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Prison - Fecculent Mines (Session 1)

#troika #campaign #arena #adventure

#troika #rpg #campaign #arena
Rules Reference

Welcome to the Arena - Introduction Session

The Arena is where dreams come true for the winners of the grand games held by the Games Master. Millenia of games have led to constant innovation of The Arena and it has become a hulking mass of layered automata, dwellings, and is a city unto itself. Visitors come from far and wide to purchase tickets allowing entry into games, and a great many more simply bet on the outcomes.

Unfortunately for you, you've been imprisoned by The Arena and sentenced to work deep in one of the prison levels. Don't worry though, you're one game away from freedom. If you can survive that long.

Prisoners
(sk: 6, st: 8, init: 2, dmg: rock as club)

The Job

There's a large worm leaving boulders of feculence behind. Poor devils need to mine them away to expose the jewels contained. Warden Ickick collects gems daily, and it seems to be his only interest. As long as gems get mined he tends to let the prisoners tend to themselves. He's a bulbous man covered in fungal bulbs and waddles with surprising speed.

Each day minors make a skill check, failure results in 2 stamina loss. Every day 1d3 prisoners die.

Leaving the prison requires beating Warden Ickick in a prison contest. It costs one ticket to attempt a game. The game is chosen by Ickick, and they are:

  1. Loaf eating contest (3 tests, lose 2 stamina on failure do to dietary distress)
  2. Ballroom dancing judged by Aadne
  3. 1:1 Combat
  4. Rock stacking (3 tests, failure lose 1 stamina as a rock crushes you)
  5. Portraits In Mud
  6. Pull-Up Contest (Ickick will fail, he just grossly overestimates his physical ability at this point)

Warden Ickick
Sk: (12 club, 6 wrestling)
St: 18
Ar: 2
Init: 3
Dmg: Club( 1, 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 10)
Spell: Broken Twigs, Amity

Accepting Fate in The Arena

If you have no tickets available at the end of 7 days, your name will be entered into a lottery. 10 names are pulled and those prisoners are given the opportunity to participate in the upper games. This is done publicly with Warden Ickick distributing an extra Loaf to everyone at the end of the ceremony.

If the party has kept a low profile they have a 1d100 chance of getting selected. Otherwise they have a d66 chance.

If selected they will be taken to a gladiator arena where paying contestants will fight waves of "prisoners." The contestants can pay additional money for arms and other boons to help.

Areas of Interest

Minor Games

Throughout the prison floor there are well known contests that happen weekly. There's a rumor that becoming a prison champion earns you a ticket, but almost nobody has ever pulled it off.

Cup Chuck

The game is simple enough: Throw your teacup as far as you can without breaking it.

The current champ is Narf, a creature covered in 2 inch thick hair and his arms drag to the floor. Observing challengers Narf has a long steady underhanded throw that seems to make the teacup land in almost the exact spot every time.

Slip 'n Slide

There are two qualities of the refuse pit everyone seems to appreciate, the distance from where everyone lives, and Slip 'n Slide. The slip 'n slide is a track of slimy...something along the banks sloping to the refuse pit.

The current champion is a one-armed plastic man named Red. Red was born for this as his plastic body gives him a +1 to slide.

The game is simple: Slip on along the track farther than your opponent. You must slide on your body.

Arms Wrestling

After the meals are done, prisoners gather to see if they can win at a contest of multiple arm wrestling. If you have extra arms you can use them to help the engaged ones.

Current Champ is Aadne, a six-armed frog. Aadne has always loved looking her best, and smuggling in some makeup would convince her to throw the game.

