Have a Happy Insidious New Year!

Enter the Paladin

So, haven't posted in a while. I'm sure you've heard it all before: moved, new job, etc, etc. I always need some sort of creative outlet, whether it's drawing, writing, or running the game. But I haven't been doing much of any of those. What have I been doing?

I haven't painted minis is years, as I had moved away from all my gaming buddies and evolved into doing our gaming online. But now that I'm back on home ground, the very chance that we could get together to physically game has sent me into an orgy of figure painting.

I've collected so many figures over the years, I can probably paint for the rest of my life and not need to buy another mini. As far as to what I like to paint has changed over the years, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for the early chunky Grenadier and Ral Partha minis, but as you can see from the pics, I have GW/Citadel and the newer Reaper Bones figs, too.

I promise more gaming posts are coming up, including my ridiculous even Grimmer Hack rules, plus more Licheville.

-Mick

Licheville

Play Report from 8 Nov 16.

11/8/16 Crown’s Hold Play Report

Anatoly, Initiate of the Sciences (Dale)

Hurst, Adventurer Extraordinaire (Dave)

Klaus, Initiate/Disciple of the Flesh (John)

With Zachariah still out on his Intel mission for the Inquisition, and Halbert snoring in an alcoholic stupor under a table in the Slut and Brew, the rest of the party mulled over their various options to assuage their anger after the assault on both Crown’s Hold and Crown’s Stead.  Anatoly and Hurst want to solve the mystery of the un-openable vault beneath the West Anglypur Company’s headquarters, while Klaus just wants to eliminate the personal thorn in the party’s side: the beautiful and insidious Lenora Hatley. They all agreed that descending into the sewers would be their first step in accomplishing their mutual goals.

After the city-wide attack on the Stead, gaping holes were left open throughout town, so our intrepid adventures dropped in to a convenient one just outside of the Slut & Brew.

They immediately noticed something was amiss. Throughout the tunnels, they could see wide swaths had been cut through the muck and grimes leaving only the bare ancient stone used to construct the sewers. Sometimes the clean areas were on the floor, then shift to a wall, then the ceiling. The party didn’t know what could have done it, but just that it had to be huge as the width of the trail was at least five foot. They followed the northwest tunnel up and up, as that way led to the sewers under the Hold itself.

Then they found the crushed and shattered space helmet.

Anatoly filled the others in. They hadn’t entered into the locked down chamber in the buried space ship. They hadn’t seen the thing inside the suit begin to grow and burst apart its seams as the party had re-locked the bulkhead just before something battered against the metal door repeatedly, shaking the entire craft.

Klaus shuddered. He knew. Shoggoth…

Moving even more cautiously, the team arrived to where they assumed the West Anglypur Company Headquarters was located far above them. After some efforts in searching, they found a loose stone, and behind it, a large pull-ring. A door in the sewer walls swung open, leading to a short stairwell down, then to a beautifully crafted marble room. They placed their torches in the wall sconces and searched again, finding nothing but a foot wide circular brass plate seated into the wall opposite the stairs. Klaus could tell the plate held magic, but couldn’t decipher its use. Frustrated, they knew this must be the back entrance into the sealed vault under the W.A.C. HQ, but they could find nothing.

Then, noises were heard on the stairs.

Hurst and Anatoly hid in the corners off to the side of the stairs, while Klaus calmly waited.

A woman’s voice could be heard in the background as three toughs descended the stairs. Recognition crossed Klaus’ mind as he saw the man in the fore. The former Legionnaire who’d quit to serve Lenora Hatley. After a brief attempt at deceit upon both sides, blades were drawn. The assault by the enemy leader was brutal and savage. Mighty blow after mighty blow hacked into Klaus, who crashed to the ground, unconscious, a new scar to add to his body, mind, and soul (- Fate pt.).

Anatoly and Hurst, after some give and take with their enemies, finally began getting the upper hand, particularly after Hurst hamstringed one of the combatants who crawled up the stairway. The ex-Legionnaire, after taking some wounds and seeing the battle turn, pushed his other trooper in front of himself and sprinted up the stairs.

The abandoned thug only half-heartedly fought for a moment before surrendering, then spilling all he knew about the vault. He’d had enough betrayal, and vengeance on his recent employer was foremost on his mind. Lenora Hatley had indeed been accessing the vault from that very room. He didn’t know exactly how she did it, other than laying her palm against the plate. After some discussion on which hand, and if there was jewelry on that hand, the adventurers thought they may be on the precipice of solving the mystery of the vault, but also gained a new ally. Important for the fact that Kyle was may be laid up for some time, and they had no one to guard the party’s hidden (well, not so hidden now) manse.

Heading back to the surface, they entered the W.A.C. headquarters to talk to the new boss, Lady Norah, who promised to get any rings that the disgraced (and executed) Sir Edmund may have had in his possession to the party.

If any of Edmunds worn rings didn’t open the fault, they’d just have to use Hatley’s hand. Whether it will be still attached to her when they use it, the party members seemed not to care at all.

Klaus' downtime tale.

Explanation: whenever the cancellation of the game is my fault and lasts more than a single missed session, I like to whip up a little narrative on what has happened to their characters, and depending on a dice roll each player makes, I access a random table I’ve made up (and expanded significantly over the campaign). This table can contain Faction points, EP (though I post about my Grim Hack rules, we still haven’t converted over except in one-shots), skills, characteristics, equipment, contacts, cash gains (or losses), new adventure locations, and just some bizarre shit. Most of the results are actually a combination of these things, with a scattered big gain for a single thing.

