They ran. They were betrayed by Tokoro Kobayashi. "The Last Dragon" used Knight knowing full well that he had Knight's wife imprisoned and subjected to a never ending nightmare of surgery and tests for some vaunted "greater good".
Daniel Knight paced around the bridge, saying nothing to his friends and nothing to Talos, who he was closer with than the rest. Daniel played the week's events over and over in his head. He couldn't understand how it came to this, he had been drifting in search for years, always keeping an ear open, an eye out, and he finds her like...that. Over and over. Play and play again. He didn't know what to do, he didn't care. Let the others figure out what was next for them.
...
Lilith frowned. She had been watching Daniel closely in the days since they escaped from Kobayashi and she worried about his mental state. He found something back at Kobayashi's base and it rattled him to the core. He had always had a tinge of sadness to him, but now it exploded into catatonic depression. He had said nothing to anyone in days. The only other person who knew what happened that day is Talos and he wasn't telling, though Lilith hadn't really tried to get anything out of that man. She couldn't put her finger on it but Talos upset her in an almost instinctive way. The barely restrained glee when he killed is probably a factor, it reminded her of something...
She made her way to Josef's room to find him laying in bed staring at the ceiling.
She knocked on the door to get his attention.
"Yeah?" he didn't look at her
She frowned at his lack of enthusiasm, "We need a place to hide, to collect our thoughts, we've been through a lot and a little safety will go a long way to help the damage. I imagine you all have someplace like that, the kind of work you do." She cut right to the meat of it. Dancing around grief at times like this tended to harm more than help.
"...yeah, we have a place like that. You ever heard of the Manifest System?"
"No."
"Always a good sign." He sighed, "TFP-10-2570, it's a backwater at the end of its terraformation. They have a single drive-sat station, anything from off-planet will take awhile to get there and even if word does make it, the locals only have bolt-action rifles at best. Easy and cheap to make." he swung his legs around the side of the bed, sitting up now. He looked at Lilith, "We're going to want to land somewhere discreet, attack frigates landing at the docks make the locals nervous."
"Alright, I'll let Talos know to set a course for Manifest." Lilith turned to leave, but Josef had questions of his own,
"What happened to Daniel? Has he said anything to you? What did he find at that base that we were lined up and almost shot over?"
She didn't know how to respond, what answer could she give? Without turning around she shrugged and said, "I...don't know." Lilith made her way to the bridge. Hopefully a little solace would be good for everyone.
...
They landed the ship in a field a mile or two south of the settlement. Lilith checked the UEC News Feeds to figure out what happened in the interim between the action they saw with Kobayashi's Pirates and now. Nothing.
There was no news feed.
She switched to Conglomerate Channels muttering about cheap government broadcasting and more than a little irritated with overly stylized and cinematic Conglomerate News. The surgically prettied Anchor began to recite the stories that the viewer could select. Most had to do with celebrities or some other entertainment centric article. Lilith held her breath at the name of the last article
"UEC Military Blackout - Fleets Cease Communications"
She frantically selected that story for viewing.
"For the last two days the United Earth Confederation's Fleets of Earth have ceased to communicate with each other or the homeworld and UEC Officials could not be reached. Speculation is that the recent election of Councilor Tokoro Kobayashi to the Conglomerate Council in Berlin has thrown the government into disarray as he is still part of the UEC Military. Corporate opinion is that the government is attempting to wrest the last bit of sovereignty the Terran Conglomerate still maintain after the Rebellions." The Anchor's voice stayed detached and dripping with faux concern to give the appearance of sympathy for those that would be negatively affected, "we may indeed be experiencing the final hours of the United Earth Confederation. This ha-" Lilith cut off the feed. Processing this information. Total military blackout? This was bad. Very bad.
...
A week went by with the only noteworthy event being Talos purchasing a weapon from one of the Kobayashi's subsidiary weapons manufacturers, it was a railgun though made compact enough to be about pistol sized. This is impossible to mass produce with the current equipment and ability of the UEC, yet Kobayashi can sell them hand over fist. It arrived at the local post station and he brought it to Joseph so that they might dissemble it and perhaps figure out his secret. The two of them took it apart and Joseph marveled at its construction, he had never seen anything quite like it. Talos examined it and frowned.
"It one of yours?" Joseph asked, already assuming the answer
"...No it is not...and it isn't human either." Joseph locked eyes with the timeless machine, "It would appear that Kobayashi has a foreign supplier or at least access to tech that no one else does."
Josef considered this and reassembled the weapon, despite who it came from it was superb and they would make good use of it, a bit of poetic justice killing an enemy with his own device. Josef called for everyone to meet up at their old brothel to discuss this revelation and what the next course of action would be.
...
It was settled. They would head back to the ship and return to Earth, Kobayashi needed to die. The man had designs and his election into the government would spell doom on a whole lot of levels. The Gallows would be the ones dragging the world kicking and screaming into peace if it killed them. Daniel had left early to prep the ship for departure while the rest made their way back to the MEV Sparta a little while after.
They were interrupted on the way. Eight men in dusters with guns blocked their path.
"Why hullo there ladies and gentlemen," the apparent leader spoke up, smiling all crooked and yellow toothed, "There's a bit of a price on yer heads, the whole lot of you." He had a bit of a drawl and it was very obvious he was trying to keep the smile off his face.
Lilith was tired of this already, "Yes, we know. Great. Leave or we will open fire." The augmetic muscle in her powered armor hissed as she stepped forward and switched the safety off her railgun.
"Oh I think you ain't in any position to make threats m'dear." He waved his hand and six men on the rooftops behind Lilith stood up with rifles aimed and ready to fire, "the bounty specifically wants you dead and I intend to please!" He chuckled, "We're about to be very rich men."
The stress of the past week had created a lot of pent up aggression in the remaining members of the Gallows and they were eager for a fight.
Talos sprang forward lightning quick, Chainsword drawn and revved. He took the head off of the leader and, continuing on the follow through of that first swing, took the arm off the man to his right. Turning hard on his heel he removed the leg of the man to his left. All three fell to the ground and were dead within seconds, unable to keep going after losing a torrent of blood so quickly. The remaining men all fired at him, their mouths open from fear and awe as not a single round managed to make the rampaging android flinch.
Derek Fayd gracefully stepped forward and put a round clean through a man's head, splattering bone and brain matter out behind him, and a second bullet in the crotch of the man next to his first victim. Both collapsed to the ground out of the fight.
Lilith took to the sky and began firing hyperfast rounds into her attackers; a coat and thick shirt is nothing at all to a gun that can punch through solid steel.
Josef joined Lilith in the air, firing his Gauss Pistol with deadly efficiency and precision.
The bounty hunters never stood a chance, they were dead in minutes having done next to nothing to their prey, only a few scratches.
Lilith rummaged through the pockets of the man who had been so confident just minutes before and was now dead, his head separated from its place on his shoulders. Her hand touched a dataslate in his coat. She pulled it out and examined it.
It was all of them, their names and faces:
"40,000 Cr per head
Payment will be received on verification of remains
Bounties *must* be dead to receive payment
Bounties are to be considered *extremely* dangerous"
She smiled at the severity of it. Tokoro wasn't taking chances and if she was reading this right, he might have been a little afraid of them. She looked at the rest of the slate and realized she didn't recognize the seals that marked them as official government targets, she enlarged the image at the top left and stopped. A large eagle framed by a four pointed star was prominently displayed, underneath this unfamiliar emblem were the words:
"BY ORDER OF THE EMPIRE OF TERRA"
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
The Dual Throne: ¡Viva la Revolución!
Last we left our heroes, they were dragging their soundly beaten prisoner back to the Rebel Safehouse underneath the Guard Barracks. The Traitor Guard Captain Sargon Akkad welcomed them, he was positively glowing with praise for the capture of Paubi (he didn't think it was at all possible to take her alive). Inquisitor Libris wants to get a message out to High Sovereign Daxol to let him know the progress of their mission and the severity of the situation in Charabesh.
The deal the party made with Akkad was that if they took care of the Devil Captain then the resistance would help them escape the city so that they could report to the surface and hopefully get some help sent down. Now the Resistance was never doing very well to begin with due to lack of experience from its members and lack of proper fighting equipment. The noose has been steadily closing around the neck of the last free elves in Charabesh for a century now and the lifespan of those involved is down to weeks (at best). Captain Sargon asked the party to postpone for just awhile longer and help them relieve some of the pressure the Council is placing on them. He informed them of a secret weapon cache (for use in emergency) underneath a Hrusian Temple that one of the rebellion's informants...well...informed him of.
It is heavily guarded and they have no idea as to what dangers lie protecting the cache. He was hoping the party would help them acquire these weapons and armor for the rebellion so that they could be properly armed and armored. He made sure to add that he was in no way forcing them to help, he would still honor his end of the deal and help them escape if they so chose.
I think deep down, each of my players have always wanted to cause a little anarchy for the side of good.
The Traitor Guard ran distraction for the city guards proper so the party could slip into the temple and have an avenue of escape after it's cleared out and the Traitor Guards could "appropriate" the loot.
