Emancipation
by Veniamin Kushnir
by Veniamin Kushnir
So not only was this the first session of Esoteric
Enterprises I’ve ever run, or even just the first dungeon crawler I’ve ever
run, but also the first of either that any of my players have ever played. It
was a little rough, but it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot. First mistake
I made was not instructing the players that they would need to actually MAP the
interior of the dungeons they explored, but that was rectified by the time they
reached the second dungeon, the Silo.
The session began with the assembling of the PCs into a
coherent group. Spartak had already met Dr. Jurgen Galidikas while being
treated at the free City Sanitarium No. 1 after getting hit by a bus shortly
after arriving in Arkheologorodok (the bus came away the poorer). Because he
has no money, Spartak has been staying at the hostel near the Gunig Marsh, where
he shares the room with a friendly back backing Israeli hippie named Abram
Bunin. Jurgen arrives after getting off work (having just performed a live
saving surgery on a young girl plus a free sterilization) to find with great
dismay that his ape man subject of study has been convinced to attend a meeting
of the Excavators of the Underground Earth in the basement of the Central State
Library at 5:30 pm. He reluctantly joins.
Spartak's Youth Hostel
City Sanitarium No. 1
Tenure review is quickly approaching at Stepnoy Universitet
and Professor Luka Semenov decides he must take proactive steps to find the
ancient Slavonic city now or he never will. He has seen flyers for a group of
urban explorers called the Excavators of the Underground Earth around the
university. He sets off to the Central State Library with cash in hand hoping
to put together an expedition to plumb the depths for ancient Slavonic Wisdom.
Stepnoy Universitet
Aleksandr has been in in Arkheologorodok for a few days, waiting
for a sign form Santa Muerte. One night he’s drinking in the bar of the Hotel
Cosima when he locks eyes with a young woman named Mara Tsiolkovskaya and there
is an immediate mutual understanding that they are both closer to the dead than
the living. She tells him to meet her and her friends the next day in the
basement of the library on Ramon Merkador Prospekt. Aleksandr has gotten his sign.
Hotel Cosima
source: modernism.art
source: modernism.art
Gavril rolled into town the other day in his BMW 525i and
checked into the nicest hotel he could find, the Hotel Cosima in the now downtown,
just off Elektricheskaya Prospekt. By some uncanny coincidence, his bags are delivered
to the wrong room. When they finally arrive at Gavril’s room, they are in the
hands of a strange one eyed man named Aleksandr, who apparently regards it as
some kind of sign. Gavril can recognize another mobster when he sees one, and
he’s already starting to run out of money, so when Aleksandr offers to hire him
as a bodyguard, he agrees. Apparently, he wants to go to some meeting of Urban
Explorers in the library basement for some reason. Whatever, Gavril thinks, money
still spends, even when it is given to you by a mad man.
Gavril's Whip
By hook or crook, the disparate individuals find themselves
in a spare storage room in the library basement where head of maintenance Gennadiy Chupov and geological research librarian Tatiana Zhutova are leading a discussion with a motley assortment of individuals about potential
routes to the rumored Polis Station to the South East. Abram cheerfully introduces Spartak and Mara switches from her normally cool and somber demeanor to welcome Aleksandr. Professor Semenov shows great interest in the Ruins while Mara tells Aleksandr about her great interest in the recently found Church Crypt, though bemoans the difficult routes there, either through the Plague Pit or up the underground river leading from Leninskaya Station. Only one of their number has managed to get there, but he's currently in the hospital with a truly horrific case of herpes. The statuesque Finn, Aarno Harkonnen, mentions some rumors he’s heard about a new passageway leading from the Silo to
some unknown chamber. Seeing that there are new faces and knowing the bulk of
the group either have their own projects or are devoted to the Polis Project,
Gennadiy and Tatiana offer $500 dollars to group who can find and map the passage
in question. Soon after an Exploring Kid in the metro worker’s uniform and is
introduced as Artyom. He is the one who discovered the Gastev Station entrance
to the Underground, and he will be happy to show it to the newbies.
While crossing the plaza a man in a white leisure suit, pink
shirt, and Rayban wayfarers struts towards them with a clear intent to speak, a
prospect that causes Artyom a great deal of worry. The man introduces himself
as Slava and makes it clear to Artyom he’s not looking for trouble, just some
people who might want some work. He offers to put theme names on the free entry
list to the Hanger where his outfit, Mayami Import, runs a black market. He
tells them to meet him there for work, and if they want to arm up they should
find Comrade Cowboy. Slava tells them to play up any leftist political
tendencies they might have if they buy from him and says that he thinks Comrade
Cowboy and Spartak will get along, to which Dr Galidikas says something about
genetic predispositions and vectors for communist contagion. This makes Slava
laugh and ask if he’s a Gay Nazi, which also makes Artyom laugh. Now curious as
to whether there are any Strasserists around, Slava and Artyom explain the Gay
Nazis are a universally maligned street gang operating in the Underground near
the Shkola Granat club. After niceties are exchanged, Slava leaves and the
party make their way into Gastev Station.