Husk Closet - Supplies

Husk Closet

In the molting husk of the grub, there is a storage supply closet. A large door on the front has a sign written by someone who barely has a grasp of language and it says, "No Slav--- Prisoners"

It is guarded by Griddy, a lizard who seems to suffer from a distracting condition of eyes blinking out of sync. Griddy is trying to save tickets to prove himself to the lizard of his dreams and is generally a hopeless romantic trapped in filthy guard's body

Sk: 10
St: 15
Init: 2
Ar: 3

Sp: If combat goes on longer than 5 rounds he'll blow a whistle which will bring in 2d6 more guards

The supply closet has mining equipment, basic medical gear, flasks of oil, and the players starting equipment. Hidden in a parasitic bore hole is a jar with 1 ticket, a dried flower, and 10 dead flies. The jar is cradled in a a mottled red dress that looks very expensive and amazingly clean.

Smuggling From the Inside

Ask anyone, Ebed can get you what you want. Ebed is a gelatenous blob that looks like a cracked egg that can hold an upright shape. Nobody has seen Ebed move anywhere and communicates with a combination of wet flappy noises and telepathy.

Ebed will smuggle in what you want if you can bring him Gems to smuggle out. In a given week a miner will mine 1d3 gems. To do this in 3 days make a series of skill checks that each cost 4 stamina.

Costs:
Small and medium weapons: 2 gems
Armor: 3 gems and you'll have to reassemble
Tools prisoners shouldn't have: 1 gem per item/set
Miscellaneous: 1 gem

Ebed:
Sk: 10
St: 28
Ar: 1
Init: 3
Dmg: Large Beast

Mess Hall - A Good Meal

The Mess Area is a simple and descriptive name. The only food available is simply called "Loaf." It is multi-colored, multi-textured, and tastes like musty air. Loaf will keep you alive and is freely available, but will not act as provisions to restore stamina.

Every night there will be at least one person eating something other than Loaf. Those with better meals will tell you that the kitchen bugs are looking out for them.

The Kitchen Bugs are a colony of large termites that prepare Loaf using mostly their bodies, and operate a small kitchen of delicious food for the guards, warden, and anyone they like. A favor grants 2 provisions worth of meals.

Kitchen Bug Favors:

  1. Bring a grub mite
  2. Tell the next batch of prisoners that the last person to learn what was in loaf died of suicide
  3. Assist the queen in overnight repairs (Lose 3 stamina)
  4. Replace a specific lantern bulb with a green colored one at a specific time and report back on what color light they see above them
  5. Deliver "Greases" to the kitchen for them. Would work great on the slip n slide
  6. Bring Merv to the termites. Merv hasn't paid. (Merv goblin pg 84. Use Mien to respond to any PC)

[[#^ArmsWrestling]]

Thieves and Cold Ones

When you have nothing, sometimes even your warmth is worth stealing

Rumors

  1. There are no matches at the end of the week. Warden Ickick sells the prisoners as slaves.
  2. If you time it right you can travel up through the Feculent Grub
  3. The way to win the slip and slide is to get something to make it slip even more
  4. The champion of Arms Wrestling, Aadne, was going to compete in the grand game and won't talk about how she wound up here.
  5. The Games Master is a demi-god. Its the only way to explain their ability to get the prizes they do
  6. The last person who found out what was in "Loaf" died of starvation
  7. There are secret tunnels and passages everywhere, in fact, some of the prisoners are actually competing in a game along side us before leaving every day.
  8. A prisoner named Brig has a lot of tickets in their sock they wear around their neck, but he smells so bad nobody wants them.
  9. The feculent grub has a name, Timmy, and just wants to connect
  10. You can get a ticket by winning each of the prison games, but who would want to?
  11. There aren't guards, you can leave whenever you want. Seriously.
  12. Be glad that this is as bad as it gets, feeding the feculent worm is worse.

Wandering Critters

Every day on this level there is a chance of an encounter

  1. Nothing
  2. Nothing
  3. 1d6 Grub Mites (sk: 3, st: 4, init: 2, ar: 2, dmg: small beast, sp: can't/won't be grabbed, too nasty)
  4. 1 Engorged Larvae (sk: 6, st:12, init: 1, ar: 1, dmg: large beast, SP: consume later: can paralyze instead of kill to consume later)
  5. 1d2 Infected Miners (Living Dead pg 87)
  6. Dolm (pg 80)