GM: Merwin
Players: Sean Nittner, Nathaniel Bowers, Samuel Bemis, Wesley Gould, David Jackson
System: Trophy Dark
Content warning: graphic violence, harm to animals, and depravity masked (like this)
Every since playing Trophy Gold at Strategicon, I was eager to check out Trophy Dark, a game that promised to end in suffering and death…and it did just that!
Here’s the pitch:
You are not the first treasure-hunters who chose to follow the thorn-infested Briar River into the Screaming Mountain, seeking out a fortune in flawless pearls. Convinced that the rumors are true, you determination drives you onward to uncover the secrets of the mountain, no matter the cost.
We started making characters right off the bat. Since there are only six options for each character aspect (name, drive, occupation, background, and ritual) we had a fair bit of overlap that lead to fun roleplaying moments. We had to Chemeths (one pronounced Kem-ick the other chem-eth) and Nate and I both picked characters who wanted to make the groveler Lemon choke with envy, were both Wayfinders, and were both Divested captains. That all worked towards bringing us together, so I didn’t hate that at all.
I played Heloi, a brash former captain who stated opinions loudly and didn’t truck with nonsense. She hated that usurper Lemnon and like her fellow ship captain Olor (who ribbed her often) she wanted Lemnon to grovel before her for bringing her down low. Low enough to travel to Screaming Mountain!
My companions:
- Olon, and weathered old ship captain. Had a rivalry (sometimes friendly, sometimes not) with Heloi.
- Chemeth (chem-eth), a crystal dealer who searched out the odd stones others discarded.
- Chemeth (Kem-ick), a rogue who refused to accept help from anyone.
- Turwek, a naturalist who smelled of nature (eucalyptus and berries). Someone most people avoided talking to.
Our trials and adventures
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. If you plan on playing this incursion, I recommend skipping to the very bottom “Thoughts on the Game” or just not reading further.
RING 1
We arrived in Branbleberg in Screaming Mountain after several days journey. It was a small hamlet with a few trade caravans. We noticed people moving between the village and the river with machetes and sickles to cut back the every growing branble. They all had open sores and ugly wounds…the thorn fought back.
We found a small food vendor Unai serving bread and fresh muscles (shucked on the spot, just harvested from the river), who told us that people here worked hard to cut back the bramble, otherwise it would overtake them. Heloi didn’t see the point. If they weren’t diving for pearls, why not find an easier place to live. But she enjoyed the muscles and fresh baked bread!
From one of the burn fires a man ran with a bramble stuck in his leg. He was stopped by the other villagers, but still in great agony. Heloi was able to cut the barb out of his leg, but not without getting stung herself. She had a bleeding wound that would never stop [Torn Flesh condition +1 Ruin].
Chemeth the rogue (inspired by the brave captain?) helped her as well. He used his ritual of ignite to light his fingers on fire and cauterize her wounds. Though the ritual was flawless, the wounds soon cracked open again and continued to bleed. Bad news!
The man, Norel, offered to introduced us to the raft merchant on the river and we paid for a raft to go upstream. Norel himself was too scared to accompany us.
RING 2
Heloi asked Terwek, who knew of the natural world, what he knew of these evil vine, but he had not encountered them before.
The water rippled to the vines as we passed and they seemed to move as if animated by an invisible hand. Avoiding them was difficult work. Thankfully we had not one, but two ship captains!
Olon cast a spell to turn water back on itself and make the river flow upstream instead of down. It worked but not without disturbing the natural order. Our raft was knocked side to side and we had to work that much harder to avoid the brambles. He also paid dearly for the spell and was sickened by it, but would never let Heloi see that he was sick aboard a ship, even a raft like this.
We heard screams up the mountain…growing louder.
Upstream we sound someone caught in the vines, bleeding out into the river. Chemet the rogue tried to snatch their water bladder, but failing that, he heeded Heloi’s command to kill the man and put him out of his misery. At quick death was better than what he’d endure otherwise.
RING 3
Upstream the brambles thinned out and were replaced by the bite of cold air. The stream became to steep to sail up, so we hand to beach the raft and continue on foot. There were pearls here (in the muscles) but they were still small and misshapen.
As we docked the raft on the riverbed, we heard the intermittent screams from the mountain grow louder and clearer.
We saw a group of naked hairless women with sagging orange skin and sunken eyes. The didn’t look quite human, but we weren’t sure what they were. They were dragging a makeshift litter with an woman whose head was too the ground, her feet bound at the top. The chanted “As you have crushed our hearts, so does our sorrow crush yours” and then, in turn, digging muscle shells into her chest. She did not cry out, but was clearly in agony. However, she was not resisting the torment, it appeared she endured the punishment willingly. Heloi called out to stop that torture, but she was ignored, and we agreed to avoid the group. The women had a sense of agreement, that even the one being punished was at peace.