View of Central State Library from Gastev Station
After a couple of kilometres travel in the cave leading from the break-room, the PCs arrive in a dimly lit chamber full of very old mining gear. Aleksandr mutters a prayer to Santa Muerte invoking his Unseen Spirit to lift his lantern from his hand and sweep the room. Everyone is rather impressed except for Spartak, who proudly declares it to be on a string. They then make their way to the Southeast chamber where they find a mine cart. Here we reach a bit of difficulty because the players seemed to be under the impression that the map they saw at the Excavator's meeting was a one to one for the dungeons, rather than a map of where the dungeons were located in relation to one another (partially made worse by my nasty habit of reversing East and West when looking at a map), as such they were dilly dallying because the idea of going Southeast seemed antithetical to them when their goal was to the North. At this point, they started hearing whistling coming from the chamber to the Southeast. They all decide to pile into the mine car and have Spartak push them into the next room, which resulted in a horrible screeching sound and Spartak merrily pushed the cart with wheels rusted in place over the rails.
As the shrieking mine cart enters the next chamber, the group notices a man that is very clearly trying to hide and very clearly failing. Spartak says hello, and the man stands up now that the jig is very clearly up. He's very relieved to discover that they are not interested in robbing him. He takes a moment to tell them that the chamber they are currently in is extremely unstable and could collapse, in fact, he says has he molds a stone in his hand like clay, "I could collapse this entire chamber down on us, if I wanted to. I mean, I don't, but I just want you to know I could easily kill us all." In the tense exchange, he tells them the route they want to take in order to get to the Silo and telling them to fuck off so he can get back to doing what he was doing. They then promptly fuck off as Spartak continues to push the shrieking mine car into the chamber to the East, where all the noise has attracted a giant spider.
The spider is spotted on the ceiling before it can make its attack. Professor Semenov, Gavril, and Aleksandr scatter out of the way, while Dr. Galidikas hides in the mine cart and Spartak readies his broken mosin nagant to swing. As the spider leaps down, Spartak hits it with such great force that it bursts, soaking Dr Galidikas in its horrible goo. At this point the part decides the mine cart was a fucking stupid idea, and continue on foot.
The rude cthonist instructions prove true, although he left out the details about the room filled with some sort of subterranean gas, though previous explorers have kindly erected a sign informing the party. Aleksandr attempts to caste shield experimentally to protect his lungs, and is commanded by Santa Muerte to erect a shrine to her where he must make offerings daily. The group the made their way past and eventually came to a flooded chamber which would then lead to the Silo.
The party showed some trepidation about the flooded chamber, throwing in some stones to see if anything beneath the murky surface would react, to which something certainly did. Professor Semonov readies a bit of rebar to do some improvised spear fishing, but before he can, Spartak takes a granola bar and holds it out over the surface. Ready for a meal, a massive conger eel bursts from the surface and ineffectually bites Spartak's wrist. Spartak verbally reprimands to mean old eel while Professor Semenov stabs it with the rebar. Dr. Galidikas, not wanting to waste time and unconcerned by the minor possibility of hitting Semenov, draws his Mauser C96 and shoots the eel. Having been thoroughly traumatized, the eel retreats back into the depths.
After crossing the waist deep pool (knee-deep in the case of Spartak) they travel another couple of kilometres until they see flickering lights from an portal ahead. They enter the Silo, and are quite shocked to be greeted with what appears to be an intact ICBM.
Quickly skirting around the weapon of mass destruction, the party enters a control room where Dr. Galidikas has to plead with Spartak not to push all the pretty buttons. Moving past the bulkhead they come to an annex with a seal elevator and several more bulkheads. They make for the Northern door, which is locked. Lacking any means of unlocking it, Spartak promptly rips it from its rusty hinges. Entering the room, they find what seems to be some kind of pump room with a mosaic of Lenin and underground rivers defaced by a large hole. Confident this is the passage they're looking for, they make their way inside.
After traveling through a recently dug tunnel, they emerge into a sweet smelling room full of massive flowers, illuminated by stone faces of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin that radiate artificial sunlight from their eyes. A red banner is hung across the room with a slogan in yellow text upon it.
With the passage to the South collapsed and the one to the Northeast leading to a waterfall into the abyss, the party opts for the passage to the Northwest. There they find a massive domed room illuminated in a cool blue light by a layer of moss and lichen on the ceiling. Before them is a maze made of thorny Himalayan Blackberry bushes. Spartak picks a few, causing the bushes to scream. Rather disconcerted by this, the group carefully tries to navigate the maze, getting lost and ending up back where they entered. However, there is a a subtle difference now. Standing before the entrance to the room of flowers are a grungy man with a rifle and a dryad in a lab coat.