Andrissa the Sorceress went busting into the temple like the fist of an angry god, hurling fireballs at any that registered as "Bad" to her sensibilities (i.e. the priests running the place). She pretty much single-handedly cleared out the temple until it came down to the Temple Guardians (Vampires in Full-Plate with Lightning Greatswords. Pretty rad right?) The three guardians pretty much dropped her immediately though they took a ton of damage from Area of Effect spells like fireball. They leapt forward and with mighty swings of their blades, Andrissa was cut down.
The party got their game on and went swinging into their enemies, landing blow after blow and rendering the undead still once more.
Now you may be wondering "But what about Andrissa? Is she dead?" and I'll answer that question with a story.
At the very beginning of this campaign a few months ago, I wrote down templates that each character could acquire and would boost their power considerably. I did not tell my players about these templates and wrote down specific instructions on how to acquire these templates and if my players fulfilled the qualifications it would be placed upon them as a great big reward.
Andrissa qualified in every conceivable way, death was a necessary part of the qualification. She was killed giving the greatest performance of her life and her god (Theodal, god of dance and merriment) demanded an encore. She awakened, sanctified by Theodal and stronger than ever. Everyone marveled. So no, she isn't dead (to answer your question).
Also the Captain Sargon congratulated them and thanked them profusely. Asking them to please take their pick of the strongest weapons and armor in the cache. The party were already heroes to the elven rebellion, so I guess they became double heroes and there was much rejoicing and I'm certain some elven women are naming their children after them or something. Currently the group prepares to storm the docks and take a submersible back to the surface so they can get help from the Church of Beryllus and liberate Charabesh from Demonic possession.
There wasn't a ton going on this session storywise, it was mostly the encounter in the Temple and Andrissa acquiring a "Saint" template, though it was a pretty cool fight with the vampire elf guardians.
I whipped them up like twenty minutes before the session started because I've been feeling like I've been relying too heavily on the Bestiary and I didn't want to overuse the demons. It's been awhile since the party had done anything except cover the Paladin as he killed everything for them. Which is great for Libris, less fun for everyone else. Andrissa got some time in the spotlight flash-frying just about everything and executing evil priests gangland style.
The Elf Vampires didn't really even have a class, it was this sort of nebulous thing, they were something akin to a fetus of the Fighter class (Full BAB, no class abilities).
Despite their incompleteness, I'm feeling pretty self-congratulatory about being able to do a last minute encounter change with a custom creature in twenty minutes and have it balanced perfectly to challenge the party but not necessarily kill them all or be defeated too easily either.
Great GM? Or greatest GM?
I leave the answer to you.
The deal the party made with Akkad was that if they took care of the Devil Captain then the resistance would help them escape the city so that they could report to the surface and hopefully get some help sent down. Now the Resistance was never doing very well to begin with due to lack of experience from its members and lack of proper fighting equipment. The noose has been steadily closing around the neck of the last free elves in Charabesh for a century now and the lifespan of those involved is down to weeks (at best). Captain Sargon asked the party to postpone for just awhile longer and help them relieve some of the pressure the Council is placing on them. He informed them of a secret weapon cache (for use in emergency) underneath a Hrusian Temple that one of the rebellion's informants...well...informed him of.
It is heavily guarded and they have no idea as to what dangers lie protecting the cache. He was hoping the party would help them acquire these weapons and armor for the rebellion so that they could be properly armed and armored. He made sure to add that he was in no way forcing them to help, he would still honor his end of the deal and help them escape if they so chose.
I think deep down, each of my players have always wanted to cause a little anarchy for the side of good.
 |
| Also, this is how I picture every rebel elf |
Andrissa the Sorceress went busting into the temple like the fist of an angry god, hurling fireballs at any that registered as "Bad" to her sensibilities (i.e. the priests running the place). She pretty much single-handedly cleared out the temple until it came down to the Temple Guardians (Vampires in Full-Plate with Lightning Greatswords. Pretty rad right?) The three guardians pretty much dropped her immediately though they took a ton of damage from Area of Effect spells like fireball. They leapt forward and with mighty swings of their blades, Andrissa was cut down.
The party got their game on and went swinging into their enemies, landing blow after blow and rendering the undead still once more.
 |
| If you really study this, you can see where they've been |
At the very beginning of this campaign a few months ago, I wrote down templates that each character could acquire and would boost their power considerably. I did not tell my players about these templates and wrote down specific instructions on how to acquire these templates and if my players fulfilled the qualifications it would be placed upon them as a great big reward.
Andrissa qualified in every conceivable way, death was a necessary part of the qualification. She was killed giving the greatest performance of her life and her god (Theodal, god of dance and merriment) demanded an encore. She awakened, sanctified by Theodal and stronger than ever. Everyone marveled. So no, she isn't dead (to answer your question).
Also the Captain Sargon congratulated them and thanked them profusely. Asking them to please take their pick of the strongest weapons and armor in the cache. The party were already heroes to the elven rebellion, so I guess they became double heroes and there was much rejoicing and I'm certain some elven women are naming their children after them or something. Currently the group prepares to storm the docks and take a submersible back to the surface so they can get help from the Church of Beryllus and liberate Charabesh from Demonic possession.
There wasn't a ton going on this session storywise, it was mostly the encounter in the Temple and Andrissa acquiring a "Saint" template, though it was a pretty cool fight with the vampire elf guardians.
I whipped them up like twenty minutes before the session started because I've been feeling like I've been relying too heavily on the Bestiary and I didn't want to overuse the demons. It's been awhile since the party had done anything except cover the Paladin as he killed everything for them. Which is great for Libris, less fun for everyone else. Andrissa got some time in the spotlight flash-frying just about everything and executing evil priests gangland style.
The Elf Vampires didn't really even have a class, it was this sort of nebulous thing, they were something akin to a fetus of the Fighter class (Full BAB, no class abilities).
Despite their incompleteness, I'm feeling pretty self-congratulatory about being able to do a last minute encounter change with a custom creature in twenty minutes and have it balanced perfectly to challenge the party but not necessarily kill them all or be defeated too easily either.
Great GM? Or greatest GM?
I leave the answer to you.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Ave Imperium: Hunting trips (and other disasters)
It was about an hour before I had to leave my house to get to my group. I was sitting here at my desk staring at my notebook for the Dark Heresy Campaign. Last week's session ended somewhat abruptly and the session ended at a low point that was supposed to last about another hour. Now that it was there we couldn't just ignore it and I decided to tailor a session about the party doing some recreational hunting on a paradise world called "Quaddis", while it was dangerous enough to make for some decent encounters, it also paid a ton of money. They were pretty excited to get to it and not be in danger of running into some dimension shattering super being.
While the hunting trip had been planned out the night before, right now I was experiencing anxiety as if I forgot something, as if there was a monster that I had forgotten to plan in the encounter. Psykers are easily the most powerful class in the game, their utility is unparalleled compared to any other class. Nothing will ever be as potent as a psyker. All this offensive capability comes with a pretty heavy price as the psyker draws his power from a Hell Dimension filled with Dark Gods and Daemons. Every time he reaches into that place, he risks catching the attention of a very powerful daemon who will then possess his body using it as an anchor to force its existence in the Material Plane, the psyker then becomes what is called, Daemonhost. This being's power is apocalyptic, that isn't hyperbole, worlds die when these beings manifest. I decided to roll one up "for a rainy day" because there was a truly miniscule chance that the party psyker would become a Daemonhost, but I didn't want to be caught with my trousers down.
The party was out hunting Carnosaurs (essentially alien Tyrannosaurus) for the obscene amount of money they would get from the skin of such a mighty and hard to kill creature. Entire hunting parties of heavily armed nobles are killed occasionally when said noble gets it in his pompous head that he can claim to have hunted the apex predator in its own turf. Well the party pulled off some truly impressive rolls and tracked one down while it was napping, giving them all the time they needed to set up shop and give this thing a real ambush. Red Mordeci (the party psyker) goes off on his own to attack it from the front as Biomancers are a very powerful variant of psychic.
He rolls fantastic and hurls three bolts of psychic lightning at his prey. Though he did end up rolling Perils of the Warp (essentially a list of negative side effects from getting really unlucky) he rolls his dice to see his effect.
94
I consult the table. Daemonhost.
The slightly off and somewhat loveable Mordeci has become Azazel the Unbound. His psychic scream burned into the heads of every single person in a 9km circle. Azazel assesses his newfound position.
The Carnosaur perceives nothing particularly out of the ordinary in this situation. It doesn't even realize that this is not even close to the annoying little psyker that shot those really annoying lightning bolts at it. The Carnosaur lets loose a mighty roar that would shake the most stalwart of men and make them think twice about their actions so far. The Daemonhost is the farthest thing from man:
In a single action (approximately six seconds in the game) Azazel simply smiles and tears the King Lizard's head off by sheer force of will. The party collectively soils themselves.
Trauma the Arbitrator comes out of her hiding spot, pleading with Azazel to spare her and she'll do his bidding. Azazel laughs, letting her know he will drink her blood and feast on her soul and promptly hijacks her body commanding it to seek out her fellow party members and kill them with her club (because he thought it would be funnier).
Taking no chances Callidia the Guardsman guns down her compatriot with her heavy stubber, taking the Arbitrator's leg off at the knee and rendering her very unconscious and very dying. The Daemonhost's attention has turned to the littlest Guardsman, preparing to tear her apart and bask in the gory remains.