I usually just pass it on through group texts, but others may find some interest in this, if not mechanically, then for entertainment purposes.

Will post these as I finish them.

This time around since we had such a big break, I asked the players what their characters were attempting to do along with the result from their die roll, and tried to integrate, with the following results:

Klaus, Initiate/Disciple of the Flesh (John) – Klaus spits into the dust of the faint trail that he and the team have made over time travelling to their secret manse in the mountains northwest of Crown’s Hold. He’d been planning on getting here before this, but his studies into the nature of magic and particularly the mysteries of Hypergeometry. He knew he was close to cracking it. Just one piece was missing, and he was sure it was just within his grasp. When he’d gotten too frustrated, he’d gotten some satisfaction from tracking Lenora Hatley’s doings. He’d tracked her multiple times entering a heavily residence in the northeastern part of town. She’d be there for a couple hours at a stretch, then emerge with her dress soiled with dirt, and a servant with a bag. He was itching to get in there, but the rest of his compatriots have been incommunicado of late.

Something’s wrong with Kyle.

You start running towards the trail, the hired hands you‘d acquired stop in shock, then begin walking after you faster, but they’re laden down with paint and masonry repair equipment. As you scramble up the trail towards the manse, everything seems the same as you’d last seen it, but you’re tie with Kyle says otherwise. You slow as you enter the large foyer, hands held in front of you, the Rend spell ever ready to be unleashed.

You find Kyle in the middle of the theater. He barely breathes, his armor cracked and shattered next to him. A message has been carved deep into his chest.

“GO BACK TO YOUR EMPIRE”

Kyle’s eyes flicker open, trying to focus on you. “Just missed ‘em, boss. They’re hitting yer town, now.” He fades in and out of consciousness. “I’ll be alright, boss. Just find some strippers-” His eyes close as he falls into a stupor. You work your spells upon the fallen Siddich. Once you figure he’s stable, you give some terse orders to the laborers and leave, your teeth gritting in anger.

From the summit of the trail, you can see flashes of light on the horizon in the direction of the Hold.

Someone is going to pay.

You catch them just north of the Hold. A Mageregime sorcerer gestures and the ancient bars guarding a sewer overflow in the side of the mountain begin to change shape, fade into mist, and disappear. Of course. He’s calling and folding open elsewhere. You know you should write that down, but you’d rather Rend them instead.

Later you wipe the dripping gore from your face. They hadn’t expected you. You know you were lucky this time, but the victory still tastes sweet. You look down and notice that some of the blood is, indeed, yours. A lot, in fact. No magic left in you, you rip some rough bandages from the cloak of the enemy wizard. You pick up the piece of paper that falls out. Well, well, well.

+ Arcane language: Hypergeometric Formulae, + Map of the Crown’s Hold sewers (not to be confused with the map for the Stead’s sewers)

Halbert's downtime tale.

Explanation: whenever the cancellation of the game is my fault and lasts more than a single missed session, I like to whip up a little narrative on what has happened to their characters, and depending on a dice roll each player makes, I access a random table I’ve made up (and expanded significantly over the campaign). This table can contain Faction points, EP (though I post about my Grim Hack rules, we still haven’t converted over except in one-shots), skills, characteristics, equipment, contacts, cash gains (or losses), new adventure locations, and just some bizarre shit. Most of the results are actually a combination of these things, with a scattered big gain for a single thing.

I usually just pass it on through group texts, but others may find some interest in this, if not mechanically, then for entertainment purposes.

Will post these as I finish them.

This time around since we had such a big break, I asked the players what their characters were attempting to do along with the result from their die roll, and tried to integrate, with the following results:

Halbert, Legionnaire 2^nd Class (Doug) – One day after practicing his sword-play with the new Legionnaires in Crown’s Hold, Halbert, sweaty and sore, wandered back into the Legion barracks. Legion Commander Tarrant Bradwyr passed by. “Halbert, watched you in the courtyard, there. You’re becoming quite formidable. I was wondering if you’d like to join us for a few libations at the Slut and Brew in town. It’s an important day for us, the 51^st anniversary of the Legion Founding.”

Visions of alcohol, dancing women, and even more alcohol floated before his eyes. “Sounds great!”

“Did you want to wait for any of your friends?”

“Nah, more for us.” Bradwyr laughed as they headed to the Slut and Brew.

After the fourth or fifth drink, the tavern shook to sounds of laughter and revelry and the sound of an explosion just outside. Glasses rattled and fell off the tables, shattering the sudden silence. The Slut and Brew’s thick leaded glass windows crack into crude and ugly spider-webs.

As one, you and the Legionnaires draw your swords and head outside.

The street before you has collapsed, thick smoke and dirt billow up out of the chasm. Terrorist refugees? Some sort of gas build-up in the newly opened sewers? Klaus drunk again?

Men in blackened Anglypur armor pour out of the chasm. Another man floats above them, laughing. His tongue is split like a serpents, his eyes are also severed in half, hemispherical pupils spinning madly in their sockets. Other explosions are heard elsewhere in the vicinity, shaking the ground.

“Kill the wizard,” someone screams, but the press of the purple and black shod troopers is too heavy. You find your attention divided by two of them wielding spears that have been drawn to you, while reality-bending magics howl overhead, screams erupting behind you.

