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.

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.

Weird War II 1947 one-shot play report.

Weird War II One-shot play report.

The Players: 

Ian (Dave)-Commando

Hunter (John)-Intelligence Officer

Anatoly (Dale)-Intelligence Officer

Play started with the team in the forward torpedo room readying their gear for the mission. Once they were ready, the Nautilus triggered her anti-Deep One sonic weapon and the boys shot out into the freezing seas of the Antarctic. Spying 3 stunned Deep Ones with spear guns on lanyards, the boys dared taking the time to dispatch them with their combat knives and grab up the spear-guns despite the danger of remaining in the cold water.

Coming up into the submarine pen, they remained under water and Ian planted explosives on the submarine and the fuel reservoir to go off in two hours. Surfacing under the support structure for the fuel tank they snuck under a gangway and peeled off their wetsuits and got into their gear. Unfortunately for Ian, he failed his Toughness check and succumbed to the cold, hampering all his physical abilities until he was able to get warm. Despite this impediment, he and the rest of the team snuck deeper into the cavern and hid amongst the crates taking time to warm Ian up. The guard and his resuscitated casualty partner in the watch tower were oblivious to pretty much everything.

Once Ian was more functional, the team snuck up to the door of the dock office and whipped the door open, unleashing a fusillade of silenced round at the supply sergeant, pretty hitting everything except their target except one stray bullet from Ian. Once initiative order began, Ian with the upper hand missed completely, and the sergeant making his WP check, grabbed the phone and called in an alert just before Anatoly blew off the man’s leg. Hunter immediately grabbed the phone and critically failed his try to make the alert sound like a joke, but ended up sounding like Han Solo instead. Anatoly rigged a grenade to a C4 charge and tied it to the door and the team safely made it to their hiding place under the fuel tanks structure, quietly putting their wetsuits back on.

An officer with a cadre of resuscitated casualties came to investigate only to be blown into a state where resuscitation would be impossible. Moments later the sub crew ran by and started piling into their vessel. Ian slid back into the water with Anatoly to change the time of the C4 charges planted on the sub and the fuel to 15 minutes, while Hunter, sensing the coast was clear, ran off to get Intel to help the Allies in the war.

Ian and Anatoly were safely in the tunnel as the sub began moving away from the dock, and they were able to witness both the explosions and the horror of the sub crew as they abandoned ship only to freeze and die almost immediately from the freezing water. Once their bit of handiwork resolved, they hid behind the last remaining dock and opened fire on the guard in the watchtower, with Ian dumping his entire 3 round burst into the guard, ripping him apart. The team quickly took control of the watchtower and it’s MG42.

Meanwhile, Hunter delved deeper into the base finding another cavern with multiple exits and a Walker-Mech who’s driver was desperately trying to start. One grenade into the cockpit, and Hunter was checking the different exits. Seeing one with occult symbols on it, he followed the tunnel to a warm room with the Wizard preparing some sort of maniacal chicanery. A quick surprise check, and Hunter had his silenced.45 to the man’s temple. After the merest of introductions, he asked where the

Next door went to. The wizard replied that it was the Power Plant earning himself an immediate bullet in his brain.

Going through the next door and following the passage down, Hunter found a large machine with a ramp that led up into a yawning hopper on top of it. Off to the side he heard weak crying from a cell full of emaciated and dying prisoners. Hunter, knowing he was out of time and had no way to extricate them form the base, he set the charge on the Power Plant for 15 minutes. As he left, he heard a prisoner both laugh and cry and say ”Yes, release the Shoggoth.”

Making sure he grabbed a couple of ‘interesting’ looking tomes in the Wizards room, he hied on out of there. On the way back through the hub of the base, he heard arguing behind a door which he opened and threw a grenade into. Unsure if one was enough, he pulled the pin on a second grenade, but after opening the door saw only corpses. Trying to jam the grenade into the door as a trap and sprinting away, he failed his Dex check and he heard the grenade go off, but not close enough to damage him.

Reunited in the sub-pen, the team quickly departed and swan furiously back to the sub. The base destroyed crippling the Axis’ new fuel dependent War Machine, the Allies would suddenly regain some advantage in the war. However, with the forbidden knowledge contained in the books acquired, the Allies quickly gained the upper hand, ending the war and establishing the United States as the new dominate power in the world…

…but at what cost?

Play Report: Assault on the Hidden

Not exactly the headquarters, but I've been lazy on scanning...

So, sometimes when I’m running my game, I get a little excited, especially when the players are running through encounters I think are particularly cool. I’m pretty detailed with my maps, so geographically wise, I’m pretty on top of my game. But when it comes to my antagonists, I keep forgetting shit. Particularly second damn attacks. This session, I only forgot on like one encounter, so I was pretty happy with that. However, one of the baddies I had was using poison weapons and I completely f’n forgot. Grr…

Anyway, I digress. A lot of things have happened throughout this campaign, and not only do they players forget particular events, so do I, so I figured I’d try to keep track of things with brief play reports to just keep track.

