PF2e 14 - The Wicked King's Casino

Alright, I did the prep with the Technoir Transmission and now it was time to try it at the table.

The setup: The head Adjudicator of the Martial Court, a copper Kobold named Zagatz, requested the party’s assistance in investigating the Wicked King’s Casino out to the east, in Precht. Some weird things have been happening, and there has been a spike in violence among patrons there that appears to be coming out of nowhere. There are also reports of people feeling weird and compulsive on the casino floor, another recent development. The party is requested to figure out who or what is causing this, and they were provided a lead lined box in case something dangerous is there.

They arrived without issue, passing Keston along the way. They saw that some areas were still metalled past the river, but through a different method than the ones they’d seen. They made a note of it and carried on.

Upon arrival to Precht, they saw a bustling town, with a lot of shops and people milling about, and then the grand Wicked King Casino. A U shaped building with a thick center portion that housed the main casino floors while the “arms” housed the shops, restaurants and hotel rooms. Upon entering the casino, they all had to make a DC 22 Will save. This gave them the itch to gamble, the thought of betting some money seemed nice and interesting. Magnus, the Thaumaturge, went onto the floor to schmooze and get a lay of the land. He gambled a bit, lost and won on a badly made game I thought up as I was laying in bed one night. As he played and tried to gauge the dealers, Beedee, the Ranger went up to the bar in the back, and Sprii, the Leaf Leshy Druid, chilled outside, pretending to be a bush to try to eavesdrop.

This is the mission where people split up the most, which is fun. As Beedee approached the bar, he saw a man trying to threaten the bartender. He had gambled on several horse races throughout the day, and all his picks ended up in 4th or 5th, outside the 1st-3rd place bet he was placing. The man saw Beedee and thrust a paper for an upcoming race in his face, and demanded that this ratfolk make the pick. Beedee though, a young ratfolk from the desert, uh… couldn’t read and pointed to the guy’s name on the paper, thinking it was a horse. The guy thought Beedee was mocking him, and took a swing, getting redder and redder in the face. Beedee dodged effortlessly, until the guy tuckered himself out, collapsed, and as he was too tired to be mad, a red smoke escaped from the guys mouth and appeared to siphon somewhere else in the room. Beedee spotted where it went, made the suspicious guy his Prey, and was able to track him as the guy hustled out of the casino.

Sprii, peoplewatching, catching a glimpse of someone acting really suspicious with a weird canister. She tries to follow him, but is caught, and just went Audacious with it, using an ability that is like… Disarmingly Cute, to befuddle people with just pure innocence and nativity. It worked, she was informed that he was planning to summon something using the power of anger, but needed one more cursed relic to complete the ritual: The Wicked Kings Crown. He was trying to summon Saar, an Abrikandilu, a demon of Vandalism. He scurried off, and Beedee kept following him through the back alleys of town until he stepped into a shack at the outskirts. Beedee peeked in through a window and saw a magic circle, and then saw the canister get opened, and, surprising the summoner, the summoning went through before he planned it. He failed his will save, and got possessed by the demon. Beedee IMMEDIATELY fired 4 arrows at him, hitting twice, and was fired back upon with a Fireball that he barely avoided. He then sprinted the fuck away, not wanting to face this guy on his own.

SO! The Demon came up on my first roll in play. Since it was already on the plotmap, I had to basically make it a more immediate threat, so surprise, the summoning happened early.

Sprii and Magnus caught up while Beedee was in town, swapped information, and Magnus used his Witcher Thaumaturge Bullshit to learn about the demon and it’s weaknesses (holy, cold iron, hatred of mirrors), so they went to town to find a hand mirror. Sharp eyed readers may now realize that this is THE THIRD STRAIGHT BIG CREATURE I’VE USED THAT HAS A WEAKNESS TO COLD IRON! I really need to look ahead before picking something I think is cool, but it’s whatever. It means that the melee character gets a little more shine.

Anyways, they found him, kicked the possessed demonologist’s ass, which caused the demon to leave the body ahead of time, who then got absolutely crushed and beheaded all snicker-snack. Magnus kept the head.

Upon returning to the casino, they found that they weren’t allowed back in, as something strange appeared to be happening inside. They joined the mass of people being kept outside, when one of the bouncers was clocked by a high speed poker chip from inside. Hooray Telekenetic Projectile! I had rolled “Rival Crew” as a faction on the Transmission table. An elf Musketeer, a Kobold Sorceress, and an Ogre Warrior were trying to break into a back room. Well, the ogre was, while the other two held off casino security. Once the party got past security to help, Sprii unleashed a big spell at the Musketeer and the Sorceress, dealing a chunk of damage, to which they responded by going “ok, I guess we’re playing for keeps” and immediately killed 3 of the casino security. After a little scuffling, Beedee, from the casino door, landed two hits on the Ogre, and pinned her to the wall (fuckin’ crit specialization lmao). This quickly turned it into mop up and getting the trio arrested.

Sprii failed a will save upon stepping on the casino floor. The party initially assumed that everything was caused by the demonologist, but it seems like there were two things happening concurrently. They pieced together that the demonologist was using the people getting deep into losing skids to siphon anger for his ritual (correct), but couldn’t figure out what was causing the compulsive gambling. I also had laid a few hints when Magnus was gambling that it felt like the dice were loaded, even though a thorough inspection showed them to be fine. When he was playing for money, they just took every bad tumble possible. Every teeter always landed on the lower number, he noticed people who got 20 in blackjack were getting beat by the dealers getting Blackjack or carding up to 21. Nobody really getting ahead.

So they’re staying for the night at their provided room by the Adjudicator. Next time, they get to the bottom of the compulsion and luck bending effect. Sprii is still affected by it, so I think after a night of Not Gambling, she’s gonna start taking a penalty. I need to look at the status effects to give her an appropriate one, like Stupefied or something.

Transmission mapping was SO FUN. It made the game feel so free and loose. I had 36 items that were related and could easily lego together, and that’s what ended up happening. Drew really hasty maps for combat, and that’s all we needed. This feels like a really really fun and tenable way for me to prep. Just think of a region or setting, then bang out 6 characters, 6 factions potentially present, 6 specific locations or scene setpieces, 6 items/objects (both real or ephemeral), 6 Events, and 6 Threats, and I can just Do Whatever Comes Up. It RULES.