Yesterday we finished our
Pugmire campaign. Before we get into the game, a few thoughts on the game and the system.
A little history: We started this game in January of 2022 (!) as a
one-shot, with a slightly different cast - we had Dire, Petunia, and Peppa, but the other two dogs were Douglas Canaan and Gromp Mutt. Those two players weren't able or interested in a monthly game of
Pugmire, so we grabbed a couple of others and they made Boomer and Sausagedog, so the campaign proper really started in
February.
From there, we played through nine separate arcs, with the PCs leveling up once per arc, roughly (
Pugmire has characters level whenever the GM damn well feels like it). The bulk of the game was taken up with the "Lost Pitbull Prince" arc, which started in
March 2023 and didn't wrap up until
December 2024 (this was the adventure that took them all the way from Pugmire to the Monarchies and back, with a good long stretch on the ocean and in Port Matthew, so there was a lot to it). And it was during this arc (though I'm not exactly sure which month) that we switched over to the
Realms of Pugmire rules that were Kickstarted in 2023 (and I still, by the way, have not received the actual offset print version of that book, just in case you thought Onyx Path was well organized or anything - but hey, go support their
current Kickstarter!).
The new rules were overall an improvement, though they had the same issue that a lot of games like this do: They weren't stress-tested at high levels. The result was that Boomer could reliably kill any enemy in one turn, or two if it was resistant to whatever kind of damage he was throwing out. I loved that character and the way Yannick played him, but I was a bit relieved when he retired.
Anyway, let's get into the last session!
Previously, our canine compatriots had cleansed the subconscious minds of Bivi Affenpinscher, Ruby Labrador, Yosha Pug, and Marshmallow von Mau of the insidious dream-infection of the Nagayaga. One left: Viveka Doberman!
The five of them - Dire Newfoundland, Gelert Sausagedog, Petunia Pibble, Peppa Papillon, and their new cat friend Hobbes von Shadow - disguise themselves as servants and sneak into the Doberman estate. The dogs there don't tend to notice servants, so as long as they stay mum, they're unnoticed (I actually just kind of hand-waved all this as far as game mechanics, because the good stuff starts when they get into Viveka's dream). They camp out in a storage room beneath her bedchamber, Not Even the mouse drugs them all and uses his psionic powers to shove them into Viveka's dream, and they fade out and appear...
...in Pugmire! But in chaos! Everyone is running and screaming, because a gigantic grey-tabby cat is destroying the city! It smashes buildings, picks up dogs and devours them, and lets out unearthly yowls! The Pioneers, of course, run towards it, trying to figure out where the Nagayaga (or its eggs) might be, but the citizens yell at them to "Run! BEWARE THE PURRASQUE!"
(I'm actually very proud of that.)
They realize quickly that there's no point in fighting something this big. Petunia concentrates, trying to figure out where the egg is, but there's too much, too much chaos, too much cat. Instead the characters start looking for Viveka. The Purrasque is smashing its way into the Palace district (MOW! crash), so they head there, and see Viveka on her battlements, obviously terrified. Hobbes notes that this might be Viveka's subconscious manifesting her bigotry and fear of cats.
The characters race up the stairs and confront her, but she isn't interested in being helpful. Peppa nearly gets through, trading on her position as a Shepherd (and Viveka is nominally a follower of the Church of Man), but she has no idea about any "eggs" that the Pioneers keep talking about. And then she sees Hobbes and shrieks "A cat!" and casts sonic boom, blowing Petunia and Peppa off the battlements.
Petunia, fortunately, is a powerful artisan and casts manipulate gravity, allowing the two of them to float harmlessly in the air. She sniffs magic, looking for the telltale stink of the Nagayaga, and it leads her back along the Purrasque's trail of destruction. She casts her gravity spell again, allowing all of the characters to fly, and they zoom along, past the Purrasque (it swipes at Hobbes when he gets too close, but misses) and land at the edge of a huge hole in Riverwall. Clearly, this is where the Purrasque emerged.
The egg-smell seems to lead them into the hole, so they jump, they fall...
...and they emerge in Pugmire, in chaos. But this time the chaos is the unwashed masses, the poor and downtrodden, revolting! They have already erected gallows, and the characters see bodies swinging - King Puckington, Yosha Pug, Graff Doberman, Heinrich Doberman, and other nobles they recognize. The dogs in the street scream about the injustices of the rich and powerful, and Viveka is nowhere to be seen.
The Pioneers try to find the egg again, and when Petunia sniffs magic, her clothes start to change to become more peasant like. Dire notes that maybe they need to find another hole to jump down, and Hobbes picks up on that logic - the Nagayaga may have burrowed deep enough into Viveka's mind that they do have to go deeper to find it. That isn't necessarily a matter of literally going into the ground, though.