Background: The Hidden (a faction consisting of a combination of Yakuza and Mafioso traditions) have had their own civil war. The side still loyal to the Empire had been soundly defeated by the group willing to take contracts from Anglypur allied groups.

Last session: The players on visiting their favorite “massage parlor,” Seung’s Path to Nirvana, discovered Snake, their Hidden contact, at death’s door. Badly injured (and suffering the effects of poison), they smuggled him under the tarp in Halbert’s cart to the Monk’s Foundry where he could get the level of healing he required. In Snakes infrequent bouts of consciousness, he was able to reveal the secret entrance in the Abandoned Sewers to the Hidden’s Headquarters.

Cast: Anatoly (Dale): Monk Faction ranged attacker.
Halbert (Doug): Unaligned Tank
Hurst (Dave): Unaligned well-rounded fighter type capable of both melee and ranged attacks
Klaus (John): Guild Faction wizard
Zachariah (Bob): Legion Faction fighter

Thieves: From Shadows Over Bogenhoffen NPCs.
Assassins: Soldiers from SOB NPCs wearing leather armor.
Bodyguards: From SOB also.
Siddich: Reskinned Chaos Warrior
Danata Jovino: Master Thief
Sandro Volpe: Master Assassin

The players convinced the Legion and the West Anglypur Company to serve a search warrant at the Hidden’s front door while the party infiltrates through the sewers. The sewer exit at first seemed sealed by concrete like all the others (for damn good reason), but it was a merely some well-painted canvas, and after some debate to go up before the allotted time, the party decided to ascend early.

Discovering a cramped tunnel and a heavy but slightly warped wooden door, Anatoly slid a dagger through the slats to lift a beam blocking the entrance from the other side. Lacking the strength to lift the bar, Zachariah was able to lift it, but failed the dexterity check to keep it, and the attached bells, silent. The party piled into the basement to see a thief sticking his head down the stairway across the room screaming the alarm.

The party ran to the bottom of the stairs, ready for the old ultraviolence, but the bastards wouldn’t come down. Klaus investigated a strange fishbowl containing what looked like armored piranhas, and Anatoly investigated a voice Zachariah heard coming from a bare corner of the basement. Anatoly hug around below while the party scrambled up the stairs, investigating the overheard voice, but finding no secret door, he checked another door to find a room where odd fungi and mushrooms were being grown (here, he had to bail and go to bed).

Zachariah stormed up the stairs to face an assault from a thief and an assassin. Shrugging off the attacks he made short work of the assassin while the thief ran off. Hearing a racket south of the stairwell, Halbert jumped out into the Hidden’s gym area in time to see a group of Legionnaires arresting a few of the Hidden’s members at the buildings entrance. Spying Lenora Hatley (a cruel land-owner with political aspirations) Halbert heard her say, “That’s good enough, boys. They can handle the rest of it,” indicating the party and shutting the door. Seeing their back-up summarily dismissed, the party gets one more reason to take care of her despite her status with the community.

Finding the second floor stairs guarded, some slick role-playing and good fellowship role convinced him they were reinforcements hired by Sandro Volpe and that Lenora had taken care of the Legion intruders, everything was okay. The party proceeded to the top floor unhindered.

Bitching about doors, the party came to a large door with the sounds of nails being pried out it. Waiting for it to open, Hurst called through the door that he was the stairway guard and the coast was all clear. As soon as they heard the boards on the other side drop, Zachariah barged in and immediately swung madly at the master thief, Donata Jovino. Halbert and Hurst engaged the bodyguard, and I was in heaven because I remembered my second attacks (but forgot the f’n poisoned blade on Jovino, arg!). Despite my plethora of attacks, the boys left the room with one dead bodyguard and a master thief bleeding out on the floor.

Hearing a door slam around the corner of the hallway, the party played a game of see how they could bounce down the hall after they slammed into the locked door. Finally, the door burst open in time to hear another door slam and find they were facing 3 of the bodyguards and a Siddich. Herein begins my tale of woe as I hit and hit and hit, but parries and dodges and plate armor started driving me insane. Klaus, being the wizard-type gave as good as he got after unleashing Rends (reskinned fireball) but was heavily wounded in return due to his soft and squishy unarmored state. The Siddich lost all of his wounds once the magic casting was over, but every other attack bounced off of him for a long while. By the time it was over, everyone in the party was lightly wounded (except for poor Klaus), they had captive, and the room was covered in gore.

Getting their captive talking wasn’t much trouble for them, and the party found that Sandro Volpe had escaped through a trapdoor in the ceiling. After that, the group called it a night, and the pursuit of the master assassin will continue at a later date.