INTO THE ODD session 5: Assault on the "Clops Clan" Compound
Sources for this session include the short adventure scenario "With Thine Eye Beheld," by Clint Krause, expanded by myself, with additional inspiration from the novel Kin by Kealan Patrick Burke. I should mention that it was the audiobook performance of Kin by Chet Williamson which inspired the NPC voices I used during our sessions.
Players were Dan as Picklow Creed, Chris as Chips Parfait, Olivia as Felora Tumble, and Aaron as Katsin Parfait. Picklow's hireling companion Flopsy the Lantern Boy accompanied the party.
After last session, Picklow had been kidnapped by the Behelden Clan and the rest of the party had returned to the town of Hopesend to rest and regroup. They bought some supplies including bombs. Flopsy the Lantern Boy came on as temporary PC for Dan. He had some decent armor and weapons and was sworn to rescue his friend Picklow.
Kara the artist NPC made another appearance, as they visited her house to find her crying, the house ransacked. It seems the Cult of Sorg broke in and stole her prized locket. She was inconsolable but glad to see her friend Felora. She gave the party a spyglass and wished them good luck in their mission to rescue Picklow.
They asked around town and learned some more sordid details about the Behelden clan, the worshipers of the God-Clops. It seems that Papa Clops, old Jedediah Behelden, was a fairly harmless hillbilly until he discovered the secret gospel of the God-Clops. Since then he and his clan retreated into the swampy wilderness, and they all lost an eye somehow. Now his daughter Scrapegrace comes in to town once a month or so to buy loads of meat. She brings hard cash in silver shillings, so they must have some source of money or treasure or something. The party found out where the clan lived, although the locals warned that the Beheldens didn't take kindly to strangers or trespassers.
They traveled to the compound, tucked into a remote "holler," and reconnoitered the landscape with the spyglass. I displayed the following map for the remainder of the Zoom meeting, which we used as guide to our shared fictional arena during our session.
At the North end of the scene is a hill with a waterfall and small lake at the base. South of this lay the compound of the Behelden "Clops Clan." There is a rocky river to the SW.
They approached from the SE, past a weird cyclops-themed monolith and a stick with a pig's head on it. They found an old wagon with some discarded luggage (the property of some poor travelers who were robbed and murdered by the clan). There was a ruined church on a hill to the NW, a path to the center of the compound directly to the N, and to the NE a brambly area of thorns which was slow to traverse, leading to a graveyard.
Katsin went through the brambles to survey the graveyard, on her way she passed an eerie cabin, wherein she could hear a feminine voice singing odd hymns. Peeping in the window, she saw Mama Clops sprawled in her bed, monstrously obese and stinking with flies. There was no way of telling where Mama ended and the bedding began... She quickly left and waited for the rest of the party.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group met Scrapegrace in the area with the wagon, and she told them that Picklow was being held in the dog kennel at the NE of the compound, and that Papa had decided that he was to join the clan after he met the God-Clops and had his eyeball removed. In fact, he was to be married to Scrapegrace, as soon as she got her blood, so that they could breed more Clops Clan babies, their lineage being limited by in-breeding. This grossed everyone out and was a fun scene.
The group went up to join Katsin, planning to go through the graveyard to circumvent the main area of the compound. They passed Big Mama's house and got creeped out.
The graveyard contained "the beast," a giant hound who was displaced from his kennel by Picklow and was digging for bodies to eat. They entered stealthily, tricked the best into chasing Flopsy, and then hit him from cover with poison blowgun darts before killing him in a group attack. A great strategy and good teamwork. They kept silent the whole time.
They found Picklow in the kennel cage, stripped of all equipment and clothes, wearing an old-timey one-piece underwear. He was guarded by the young ruffian Truffle Behelden. They distracted Truffle and Katsin ambushed him, holding a knife to his throat, and they tied and gagged him. The gate of the cage was still visible to the house, and so Katsin crept out along the N edge of the camp, by the lake, towards the back of the camp, and saw one of the clan, Uncle Elmer, going out the outhouse. She threw one of her bombs into the shithouse, blowing up Elmer and spraying crap everywhere.
This caused a huge ruckus as the clan came pouring out the back of the house. Meanwhile Katsin crept back to the group and they sprung Picklow out of his cage, locking Truffle in instead. Then they basically assaulted the remaining members of clan in the center of the compound. Chips parfait tossed a bomb into Big Mama's House, killing her and infuriating everyone else. Big mutated freak Uncle Hunter came out screaming in his overalls, but Felora downed him with poison and he never recovered, being hit with multiple bullets in ensuing rounds. Flopsy was locked in life-and-death struggle for several rounds with one of the clan, and took many knife blows, only surviving due to armor. Picklow saved him but was wounded, and then Picklow challenged Papa Clops to one-on-one combat, which he won barely. The whole combat took maybe 15 minutes and was very fun. All the PCs were hit and some made amazing saves. Everyone survived but some had to scramble for cover up to the ruined church on the hill. From there, they took shots at enemies and helped the melee below. The ItO rules went very well during this scene and it felt like just the right balance of dice-rolling and narrative.
In the end, most of the clan was dead, and all the party survived although they were wounded, sore, and fatigued. They went to the churchyard to regroup, but were stalked and confronted by one of the surviving kids, Stonekill, who now believes that he is the rightful leader of the clan and is declaring himself the new Papa Clops. The party played along and tricked him into believing that they will help him rebuild the clan (perhaps with Felora or his sister Scrapegrace as a new Big Mama)...
