I'm going to lead with link to The Bad Doctor's most recent post (at time of writing) which has some great advice I'm not going to follow. I mean, I am an actual robot, how am I to escape the destiny of my flesh-shell? As Beyoncé herself once said we are all but bio-mechanoids... and who am I to contradict a Goddess?
Now that the basics are down, it's time for us to read about that thing that happened in the shared imagination of three people, and will now live (for a short time) in yours:
ENTER THE MAGIC GIANT LEECHES
 |
| Leeches by Munkao, taking from ATTI #03, Upper Heleng |
Session #08:
19th March 2026
Who Played
Players were represented this session by
Brett Slocum and Tinhead Ned.
Characters
The Cuckoo, outcast male youth
Hard Boulder, outcast female youth
Sweet Told No Lies and Monsoon Swallows Pride, elderly male pariahs
Day 7 going into Day 8 of 3rd Month of Dry Season, Clear skies, Night (half moon)
We pick up where we left off: the pariahs facing down four leeches, each as long as an arm.
With Louis absent, we agreed that his characters (White Moon and Brooding Mountain) had set up camp beside the gold-panning site, some distance from the current encounter. It was down to the reduced group to deal with the threat and consider the fate of the human-faced mouse-deer that had led the leeches to their campfire.
I'll cut to the chase: the pariahs ultimately vanquished their foes, but lost one of their number (the elder Monsoon Swallows Pride). The leeches were unable to harm either Sweet Told No Lies or the Cuckoo, but Hard Boulder lost a hit point (and for a short time her gender). "Blooded" via victory, Hard Boulder and The Cuckoo have earned the right to consider themselves adults, and will be treated as such next session (if nothing else, it means they get more hit points).
Reflections
As you're probably aware, these write-ups are part of my commitment to Nathan Bateman's ongoing
Campaign '26 Challenge. The challenge is to run (or play in) an RPG campaign for the duration of 2026, and to post about it. I'm running a weekly sandbox set in the world of
A Thousand THousand Islands, a fantasy Southeast Asia created by
Zedeck Siew and Munkao.
The OS for this campaign is Pariah, my own proto-Neolithic psychedelic animist RPG: the PCs are exiles from a stone-age tribe on a neighbouring island, struggling to survive in a familiar yet alien environment.
Okay: now that I have written out (like a robot, see above) my latest copypasta, I feel it's time to unburden myself of the thoughts about this session. Simply put: it was a whole session of combat, but it was still enjoyable. The length wasn't what made it fun, but it dragged out because we were having fun. Also because Tinhead Ned had 3 Old Fashioneds.
I think I should have been more generous with the tactical advantages the players created for themselves, as it might have encouraged them to take more risks and make it a bit more dynamic. In the event, though, I think they both felt they were going to lose and were willing to hold-on-and-hope, and ultimately the strategy paid off.
We'll see what happens next time.
Links
The Bad Doctor's Back in her House, Baby!
https://wasitlikely.blogspot.com/2026/03/stop-writing-like-robot.html
Munkao, Illustrator and RPG Creator:
https://www.instagram.com/munkao/?hl=en
The Petal Hack, 2nd Edition by Brett Slocum
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/351835/the-petal-hack-2nd-ed?affiliate_id=767873
Campaign '26
https://pressthebeast.bearblog.dev/campaign-2026/
Zedeck Siew's Writing Hours
https://slowlorispress.com/
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