The dirty man calls out, saying he's found them, and suddenly the the maze parts to reveal three more grungy gunpeople (two men and a woman), two more dryads, and a big fat man in a lab coat with toadstools growing out the top of his bald head. The party is captured.
They are lead deeper into the complex to a living area, where the fat man introduced himself as Dr. Vadim Chernykov, lead researcher of VARANIL's Subterranean Agriculture Lab and nominal head of the newly founded Psychometric Agronomy Study Group. He explains he's been sealed down here since 1975 after a catastrophic containment breach in the Mycology Lab beneath them. Not willing to abandon all this research, he stayed behind to seal the entrance to the Mycology Lab and remove any contamination that might have made it in (a surprisingly easy task). However, by the time he tried to phone topside, communications had been cut and the entrance dynamited shut. With an ample and renewable food supply and a functional bio-reactor, Dr Chernykov continued his research, creating his three dryad lab assistants/wives, and even experimenting with captures mycelid spores, turning himself into what his new students termed an "Emissary to the Mushroom Mind," in psychic contact with the mycelid colony below but not overwhelmed by the hive mind.
"The Old Boletus" Soviet Children's Book by V. Protopopov, 1926
Source: Soviet Visuals
The PCs introduce themselves as affiliates of the Excavators of the Underground Earth, to which one of the grungy humans bemoans that everyone will know about the lab if they let them go. Dr Chernykov calms him down, saying that he must reflect on the matter and consult the Mushroom Mind and that until he reaches a decision, they must stay here. As he turns to leave, Spartak produces another granola bar from the bolt chamber of his mosin nagant asking if anyone would like some. Intrigued, Chernykov tries some and fucking loves it (he was a fat guy before becoming part mycelid and still likes to taste new things). They then settle on a deal, Dr Chernykov will swear them all to silence about the location of the Study Group with a Geas, and he will provide them with a couple pounds of shrooms in exchange for some delicious and novel foods. The deal is struck, and the party leaves with a bounty of psychedelic mushrooms and some delicious berries.
Returning to the Silo, it is very clear that whatever is powering the facility is on the verge of failure. Professor Semenov is still dead set on checking out those ruins to the east, and they begin heading that way, going through a Southeastern bulkhead into a musty lounge. Aleksandr examines the record player and extensive vinyl collection and attempts to play something, but the failing power only offers distortion. They continue on to another Southeastern door, and upon opening it find a terribly, doughy mass constricting around a desiccated corpse just as the power finally fails. Gavril immediately throws a knife into its mass, Semenov takes a shot, and Spartak charges in, attempting to bludgeon it to death. The Yeast Liveliest Awfulness then strikes out with its four pseudo-pods, breaking Spartak's arm and ineffectually striking out at Professor Semenov and Dr Galidikas.
[The Yeast Liveliest Awfulness got a 20 on one of its two attacks on Spartak, which means it deals damage directly to flesh. It then rolled a 10 for damage. Had I used the rules as written, this would have instantly killed Spartak by crushing his head because Cavegirl says not to count negatives, which is fucking stupid and negates any protection Horrible Wounds might offer.]
The party decides discretion is the better part of valor, and retreat back into the lounge and seal the door behind them. Dr. Galidikas then treats Spartak's broken arm while Aleksandr and Semenov explore the door to the Northwest, finding a massive generator. Dr Galidikas fiddles with the machine and brings it roaring back to life. Now properly powered, the sounds of On the Hills of Manchuria can be heard from the lounge.
Let's Provide Reliable Power Supply for the Country!
Source: Soviet Visuals
Source: Soviet Visuals
The group then begins to properly loot the lounge, taking a very valuable collection of Russian Waltzes and Early Soviet music on vinyl, a brass table lighter, a silver cigarette case, and a minor grimoire called the Esoteric Dialectic. [The first three items were ones I made up before deciding to roll on the random treasure table. Quite a good find, a minor grimoire is worth $200 and contains d4 spells with a rank of d6 each. They get three spells in this one, Shrink, Augury, and Mistform. I must say, the procedural generating mechanics and the tables for Esoteric Enterprises are quite good.]
Deciding to head back to the surface, the party runs into a photographer and an Instagram model posing in front of the ICBM. They introduce themselves as Sergei and Masha, and Spartak poses in front of the ICBM for some photos. The part warns them that the rest of the Silo is dangerous and that they should turn back. Spartak's broken arm is all the evidence they need, and the two joins the PCs as they head back into the mine.
The two groups part ways in the mine, but not before Masha hands Spartak one of her three iPhones, telling him to follow her on Instagram. Touched by the gesture, although having no idea what she's talking about, Spartak gives them some shrooms and returns to the surface.
All in all, I'm pretty pleased with how the session went, and I've already learned a lot on how to run Esoteric Enterprises better on the next session. Special thanks to mellonbread for uploading his dungeon the Botanic Gardens, which provided major inspiration for VARANIL. Almost all of the pictures used here I got from Northern Friend on Instagram. I highly recommend you follow them. Until next time, tovarisch.
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