After long minutes of dodging and parrying, a lucky stab from your blade sinks deep into the throat of one of your attackers, while one of the Legionnaires grapples with the other. The laughter from the Mageregime wizard suddenly changes tone. You look up to see non-descript people in non-descript clothing, shooting a not so non-descript quantity of arrows, bolts, knives, and shuriken into the now cursing mage. Down the street, blue and green alchemical fires show the Monks have also entered the fray.

The sound of a peeling bell rings from the Cathedral, and a mage in the distance falls to the ground into the reaping greatsword of Inquisitor Varus.

The Mageregime wizard howls in fresh laughter and reality shifts, the Anglypur troopers and their master drop back into the pit and simply disappear.

Commander Gladwyr’s hand on your shoulder makes you jump, and you realize just how tired you are. “It was coordinated,” says Tarrant. “I’ve had runners come from the keep. The Guildsmen were able to hold them off. The Guildmistress herself tore a whole cadre of the bastards apart, I hear.” He shudders, then shakes his head. “I think they were only testing us. This is bad. The Mageregime war must be finally over. Emperor save us all.”

You sheathe your sword after wiping it on the corpse of the man you killed. Definitely have some drinking to do.

+Legion, Hidden, and Town faction. +Consume Alcohol skill. +Free Ale whenever drinking in the presence of more than 2 Legionnaires.

Anatoly's downtime tale...

Explanation: whenever the cancellation of the game is my fault and lasts more than a single missed session, I like to whip up a little narrative on what has happened to their characters, and depending on a dice roll each player makes, I access a random table I’ve made up (and expanded significantly over the campaign). This table can contain Faction points, EP (though I post about my Grim Hack rules, we still haven’t converted over except in one-shots), skills, characteristics, equipment, contacts, cash gains (or losses), new adventure locations, and just some bizarre shit. Most of the results are actually a combination of these things, with a scattered big gain for a single thing.

I usually just pass it on through group texts, but others may find some interest in this, if not mechanically, then for entertainment purposes.

Will post these as I finish them.

This time around since we had such a big break, I asked the players what their characters were attempting to do along with the result from their die roll, and tried to integrate, with the following results:

Anatoly, Initiate of the Sciences (Dale) – Smelling of black powder and sweat, Anatoly took a rest from his firearms practice, cleaning his weapon, when Mike Baker, the gunsmith, and Jim Larabee, the alchemist, approached him. “We’ve a new design, Anatoly, but it needs some field testing. As we don’t get out much, we’d appreciate it if you’d take it out with you on your adventures.”

“We’ll also give a quick once-over on how it works in case you need to make any, ahem, excuse me, field repairs.”

“What is it?” Anatoly said, picking up the strange weapon.

“A flame-thrower!” The two monks smiled and Anatoly shuddered. No good will come from this...

Days later, Anatoly hiked over to his plantation. Immediately, he knew something was amiss. Out of his new manse (rough construction completed only), his laborers pile out. “You came quickly to our call!’ “We only sent Olaf off an hour or two ago!”

“What!?! What are you talking about?” Anatoly looked about. Damn, looking good.

“Spiders!” “A horde!” “They spoke!” “They knew you by name!” “Submit or all shall die!”

“What was that last part?” asked Anatoly.

“That’s what that man said,” said Zareth, Anatoly’s youngest laborer, pointing at the tree-line.

The goose-bumps spread across Anatoly’s skin. In the trees was the man who’d identified himself as Snake some months ago. The Spider-Lord.

Anatoly triggered the supposed flame-thrower. Nothing. Those absent-minded bastards. He dropped to the ground, the arcane weapon in front of him. What did they say? Through the combining chamber to the pressure chamber…

He tinkered on the bizarre weapon as the scuffle of spider legs moved towards him. Suddenly, he heard the sounds of two babies crying.

Are you kidding me?

Wait a minute! Of course! Those idiots…

The spiders sprang forward, in the distance, Anatoly could hear the laughter of the Spider-Lord.

This had better fucking work. Anatoly depressed the trigger and fire bloomed forth, blue-white hot. The spiders were engulfed, their screams echoed through the trees. In a matter of seconds, six spiders, including two baby-headed spiders, are incinerated, their blackened chitin falling to the ground in ashes.

The laborers stood with their mouths open in shock.

“Holy shit,” said Zareth.

“Holy shit,” said the Spider-Lord, and disappeared.

I am Shiva, destroyer of worlds…

+Schematic: Flame Thrower, + Skill: Specialty Weapon: Flame Thrower, +Flame Thrower (3 fwooshes of ammo) Str 5, Cone 25’ length, 15’ apex (after successful research: Str = 6).

Hurst's downtime tale.

Explanation: whenever the cancellation of the game is my fault and lasts more than a single missed session, I like to whip up a little narrative on what has happened to their characters, and depending on a dice roll each player makes, I access a random table I’ve made up (and expanded significantly over the campaign). This table can contain Faction points, EP (though I post about my Grim Hack rules, we still haven’t converted over except in one-shots), skills, characteristics, equipment, contacts, cash gains (or losses), new adventure locations, and just some bizarre shit. Most of the results are actually a combination of these things, with a scattered big gain for a single thing.

I usually just pass it on through group texts, but others may find some interest in this, if not mechanically, then for entertainment purposes.

Will post these as I finish them.

