies" and iirc the bad guy obsessed with the pirate treasure. He had a briefcase full of paperwork and studious materials and promised he knew of a pirate cove somewhere but was fascinated with the Party's mission he overheard them talking about. I loved this concept of a Loremaster which is a studios type Ceremonialist spellcaster from the ACKS sadly less used supplement "Heroic Fantasy Handbook". I told players rolling new PCs that most weird af classes would be allowed or entertained if starting a session in BROvenloft. So we have a Loremaster now. And a Floridaman but we'll get to that later.
Maso Menos was outside tending the bushes outside the Double R and he tagged along as well. Poor sap.
I determined the glastonbury grove was not deep in the Ghostwood so they would not need to risk the weirding magic effects from Session 130 since they could skirt the edge. But there were random encounters rolled. I used the chart from the Fiend Folio for this and used the Fairy Forest chart since in my opinion the woods in "Twin Peaks" have a dark elfland quality to them.
The first random encounter rolled (I won't tell the 1e name of the monster) were 3 large panther looking creatures with rainbow tails and the face of a baby. They were growling angry and surprised the entire party EXCEPT Standing Mountain who has a +2 to Surprise when outdoors. The creatures saw Standing Mountain doing something hostile (a spell? I don't remember) and they attacked.
They mostly focused on the elf because I determined they were feylike but of the oppose court (seelie/unseelie) from Standing Mountain. They mostly missed their 5 attacks each (!!!) but Standing Mountain did take a shot. One engaged with Tuck and did some decent damage. At some point during the combat Maso Menos was struck by a claw and was killed. As was Dolon the thief hench. Neither recovered after the battle despite clerics and paladins doing their best with extricating them and healing them.
The party got themselves together in the first normal round of combat and Valor healed Tuck. In the first combat round 2 of the weird creatures eyes began to spiral and Standing Mountain became Confused as per the spell and Tuck became Enraged as per the spell.
Xanthos attempted to cast Dispel Magic on those mind affects the next round but unfortunately got hit by a melee attack and his level 5 spell slot fizzled (ouch).
Eventually the weird creatures were downed (one getting shot by Special Agent Dale Cooper) but Tuck was still enraged to keep fighting and fought his friends. Standing Mountain, each round, had to make a confusion check to see if he babbled nonsense, beat up the corpses of his enemies, or attacked his friends. So for about 30 minutes of game time the players were trying to tackle or find spell solutions to dealing with their mad party members.
After the fight the party elected to return to Twin Peaks and rest until the morning, staying at a holiday inn or something. The new party member replacement of Maso Menos was his brother Trabajo, a FLORIDAMAN as per the world famous Jon Daker created ACKS class. Click the link to find out more about this amazing claaa! Trabajo was a day worker with something to prove, and to avenge his brother.
Chester had Called to wolves the day before with his ceremonial magic. While they did arrive it was too late to help in the fight. The next day he called 1 as well. So he was traveling with a pet wolf he could talk to.
The party had forgotten to bring Biff Tannon and his mercs with them the day before. The second day of travel around the Ghostwood had only a random encounter of some hillbilly ogres who were smoking meth and didn't notice the party. They decided to skirt these guys. Jon Daker believes I should dock Trabajo's grade for not being interested in the meth since the Floridaman's class telos is all about acquiring and enjoying illicit substances while being antisocial and somehow a superhero. The Floridaman works in mysterious ways.
The party made it to the Glastonbury Grove and the Black Lodge entrance. Standing Mountains sabertooth tiger wouldn't go inside, and neither would Biff or his men since they were mercs, not henchmen. Chester's wolf was convinced. 
They passed through the Black Lodge's red curtain hallways and rooms with no encounters (drat) and did not get lost inside (double drat) and opened a curtain onto the Mauve Zone.