We stopped the session here. The plan is to rest and recover in the Clops Clan house, leaving Truffle in the cage and keeping a close eye on "Lil' Papa" Stonekill. Next session, they plan to find Scrapegrace, helping her escape if possible, and they also want to head up to the waterfall to try to find the legendary "God-Clops" for themselves.
Players were Dan as Picklow Creed, Chris as Chips Parfait, Olivia as Felora Tumble, and Aaron as Katsin Parfait. Picklow's hireling companion Flopsy the Lantern Boy accompanied the party.
After last session, Picklow had been kidnapped by the Behelden Clan and the rest of the party had returned to the town of Hopesend to rest and regroup. They bought some supplies including bombs. Flopsy the Lantern Boy came on as temporary PC for Dan. He had some decent armor and weapons and was sworn to rescue his friend Picklow.
Kara the artist NPC made another appearance, as they visited her house to find her crying, the house ransacked. It seems the Cult of Sorg broke in and stole her prized locket. She was inconsolable but glad to see her friend Felora. She gave the party a spyglass and wished them good luck in their mission to rescue Picklow.
They asked around town and learned some more sordid details about the Behelden clan, the worshipers of the God-Clops. It seems that Papa Clops, old Jedediah Behelden, was a fairly harmless hillbilly until he discovered the secret gospel of the God-Clops. Since then he and his clan retreated into the swampy wilderness, and they all lost an eye somehow. Now his daughter Scrapegrace comes in to town once a month or so to buy loads of meat. She brings hard cash in silver shillings, so they must have some source of money or treasure or something. The party found out where the clan lived, although the locals warned that the Beheldens didn't take kindly to strangers or trespassers.
They traveled to the compound, tucked into a remote "holler," and reconnoitered the landscape with the spyglass. I displayed the following map for the remainder of the Zoom meeting, which we used as guide to our shared fictional arena during our session.
At the North end of the scene is a hill with a waterfall and small lake at the base. South of this lay the compound of the Behelden "Clops Clan." There is a rocky river to the SW.
They approached from the SE, past a weird cyclops-themed monolith and a stick with a pig's head on it. They found an old wagon with some discarded luggage (the property of some poor travelers who were robbed and murdered by the clan). There was a ruined church on a hill to the NW, a path to the center of the compound directly to the N, and to the NE a brambly area of thorns which was slow to traverse, leading to a graveyard.
Katsin went through the brambles to survey the graveyard, on her way she passed an eerie cabin, wherein she could hear a feminine voice singing odd hymns. Peeping in the window, she saw Mama Clops sprawled in her bed, monstrously obese and stinking with flies. There was no way of telling where Mama ended and the bedding began... She quickly left and waited for the rest of the party.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group met Scrapegrace in the area with the wagon, and she told them that Picklow was being held in the dog kennel at the NE of the compound, and that Papa had decided that he was to join the clan after he met the God-Clops and had his eyeball removed. In fact, he was to be married to Scrapegrace, as soon as she got her blood, so that they could breed more Clops Clan babies, their lineage being limited by in-breeding. This grossed everyone out and was a fun scene.
The group went up to join Katsin, planning to go through the graveyard to circumvent the main area of the compound. They passed Big Mama's house and got creeped out.
The graveyard contained "the beast," a giant hound who was displaced from his kennel by Picklow and was digging for bodies to eat. They entered stealthily, tricked the best into chasing Flopsy, and then hit him from cover with poison blowgun darts before killing him in a group attack. A great strategy and good teamwork. They kept silent the whole time.
They found Picklow in the kennel cage, stripped of all equipment and clothes, wearing an old-timey one-piece underwear. He was guarded by the young ruffian Truffle Behelden. They distracted Truffle and Katsin ambushed him, holding a knife to his throat, and they tied and gagged him. The gate of the cage was still visible to the house, and so Katsin crept out along the N edge of the camp, by the lake, towards the back of the camp, and saw one of the clan, Uncle Elmer, going out the outhouse. She threw one of her bombs into the shithouse, blowing up Elmer and spraying crap everywhere.
This caused a huge ruckus as the clan came pouring out the back of the house. Meanwhile Katsin crept back to the group and they sprung Picklow out of his cage, locking Truffle in instead. Then they basically assaulted the remaining members of clan in the center of the compound. Chips parfait tossed a bomb into Big Mama's House, killing her and infuriating everyone else. Big mutated freak Uncle Hunter came out screaming in his overalls, but Felora downed him with poison and he never recovered, being hit with multiple bullets in ensuing rounds. Flopsy was locked in life-and-death struggle for several rounds with one of the clan, and took many knife blows, only surviving due to armor. Picklow saved him but was wounded, and then Picklow challenged Papa Clops to one-on-one combat, which he won barely. The whole combat took maybe 15 minutes and was very fun. All the PCs were hit and some made amazing saves. Everyone survived but some had to scramble for cover up to the ruined church on the hill. From there, they took shots at enemies and helped the melee below. The ItO rules went very well during this scene and it felt like just the right balance of dice-rolling and narrative.
In the end, most of the clan was dead, and all the party survived although they were wounded, sore, and fatigued. They went to the churchyard to regroup, but were stalked and confronted by one of the surviving kids, Stonekill, who now believes that he is the rightful leader of the clan and is declaring himself the new Papa Clops. The party played along and tricked him into believing that they will help him rebuild the clan (perhaps with Felora or his sister Scrapegrace as a new Big Mama)...
We stopped the session here. The plan is to rest and recover in the Clops Clan house, leaving Truffle in the cage and keeping a close eye on "Lil' Papa" Stonekill. Next session, they plan to find Scrapegrace, helping her escape if possible, and they also want to head up to the waterfall to try to find the legendary "God-Clops" for themselves.
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