Campaign '26 is a challenge issued by RPG blogger/epic poetry enthusiast N.Bateman in this post: in short, participants pledge to run or play a game for most of the year. I have sworn a sacred oath to run a PARIAH Campaign using the ATTI zines (and accompanying adventure, Reach of the Roach God) for the whole of 20026. Previous session reports below:
Session 0
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| A Yellow Book, if ever there was one |
We're well into it now: it's March and I haven't written up any of February's sessions.
Session 3
Real World Date: 6th February 2026
With just two players the band decided to send an exploration party west, consisting of the following individuals:
- Sweet Told No Lies and Monsoon Swallows Pride, elderly pariahs
- The Cuckoo and Hard Boulder, outcast youths
They travelled westward on foot, through the dry riverbed. The great verdant caldera (which they had been told by the moth-man housed Quiet Lake itself) loomed far ahead and represented a potential site to recce.
Session 4
Real World Date: 13th February 2026
Three players in attendance, the party comprises the following individuals:
- Sweet Told No Lies and Monsoon Swallows Pride, elderly pariahs
- White Moon, adult pariah
- Brooding Mountain, The Cuckoo and Hard Boulder, outcast youths
The party again opt to take a trip to Quiet Lake, this time loading up on sufficient rations for a minimum of three days travel, and beginning the journey via boat.
Day 3, 3rd Month of Dry Season
Sailing across the bay, the party deposit the boat at the westernmost headline and travel ashore towards their previous encampment, securing their boat in the process.
They find a crop of sorcerers sage which they harvest before ascending the steep, forested slopes.
The encounter a cicada which thrums the phrase oh-doy-oq with its wings (actually with a tiny hammer organ called a tymbal striking its hollow body, as we discover thanks to some distracting googling). It takes the party a while to connect the tale of Odoyoq with this sound.
White Moon carries with him a pipe and some sage from his previous life, though no experience with using it. Nonetheless he places a few dried plants into his pipe and smokes it: he is nauseated and experiences no other entheogenic effects.
The party witness three giant cockroaches fly over head.
Arriving at the kast-like walls surrounding what they previously assumed to be a volcanic caldera, the party circumnavigate it widdershins (counter-clockwise), assessing the scale. By late afternoon they have come almost all the way around to the other side, and have spied some standing stones atop the cliff. They decide it's too high to climb up to them.
Searching the area they find a dismembered goat leg at the mouth of a cave in the base of the cliff. Dusk is falling and they decide to investigate further, though wary of the ominous body part which does not correspond to the behaviour of any local predators of which they're aware. The presence of taro leaves imply this is some kind of shrine: perhaps the goat leg is an offering?
Using an improvised torch White Moon explores. Jar-sized-and-shaped black objects glisten wetly by firelight, littering the floor and wedged between rock-gaps. At the back of the cave he finds a spear and a club of curious material, and a vent. The paranoid party instruct him to withdraw, and they set up camp away from he entrance.
Night falls.
Session 5
Real World Date: 20th February 2026
Three players but unfortunately Brett had sound issues and dropped in and out frequently, so his characters made only sporadic appearances.
We were able to pick up the same crew from last week's session, in the morning at the mouth of the cave.
Day 4, 3rd Month of Dry Season
White Moon resumes his search of the cave, revealing an office-vent-sized opening to a cavern beyond "exhaling the odour of warm almond milk" (oh Zedeck, you spoil us!): White Moon elected not to explore, but after some prodding retrieved the peculiar weapons, one of which (the club) he presented to The Cuckoo.
The party followed a downhill trail towards the previous evening's sighting of smoke, expecting to find a village. They come across a sturdy woman by the name of Iba, on the way to cut some bamboo. She's somewhere between wary and unconcerned, telling them if they're looking to make themselves useful a kid goat's gone missing. They wander off to find the goat herd as she heads off to cut bamboo. Passing by her hut they spy a pearl bracelet dangling from the window sill, but assume it to be some kind of charm.