Taura busts out of hiding, firing her handcannon at Azazel, hoping to the God-Emperor that she pulls off some sort of miracle shot that will banish this daemon back to the pit it manifested from. No such luck (she pulled off a pretty damaging shot regardless), though she manages to distract Azazel long enough for Callidia to train her gun on the actually pretty hurt Daemonhost, however it is too late for her to save Taura as her throat is slit by a psychic blade and she collapses to the ground gurgling and begins that slow, somewhat unpleasant process of dying and then having your soul eaten by a Daemon of the Warp. Callidia opens fire doing substantial amounts of damage to the Warp Beast but in return having her internal organs psychically crushed and being brought down to exactly zero wounds.
Callidia drops to one knee panting and wincing from the vital organs that were so callously squeezed and are now bleeding. She summons her courage for one final act.
She steadies her aim.
She pulls the trigger.
Six high caliber rounds rip into the Daemonhost's flesh, shredding it's accursed and stolen body. Azazel's psychic deathscream ripples throughout Quaddis and the local priesthood scrambles to respond and contain a situation that they feared would spiral out of control. They were deathly afraid of their world becoming marked by the Inquisition and burned by the Imperial Navy to contain any infectious Chaotic Taint.
The Ecclesiarchy's soldiers and priests found the party and rescued them from death. They were reviewed by their sponsoring Inquisitor's Apprentice (known as an Interrogator) and released from custody (except Mordeci, who will go through sanctification rituals and spend time with the other penitents of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica). They were told to sit tight and wait for the psyker's replacement.
The most important thing about this session though:
I got to roll like ten to twelve dice a turn. For a brief hour or so, I was a GOD.
While the hunting trip had been planned out the night before, right now I was experiencing anxiety as if I forgot something, as if there was a monster that I had forgotten to plan in the encounter. Psykers are easily the most powerful class in the game, their utility is unparalleled compared to any other class. Nothing will ever be as potent as a psyker. All this offensive capability comes with a pretty heavy price as the psyker draws his power from a Hell Dimension filled with Dark Gods and Daemons. Every time he reaches into that place, he risks catching the attention of a very powerful daemon who will then possess his body using it as an anchor to force its existence in the Material Plane, the psyker then becomes what is called, Daemonhost. This being's power is apocalyptic, that isn't hyperbole, worlds die when these beings manifest. I decided to roll one up "for a rainy day" because there was a truly miniscule chance that the party psyker would become a Daemonhost, but I didn't want to be caught with my trousers down.
The party was out hunting Carnosaurs (essentially alien Tyrannosaurus) for the obscene amount of money they would get from the skin of such a mighty and hard to kill creature. Entire hunting parties of heavily armed nobles are killed occasionally when said noble gets it in his pompous head that he can claim to have hunted the apex predator in its own turf. Well the party pulled off some truly impressive rolls and tracked one down while it was napping, giving them all the time they needed to set up shop and give this thing a real ambush. Red Mordeci (the party psyker) goes off on his own to attack it from the front as Biomancers are a very powerful variant of psychic.
He rolls fantastic and hurls three bolts of psychic lightning at his prey. Though he did end up rolling Perils of the Warp (essentially a list of negative side effects from getting really unlucky) he rolls his dice to see his effect.
94
I consult the table. Daemonhost.
 |
| This became... |
 |
| THIS |
The slightly off and somewhat loveable Mordeci has become Azazel the Unbound. His psychic scream burned into the heads of every single person in a 9km circle. Azazel assesses his newfound position.
 |
| The situation |
In a single action (approximately six seconds in the game) Azazel simply smiles and tears the King Lizard's head off by sheer force of will. The party collectively soils themselves.
Trauma the Arbitrator comes out of her hiding spot, pleading with Azazel to spare her and she'll do his bidding. Azazel laughs, letting her know he will drink her blood and feast on her soul and promptly hijacks her body commanding it to seek out her fellow party members and kill them with her club (because he thought it would be funnier).
Taking no chances Callidia the Guardsman guns down her compatriot with her heavy stubber, taking the Arbitrator's leg off at the knee and rendering her very unconscious and very dying. The Daemonhost's attention has turned to the littlest Guardsman, preparing to tear her apart and bask in the gory remains.
Taura busts out of hiding, firing her handcannon at Azazel, hoping to the God-Emperor that she pulls off some sort of miracle shot that will banish this daemon back to the pit it manifested from. No such luck (she pulled off a pretty damaging shot regardless), though she manages to distract Azazel long enough for Callidia to train her gun on the actually pretty hurt Daemonhost, however it is too late for her to save Taura as her throat is slit by a psychic blade and she collapses to the ground gurgling and begins that slow, somewhat unpleasant process of dying and then having your soul eaten by a Daemon of the Warp. Callidia opens fire doing substantial amounts of damage to the Warp Beast but in return having her internal organs psychically crushed and being brought down to exactly zero wounds.
Callidia drops to one knee panting and wincing from the vital organs that were so callously squeezed and are now bleeding. She summons her courage for one final act.
She steadies her aim.
She pulls the trigger.
Six high caliber rounds rip into the Daemonhost's flesh, shredding it's accursed and stolen body. Azazel's psychic deathscream ripples throughout Quaddis and the local priesthood scrambles to respond and contain a situation that they feared would spiral out of control. They were deathly afraid of their world becoming marked by the Inquisition and burned by the Imperial Navy to contain any infectious Chaotic Taint.
The Ecclesiarchy's soldiers and priests found the party and rescued them from death. They were reviewed by their sponsoring Inquisitor's Apprentice (known as an Interrogator) and released from custody (except Mordeci, who will go through sanctification rituals and spend time with the other penitents of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica). They were told to sit tight and wait for the psyker's replacement.
The most important thing about this session though:
I got to roll like ten to twelve dice a turn. For a brief hour or so, I was a GOD.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Cybernetic: The party digs deep and gets serious
Today was momentous for my Thursday group. They not only had appropriate reactions to everything that happened to them, they actually identified their current employer as a less than nice man.
It started with their triumphant return to Tokoro Kobayashi, the guy who had them kill a gentleman for reasons never asked. They said they got the job done and Tokoro allowed them to browse his armory, taking a certain amount in weapons and equipment as payment for doing the job and so they docked their ship and took their shuttle to the main hangar that would lead to said armory.
Well Daniel Knight, the party leader, got lost in the hallways of the ship as he sort of just declared he was going as the rest of the party was still discussing whatever. He never went anywhere in the main base and he left his group and the guy in it who could navigate the base for him.
Several failed spot checks later, he meanders into a room with a person all cut up and suspended in the air. A woman. Now he gets a feeling of recognition and realizes that this is his long lost wife (who he never named, it was a footnote in his backstory that his significant other just sort of disappeared) and that she was brutally experimented on. He calls in Talos, the homicidal robot party member, for support (or something, it was never quite clear why he called in the robot).
They were watched this whole time and silent alarms were tripped when they attempted to get into the room she was in. Tokoro explains calmly and clearly that she had to be taken and experimented on as she had biological implants that gave immense strengths at very little cost and that he wanted to learn and equip his men with them. That she was serving a greater good. It clicks in Knight's head "Holy Mother! Our employer is actually the bad guy!" and him and Talos contemplate what to do about the still living nightmare patient that is Knight's wife.
cut back to the Armory...
"Where'd Talos and Daniel get to?"
*everyone shrugs*
back to the Nightmare ER...
Knight is trying his darndest to shoot this woman and put her out of her misery, but just can't seem to work up the gumption to do it. He just failed the will save to murder someone so close to him and lost his nerve for a mercy killing.
There was a brief pause as his player weighed his next actions...and then there was an idea!
Being the sensitive guy that he is, Talos volunteers to shoot Knight's wife right in the face (originally he was going to use his chainsword, but he was talked out of it). Just like that, Tokoro's prized genetic paragon was killed. A squad of the extremely professional and heavily armed Kognis Kommandos were already en route to gun the two of them down. It was a fairly straightforward battle, Daniel took advantage of the small doorway into the lab and Talos took advantage of the soldiers being less than chainsword proof. The encounter was over in several rounds with no serious injuries to either characters.
but meanwhile at the Armory...
the rest of the party was having a grand ole time shopping around and picking equipment while the party leader was having his emotions destroyed and fighting off execution squads.
That is until a squad of Traitor Special Operations Marines came stomping into the room demanding they line up against the wall. There were five total. The three present party members (Fayd, Ami'Rah, and Jaegar) all comply as Fayd thinks up a workable plan. He does by the way and the end result was magnificent...
Lilith Ami'Rah discreetly drops a plasma grenade that isn't primed at the edge of a very large ammo cache as she follows the soldiers loud and increasingly frantic command, she joins the others on the wall.
"Don't I get a final request?" Fayd calls out behind him to the soldiers aiming at his back.
"...speak it!" the Squad Sargent barked.
Fayd slips his hand into a hidden pocket in his suit, thumbing a smoke grenade.
"Breath deep!" He tosses the grenade behind him, judging the distance perfectly...
He pulls off a stupendous tumble check...