This time around since we had such a big break, I asked the players what their characters were attempting to do along with the result from their die roll, and tried to integrate, with the following results:

Hurst, Adventurer Extraordinaire* (Dave) – Hurst, the fate of the refugee/slaves in the mine to the north weighs heavily on his mind, and he gathers a group of Legionnaires and heads north. Caution being the better part of valor, Hurst and his team slowly approached the mine entrance. The ground in front of the entrance is scorched in a roughly thirty yard circle. Evidence of booted footprints with a tread unlike anything he’d seen before go towards the sere ground, but there are no bodies to be found. Odd. Similar tracks lead both in and out of the adit, so Hurst told his men to tread carefully. Investigating the ground he’d previously covered, he found the strange stone past the wizard’s lab to have been destroyed, shattered. Again cautioning his men, they descended down towards the underground city. Finding evidence of a heavy battle and the remains of bio-mechanical spider-like creatures, he had some of the men pick up the most undamaged pieces and ascended back towards the elevator.

Descending down the mine elevator towards the deeper levels he’d not adventured through, the team were attacked by feral (and cannibalistic) refugees, their hands turned black. Twenty-two half-starved souls were put down, but, despite heavy wounds, none of the Legionnaires were lost. A group of six survivors, barely alive, had boarded themselves up in one of the slave pens. After some water and a bit of rations, the Legionnaires fashioned stretchers and began transporting the survivors to the surface.

Returning to the surface himself, Hurst realized there is one more level below the slave pits. How was the elevator still functioning? A survivor, more alert than the others told him “No one went deeper. Not even the Mageregime wizard.”

The survivors, to a man, pledged their undying gratitude to Hurst, while Sergeant Piva pulled Hurst aside. “It’s been an honor, sir,” shaking Hurst’s hand. “We know you’re not officially Legion, but you are to us. We’ll follow you anywhere, anytime.”

Hurst descended to below the WAC headquarters, getting nods and smiles along the way towards his infrequent visits to that damn vault door. Nothing had changed. No fresh ideas came to him, the he heard something on the other side of the door. Was that a woman’s voice? He heard a door close, then nothing. Of course…

The fucking sewers.

Once the survivors from the mine had recovered their health, Hurst was able to find them work around the Stead. Most in the new businesses that had opened up with the coming of more refugees and new investors from the Empire. Needing a second apprentice, Frank Waite the blacksmith, gladly took on Michael to work with him and Jerome at the forges. Frank thanked Hurst but seemed to be holding back laughter. Hurst nodded his head and went back to the barracks for a long deserved rest.

On returning home, on his rack sat a suit of heavy black plate mail. Trying it on, it’s much lighter than it looks… Obviously Siddich in origin, it had been painstakingly adjusted to Hurst’s exact measurements, and of any symbols of Anglypur there is no trace, only the crest of the Legion.

++Legion and Refugee Faction, + unique Legionnaire/Siddich plate mail.

*Note, Hurst is following his own career-less advancement system that Dave developed. I hope to post that here with Dave’s permission sometime in the future.

Zachariah's downtime tale.

Explanation: whenever the cancellation of the game is my fault and lasts more than a single missed session, I like to whip up a little narrative on what has happened to their characters, and depending on a dice roll each player makes, I access a random table I’ve made up (and expanded significantly over the campaign). This table can contain Faction points, EP (though I post about my Grim Hack rules, we still haven’t converted over except in one-shots), skills, characteristics, equipment, contacts, cash gains (or losses), new adventure locations, and just some bizarre shit. Most of the results are actually a combination of these things, with a scattered big gain for a single thing.

I usually just pass it on through group texts, but others may find some interest in this, if not mechanically, then for entertainment purposes.

Will post these as I finish them.

This time around since we had such a big break, I asked the players what their characters were attempting to do along with the result from their die roll, and tried to integrate, with the following results:

Zachariah, Legionnaire 2^nd Class (Bob) – As part of his plan to forge closer ties between the Inquisition and the Legion, Zachariah has spent time shuffling between the Hold and the town. Seeking to also plum some of the mysteries of Inquisitorial Magic, he was approached for a mission. As he has developed some ties with the Swamplanders, he’s asked to spend some time with them and investigate. Varus, Inquisitor In Station, is particularly curious about their agendas, if any, and in particular, the nature of their god(s).

After some abortive attempts at firearm training, he headed towards the docks. As has been usual, the Swamplanders greet Zachariah as a welcome friend. After a few days of wandering about the docks, getting to know the Swamplanders has proven difficult, as they are quite secretive despite their amiable feelings towards Zachariah. More strangers are appearing at the docks as the quality of life in Crown’s Hold has increased over the past few months, and the quality of the fish vendors’ product just gets more and more delicious.

The two Swamplander young women that had accosted you before have been much less ‘forward’ but are far more open than most dockworkers. You get some basic information about the worship of the Gods-In-The-Seas, but don’t seem to know much more than after a while, most Swamplanders ‘retire’ to waves once they begin to feel the aches and pains of old age. They convince you to come see their grandfather who hasn’t heard the call of the seas yet despite his advanced age, and who would be much more up on all this ‘religion junk.’

The girls lead you to a section of ramshackle huts on the shore of the river outside of town. Despite the appearance on the outside, the furnishings and condition on the inside, while not opulent, shocks you in their quality.

