Dreamlands of Lost Carcosa - Wine & Rubies

I've recently found out about the Other Carcosa Supplement for OD&D and its many references to the Dreamlands/more detailed (ish) setting absolutely charmed me. Since I was looking for a good non-traditional fantasy setting to experiment with FKR playstyle, this fit like a glove.

Characters
• Aris, a Pot-Maker from Ancient Greece
• Alberto Bartolo Contarini, a Venetian Duellist from the late 16th C.
• Dasodaha, "He Only Sits There", an Apache Brave from the 18th C.
• Jagger Chang, a Mongol Biker from 1980s China
• Pavel Tiyurin, a Soviet Kosmonaut from 2400AD

What Happened
All of these were dragged off from their home one way or another and ended up falling asleep in peculiar circumstances. They woke up to the sound of breaking glass and found themselves in a cage fit for beasts, in a black sailing ship's hold. In front of them was an Egyptian Mau with a silver key and an emerald dagger on its sides.

After some confused conversations where our heroes realized that they somehow all understood each others despite speaking their own native tongues, Pavel adressed the cat, who answered and was understood by all. He said he had no name, and requested of the party a promise: in exchange for their freedom, they were to drive the dagger into the heart of the ship's captain. They promised, He Only Sits There took the dagger while Pavel unlocked the cage.

Getting their bearings, the group decided to explore the cargo hold - except for Dasodaha who sneaked upstairs into the Orlop Deck where he spied on two strange sailors. In the hold, the party found a bunch of caged animals kept in a daze by a strange glowing orb. Jagger bagged it for later use. They also found some supplies - wine, grain, salted meat and rubies.

When a heavy-stepped sailor came down the hold and noticed the open cage, they hid, waiting for an occasion to ambush their kidnapper. Dasodaha sneaked back down and jumped on the sailor's back, cutting its throat. The others joined in and stabbed the creature - for it was not a man but a strange satyr-thing with a mouth too wide and too toothy. It bled like any man, still, and was soon taken care of.

More exploration of the cargo revealed few things of interest save for some extra rubies and a pile of other clothings indicating the satyrs took many other prisoners before. Then they found a pool with large batracian-like eggs floating in the lazarette. Aris punctured one with its sword, pouring jelly and blood in the saltwater. Somewhere above, a creature screamed in anger and agony, and the crew - who had been celebrating upstairs in drunken revelry, started beating on drums. 

Soon, the group was assaulted by scimitar-wielding beast-men wearing colorful turbans and silken robes, and to keep them from ganging up on them, Don Contarini flung a lantern at them in the stairs. The robes caught fire and Pavel threw a barrel of highly flammable wine in there to feed the fire. Dasadoha used his rifle to take down those that crossed the fire while Aris killed the remaining ones in close range.

The shrieking beast appeared then - a massive white toad with tentacles for a face. It shook the ship as it rushed through the fire, only stopped for a moment as Jagger Chang flung a crazed chimp at it. It crushed Dasadoha's ribs as it lunged onto him, and while Pavel and Aris defended their backs, Alberto and He Only Sits There fought off the monster until it was writhing in pain, and the Apache Brave drove the emerald dagger into its heart.

Then the ship started falling. The satyrs ran off to the main deck and took off in escape boats. The party followed, and was amazed to see four moons in the sky. Pavel mused at the constellations he might recognize but only for a moment as time was of the essence. They bumrushed a satyr off board, jumped into an escape pod and glided down to the forest below after seeing the Cat again, wishing them luck and thanking them for their help. It jumped as if onto invisible pillars into thin air. They fell and crashed into the woods, though their "pod" - a sort of lifeboat with a metal shell, protected them from harm.

On the ground, in woods the Cat called the Forest of Ys, the party drunk some wine to calm their nerves and ate some rations. Jagger Chang's Harley Davidson joined them on its own, and he happily took her for a ride across the nearby woods, realizing it was now agile as a horse and responsive to the point where it felt, well, alive.

The next morning, the party studied their surroundings and noticed the colossal french mansion to the north west, atop a distant plateau. What dangers lurk in the Forest of Ys? What awaits inside the Chateau? Perhaps they will find out next time in Lost Carcosa.

Some Thoughts
The wild diversity of characters led to some excellent in-party chatter, as cultures and world views clashed. One such highlight was a late session debate on the merits of columns in greco-roman architecture as the party criticized the Chateau's aesthetics.

I love the Dreamlands-ish setting. It feels like fantasy without the boring stuff, without being as constraining (to me) as something more realistic like pseudo-historical 17th C. Earth. We're on another planet, there's weird shit here, I ain't gotta explain most of it, yet there's still a sense of cohesion to be built. Good stuff.

Mechanics-wise, I kind of blundered my way through the session. I wanted to experiment with a few ideas, and ended up mixing and mashing them. I tried some 2d6 vs 2d6 (Perfected), I tried some 2d6 vs TN (Traveller) and I did use automatic, fixed damage from Any Planet Is Earth at times. Turns out, I don't like rolling dice that much and would rather keep it for Saving Throws and the likes. Like in Fast-Forward. What I'll end up doing I think is stick to APIE combat rules like in Shadowrun.

During character generation, I made players roll for traits. In the end, background seemed to matter much more than specific traits. So in the future, I will probably go with Barons of Braunstein/Blood of Pangea and have players write a 30-words narrative description of their character, and use that. Or, alternatively, I've got a Fantasy hack of Fast-Forward in the works. You'd get the Traveller CharGen mini-game feel, except quicker and simpler, and have characters defined by a few skills. Perhaps some descriptive but pre-determined stats on 2d6 too.