The pariahs soon find the distraught herder: he explains how the kid went missing around late afternoon after he'd decided to pen them early and head to the teahouse. While explaining how whoever came by managed to unlatch the secure gate (suggesting sapience) the goatherd – Ghikri – inadvertently scratches his finger on a protrusion, revealed to be something similar to a broken insect claw. This chitinous spike is deemed to be of identical materiality to the spear and the club from the cave.
[I don't think the party mention finding the goat leg to him? The other goats were wandering around the village: they didn't investigate]
They agree to escort Ghikri to the local healer, an hour's walk into the forest, away from the caldera. Along the way they see a white-haired ape, similar to an orangutan, glide across the trail ahead of them. Ghikri does not notice.
Arriving at the healer's hut, Galak Deng seems concerned by the wound on Ghikri's hand. In his raspy voice he also offers a protective charm against tigers: White Moon trades some sorcerers sage, hoping to sweeten the deal by providing a song of the many healers from his former tribe. Galak responds with a horribly sung rendition of the story with which they were already familiar: that if Odoyoq and Elalela. in this rendition Odoyoq was identified not by name but a demon referred to simply as "the ogre".
Satisfied with the tiger charm and having made contact with someone at least vaguely associated with magic and spirits, they follow Ghikri back to the village. Elalela has been identified with the genius loci previously, and Sweet Told No Lies made a blood offering before they ventured to the tea house to pick up some local information. of particular concern to Sweet Told No Lies was any trading opportunities.
Of principal concern was what had happened to the goat, but in general the village were after steel or bronze tools. Ignoring their ability to roam freely and investigate things like missing goats, the party elected to work out where they might source some metal tools and headed back to their own camp... though not before receiving some information about the surrounding territory (new map unlocked!)
[I can't remember if they spent the night in the village or not]
Session 6
Real World Date: 27th February 2026
Two players able to make it to this session, though one was expecting to join later (they didn't make it). Discussion had narrowed down what to do for the session into three different options:
- Run the session as a "zoomed out", strategic resource-foraging exercise
- Explore a different nearby community such as The Death-Rolled Kingdom
- Gain some lateral insight into the band's situation via psychedelics
Day 6, 3rd Month of Dry Season
The following pariah elders were active this session:- Sweet Told No Lies
- Monsoon Swallows Pride
Under the supervision of Summit Holds One-Less Egg the pariahs prepared a brew of dawn mushrooms and journeyed to the other side. Here they were able to obtain an overview of their surround environment, and commune directly with the Tortoise Spirit that presides over the coastal forests and valleys of their new (ish) home. The tortoise responded positively to Monsoon's singing, and a tiny orb flew towards him. He held it within his palm for the duration of the trip.
During the transition from the Here & Now to the Dawn Realm, they noted that the intense vibration emanating from living things was a feature of the club and spear procured from Horsehead Cave
The tortoise gave instruction on how to properly honour him (weekly offerings at the shrine in time with moon phases). Sweet Told No Lies enquired about gold, and the tortoise mentioned the hills in the east. Using their capacity to wander the Here & Now via the Dawn Realm, they travelled at lightning speed through an increasingly irrational landscape to see if the gold would be present itself.
Instead an enormous (well, sometimes normal-sized) crow arrived, sparking up conversation with a series of (at times opaque) questions as to the pariahs' ambitions and plans. On hearing of the gold, the crow showed how he was able to retrieve it directly with his magic stick. Well: they were like, weird worm-things which then turned it to ingots at the pariahs' feet.
Unfortunately the crow explained that he would like to receive a number of youths in return. This was a deal-breaker for the pariahs, though Crow was keen to emphasise that he was willing to negotiate. How many youths for an ingot?
The dissatisfied crow dismissed them, and the pariahs were returned to the Here-and-Now, tired and hungry but better informed. There's gold in them-there hills... they just have to fetch it the old-fashioned way.
Footnotes
Links
Campaign '26 at Nate's Blog:https://pressthebeast.bearblog.dev/campaign-2026/
Semiurge reflecting on the Seven Mysteries of St Fiachra's:
http://archonsmarchon.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-seven-mysteries-of-st-fiachras_21.html
Idraluna's Castle Mordengard Post Mortem
https://idraluna-archives.bearblog.dev/castle-mordengard-postmortem/
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