Their grandfather presents as a wrinkled but massive man, bent over from years of fishing off docks and boats. His eyes are wide and all-encompassing, and his grip when he shakes hands with you is incredibly strong. After a scrumptious meal, you talk long into the night with the affable man. As the light of dawn creeps into the windows, you see a twinkle in the man’s eye. You realize you cannot remember his name, nor the name of the girls. You try to hold on to what the man had been telling you all night, but it slips slowly, steadily from your mind.

“As you have been trying to increase the ties between your outsider factions, we, too, shall increase the ties with them through you…”

You awaken, groggy and naked, in a dark rocky tunnel. The way behind leads only into blackness, ahead you see a murky light. You get up only to realize you are underwater. You panic for a second, then realize you’re breathing fine. You remember the potion and the sunken city of Greymire and you quickly relax. You swim through the tunnel and swim easily up to the surface. The shore of the river is only a few yards away. You test to see if the potion is anywhere close to wearing off. You clear the water from your lungs and can breathe fine. That’s different. You submerge yourself and can immediately breathe the water again. You make it to shore feeling quite comfortable. Your gear is there, cleaned and neatly pressed. Extra coins in your pocket. You look around and see no one, a strange hill lies south off the shore. Something about that hill… You shake your head and what you’re thinking escapes you. You run your hands over your body. No wounds, but thick creases in your neck. Are your toes and fingers webbed? Hmm… Not really. Or are they?

After dressing, you make your way north to the town. You have brief glimpses in your mind as of a vivid dream of great underwater vistas, a great city of cyclopean stone, a submerged cylinder of metal that draws your curiosity, but are warned against visiting. A great ceremony, peoples half man, half fish. Nubile bodies, some human, some not. And names…

Father Dagon. Mother Hydra.

You make it to town. What should you tell the Inquisition? The Legion? You know you have offers to make. More rations of salted fish the Legion can handle. Information for the Inquisition on the quickly strengthening Anglypur Wizards and their movements along the waterways and coasts of southern Anglypur. And for a select few, immortality. Of sorts.

As your stomach rumbles, what you do know for sure is that the Swamplanders really need to open up a restaurant.

+50 GCs, + Swamplander, Legion, and Inquisition faction. You are now amphibious, and your swim speed has increased significantly.

My Lame excuse for not posting lately.

My Lame excuse for not posting:

I’ve moved 1500 miles and got a new job. J

To make amends, going to skip my usual 'well, I need fresh artwork to post with' rule.

Thoughts and changes on the Grim Hack from the play reports.

Am I intelligent or just cunning? Dexterous or agile? I ponder such in my garden of death...

Thoughts and changes on the Grim Hack from the play reports.

New rule on skills: Knowledge, artistic, and crafting skills: When skill is first attained, it gives a 10% bonus to the attribute check when rolling for success. A big difference with other d100/BRP style games and WFRP is that WFRP characters start out much weaker. It’s common for key starting skills that a BRP-type character has at creation to be in the area of 70-80% (however, these rules also allow a character to advance skills beyond 100%).

Possible changes I’m considering: As my whole idea for the Grim Hack was a rules lite version of WFRP, there are a few things I’m considering.

·       Forsaking hit locations: Reduces some of the ‘fiddliness’ from both combat and purchasing/looting gear. Armor values would remain the same (Plate + chain=2AP, Plate or chain=1 AP, Leather 1AP vs. light damage, Shield good for 1AP). Would require a complete rewrite of crit tables, however.

·       Reducing the number of Attributes: Basically combining Agility and Dexterity, and Cunning and Intelligence. It’s only been two adventures, but I remain unconvinced on the need for two differing aspects of a particular attribute.

On a side note, Bob is thinking of running Against the Giants with my Grim Hack rules! Made me all warm and fuzzy to hear that!

Deep Space 13 map and legend.

Deep Space 13 map and legend

Here’s an example I used for one of my one-shot adventures to test my Grim Hack rules. It can be used with any ruleset, however, if anyone wants the stats, I’ll post ‘em. Brief descriptions of the opponents follows later in the post. If anyone runs this, please let me know how it went.

For the brief introduction I used (and character archetypes) see here.

Sorry about the odd numbering, but when I start writing rooms/encounters, I do it as they come to me, then add them to the map. I pretty much am just transcribing pretty much exactly what I had wrote in my notebook.

State of Station and existing Runabout: Pipes, wires, and structures of human flesh that certainly don’t belong cover the ceilings and walls, all dripping pus and gore onto the decks. See Aliens. You may describe the Borg found on this station similarly, see picture here.

Various locations have Control Panels for various systems. As these have been corrupted by the Borg Hypergeometric Virus, it takes a skill check to get anything from them. See Panel section below.

1.        Airlock: desiccated corpses in Federation uniform. No equipment. 1 Cyber-Vermin patrols gangway to Station proper.

2.        Reactor Room: Power-core dark with a massive creature, the Borgoth, covered in tentacles, pustules, and power cables wrapped around it. See picture in this post.

3.        Command Center/Bridge: Borg Commander and two Borg. Corrupted Science, Communications, Engineering, and Security Panels. These are the most corrupted on the Station. A fumble on these skill checks destroys the panel. Clue 1 can be found here in the Science Panel.

4.        Brig: 2 Cyber-Vermin. 3 Starfleet prisoners in rags, obviously tortured, in separate cells. “They tortured us, they laughed while they did it! Borg have never done that!” “There’s no one left in Starfleet. It started somewhere in the Alpha quadrant. We thought we were the last uncorrupted Station left.”