A beautiful throw, he actually hits one of the Marines dead in the chest with a Super Adhesive Grenade (basically it builds a wall around whatever it blows up next to, trapping anyone inside it)...
It traps all three of the soldiers...
He turns to face the two heavy weapons guys. These chumps can't be that bad right?
The first one pulls off a pretty righteous shot with a railgun. I rolled hit location.
Fayd staggers from the blow and, despite an embarrassing injury, he prepares to easily dodge the second shooter's attack...
He still ended up saving the day, though he lost two of three possible parts in the process. His smoke bomb was the distraction the other two needed. They ran through the confused and panicked soldiers, getting to the door of the armory and slamming it closed in a hurry, but not before Fayd took a little revenge shot at the Plasma Grenade that Lilith had dropped on top of the ammo crates. He hit and it set of a chain reaction of hundreds upon hundreds of bullets exploding outward and doing stupidly high damage to the squad sent to kill them. They died looking something akin to bloody swiss cheese.
The party met back up at the main hangar and boarded their shuttle to get back to their main ship, fire it up and make good their escape. Jaegar took a few extra seconds to sabotage the four other attack shuttles in the hangar, dramatically reducing their maneuverability in the asteroid field this secret base is located in.
They fly out the hangar, laughing hysterically as the shuttles that are sent after them sluggishly move about and are pretty much all destroyed by small clusters of rock that regularly hurtle about outside of the gravity generators near the docks for the higher tonnage ships. They get back home, fire up engines, and haul out of there in a hurry.
There were two things I liked about this session in particular:
1) The character development of Daniel Knight and wrapping up a fairly important sidequest that was integral to really making this character live and breathe.
2) Fayd received two consecutive shots to the penis. From railguns.
It started with their triumphant return to Tokoro Kobayashi, the guy who had them kill a gentleman for reasons never asked. They said they got the job done and Tokoro allowed them to browse his armory, taking a certain amount in weapons and equipment as payment for doing the job and so they docked their ship and took their shuttle to the main hangar that would lead to said armory.
Well Daniel Knight, the party leader, got lost in the hallways of the ship as he sort of just declared he was going as the rest of the party was still discussing whatever. He never went anywhere in the main base and he left his group and the guy in it who could navigate the base for him.
Several failed spot checks later, he meanders into a room with a person all cut up and suspended in the air. A woman. Now he gets a feeling of recognition and realizes that this is his long lost wife (who he never named, it was a footnote in his backstory that his significant other just sort of disappeared) and that she was brutally experimented on. He calls in Talos, the homicidal robot party member, for support (or something, it was never quite clear why he called in the robot).
They were watched this whole time and silent alarms were tripped when they attempted to get into the room she was in. Tokoro explains calmly and clearly that she had to be taken and experimented on as she had biological implants that gave immense strengths at very little cost and that he wanted to learn and equip his men with them. That she was serving a greater good. It clicks in Knight's head "Holy Mother! Our employer is actually the bad guy!" and him and Talos contemplate what to do about the still living nightmare patient that is Knight's wife.
cut back to the Armory...
"Where'd Talos and Daniel get to?"
*everyone shrugs*
back to the Nightmare ER...
Knight is trying his darndest to shoot this woman and put her out of her misery, but just can't seem to work up the gumption to do it. He just failed the will save to murder someone so close to him and lost his nerve for a mercy killing.
There was a brief pause as his player weighed his next actions...and then there was an idea!
 |
| the idea |
but meanwhile at the Armory...
the rest of the party was having a grand ole time shopping around and picking equipment while the party leader was having his emotions destroyed and fighting off execution squads.
That is until a squad of Traitor Special Operations Marines came stomping into the room demanding they line up against the wall. There were five total. The three present party members (Fayd, Ami'Rah, and Jaegar) all comply as Fayd thinks up a workable plan. He does by the way and the end result was magnificent...
Lilith Ami'Rah discreetly drops a plasma grenade that isn't primed at the edge of a very large ammo cache as she follows the soldiers loud and increasingly frantic command, she joins the others on the wall.
"Don't I get a final request?" Fayd calls out behind him to the soldiers aiming at his back.
"...speak it!" the Squad Sargent barked.
Fayd slips his hand into a hidden pocket in his suit, thumbing a smoke grenade.
"Breath deep!" He tosses the grenade behind him, judging the distance perfectly...
He pulls off a stupendous tumble check...
A beautiful throw, he actually hits one of the Marines dead in the chest with a Super Adhesive Grenade (basically it builds a wall around whatever it blows up next to, trapping anyone inside it)...
It traps all three of the soldiers...
He turns to face the two heavy weapons guys. These chumps can't be that bad right?
The first one pulls off a pretty righteous shot with a railgun. I rolled hit location.
 |
| Guess where I rolled |
Fayd staggers from the blow and, despite an embarrassing injury, he prepares to easily dodge the second shooter's attack...
 |
| I rolled hit location again |
He still ended up saving the day, though he lost two of three possible parts in the process. His smoke bomb was the distraction the other two needed. They ran through the confused and panicked soldiers, getting to the door of the armory and slamming it closed in a hurry, but not before Fayd took a little revenge shot at the Plasma Grenade that Lilith had dropped on top of the ammo crates. He hit and it set of a chain reaction of hundreds upon hundreds of bullets exploding outward and doing stupidly high damage to the squad sent to kill them. They died looking something akin to bloody swiss cheese.
The party met back up at the main hangar and boarded their shuttle to get back to their main ship, fire it up and make good their escape. Jaegar took a few extra seconds to sabotage the four other attack shuttles in the hangar, dramatically reducing their maneuverability in the asteroid field this secret base is located in.
They fly out the hangar, laughing hysterically as the shuttles that are sent after them sluggishly move about and are pretty much all destroyed by small clusters of rock that regularly hurtle about outside of the gravity generators near the docks for the higher tonnage ships. They get back home, fire up engines, and haul out of there in a hurry.
There were two things I liked about this session in particular:
1) The character development of Daniel Knight and wrapping up a fairly important sidequest that was integral to really making this character live and breathe.
2) Fayd received two consecutive shots to the penis. From railguns.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
GM's Journal #1
I figure after all three games have their commentary, I'll take this time to discuss/complain/brag about various ideas I've got floating in my head and attempt to get some positive feedback (Yes, only positive. I can only do great things, anything negative will be assumed to be from someone with an incomplete understanding of "revolutionary").
I've been chasing after the mythical Fourth Game, hoping to be able to make a tad more than the pittance I've got now. I'm currently just below "Cashier at a Sandwich Shop" in the scheme of things (does that make me a starving artist? Is GMing art?) I'm not looking to start a career on something like this, I just want to be able to afford to eat out every now and again at places other than Denny's. So tell your friends about me. Even if it's "Look at this guy trying to get me to hire a GM!" because while they are laughing along with you they are secretly thinking "My GM sucks, I bet a guy who literally does nothing else won't be half bad." and BAM you just sent business my way you libelous bad person you.
I've been thinking about a few different settings but I've discovered my idea of "cool" is vastly different than other people's. One idea in the fore of my mind is doing a game taking place in the Wild West, I'd be using D20 Modern with the D20 Past and Weapons Locker supplements. The whole of the era is ripe with Role Playing opportunity and rich in action and adventure. Plus everyone knows that the revolver is the manliest and best of all firearms, something about them just screams "I'm the biggest badass you have or ever will see." but in an ominous quiet voice and a duster. I'm not sure exactly on how I want to do the time period though, will it be in a post-apocalyptic future where technology has regressed to 18th-19th century firearms and government has fallen backwards down the power scale pretty heavily. Or will it be in the literal 18th-19th century with America stretching out to the West, bringing the light of civilization and government meddling to all corners of the continent.
With the former I'd be able to add that supernatural aspect to it. Mutants roaming the dust bowl wasteland, remnants of a conquering alien empire existing in pockets throughout the world, exploring the ruins of a once great civilization and getting their toys to start working again, extra-dimensional Cthulu monsters existing where they shouldn't (Sanity Checks for everyone!).
With the latter I'd have all the political shifting and national polarization of cultures to draw upon for conflict and plot. This era in American History was a time of violence and freedom, the great gangs that would terrorize the trains that went out West, war brewing between the North and the South, the Government stretching it's brand new executive muscles and getting involved with the common man on the other side of the Nation. If you can't tell, the Civil War era and backwards is completely fascinating to me in every conceivable way (My interest is briefly sparked again by WWI and then it quickly dies out).
Plus I'd really like a reason to use my D20 Past supplement.
My other idea is the players being part of this Time Traveling Agency that goes back in time and changes things so that future disasters will be averted. It started out as a joke one shot about the players being sent back in time to save President Abraham Lincoln from being assassinated by John Wilkes Booth for some reason that had yet to work out because the interest (or lack thereof) in it never quite warranted any further attention. This mission goal will probably be different if ever I get players interested in it as I was beaten to the punch by this comic book Time Lincoln where Lincoln leads his own team of time travelers to do exactly what I had planned. It's less me being all "Bah they stole my idea!" and more me being all "Bah I was beaten to the punch and now I'm going to just look lazy." which is pretty self-conscious of me considering that this comic book lingers on the fringes of comic book fan knowledge and almost no one I've ever talked to has heard of it.
