Last weekend was probably my last face to face game for a while, in which the Pawns of Destiny encountered the Skinner of Syranthia. This is a relatively new product by my standards, published in 2011, so I’ll avoid spoilers and just give you the highlights.
This adventure is a tale of heroes hunting a serial killer in the streets of Syranthia, but since this group has roughly 200 man-years of roleplaying experience between them, they joined the dots in short order and skipped past a number of the encounters, convinced that they had worked out whodunnit (and in fact they had, although not necessarily for the right reasons).
There were chases across the night-time rooftops of the city, nocturnal invasions of their inn (with Zosimus hanging out of a window wildly attacking the intruder – who was stuck in the window next door – by stabbing him in the rear), and arson in the Great Library.
Ash roleplayed his attachment to one of the missing girls really well, gaining a number of bennies for it. Max the Barbarian caused all sorts of trouble by using his dagger point to prise silver ornaments off things he really should not have been messing with. Dorjee Pema the Alchemist caused a near-riot in the Scriptorium of the Great Library by arguing with the vellum-maker and the sage giving writing lessons about how vellum ought to be made and used – this kept those worthies occupied while the rest of the party rifled through their possessions nearby in search of clues.
For me, though, the highlight of the session was the Monk. He does have a name, or rather multiple names (one per previous incarnation), but has not yet seen the need to reveal any of them to the party. You may remember that to date, everything the Monk has attacked, he has killed outright in one blow. After a long theological debate with U’wahz the Sage and Ash the rogue early in the session, the Monk decided that he had become too attached to material possessions and should give away all his money and equipment to the poor, except for his loincloth, which he retained to comply with the Comics Code. This means some lucky beggar in Syranthia now has a set of iron prayer beads.
Since he gave away his stuff, he has failed to hit anything, even with liberal use of bennies. The rest of the party is now of the opinion that the monk has no fighting skill of his own, and that it was bestowed upon him by magical robes gifted to him by his master (said robes are now referred to at the table as "the Tuxedo"). The monk disagrees and is now considering giving away his loincloth, arguing that he is clearly still too attached to material possessions.
It is no wonder, then, that the authorities have suggested the party might like to leave Syranthia for the time being.
Halfway Station 