Escape from Grinkyville!
GM: Erik Hanson
Players:
Beth Bartley: Liliana Scarpelli: 15 year old Genoese noble seeking to marry into the Sforza family of Florence.
Joshua Kronengold: Ipolitto Sforza, a 12 year old noble
Lisa Padol: Roggerio, a musician and ex-diabolist, in Ipolitto's service
Matt Stevens: Rafael Marancini, Jewish Cabalist and advisor to Ipolitto.
Not present were Rachael Tang, playing the midwife Bella Ziani; David Siegel, playing the Moorish architect Jebril; and Lee Painton, playing the self-important Venitian nobleman Vincent di Giovanni. Their characters were NPCs for this session.
Our heroes undertook a quest for ingredients of an antidote for a poison that kills if you stop taking it. Pursued by a one-eyed Spanish archer, who was addicted to the poison and working for its creator, they entered a faerie mound where one of the ingredients, liquid moonlight, might be found. They were given permission to harvest it in return for giving up tokens of their allegiance to the Sforzas and accepting those of the Reefmaster, Grinky.
Grinky, a 60-foot tall giant, made the group new citizens of Grinkyville, a village atop an immensely high cliff which was surrounded on all sides by a raging river filled with huge salmon. After collecting moonlight, being used as bait to catch fish, and learning that everyone in the village was expected to spend their entire life amusing Grinky, everyone was quite ready to leave. Ipolitto thought all of Grinky's prisoners should be freed, if necessary, by killing Grinky. Erik assured us that Grinky was not sacrosanct and did not have script immunity.
The challenge of the session was to keep the PCs from escaping until dramatically appropriate, i.e., at the end of a 2 hour session, not within the first 5 minutes. I know this is overly contrived for some folks, but we all seemed to be on the same page here. As the session went on, we would agree on when certain actions should work and what those successes should mean, so that everything built to a satisfying climax.
So, when Rafael tried to cover up Grinky's token on his yarmulke in the first 5 minutes of the game, Grinky somehow became aware of this. Scolding Rafael for making the token of Grinky look ugly, he restored it, I think adding a smiley face for good measure.
Erik apologized for short circuiting Raphael's attempt, and Matt assured Erik that he didn't mind. Erik was careful to distinguish between something that would accomplish something if the PC had a chance to complete it, like obscuring the token, and something that just wouldn't work. For instance, Roggerio tried to ask for aid by playing his faerie lute. As I had guessed, attempting this to escape a faerie practical joke would not work.
People dined on the giant salmon, each finding it tasting like his or her own favorite food. I believe only Rafael was able to resist the tempting aroma. The old citizens of Grinkyville were not as delighted with their food as Ipolitto. As one man explained, he had been eating nothing but venison for 20 years.
The liquid moonlight was essentially moonshine alcohol. After consuming a moderately large quantity of it, an inebriated Ipolitto wandered around in the fading light, looking unsuccessfully for his magical monocle, which might allow him to see beyond faerie illusions. He fell asleep and woke to hear loud crystal chimes.
The rest of Grinkyville awoke as well, assembling in a lackluster fashion to be cheerfully greeted by the giant, who announced that the day's game of Grinky would be Grinkyball, a sort of basketball. Grinky was on one side, the village on the other. Vincent was made Grinky's cheerleader, Ruggerio the other team's. All that was needed was someone to be the Grinkyball. And who should stagger in but a hungover Ipolitto, filled with a consuming need to change his clothes?
Ipolitto found himself encased in a ball of dew as the game began. He was highly indignant, then rather nauseated. A few gross jokes were made about half time being when the ball was half full, or when the person inside the ball had turned green or red. I forget what the actual half time condition was.
Regardless, at half time, Grinky realized new citizens were about to arrive. The older new citizens discussed their situation, until Roggerio realized Grinky's absence might give Rafael a chance to pray. Alas, they had waited too long. We all agreed Rafael's prayers would be interrupted by the new arrivals landing on top of him.