5.        Armory: One Phaser rifle, corrupted (on use, failed Willpower check causes user to surrender self to Borg when encountered).

6.        Holodeck: Recurring nightmare imagery of the Borg invasion of Earth.

7.        Mess Hall: 3 Cyber-Vermin. 1 naked, bruised, and insane Starfleet member. Don’t ask what they’ve been eating…

8.        Barracks: Various bodies in perverted poses and dismemberment. No mission-critical equipment.

9.        Officer’s Quarters: throughout the ring. One holds Clue 2. No mission-critical equipment.

10.     Observation Deck: Peaceful, uncorrupted.

11.     Science Lab: Borg Scientist reading Necronomicon on Science Panel (this is what was uploaded to the Collective to start this whole thing). A discarded datapad holds Clue 1. Body parts melded with tentacles and bio-mechanical will turn into another Borgoth if the scientist isn’t killed in the first round of combat.

12.     Med-Bay: Borg conversion center. One victim almost ready.

13.     Borgified Runabout: Power core mysteriously drained. No working panels, equipment, etc.

14.     Engineering: Borg at Engineering Panel. Datapad holds Clue 2.

15.     Security Sub-Station: Security Panel, 3 Phasers.

Panels:

Science Panel: Successful skill check finds the Anti-Virus after Clue 1 is found.

Engineering Panel: Successful skill check reduces hit points of location 2 Borgoth by half.

Security Panel: Succesful skill check after power is restored, gives number and location of opponents and allows the locking down of any particular room. Critical success activates invader countermeasures, stunning all Borg and Cyber-Vermin for 1d10 minutes.

Communications Panel: Successful skill check once power is restored at location 2, Clue 2 found, and Anti-Virus found, broadcasts the Anti-Virus throughout the Alpha quadrant.

The Borg: Fairly self-explanatory other than the fact they are physically corrupted even more than they already are, just add tentacle arms and boils and such to their description. Both the Commander and the Scientist are quite a bit tougher, feel free to have the Scientist throw some Lovecraftian spells once he animates his Borgoth. The Borg prefer to use the ‘Stun’ feature on their Phasers so as to add to their collection of play-things.

The Borgoths: Bio-mechanical Shoggoths.

Cyber-Vermin: A bio-mechanical cross between dogs and spiders. They shoot to kill, but use lasers which are a tad weaker than Phasers.

Clue 1: “Jeffries Tubes becoming dangerous as Borg virus spreads…”

…am making progress on Anti-Virus. Must read more of that book!”

“Patched into Borg systems. Found complete book. Spells converted to Hypergeometric equations!?!”

“Anti-Virus almost done. As long as they don’t find me first.”

“Anti-Virus is completed, but I am deleting it. I was such a fool. Gods do, indeed, exist. Biologic life is meaningless. I am turning myself in for assimilation. Yog-Sothoth is the Gate and the Key.”

Clue 2: “If that thing would only die, I’d be able to get the Security System back up and running. Not good enough an Engineer to work on a starship my ass! I’d even have enough power to broadcast Broderick’s Anti-Virus. That’s is if Mr. Science Officer can get his crap together.”

Note: I’m not claiming any ownership of these properties. This was purely a humorous exercise.

Deep Space 13 (2nd Grim Hack one-shot) play report finale.

Yog-Sothoth is the Gate and the Key, well, of the Engineering Deck anyway...

Deep Space 13 (2^nd Grim Hack one-shot) play report finale.

Sorry about the lack of posts for a while, but real-life tends to intrude on our gaming excursions, so we were finally able to get together last night to complete this one-shot.

Players:
Bob-Security Officer
Dave-Medical Officer
Doug-Engineering Officer
John-Science Officer

Our intrepid team, fresh from their assault on the Bridge, now believed they needed to get more power to the Station so they could both power up the various control panels around Deep Space 13 and to spread the anti-virus through its systems. Brimming with confidence, they girded their loins for an elevator trip down to the engineering level.

Ready for anything, the team had their Phasers set on ‘char-broil’ as the elevator doors opened. What they weren’t prepared for was the quivering mass of sentient tentacles, wires, mouths, and pus-filled sacks the size of a human head that had wrapped itself around the power core. Despite having a layer of clear, nigh-impenetrable glass between them and it, both the Security Officer and the Engineering officer were shaken to their core y Fear, and refused to exit the elevator.

Discussing their options, the Science Officer and the Med Officer decided to cautiously check the surrounding rooms for anything that may help against the thing that was syphoning off all the power. John went to check the door to the left, Dave to the right. Dave got close enough for the automatic door to open where he caught a glimpse of some prisoners in cells and the edge of a couple of the bio-mechanical spider-dogs (with lasers!), when he quickly backed up to allow the door to close without alerting the vicious little enemies.

John, however, was not quite so lucky, and the Borg in the Engineering Lab became aware of him as soon the door open. After a quick exchange of weapons fire, the Borg was wounded, but the Science Officer lay on the deck, victim of a Phaser on stun.

Dave sprinted over and burst into the Engineering lab. After a second to assess the situation, he burned down the Borg. Having shaken off his fear at the sounds of Phaser fire, Bob grabbed his Phaser rifle and ran into the Brig, causing one of the Spider-Dogs to explode, damaging it’s fellow which returned fire burning a hole deep into the Security Officer’s arm.

Doug remained frozen in Fear.