Anyway, I think it would be completely awesome to do crazy Time Cop things. History is the only subject in school I ever willingly paid attention for and I like to think I know enough to be able to pull off a pretty coherent story despite the jumping around Human History. I've been looking to indulge this interest and use it to make a new unique setting.
I'm rambling now and not expecting much feedback, but I will demand it later when the world has the decency to discover me.
I've been chasing after the mythical Fourth Game, hoping to be able to make a tad more than the pittance I've got now. I'm currently just below "Cashier at a Sandwich Shop" in the scheme of things (does that make me a starving artist? Is GMing art?) I'm not looking to start a career on something like this, I just want to be able to afford to eat out every now and again at places other than Denny's. So tell your friends about me. Even if it's "Look at this guy trying to get me to hire a GM!" because while they are laughing along with you they are secretly thinking "My GM sucks, I bet a guy who literally does nothing else won't be half bad." and BAM you just sent business my way you libelous bad person you.
I've been thinking about a few different settings but I've discovered my idea of "cool" is vastly different than other people's. One idea in the fore of my mind is doing a game taking place in the Wild West, I'd be using D20 Modern with the D20 Past and Weapons Locker supplements. The whole of the era is ripe with Role Playing opportunity and rich in action and adventure. Plus everyone knows that the revolver is the manliest and best of all firearms, something about them just screams "I'm the biggest badass you have or ever will see." but in an ominous quiet voice and a duster. I'm not sure exactly on how I want to do the time period though, will it be in a post-apocalyptic future where technology has regressed to 18th-19th century firearms and government has fallen backwards down the power scale pretty heavily. Or will it be in the literal 18th-19th century with America stretching out to the West, bringing the light of civilization and government meddling to all corners of the continent.
With the former I'd be able to add that supernatural aspect to it. Mutants roaming the dust bowl wasteland, remnants of a conquering alien empire existing in pockets throughout the world, exploring the ruins of a once great civilization and getting their toys to start working again, extra-dimensional Cthulu monsters existing where they shouldn't (Sanity Checks for everyone!).
With the latter I'd have all the political shifting and national polarization of cultures to draw upon for conflict and plot. This era in American History was a time of violence and freedom, the great gangs that would terrorize the trains that went out West, war brewing between the North and the South, the Government stretching it's brand new executive muscles and getting involved with the common man on the other side of the Nation. If you can't tell, the Civil War era and backwards is completely fascinating to me in every conceivable way (My interest is briefly sparked again by WWI and then it quickly dies out).
Plus I'd really like a reason to use my D20 Past supplement.
My other idea is the players being part of this Time Traveling Agency that goes back in time and changes things so that future disasters will be averted. It started out as a joke one shot about the players being sent back in time to save President Abraham Lincoln from being assassinated by John Wilkes Booth for some reason that had yet to work out because the interest (or lack thereof) in it never quite warranted any further attention. This mission goal will probably be different if ever I get players interested in it as I was beaten to the punch by this comic book Time Lincoln where Lincoln leads his own team of time travelers to do exactly what I had planned. It's less me being all "Bah they stole my idea!" and more me being all "Bah I was beaten to the punch and now I'm going to just look lazy." which is pretty self-conscious of me considering that this comic book lingers on the fringes of comic book fan knowledge and almost no one I've ever talked to has heard of it.
Anyway, I think it would be completely awesome to do crazy Time Cop things. History is the only subject in school I ever willingly paid attention for and I like to think I know enough to be able to pull off a pretty coherent story despite the jumping around Human History. I've been looking to indulge this interest and use it to make a new unique setting.
I'm rambling now and not expecting much feedback, but I will demand it later when the world has the decency to discover me.
Monday, April 18, 2011
The Dual Throne: Overthrowing demons (and other talents useful in the workplace)
This setting is my other baby. It sat in a sort of Development Hell for roughly five years. It started out as an extremely standard fantasy setting.
Knights, dragons, kings, princesses, evil cults, dark sorcerers, the usual hooks but with almost zero finesse as far as making them new, exciting, or even remotely interesting. It still has the aforementioned staples of the genre but I like to think it far less...juvenile now that I've added a bit of my own ideas to the mix (though to be fair I was 16 when I first designed it). You can check out the wiki for it by clicking on the link to the right of you if you want to get some specific setting details (I'll probably casually reference them). The quick version is that the story takes place inside the Kingdom of Damocles which is basically two governments with a powerful, and fiercely independent, city-state controlling the other half of the kingdom.
The Party:
1. Libris the Holy (Formerly Jardak Tubbs) - The Paladin/Inquisitor
2. Andrissa D'Anastasis - The Spellcaster Cannon
3. Amara Shadowsong - Rogue
4. Dregshak Mor - Half-Orc Fighter
Unfortunately for you, dear reader, this party is more about the lateral thinking and getting the job done as efficiently and safely as possible (without straying into the realm of paranoia) so instead of wacky hijinks you're probably going to get a lot of me being a giant whiner, which I guess can be entertaining. These guys are serious business like all the time, they set ambushes, actually look at their equipment lists, and they make sure they understand their abilities and when to use them. Essentially they are the kind of party that GM's have nightmares about. Though their character builds are more or less average they routinely take down monsters four to six levels higher than them with ease due to a talent for adaptive planning. You would never guess that a party whose Paladin insists that his name be "Jardak Tubbs" would be very proficient at much of anything at all ever.
Also as a side note: I'm noticing now that the party makeup is 50% beards, which is an impressive amount of manliness.
Originally everyone in the party were basically mercenaries doing government work and helping to stop the constant sacking and burning of the King's Trade Caravans as a tremendous amount of resources and wealth were being lost which was not helping relations with the neighboring Empire of Eisenheim because the majority of these caravans are native to, or carrying goods bound for, the Empire. Many within Eisenheim are critical of Damocles for their apparent failure to stop these raids and have concluded that Damocles itself is cheating Eisenheim out of the goods and services they paid for.
This was found to be a falsehood as the party discovered elements within Eisenheim actually want a war with Damocles, seeing the upstart Damocles as a threat to the long-term dominance of the Iron Kingdom. The party found an informant and foreign spies within the noble courts of the capital city itself spurring the King and his Council to mobilize for war and prepare for the worst.
During all of this Jardak was assigned to the party as a token of the church and the state's goodwill, he is a Paladin in service to Beryllus (God of Knowledge and Technology) and very devout. Followers of the Dark Goddess Hrusia (Goddess of Deceit and Betrayal) had attacked and slaughtered the church garrison at one of Beryllus's Holy Sites. Jardak and Co. were charged with leading the counterattack and the recovery of an artifact of great power from within the chapel. It was here that Jardak received the Divine Hammer Collegia Titanicus, coming into contact with his deity directly and his name being changed as a result of his god's attentions. Beryllus Himself renamed Jardak to "Libris the Holy" so that all will know that this is His chosen messenger.
Well everyone in the party has had similar experiences, receiving artifacts from their patron god or goddess and fighting against murderous members of Hrusia's Following. Libris was brought before the High Sovereign of his order and inducted into the Inquisition, to root out the corrupt and serve the Church of Beryllus and protect Damocles from spiritual forces. The party is sent to the Elven underwater city of Charabesh to find out the reasoning behind the severing of diplomatic relations between Damocles and the Theonal Republic and also to investigate the apparent correlation between Hrusian activity and brutal attacks along the coast of the Kingdom.
Well they make it to Charabesh unharmed and with the welcome mat rolled out for them (something they did not expect and it was fun to watch them adjust to being waited on hand and foot). Now the Elven cultures are magic obsessed, almost all of their infrastructure is completely run on arcane batteries and very convenient. I designed this entire underwater culture based on Ancient Sumeria (Akkadia, Ur, etc.) symbolic names, exotic forms of entertainment (Dancers in the lobby of the hotel, Hotbaths, etc.), and of all the things I let them play with...
it was the toilet that did it. This setting is essentially medieval with only the rich society being anything approaching clean as we would know it. I figured a magic obsessed culture would develop some of the more convenient inventions via magical study, I did not figure that these modern conveniences would fascinate everyone into stunned silence (it was weird). The toilets have an enchantment on them that shifts anything dropped into it to the plane of fire where it will be incinerated almost instantly. Libris, Amara, and Andrissa all stuck things in it for a good twenty minutes before figuring that they looked like tourists. Uncivilized tourists.
They reluctantly stopped.
I threw a curveball their way with the Governor being a succubus in disguise but they took it down in short order. Turns out the entire Council of Charabesh made pacts with demons for power and they inadvertently damned the city to be the playthings of Demons and Devils forever and ever. They found an underground resistance who had the patrol route of a Fallen Angel Captain of the Demon Prince that took control of the city. Multiple attempts on her life had been made, all of them resulting in the torture and/or death of all those involved.