The first of these was the one-eyed Spanish archer who had tried to kill them. His bow was broken. The other two were the archer Antonio, also with a broken bow, and the werewolf Cain, generally nice men, considering they were Satanists. Roggerio, who had once been a Satanist working with them and their leader Renier, temporarily forgot that he had changed sides.
Roggerio (furiously): You idiots!
Cain (stoically): Yes.
Roggerio was not mollified, and went into a Rant. I had fun with this. In order to get to Grinkyville, the Satanists had to accept the token of Grinkyville, basically pledging their allegiance to it, something which was antithetical to Satanist philosophy as espoused by Renier.
Roggerio: You pledge you allegiance to -no one-! Have you learned nothing from Renier?
Antonio (after a startled beat): Clearly not as much as you learned.
Liliana, who had not been informed about Roggerio's past, and whose only encounter with the Satanists had been when the Sforzas had tried, unsuccessfully, to oppose them, took a careful step away from the musician. Ipolitto reminded Roggerio that his allegiance was first to God, and second to Ipolitto. Roggerio apologized to his lord and to his friends for scolding them. Cain did not see why Roggerio was apologizing for calling them idiots, which he thought was no more than the truth.
Grinky decided that the newcomers provided the one missing element of the game of Grinkyball, spectators! They were positioned on a nearby hill to watch. The Spaniard tried to leave, but Cain and Antonio each put a firm hand on one of his shoulders. Cain's hand alone would have held the Spaniard in place. They watched the game with increasing bafflement.
Ipolitto was once more trapped in dew as the Grinkyball. However, he was now mostly recovered from his hangover, and he began to see if he had any control over the ball's motions. It turned out he did have some, and he attempted to help the villagers score a goal. Roggerio played inspiring music, and the villagers found themselves actually excited about accomplishing something.
The villagers formed themselves into a human pyramid, and Grinky stopped in astonishment to watch this. Rafael took advantage of Grinky's distraction to attempt to write holy words on his yarmulke in charcoal. This was complicated by the necessity to keep running to the other side of the human pyramid as Grinky circled it to get a better view.
Erik: Rafael had better hope Grinky never thinks of the game hide and seek.
The ball bounced higher and higher, and Ipolitto noticed that the magical glass he had been searching for was on top of the chimes hanging overhead. Rafael finally completed his symbol as the villagers, with Ipolitto's help, managed to score a goal. At this point, the entire human pyramid collapsed on top of Rafael.
Grinky was delighted.
Grinky: Grinky not remember when other team scored a goal! (pause) Grinky not remember when other team had the ball!
Grinky praised Ipolitto's performance as the Grinkyball. Ipolitto bowed, and noted that Grinky's chimes were dirty.
Grinky: Oh! You are volunteering to clean the chimes.
Ipolitto (not wanting to seem too eager): Er, no, I --
Liliana: Grinky, he is dirty!
Grinky: Oh! You are volunteering to clean the Grinkyball!
Roggerio (looking for an excuse to talk with Antonio and Cain): Grinky, someone should explain the rules of Grinkyville to the new citizens!
Grinky: Oh, you are volunteering to explain the rules!
Erik: Of course, you realize you don't actually know --
Roggerio: Grinky, what are the rules of Grinkyville?
Grinky (frowning): You do not know them? But you volunteered to explain them. No one in Grinkyville ever volunteers to do something that they cannot do.
Roggerio (hastily): I know! I will set the rules to music, with the proper rhyme and meter!
This delighted Grinky. Erik warned that Roggerio had been given a lot of rope which could hang him -- or provide a method of escape from Grinkyville. Roggerio went over to talk to the newcomers.
Antonio: Good game.
Roggerio repeated what Grinky had said about the other team scoring a goal or getting a ball.
Cain: Very good game.
Roggerio explained about Grinkyville, the game of Grinky, being used as bait for salmon, and everything else he knew about the place. He made a deal with the Spaniard that there would be a truce lasting a day past when everyone got out of Grinkyville. And he mentioned that he had to write a song.
Returning to the Italian party, Roggerio explained about the truce with the Spaniard. Ipolitto pointed out how vulnerable this left them. Roggerio suggested his lord make a new truce, as Roggerio was but a simple musician. Antonio came over then, and assured them all that they need not fear the Spaniard. Renier had sent him and Cain to protect them.