Finishing off the still-moving, still-burning, Borg with a disintegrating flash, Dave sprinted over to the brig after hearing a scream for ‘Medic!’

Despite his wounds, Bob was able to finish off the last of his opponents. A short time later, he felt much better as the Medical Officer was able to tend his wounds.

Finally, both the Science Officer and the Engineering Officer shook off their various maladies, and the party went to free the prisoners. After a quick Med-scan and some first-aid, they were able to communicate with the three prisoners, one male, two female.

“They tortured us,” said one of the women. “Over and over again. Borg don’t do that. I don’t understand…”

“I didn’t think anyone was left that wasn’t assimilated in all of Starfleet,” said the male. “We were the last outpost that we knew of.”

Finding the Security Station on this level, the team armed the three freed prisoners. The Science Officer ‘critically’ delved into the Engineering Controls and figured out a way to cause a power feedback into the creature on the power core and maybe damage it. On his advice, he had the team don the white contamination coveralls just in case containment was breached.

With a stroke of Science wizardry, the lights went out and the team felt a screech and heard the words “YOG-SOTHOTH IS THE GATE AND THE KEY!” in their brains.

The thing then unwrapped its scorched and smoking tentacles from the core and started making it’s way out of the containment chamber.

The rest of the party and prisoners greeted it with a fusillade of Phaser fire. Shrugging off most of the damage, the creature attacked, leaving the male prisoner crawling on the deck, gasping to breathe. The Security Officer dropped his Phaser rifle as it malfunctioned and drew his hand Phaser. Rejoining the team, Join added his Phaser fire to it. Suddenly, the weakened monster exploded, heavily damaging the team and killing the male prisoner outright. As the Medical Officer tended their wounds, the power core began glowing brighter and brighter, and the hum of long sleeping systems rose louder and louder. Pops and sizzles soon followed as the bio-mechanical infection was slowly purged as the anti-virus spread.

Now that the Security Station’s consoles were powered up, the Security Officer was able to find and isolate the last Borg in the Science Lab on the main deck. Unfortunately, he was unable to bring up any of the more ‘drastic’ of the security options. What he was ale to find, was that the Science Lab was drawing an extreme amount of power.

Piling into the elevator, the team quickly checked their weapons, then sprinted towards the lab. As the door shwooshed open, the found a Borg frantically working on something. The la was filled with body parts, tentacles, and head-sized bags of pus, all melded together. Luckily, the team was able to put their opponent down before he could finish its nefarious work (animating another creature similar to what they just dealt with on the Engineering Deck.

After investigating Deep Space 13 thoroughly and talking with the survivors, they discovered that the station was recently infected in comparison to the rest of the Federation. Some of the records that the team found spoke of what the results of the anti-virus would likely be. The Borg virus would have merged deeply with the higher technologies first, so when the anti-virus strikes, all the wondrous technology that made the Federation would be destroyed. No more transporters, anti-gravity, faster-than-light communications, warp drives, and even computer systems would be all gone, effectively devolving civilization centuries into the past. The team had no idea how far the original virus had spread, the alpha quadrant assuredly, but what of their enemies in the deeper reaches of space? A functional starship could wreak havoc over multiple systems and worlds. But, in the end, there wasn’t really a choice.

 They broadcast the anti-virus out into what remained of the Federation.

After a couple adventures, I’ve made some changes to the Grim Hack rules that I will post shortly. Primarily related to crafting/knowledge/artistic skills. Basically, when a character learns one of these skills, not only can he use it, he gets a 10% onus on the attribute roll when using them.

Also, thinking of posting the map and the adventure for this one-shot. Let me know if anyone is interested in seeing it. It may give you an idea on how I go about making adventures.

Deep Space 13 play report, part one.

So, maybe uploading the Necronomicon into the Collective might not have been the greatest idea...

Players:
Bob-Security Officer
Dave-Medical Officer
Doug-Engineering Officer
John-Science Officer

After requisitioning extra supplies, the team headed off on the runabout for their rendezvous with Deep Space 13.

After coming out of warp, the team discovered the base to be shut down, only life support and minimal energy signatures detected. Failing their scanning attempt, the team was only able to discover there were lifeforms aboard the station but not their exact nature and location.

After docking they entered through the airlock, finding desiccated bodies of Starfleet members. Dave discovered they’d been exposed to vacuum, but not ejected out into space. As they walked further into the docking section they heard a calm, comforting voice say “Welcome to Deep Space 13. Please prepare to be assimilated. Resistance is futile.”

The team immediately pulled out their Phasers, ensured they were set to “kill” and investigated a second runabout that was docked there. The interior was covered in Borg, and other strange dripping and seeping modifications. The warp core was dead, the power oddly ran dry. This is when Doug heard through his communicator, that the ship was being attacked by a virus. Running back to the ship, the screens were already flickering and odd symbols and mathematical formula was streaming across them. Bob immediately shot the communication node that Doug pointed out, successfully terminating contact with the station. As they left they heard the computer whisper “Yog-Sothoth is the key and the gate.”

They encountered a strange dog like creature heavily modified with mechanical spider legs and an energy weapon. After a couple of volleys of Phaser fire, complete disintegration of the creature was attained without damage to the party (other than their pride at having missed so thoroughly and consistently).

John used his tri-corder and discerned there were multiple small bogies towards the center of this main level of the station. Creeping around the corridors they assaulted the mess hall, but were met by three more of the strange puppy/spider Borgs. After a swift and brutal combat that saw the little creatures explode and shower each other with shrapnel, Dave the medic injected himself with desperately needed healing meds.