They plotted for a good while about what to do, eventually settling for Explosive Runes on parchment handing them to a guard runner who was part of the rebellion and would deliver the message to Paubi the Devil Captain. The runner was a terrible liar and immediately detained by her bodyguards while she read the message:
"aaaaaaand boom goes the dynamite"
the resulting confusion was followed by an explosion like a grenade doing a sizable amount of damage to her and her cohorts. Andrissa Fireballed right in the middle of them, destroying the Elven Patrol Paubi was leading. The others descended on them from all directions and the encounter was over in about three rounds with no casualties, including the runner whom they managed to save from certain death ( though Libris nearly died after some pretty righteous hits from Paubi's longbow). They beat the Captain into unconsciousness and bound her, dragging her back for interrogation.
Paubi's challenge rating was about 8 and did not include the bodyguards she had with her. Three rounds. No casualties. They were a level 7 party of four.
Seriously guys. Tarrasque. Mark my words.
Knights, dragons, kings, princesses, evil cults, dark sorcerers, the usual hooks but with almost zero finesse as far as making them new, exciting, or even remotely interesting. It still has the aforementioned staples of the genre but I like to think it far less...juvenile now that I've added a bit of my own ideas to the mix (though to be fair I was 16 when I first designed it). You can check out the wiki for it by clicking on the link to the right of you if you want to get some specific setting details (I'll probably casually reference them). The quick version is that the story takes place inside the Kingdom of Damocles which is basically two governments with a powerful, and fiercely independent, city-state controlling the other half of the kingdom.
The Party:
1. Libris the Holy (Formerly Jardak Tubbs) - The Paladin/Inquisitor
2. Andrissa D'Anastasis - The Spellcaster Cannon
3. Amara Shadowsong - Rogue
4. Dregshak Mor - Half-Orc Fighter
Unfortunately for you, dear reader, this party is more about the lateral thinking and getting the job done as efficiently and safely as possible (without straying into the realm of paranoia) so instead of wacky hijinks you're probably going to get a lot of me being a giant whiner, which I guess can be entertaining. These guys are serious business like all the time, they set ambushes, actually look at their equipment lists, and they make sure they understand their abilities and when to use them. Essentially they are the kind of party that GM's have nightmares about. Though their character builds are more or less average they routinely take down monsters four to six levels higher than them with ease due to a talent for adaptive planning. You would never guess that a party whose Paladin insists that his name be "Jardak Tubbs" would be very proficient at much of anything at all ever.
Also as a side note: I'm noticing now that the party makeup is 50% beards, which is an impressive amount of manliness.
Originally everyone in the party were basically mercenaries doing government work and helping to stop the constant sacking and burning of the King's Trade Caravans as a tremendous amount of resources and wealth were being lost which was not helping relations with the neighboring Empire of Eisenheim because the majority of these caravans are native to, or carrying goods bound for, the Empire. Many within Eisenheim are critical of Damocles for their apparent failure to stop these raids and have concluded that Damocles itself is cheating Eisenheim out of the goods and services they paid for.
This was found to be a falsehood as the party discovered elements within Eisenheim actually want a war with Damocles, seeing the upstart Damocles as a threat to the long-term dominance of the Iron Kingdom. The party found an informant and foreign spies within the noble courts of the capital city itself spurring the King and his Council to mobilize for war and prepare for the worst.
During all of this Jardak was assigned to the party as a token of the church and the state's goodwill, he is a Paladin in service to Beryllus (God of Knowledge and Technology) and very devout. Followers of the Dark Goddess Hrusia (Goddess of Deceit and Betrayal) had attacked and slaughtered the church garrison at one of Beryllus's Holy Sites. Jardak and Co. were charged with leading the counterattack and the recovery of an artifact of great power from within the chapel. It was here that Jardak received the Divine Hammer Collegia Titanicus, coming into contact with his deity directly and his name being changed as a result of his god's attentions. Beryllus Himself renamed Jardak to "Libris the Holy" so that all will know that this is His chosen messenger.
Well everyone in the party has had similar experiences, receiving artifacts from their patron god or goddess and fighting against murderous members of Hrusia's Following. Libris was brought before the High Sovereign of his order and inducted into the Inquisition, to root out the corrupt and serve the Church of Beryllus and protect Damocles from spiritual forces. The party is sent to the Elven underwater city of Charabesh to find out the reasoning behind the severing of diplomatic relations between Damocles and the Theonal Republic and also to investigate the apparent correlation between Hrusian activity and brutal attacks along the coast of the Kingdom.
Well they make it to Charabesh unharmed and with the welcome mat rolled out for them (something they did not expect and it was fun to watch them adjust to being waited on hand and foot). Now the Elven cultures are magic obsessed, almost all of their infrastructure is completely run on arcane batteries and very convenient. I designed this entire underwater culture based on Ancient Sumeria (Akkadia, Ur, etc.) symbolic names, exotic forms of entertainment (Dancers in the lobby of the hotel, Hotbaths, etc.), and of all the things I let them play with...
it was the toilet that did it. This setting is essentially medieval with only the rich society being anything approaching clean as we would know it. I figured a magic obsessed culture would develop some of the more convenient inventions via magical study, I did not figure that these modern conveniences would fascinate everyone into stunned silence (it was weird). The toilets have an enchantment on them that shifts anything dropped into it to the plane of fire where it will be incinerated almost instantly. Libris, Amara, and Andrissa all stuck things in it for a good twenty minutes before figuring that they looked like tourists. Uncivilized tourists.
They reluctantly stopped.
I threw a curveball their way with the Governor being a succubus in disguise but they took it down in short order. Turns out the entire Council of Charabesh made pacts with demons for power and they inadvertently damned the city to be the playthings of Demons and Devils forever and ever. They found an underground resistance who had the patrol route of a Fallen Angel Captain of the Demon Prince that took control of the city. Multiple attempts on her life had been made, all of them resulting in the torture and/or death of all those involved.
They plotted for a good while about what to do, eventually settling for Explosive Runes on parchment handing them to a guard runner who was part of the rebellion and would deliver the message to Paubi the Devil Captain. The runner was a terrible liar and immediately detained by her bodyguards while she read the message:
"aaaaaaand boom goes the dynamite"
the resulting confusion was followed by an explosion like a grenade doing a sizable amount of damage to her and her cohorts. Andrissa Fireballed right in the middle of them, destroying the Elven Patrol Paubi was leading. The others descended on them from all directions and the encounter was over in about three rounds with no casualties, including the runner whom they managed to save from certain death ( though Libris nearly died after some pretty righteous hits from Paubi's longbow). They beat the Captain into unconsciousness and bound her, dragging her back for interrogation.
Paubi's challenge rating was about 8 and did not include the bodyguards she had with her. Three rounds. No casualties. They were a level 7 party of four.
Seriously guys. Tarrasque. Mark my words.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Ave Imperium: The party dabbles in human sacrifice
Today was the Dark Heresy group. Now Dark Heresy is unique among my games in that I haven't built this setting, it entirely takes place within the Warhammer 40,000 mythos. For those of you who don't know, Warhammer 40,000 (W40k) is a hilariously dark fantasy science fiction with *heavy* emphasis on the fantasy. The galaxy has been conquered by the Imperium of Mankind led by the Immortal Emperor of Man who sits immobile on his Golden Throne, worshiped as a god throughout the million worlds of the Imperium. Aliens, Daemons, and Traitors work tirelessly to undermine and destroy the Imperium and are basically succeeding. Everyone is going to die, but it is up to the Inquisition to police the Imperium from within and make sure they are loyal and worship the Emperor. Inquisitors usually have massive retinues of talented individuals that he or she relies on to investigate and destroy daemonic cults and expose traitors. The party is playing as those talented individuals.
Note: Dark Heresy is designed so that characters can die incredibly easily, but it is just as easy to make a new one quickly.
The Party:
1. Ephrael "Trauma" Castella - an Arbitrator who enforces the Emperor's laws with her trusty shotgun and club. Of normal size and complexion.
2. Solaria Taura - Scum, a fast-talker, thief, and social face of the party. Heavily muscled and sturdy.
3. Xantippe Callidia - A Guardsman from a backwater planet. She has issues with authority and doesn't generally like anyone. Short, slender, tan. Completely strange for a soldier in the Emperor's Army.
4. Reestheus "Red" Mordeci - Biomancer (utilizes bodily functions for combat purposes such as amplifying natural electricity), bright red hair and somewhat of a megalomaniac.
They decide to go ahead and smudge the chalk and the glowing summoning circle immediately ceases to glow.
Note: Dark Heresy is designed so that characters can die incredibly easily, but it is just as easy to make a new one quickly.
The Party:
1. Ephrael "Trauma" Castella - an Arbitrator who enforces the Emperor's laws with her trusty shotgun and club. Of normal size and complexion.
2. Solaria Taura - Scum, a fast-talker, thief, and social face of the party. Heavily muscled and sturdy.
3. Xantippe Callidia - A Guardsman from a backwater planet. She has issues with authority and doesn't generally like anyone. Short, slender, tan. Completely strange for a soldier in the Emperor's Army.
4. Reestheus "Red" Mordeci - Biomancer (utilizes bodily functions for combat purposes such as amplifying natural electricity), bright red hair and somewhat of a megalomaniac.
The only consistent survivor is Taura, though she is not without her battle scars and mental trauma. Ironically, her player wanted her to die in the very first session but does not have the heart to just do something overly suicidal, she is instead a bit more liberal with breaking cover and getting in the middle of a firefight (which in this system is trying to die) but she won't cop out with putting a bullet to her own head or picking fights she knows she can't win.