It was as Cooper described with a purpose stormy ocean which they were floating over like a hole in the sky. About 200 yards away they saw the mountain and tower Cooper described but didn't know how to get there. It was getting late and the discussed going back to get a canoe to come back with another session. But Standing Mountain cast "Locate Object" and asked about a Boat.
Now with zero prep I didn't really know if there was a boat here but it seemed an ok chance. I determined about 20% shot of a boat swaying around in these stormy seas. It hit as "yes" so Standing Mountain tied a rope to himself and jumped in the water to swim. He almost drowned after failing his 2nd swim check and was pulled back up.
Trabajo decided to give it a shot and realized he could fly! It seems if you have a soul you can float around in the Mauve Zone. Standing Mountain, a perfidious elf with no soul, was forced to be carried or pulled along in his boat of shame.
On the island they saw a huge tower of strange geometric shapes. Opening a massive double doors came to a lobby with a big man sized chess set and checkered board floor. They chose to ignore this and flew up the ceiling where there was a hatch door up to the next floor. In this room gravity returned to normal and they found the Fireman and his wife. He talked backwards with subtitles in the sky. I made a Reaction check and he was generally neutral towards the party. He asked them what they wanted and who they were. He liked their answer they were there to save their friends and their purpose was to help the little guy and serve justice. 
The Fireman and his wife led them down some stairs to the strange ballroom with a film screen showing a projection of their recent fight with the weird pantherbaby things. "That's embarrassing" said Tuck (I think). Inside the film, however, were the henchmen they were trying to save; trapped in the film by BOB.
Because right there between them and the film screen was SUPER BOB. The Fireman said "he's more powerful than before" since BOB was kiled in Vegas back in session 30. But can you really kill a demon wraith thing? No. Or mayb. idk.
So the fight was on and the PCs were worried about getting level drained but Trabajo charged and one shotted BOB who screamed and flew into the film screen burning the image like burnt film and the henchmen came out of the image.
I had determined that magic defense like "only hit by silver" or magic armor etc don't work in the Mauve Zone. So Trabajo's spear/rake thing was as good as a magic weapon against the wraith. The party would have been fine anyway since Valor and Xanthos both made very good Turn Undead checks as well.
The Fireman's wife brough a yellow orb from the ceiling and pondered it a while. It had Laura Palmer's face in it. She released it to the ceiling where it put stars everywhere and Laura's Face went into a constellation. Chester failed his Loremaster check to know which constellation or planet and no PCs have knowledge about such things so: "what means?" idk. Very Lynchian amirite.
So the party took their hench back to the Double R diner and realized they had been in the Mauve Zone/ Black Lodge 4 days. I have a random system for determining how long a person or group is in the Lodge and that has really impacted some folks in the past. 4 days isn't too bad but they realized it was almost November. The BROvenloft alpha DM determined last year that once you are in BROvenloft you can't get out until October ends. They chose to wait until November 1, reaching out to Drakon who has the Deck of Trumps from "Nine Princes in Amber" by Zelazny fame. He ported them out and back to Dubzaron. This was "in character" since Drakon likes Xanthos and I believe Xanthos is his vassal. The dudes stuck on Barsoom will not be getting this sort of VIP treatment to get home.
This was a relatively short session report so now for some musings. The Mauve Zone and Black Lodge weren't that difficult, which was kind of a bummer. But that's because I didn't roll any random encounters in them. The dice decided the forest would be more dangerous this session. Also a great deal hinged on the reaction check with the Fireman and his wife. They are essentially deities so if their initial reaction was hostile or the PCs made them angry, it could have gone bad in a hurry. Also, something bad may have happened if they messed with the chess board room (who knows!).
So right after the session I was feeling like it turned EZ mode after the one fight but that's just how the dice fell. It could have been alot more challenging and alot worse. Additionally, the XP acquired from the Mauve Zone and Black Lodge aligned well with the difficulty they found there: zero. Their big score was getting the GREEN RING from Cooper. Which I'm sure won't cause any problems in the future.
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