Inside the mess hall they also found their first survivor, badly beaten, burned, and possibly tortured in a deep catatonic state, mumbling something about keys and gates... They took the survivor back to the ship, strapped them down, and headed back into the station.

Finding the elevator, they had two options, Engineering Deck or the Bridge. Being the cautious and careful exemplars of Starfleet Academy, the piled into the Bridge, Phasers blazing as they encountered the Borg Commander and two of his assimilated buddies. Finally, surprise was with them, and after a couple of fusillades, the Commander and one of his compatriots were exploded messes, and the other a burning pyre of stinking refuse.

Finding the Communications station inoperable, they went to the other stations to learn what they could. Alas, the Borg corruption was too much for their meagre technical skills. The Engineering console was actually destroyed in their panicked attempts. Only a lone log entry was found at the science station. It seems the Science Officer for the station had written an anti-virus that could combat the insidious Borg machinations, but deleted it as he turned himself in to be assimilated, having discovered through his research that, indeed, Yog-Sothoth WAS the gate AND the key.

The entire party did what they could to find the deleted file, but they were stymied at every turn. Surprisingly, the Security officer looked over their shoulders and said, “Hey, why don’t you just look in the Deleted Folder?” (Bob was the only one to make his intelligence check). Shamed, John the blood-thirsty Science Officer was able to upload the virus into the system. After some time passed, they could see the anti-virus was working as tubes sprayed gore as they were expelled from the systems.

But, still, not enough power to do anything with the re-booted systems. So, next stop: Engineering.

Grim Hack Expanded One-Shot #2: Deep Space 13

‘Thank you all for coming at such a short notice. But, as you are all aware, we’re a mere 13 months into our five year reconnaissance mission into the Gamma Quadrant, and we’ve already had our fair share of problems. After the attack by the Jem’Hadar which left us damaged but functional, we were unable to contact Starfleet for almost a hundred days.

‘No, that’s the problem. Despite the assistance we were given from our new “allies” and the complete refit of our communications system, we still have no contact with Starfleet.

‘Yes. Fully functional. All diagnostics show the new systems are working correctly. Still, no Starfleet.

‘I’m asking you all to undertake a mission to our closest station and report to Starfleet Command, giving them a thorough report on our activities and receive orders, if any. You’ll be using our warp capable runabout, so please return to us as soon as possible. We cannot afford to be without all of our assets for too long.

‘Quite right, lieutenant. Your destination is Deep Space 13.’    

Here is the background table and archetypes that will be available for this particular Sci-Fi genre for the new Grim Hack rules. Feel free to let me know if there's something you think should be added as another archetype, or key skill missing for this particular type of adventure world. Since in this particular idealistic society, no one needs to work, I’ve used pass-times, hobbies, and jobs people may do for leisure for backgrounds.

Note for players carrying over their characters from the first one-shot: Ignore this particular Background table, continuing with your previously rolled Background is fine. Wipe out all the skills and equipment from the previous Archetype and use the skills and equipment from the new ones. Any skills or trappings you believe your archetype should have, let me know.

Roll	Career	+1d10	Skill
1	Academic	Int	History (any)
2	Artist	Fel	Art, Musicianship, or Sing
3	Athlete	Agi	Acrobatics
4	Auto Mechanic	Cn	Repair mechanisms
5	Carpenter	Dex	Carpentry
6	Chef	Cn	Cook
7	Gardener	Int	Agriculture
8	Preacher	WP	Public Speaking
9	Rancher	WP	Animal Handling
10	Outdoorsman	T	Orientation
11	Traveler	Fel	Additional language
12	Diverse interests		Roll twice, ignore any duplicates including this result.

New Bold-Going Sci-Fi Archetypes:

Common equipment: Starfleet uniform, Badge Communicator, Hand Phaser.

Suggested party make-up: one of each Archetype.

Starfleet Engineering Officer

Free Raise: Dexterity, Cunning, or Intelligence.

Skills: Consume Alcohol, Engineering, Knowledge – Starfleet Technology, Pilot-Runabout, Repair, Specialty weapon – Phasers.

Equipment: Engineering belt kit, including scanner and tools.

Starfleet Medical Officer

Free Raise: Intelligence, Will Power, or Fellowship.

Skills: Chemistry, Heal Wounds, Knowledge – Starfleet Technology, Specialty weapon – Phasers, Surgery.

Equipment: Medical belt kit including scanner and full multi-injector with 5 administrations (Cure Disease, Cure Poison, or Heal).

Starfleet Science Officer

Free Raise: Cunning, Intelligence, or Will Power.

Skills: Astronomy, Knowledge – Starfleet Technology, Security Systems, Specialty weapon – Phasers, Super Numerate.

Equipment: Tricorder

Starfleet Security Officer

Free Raise: Ranged Skill, Strength, or Agility.

Skills: Disarm, Dodge Blow, Knowledge – Starfleet Technology, Specialty weapon – Phasers, Street Fighter.

Equipment: Phaser Rifle, Security Handcuffs

Weapons in brief:

Hand Phaser             S5              RoF: 1         Rounds 10                  Range: Short              

Phaser Rifle              S5              RoF: 1d3     Rounds 30                  Range: Long

Special for Phasers: May set to Stun (On successful hit, target must make successful Toughness test or be stunned for d6 rounds).