The original group Taura was in was completely annihilated with Ms. Taura as the sole survivor of the encounter, they began with the utter destruction (cleansing) of a small community given completely over to daemon worship and the local clergy that were tainted as well. After all was said and done the psyker punched a bull (due to boredom?) and was gored and trampled to death, his body used as a catalyst in a daemonic summoning later that night while the rest of them were resting in the (now empty) tavern.
Suddenly the air had gone chill, voices and shadows played about the edges of vision, a wretched howl wailed through the night, and the smell of rotten eggs choked the air. The daemon approached with its battleaxe held high for all to see, its armor of bronze stained with the fresh blood of the cultists who summoned it. The plates protecting it from almost every shot leveled its way. It easily broke through the barricades at the front of the tavern and stalked up the stairs. The whole time the party is hurling molotov cocktails at it, missing or doing almost no damage. The Guardsman of the original party fought back, scoring some deep wounds and hurling the last of their grenades at it, still it marched on.
The Guardsman had waited just a tad too long to get away and the daemon struck her violently in the back, severing the spine and spilling her guts out on the floor.
It was totally gross.
She immediately expired and the tavern was on fire. Taura continued to shoot at it on full-auto with her assault rifle, while the Assassin fought with sword, deftly dodging and parrying the daemon's blows. It received a grievous wound to the leg as it lost its balance on the floor slick with the Guardsman's blood. It crashed to the ground and the surviving team members run for it. However, in running away the Assassin left herself exposed and was brought low by the Daemon's axe, she fell to the ground dead as blood spilled out from her mortal wound.
There was a Sister of Battle with them too ( which is sort of a battle nun) though she wasn't able to do much the entire time and immediately moved on to other things after this debacle, leaving the party.
Taura and the Sister waited to see if the Daemon would emerge from the burning bar and breathed sighs of relief as the whole building came crashing down (It took gunshots, lacerations, molotov cocktails, grenades, and having a tavern drop on it to finally kill this thing). They confirmed the kill, radioed for evac and left that planet the following morning.Taura was dropped off at the Sector Capital of Scintilla, Hive Tarsus. There she was debriefed by her sponsoring Inquisitor and given an address where she would conduct her investigation into this cultist conspiracy. She met her current team there as well as they had been awaiting someone with a bit more experience than them in fighting the heretical.
They would begin their investigation concluding that the clergy was not to be trusted as they had most certainly been infiltrated by the Ruinous Powers of Chaos and steered away from glorious Emperor worship. Their inquiries would take them all over the Hives of Scintilla looking about for any leads on this dire cultist caper. The evidence seemed to point to a small (comparatively) Imperial chapel where they would stick their Inquistorially sponsored noses all about.
Turns out that their suspicions and rude demeanor weren't entirely far off and the chapel was a safehouse for cultists (complete with a secret room behind the statue of the Emperor). Despite being outnumbered and surrounded, it was more or less a curbstomp battle, Mordeci was rolling *really* well and bringing about some righteous death. Well they take one single prisoner (a low level scrub) and he tells them that they are a Tzeenchian Cult and that they've been setting up a ritual to summon daemons beneath churches throughout the entire system. He also advised against going down into the basement area if their lives or their sanity meant anything to them.
If only he knew how little they cared.
They tie him up with strips of the robes his dead brethren were wearing and drag him with them downstairs. They find this:
First they marvel at it, not quite comprehending it. They discuss all things they'll do to see what it does.
They talk about smearing it
they talk about pushing a torch over
they contemplate shooting at it
they *do* shoot at it
but instead they do the most insane thing to it that I can possibly think of...
 |
| Toss |
They throw in the prisoner to "see what happens". He explodes in a puff of smoke and blood and immediately their minds are beset by all things daemonic. Taura fails her Willpower Test in *big* way and takes in incredible amount of corruption, developing nasty character flaws and just barely able to keep from growing some daemonic appendage or developing a need to drink blood or something. Everyone else fails as well (not nearly as bad as Taura) and take sizeable amounts of corruption. Laughter plays about in their heads.
They decide to go ahead and smudge the chalk and the glowing summoning circle immediately ceases to glow.
Disaster averted.
The plan is to go back to base to let the Inquisitor know what's going on and maybe they can figure out where to go next. Outside the tenement building they are approached by a very twitchy, very nervous man who informs them that he is one of the cultist leaders and that he thinks this whole conspiracy has gone too far now that reports of the Inquisition's involvement have come his way. He tells the party about a meeting between eight rogue psykers (who are the conspiracy leaders) and that he was to be the ninth. He tells them the time and the place of the meeting and, noting their interest, he turns around to walk with them to their apartment.
Taura immediately shoot him in the head, they already had a time and a place and they weren't interested in making deals with traitors. They take this information to the local Arbites and they agree to send three of their troopers to help them take down the conspirators.This part actually goes swimmingly. For reasons unknown to me Callidia had two full doses of a very illegal drug on her person and offered to insert it into the air circulation system that controls the environment of the Upper Hive Apartment. They go one floor above their targets' and Callidia lowers Taura down the side of the 301st floor of a 600 story building (Warhammer is all about implausible sizes for everything) with a bedsheet as a backup plan. Taura successfully makes it to the circulation unit out the window and pours the drug into it's filters rendering the occupants on the inside high as kites. The party and the three Arbitrators bust down the door and open fire sending the cultist sorcerers into a bad hallucinogenic trip. Four of the eight have an...interesting reaction and think they can fly, they jump out the window...
the remaining four seem to have hallucinated bugs all over their bodies and fall to the floor screaming. Everyone just sort of meanders through putting bullets in their heads, before capturing one to tie up and send to the Inquisitor for interrogation.
Despite their earlier retardation, they pulled it together for the final act. They put in motion a plan that I did *not* see coming and actually succeeded far better than my best scenario. They beat the system and they beat me. I was impressed. They were rewarded a generous amount of XP for their victory, provided with a discount price for Arbite storerooms, and were given a large bonus sum of money from the Inquisitor. Not to mention wiggle room if their copious amounts of accrued corruption if it is ever found out, but one thing at a time...
Friday, April 15, 2011
Cybernetic: The party hits moral rock bottom
I will begin each post with the campaign I'm commentating on, followed by the name of the chapter.
Tonight I ran my science fiction setting. I don't like to run games that I have not built from the ground up, I get into building a government and creating increasingly detailed histories and other intricacies, despite the common player not ever giving a damn about anything the GM has created.
I should probably also explain the party as it is currently composed:
Lilith Ami'Rah - She is essentially Mulan in her backstory, her player is actually pretty dedicated to character development and my heart goes out to her when the party goes insane. The party buff, she is playing a Field Officer and is the face of the party due to high Charisma.
Josef Jaegar - A detective who got caught up in the shenanigans of the rest of the party. His player is a girl who has accidentally made him quite effeminate in the eyes of everyone else. The party skill monkey.
Talos - This character is the remnants of the previous campaign's Big Bad Evil Guy, he is basically a virus that infects other computer intelligences and makes them NPC cohorts. A chainsword wielding lunatic.
Derek Fayd - A brand new player, he is playing a stealth intensive Infiltrator. He is all about the ghosting around, placing grenades in people's pockets, and generally being irritatingly good at avoiding detection.
Daniel Knight - Daniel Knight is the spiritual party leader, the only character to be around since the beginning of the campaign despite his borderline suicidal desire to challenge NPC bosses to combat, even if they are in a tank and he is not. He is dual wielding pistols and playing a freelance pilot who also dabbles in contract killing.
Once upon a time, the party worked for the government and was trying to stop corporate terrorists from attempting an overthrow of the United Earth Confederation and establish an empire, they were fanatical in their desire to create a stronger humanity and followed a sort of "Ends justify the means" mentality. The party were part of a black ops group known as "The Gallows" and operated completely under the radar. Perks of this job included a license to kill and get out of jail free cards. Well they managed to finally find the masterminds behind the entire plan who then explained the particulars of the aforementioned plan, pulling a typical "Join me and let us rule" speech. The party was so moved by it that they accepted and promptly turned on the Confederacy, attempting to gather support with the fleet admirals of the UEC so they would have the means to stage a bloodless coup (though they were informed *multiple* times that this was the least likely scenario and a straight up Civil War would be far more likely to happen) Well the party went and asked the one Admiral who gave *everything* to protect and preserve the UEC (A former PC from a different group who singlehandedly defeated the BBEG) to now fight against it. The kicker: The guy playing the former BBEG takes the initiative and reveals himself to their esteemed foe in a bid for forgiveness.
Roughly three seconds later he was utterly annihilated, the few allies they managed to gather found out about them sheltering the Archenemy of the Human Race and then abandoned them, the various corporations poised to rise up in rebellion did so anyway and millions died. The party threw up their collective hands in resignation, built a new body for their robot comrade and hid on a frontier world for the five years the conflict went on running a brothel in an old west type of town at the edge of inhabitable space.
Fast forward to present day and the UEC is trying so very hard to not collapse due to the blundering of their erstwhile executioners.