Antonio: Don't worry. We're watching your back.
Roggerio was delighted. Liliana was quietly concerned. Ipolitto was surprised, but in no position to turn down help. Rafael was still recovering from having the villagers fall on top of him.
Liliana allowed herself to be lowered, despite her fear of heights, to get water to wash Ipolitto off. Erik agreed that at this point, the PCs should start getting the elements they needed for their escape. Rafael had successfully covered the token of Grinky, and this had the effect of making him less noticeable by the giant. Liliana found a yellow shirt in the water, the same shade of yellow as the tokens of Grinky. She took this, realizing she could unravel the shirt and use the thread to cover up the symbols for the rest of the Italian party.
Roggerio worked on his song, and added to it a section on how one might leave Grinkyville. This, everyone agreed, should be a series of seemingly impossible conditions. We decided that the song would say one of three things had to happen. Either one had to see Grinkyville as it truly was and comprehend what one saw, or one had to win the game of Grinky, or one had to be taller than Grinky. Erik noted that, given that Ipolitto was about to reclaim his magical glass, the conditions might be too simple to lead to the climax we wanted, the villagers winning a game of Grinky.
Beth: Oh, I have it! Grinky makes one minor correction to Roggerio's song. Instead of "or" between each of the conditions, it should be "and".
We agreed that this would work. Ipolitto was cleaned and managed to retrieve his glass from the chimes. However, on looking through it, he was very disappointed. Everything looked exactly the same. This confirmed Josh's suspicion about what was going on, and set things up for when Ipolitto would comprehend what he had seen.
That night, Ipolitto found himself tired of his favorite food. Why, he had eaten it last night! Liliana began sewing, and everyone waited for an appropriate game of Grinky. Several days passed before one occurred.
This was the game General Grinky. General Grinky attacks the opposing army, consisting of the entire village. The winner is the one who brings the opposition to its knees.
The Italians had covered Grinky's tokens. Antonio had made himself a new bow out of available materials. It wasn't very strong, but his arrows, blessed by Satan, never missed what he aimed at. Grinky, not realizing this, laughed when he thought the rather puny arrow had missed him, merely parting his hair.
In fact, Antonio's goal was to cut some of Grinky's hair with his arrow. The villagers created a trip wire out the hair, while Cain distracted Grinky by turning into a wolf and climbing up him. Grinky fell prone, Cain on top of him, and the entire village was taller than Grinky, and had won the game of Grinky. And Ipolitto finally realized the truth: Grinky was not a giant. The villagers had all been shrunk.
Grinky, now being held by a surprised Cain, was actually only two feet tall. He had been one of the smallest faeries, forced to be the jester, until he was given Grinkyville to play with. Ipolitto made him promise to let everyone go, take no vengeance, and guide them to where they had originally entered faerie. Grinky morosely agreed. Ipolitto demanded he promise not to hold people against their will.
Grinky: But Grinky will be lonely!
Ipolitto: Well... For no more than a week.
Again, Grinky reluctantly agreed.
Bella and Vincent no doubt found themselves in Italy, where they had been before. The rest of the group, along with Antonio, Cain, and the Spaniard were back in the Pyrenees. The Spaniard was none the worse for wear, despite not having had any of the poisoned wine to which he was addicted while in faerie. Roggerio suggested that he might find somewhere in faerie more pleasant than Grinkyville, as staying there did seem a viable option, one Roggerio preferred to his trying to kill the group. It took Roggerio a while to explain all of this. In Grinkyville, everyone understood everyone. Outside, Roggerio had limited Spanish, and the Spaniard limited Italian. But the idea got across, and the Spaniard looked thoughtful.
He left the group, followed by Cain and Antonio, who understood that their own presence was not entirely welcome. The liquid moonlight which was the group's goal reached Italy, as Vincent, and perhaps Bella as well, had filled containers with it. This left only one more item to be fetched.
The item was in the keeping of Baba Yaga. It was either the water of life or the water of death. No one was sure which.