This was also a time of revelation, when we each shared something we had witnessed that the other members of the group had done to break trust and harm our collective best interest.
- Olon, in his price, hid information from the group. His last ship crashed and he was the only survivor. It was his fault!
- Turwek is luring us into predation. He only pretended to not know about the deadly vines.
- Chemeth was working for a Omara to grow these vines, but they had a falling out.
Ahead we saw a dying goat pierced by thorns, and continued our trek.
RING 4
As we ascended the crevasse narrowed and deepened. We eventually reached a plunge pool that was waste deep. Behind the pool in the rocks above were two holes that looked like eyes with water pouring from them like tears into the pool.
The pool was filled with muscle and fish. Floating in it as well, Chemeth found the torso of a dead body, bloated but adorned in pearls on the buttons of their shirt and the buckle of their belt. Chemeth used the ritual of assimilate to devour the corpse and take it’s memories.
Chemeth recalled many memories that were not his own.
- First memory was of peace
- Second memory was of agonizing pain
- Third memory was unending pain
- Fourth memory was falling backwards and hitting the water below.
- Fifth memory was his name: Stom. He came to the mountain to fulfill and obligation to Taisho the Miser.
Heloi, disgusted by Chemeth and his offer to share in the depravity [due to a failed ruin role, she had the Uninhibited condition and acted before thinking] cut off his fingers so he dripped the remains of the dead Stom into the water, and could not longer offer us to share in the “bounty”.
Turwek looked up, they saw a stream of pearls burst forth out of the left eye in the mountain.
Olon [who was at 5 ruin, and so could use the betrayer mechanic to hurt the party and reduce his own ruin] betrayed Turwek, cutting the back of Turweks leg, but making it seem like he was cut on the shark edge of a muscle under the water.
Chemeth, who was not forgetting things as his mind made room for Stom’s memories, was surprised to see that he was maimed, but didn’t know the source, so he assumed it was not from one his companions, but a trial along the way.
As we approached the second eye sprayed forth pearls and we were suddenly swarmed by the the orange skinned women we had seen before. Heloi and Olon, both trained in teamwork worked to get the group safely into the eyes of the cave above.
RING 5
Once inside, Turwek touched the cave entrance and used the ritual of forgetting to make all of us forget the entrance existed. Silencing it from our minds.
Inside the vast cave we saw the moon through an opening above. We were knee deep in viscous milky water and it seemed we entered a swamp grotto. The walls were slippery and the floor was spongy. Our feet kept sinking into it if we stood still.
The inside of the cave glowed in blue, purple, and white light in the moonlight. We saw the bodies of several who had come before us. All dead now and decomposing. As the moonlight reflected off of them, we were reminded of people we knew:
- Chemeth/Stom saw Stom’s traveling companions.
- Heloi was reminded of her first mate who was both a lover and a mutineer that made her walk the plank
- Terwek remembered their child.
- Chemech a former lover
- Olon, his traveling companions.
Then as though eclipsing the first moon, we saw a second glowing in front of it, upon a pedestal of spongey…almost muscle-like composition.
With great effort we made our way to the giant pearl and hoisted it form the even more titanic muscle we were in…which then opened and cast us all down onto the rocks below, shattering the precious pearl and our our much less precious lives. Olon, who knew the ritual of shell, might have survived, but none of us would know.
Thoughts on the Game
The distinction between Gold and Dark isn’t mechanically that much. You still roll Light and Dark dice, but the real kicker for Dark is the ruin mechanic that means you don’t have long for this life, and the only way to prevent yourself from doom is to betray your companions. That’s some good stuff right there.
I loved the PVP mechanic and the way you risk ruin by adding more dark dice. We had a VERY close roll and I think I only one because I had one more die in my pool. The hidden reveal was great.
In some ways I think Gold is actually more of a horror story though. Because Gold presents the grind (you need to bring back enough gold just to survive) I think it gives you more opportunities to connect with your character and invest in them making it…only to find they might not (where as in Dark we knew we weren’t making it).
Nate, as we were entering into the PVP part of the game, had a great quote I’ll bring forward into future games. “Our paper dolls fight while we high five!” I think that captures the spirit of PVP for me perfectly. Even when I was attacking another character, I was looking to get his enthusiastic consent before the sword was swung.
This was a fun and creepy incursion. If you want to play it, you can get a copy here: https://merwins.itch.io/screaming-mountain. Thanks to Merwins for writing and running it!
