Gamex 2012: Better Late Than Never

August 27, 2012

Our hero.

Hey, so Gateway is this weekend and I never even did a proper recap of Gamex. What can I say? I've been busy. In lieu of recapping -- and also because I'd like to recap GenCon sometime before November -- I'm just going to post some pictures of the Big Board and some props.

A brief recap of the storyline, though:

The Modron Hierarchy has decided that the Prime Material Plane, and specifically the plane-hopping adventurers therefrom, is a serious threat to Mechanus and the Hierarchy. They believe there's a correlation between extra-planar incursions from the Prime Material and the rising numbers of rogue modrons over the millennia. The obvious solution is to destroy the Prime Material, and thus preserve Order.

But you can't just destroy a plane of existence like that, not if you're a modron. There are procedures and protocols to follow. Forms to fill out, presumably. The wheels of bureaucracy turn slowly. Plus, you have to be sure about these things, or the consequences could be dire. So Primus, the One, has decreed that representatives from the Prime Material [read: the PCs] will be subjected to a series of trials to determine whether the plane is worthy of continued existence.

The modrons have spent thousands of years getting this all in motion. A big part of it has been the creation of what I guess we can call "habitats" -- geographical areas designed to support, and then seeded with, certain lifeforms, or combinations thereof. In most cases, the lifeforms in question aren't even aware they're living in and perpetuating this weird experiment for the Hierarchy. [Read: A lot of wacky dungeons and stuff are actually artificial constructs built by the modrons as part of the trials. F'rinstance, one of the trials was White Plume Mountain.]

To make the Primes feel at home, the modrons have constructed a little town in Mechanus meant to emulate what they see as the adventurer's natural habitat. But the base modrons who created it are somewhat lacking creativity, so the illusion is... incomplete. It's called Town. There's an inn called Inn, a tavern called Tavern, a "general store" called Store, a temple labeled Temple, and so on. It's like putting a frog in a jar with a leaf and a stick and expecting him to feel like he's back in the forest. The Primes they've abducted and brought here form the pool of PCs (and most hirelings) for the weekend's five game sessions.

What with one thing and another, the finale Sunday night involves a massive war between the armies of the Hierarchy and those of the rogues (La Resistance), the latter of which are led by a PC (Ajax, the Halfling Fighter) and Rinaldo Two-Eyes, the charismatic tridrone leader of the rogues. Simultaneously, the other PCs, in an attempt to disable Primus' pool of positive energy from which new modrons are generated as quickly as they die, end up attracting the attention of a giant demonic owlbear named Isgoth, the Apocalypse Dragon, the sea-god Procan, and a formless elven life-force. All of these converge in the body of Hawthorn the Inconstant, a cleric of mercurial faiths and loyalties (who, during the course of the weekend, has served both Isgoth and Procan), as he drowns in the massive pool of positive energy.

The result is the creation of the Prime Material Plane. Or a Prime Material Plane, anyway.

Retroactively, we called the weekend's chronicle Deux Ex Mechanus.

Anyway, here are some pictures. (Looks like some of these need rotating -- sorry!)

The Big Board, recopied.

The size of OH MY GOD!

Sharp-eyed readers may recognize Pelanor and his order of paladins from
the first Living Dungeon World, back at OrcCon.

Bet you didn't know the Prime Material Plane experiences a constant, global Aurora Borealis.
You've lived with it so long you don't even notice it anymore!