After a mildly successful run as intergalactic space pimps (their idea, I try to indulge their creativity no matter how...crass it is) they took up freelance work and began hunting a hitman. They ran all about the known universe and did their best to track him down, achieving success by locating a hidden base run by ex-military pirates inside a electromagnetic cloud that obscures ship-based communications. They succeeded in killing their mark though the person who gave them the job was also killed in the attempt. With everyone relevant to them dead, they were forced to deal with the commander of the Ex-Military Pirates. Lilith challenged him to a one on one dual, the victor would decide the loser's fate and take over as commander of the space pirates. The Lord of the Pirates is a Super-Soldier. Even without his armor on he brought a sword to a gunfight and utterly annihilated Lilith (it was actually pretty close and he had to resort to holding her down and pummeling her face until she stopped moving) she scored very damaging hits with her trusty laser rifle, he scored some devastating hits with his fists.
Duel over. She loses and he brands her, much to Lilith's irritation. He then tells the party that they will take over the hitman's (the one they killed) duties. They simply shrug, decide they like the guy and agree to assassinate some person who is running for political office.
They depart for the planet of this man's residence and find out he's an old NPC acquaintance by the name of Oliver von Kierkegaard, an executive that they robbed back when they had government jobs. They laughed at the coincidence of it and promptly set up shop to end this guy.
Fayd get's in through a window in the back of the house, disabling the touchy security system with little difficulty, sneaking past the permanent guards (a hilarious addition to the house since their little heist five game years back) and completely forgetting to get the rest of the party in, he instead opts for the panic room with the safe in it. Daniel Knight gets impatient and tries to shoot Mr. Kierkegaard from a nearby tree. With a railgun. The glass is a bullet proof plate type thing and it shatters easily, though missing the mark. Knight fires a second round, hitting the target in the chest and sending him sprawling. A police response is already very close, the party is spooked and they leave without confirming the kill. Mr. Kierkegaard was unconscious and dying but was stabilized. Police pursue the party through the skies until the group makes it back to the ship, which promptly fires weapons designed to punch through the battleplate of starcraft at the small police attack 'copter. Then there is no more police 'copter.
They immediately sit down to watch the news and lament at the survival of Kierkegaard and high five when the families of the police officers they murdered appear onscreen begging for the murderers to be brought to justice (Little victories keep them happy). Unfortunately, the party's query has gone to ground and they aren't sure what to do.
Jaegar hits the town and investigates any connections who would know where the injured Kierkegaard lay, happening upon the man's wife. He feigns interest in solving this case and Talos fakes a mugging by punching the Mrs. right in the face, knocking her unconscious. Everyone in the area panics allowing Talos to escape in the panic and the police arrive allowing Jaegar to fast talk them about how he's here to help and he rides with them to the hospital where Kierkegaards are to be hidden together.
They find the hospital bed that Oliver is in, assure him everything will be alright and that they are on the case, wait for him to fall asleep, and then overdose him on painkiller at the same time framing the innocent nurse whose ID Badge they stole, thereby ruining *his* life too.
I'm still not *exactly* sure they know or care why they are doing what they are doing. I recall one of them describing the Pirate Lord as "having an honest face". Paragons of the human race...
Tonight I ran my science fiction setting. I don't like to run games that I have not built from the ground up, I get into building a government and creating increasingly detailed histories and other intricacies, despite the common player not ever giving a damn about anything the GM has created.
I should probably also explain the party as it is currently composed:
Lilith Ami'Rah - She is essentially Mulan in her backstory, her player is actually pretty dedicated to character development and my heart goes out to her when the party goes insane. The party buff, she is playing a Field Officer and is the face of the party due to high Charisma.
Josef Jaegar - A detective who got caught up in the shenanigans of the rest of the party. His player is a girl who has accidentally made him quite effeminate in the eyes of everyone else. The party skill monkey.
Talos - This character is the remnants of the previous campaign's Big Bad Evil Guy, he is basically a virus that infects other computer intelligences and makes them NPC cohorts. A chainsword wielding lunatic.
Derek Fayd - A brand new player, he is playing a stealth intensive Infiltrator. He is all about the ghosting around, placing grenades in people's pockets, and generally being irritatingly good at avoiding detection.
Daniel Knight - Daniel Knight is the spiritual party leader, the only character to be around since the beginning of the campaign despite his borderline suicidal desire to challenge NPC bosses to combat, even if they are in a tank and he is not. He is dual wielding pistols and playing a freelance pilot who also dabbles in contract killing.
Once upon a time, the party worked for the government and was trying to stop corporate terrorists from attempting an overthrow of the United Earth Confederation and establish an empire, they were fanatical in their desire to create a stronger humanity and followed a sort of "Ends justify the means" mentality. The party were part of a black ops group known as "The Gallows" and operated completely under the radar. Perks of this job included a license to kill and get out of jail free cards. Well they managed to finally find the masterminds behind the entire plan who then explained the particulars of the aforementioned plan, pulling a typical "Join me and let us rule" speech. The party was so moved by it that they accepted and promptly turned on the Confederacy, attempting to gather support with the fleet admirals of the UEC so they would have the means to stage a bloodless coup (though they were informed *multiple* times that this was the least likely scenario and a straight up Civil War would be far more likely to happen) Well the party went and asked the one Admiral who gave *everything* to protect and preserve the UEC (A former PC from a different group who singlehandedly defeated the BBEG) to now fight against it. The kicker: The guy playing the former BBEG takes the initiative and reveals himself to their esteemed foe in a bid for forgiveness.
 |
| The above is an artist's representation of the player perpetrating the act. Note the derp on his face. |
Roughly three seconds later he was utterly annihilated, the few allies they managed to gather found out about them sheltering the Archenemy of the Human Race and then abandoned them, the various corporations poised to rise up in rebellion did so anyway and millions died. The party threw up their collective hands in resignation, built a new body for their robot comrade and hid on a frontier world for the five years the conflict went on running a brothel in an old west type of town at the edge of inhabitable space.
Fast forward to present day and the UEC is trying so very hard to not collapse due to the blundering of their erstwhile executioners.
After a mildly successful run as intergalactic space pimps (their idea, I try to indulge their creativity no matter how...crass it is) they took up freelance work and began hunting a hitman. They ran all about the known universe and did their best to track him down, achieving success by locating a hidden base run by ex-military pirates inside a electromagnetic cloud that obscures ship-based communications. They succeeded in killing their mark though the person who gave them the job was also killed in the attempt. With everyone relevant to them dead, they were forced to deal with the commander of the Ex-Military Pirates. Lilith challenged him to a one on one dual, the victor would decide the loser's fate and take over as commander of the space pirates. The Lord of the Pirates is a Super-Soldier. Even without his armor on he brought a sword to a gunfight and utterly annihilated Lilith (it was actually pretty close and he had to resort to holding her down and pummeling her face until she stopped moving) she scored very damaging hits with her trusty laser rifle, he scored some devastating hits with his fists.
Duel over. She loses and he brands her, much to Lilith's irritation. He then tells the party that they will take over the hitman's (the one they killed) duties. They simply shrug, decide they like the guy and agree to assassinate some person who is running for political office.
They depart for the planet of this man's residence and find out he's an old NPC acquaintance by the name of Oliver von Kierkegaard, an executive that they robbed back when they had government jobs. They laughed at the coincidence of it and promptly set up shop to end this guy.
 |
| All your police are dead |
They immediately sit down to watch the news and lament at the survival of Kierkegaard and high five when the families of the police officers they murdered appear onscreen begging for the murderers to be brought to justice (Little victories keep them happy). Unfortunately, the party's query has gone to ground and they aren't sure what to do.
Jaegar hits the town and investigates any connections who would know where the injured Kierkegaard lay, happening upon the man's wife. He feigns interest in solving this case and Talos fakes a mugging by punching the Mrs. right in the face, knocking her unconscious. Everyone in the area panics allowing Talos to escape in the panic and the police arrive allowing Jaegar to fast talk them about how he's here to help and he rides with them to the hospital where Kierkegaards are to be hidden together.
They find the hospital bed that Oliver is in, assure him everything will be alright and that they are on the case, wait for him to fall asleep, and then overdose him on painkiller at the same time framing the innocent nurse whose ID Badge they stole, thereby ruining *his* life too.
I'm still not *exactly* sure they know or care why they are doing what they are doing. I recall one of them describing the Pirate Lord as "having an honest face". Paragons of the human race...
Thursday, April 14, 2011
The very beginning of an era
A friend of mine gave me an idea. He said to me "John? You really should create a blog so I can read about your games." Not in as many words mind you, he's more eloquent than I could ever hope to be, but I digress. I am a Game Master by trade, I make a very tiny bit of money on the side GMing these games as the demand for a dedicated Game Master is rather significant in my area of residence. I am chronically ill and it's a job I can do sitting down. I also dislike playing a character when I can run a setting and write plots and design governments and topple empires and establish a history. I have a passion for writing, though I fear I may not be very good at it, up to you really.
Now this first post is short but, brace yourself, I have a game tonight and hopefully will have quite an interesting commentary to share with you [insert reader name]. Until next time.
Now this first post is short but, brace yourself, I have a game tonight and hopefully will have quite an interesting commentary to share with you [insert reader name]. Until next time.
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