Petunia picks up the cue and joins the mob, yelling about the rich, and Sausagedog and Dire do likewise. Peppa climbs up on a post to keep track of them, but realizes they're getting harder to see. Hobbes climbs to a roof, but can no longer see his compatriots...
...the three of them reawaken in another layer of the dream, this one looking like a paper wasp nest made by human-sized wasps (fortunately, it's clearly empty). "Maybe Viveka's afraid of wasps?" muses Dire.
Peppa, back in the previous level, watches Hobbes join the mob and vanish, and finally does so as well. She appears in a swamp full of doors - wooden doors, floating on the water. She's floating on one as well. She takes off her boots and paddles the door to shore, where she meets the others (who turn around and realize they're in a swamp now, not a nest).
As they try to make sense of this, the water from the swamp rises up and surrounds them, and they're at the bottom of the sea, standing near weird Man-made constructs - a circular platform with wooden horses? A mining track, but going way up into the air? totally impractical.
They talk for a moment, trying to figure out where they might need to go from here, and then the water goes away and they're in a giant gem, in a room that represents one facet. They see Viveka in another, marveling at all this. Dire tries to smash through a wall, but then the scene changes again and they're all on a simple hillock...but the last word of everything they say echoes four times.
Petunia wonders what would happen if she cast private kennel in such a place, and aims the spell such that it includes Viveka. And lo! They all vanish, and appear in a small room, nearly filled with plastic junk.
Something moves in the junk, and Hobbes grabs for it. It turns out to be a kitten, kind of - its snoot is that of a snake, its legs are too close together, and its fur is patchy and has scales in places. Hobbes grabs it and it bites him, and he feels poison spread through his system. He realizes it's wearing a collar and between him and Dire, they manage to snatch it. Dire grabs the thing by the face and crushes it, dropping it the floor...but its head reforms and it scampers off into the junk. Hobbes grabs it by the tail (and gets another bite for his trouble).
Sausagedog wraps the kitten up in his shirt, and Hobbes deciphers the writing on the collar: “A time between Man and Cat, between Man and Dog, the darkest time, go back, demon cat-snake”.
Suddenly the shirt is empty, and they hear hissing laughter from the junk. Petunia casts shatter and a large section of the stuff explodes, exposing the kitten, Dire scruffs the kitten and Petunia rubs ointment on Hobbes' paw to cure the poison. Dire thinks about what he's read about the Nagayaga - the problem is that most of the church records of the thing are held by cats, not dogs. But Peppa has actually made a point of studying the Church records of the Monarchies!
The Nagayaga, she recalls, is a demon born of the War of Cats and Dogs. It loves fomenting conflict between them, and it craves the artifacts of Cat, Dog, and Man. That, Sausagedog realizes, might be why the creature escape the shirt; the shirt is a "made" thing.
Hobbes holds the thing, and Dire tells him that on three, they'll strike it. He counts down and both Hobbes and Dire punch it, crushing it again, but it starts to heal. Petunia starts reciting the poem to herself to try and figure out what to do next, and realizes that the creature's blood is starting to steam! Perfect!
She finishes the line and the creature shrivels up into a black, pustulent ball. Peppa casts Dispel, and the ball pops (ew), and the characters are propelled up, back through the layers of dreams, and awaken in the storage room.
Petunia casts clairvoyance and looks in on Viveka. She's still asleep, with some black gunk at the corner of her mouth. She shifts in her sleep and wipes it away - the Pioneers have succeeded in killing the Nagayaga, for real this time!
They leave the manor (Dire smashes through a wall and we get the cool freeze-frame as they all leap out), and they go back to Pugmire, victorious.
In the years that follow, each of them goes their separate ways. Their new friend Hobbes von Shadow continues his practice, but with advances in magic that enable long-distance conversations, he is able to move to Houndton and become a trusted advisor of Boomer Pitbull.
Petunia Pibble takes over for Bivi as the head of the Riverwall Pioneer's Guild Storehouse, studying and cataloguing magic items and relics that the adventurers bring back.
Peppa Papillon assumes a higher rank in the Church of Man, but coordinates aid, soup kitchens, and the like - she's never going to be a political leader, but will always lead by example as a Good Dog.
Gelert Sausagedog is realizing that his joints are getting a bit stiff and he can't swashbuckle like he used to. He retires from derring-do, and can often be found at Granny Sue's Roadhouse. He never pays for his own drinks.
And Dazolm Newfoundland founds an orphanage in Riverwall, to take in young pups that might otherwise turn to a life of crime. Years later, when someone arrives asking for "Dire," he calmly says that Dire has been dead for years. But sit and have some soup - if Dazolm can help, he will.
FIN
