Gemini Ascendant: Pulp Action!

[ghost-angel]

Nolgroth runs a Star Hero campaign called Gemini Ascendant. While one of us is on vacation for 3 weeks he's set up and is running a 3-session Pulp Game.

Basically with Pulp versions of our Star Hero characters.

We're knee deep in the middle of session 1. Right now he's trying to bury the party under an avalanche while we're stuck on the side of a mountain in the Andes. . .

When the session is done I'll write up the notes and post all the happy details of the games.

[Starwolf]

And we survived....

And one of us hates spiders....

[ghost-angel]

The Cast:

Adventurers Inc!

Casparelli - Magician and Escape Artist extraordinaire - hails from New York City.
Mike - Irish boxer and the groups wheel man - also hails from New York City.
Azif - Taureg tribesman, expert swordsman, and backup gunman - hails from the Sahara Desert.
Wade - Great White Hunter, expert marksman - hails from Georgia, USA.
Samantha - Expert sneak and thief - hails from France.

The group is a diverse set of people who all have one thing in common: They just can't let a good adventure go. Adventurers Inc! is a loose group of world travelers. Whenever rumor of a hidden temple, lost city or distant land comes their way they gather together and head off into the great unknown in search of . . . well, Adventure!

Neither fame nor fortune is their goal, ultimately it's all for the challenge of reaching the impossible and finding the unknown that draws them out.

But you know . . . a little riches along the way never hurts.

(session 1 synopsis coming soon)

[ghost-angel]

(session 1 will be posted in 2 parts, here is the first, dang southern accent wrecks heck with the spell checker. . .)

1924, Peru, Somewhere in the Andes Mountains. . .

The Andes mountains of Peru are bitterly cold. The search for the Yachockta Sceptre has not gone well, with one of the guides slipping on the treacherous ice and falling into a ravine. If this were our intrepid adventurers only worries things would be normal. The other two guides ran off in the night as they neared some mountain pass they called Breio do Diabo, leaving them guideless in the wilderness.

"What's dat mean?" The Irish boxer asks as the group makes their way, now guide less, around the mountain.

"Hmmmm.... Something of the Devil." Mike answers, the guides spoke in Portuguese to themselves. Mike acted as the groups translator this time as both he and the guides spoke Spanish. "So we have lost ouah guides..." He says, as they are trapped on the side of a mountain with a snow storm moving in, "And we have lot ouah way in search of ouah goal."

As if to punctuate our adventurers predicament, a lone wolf howl echoes through the snowy mountains.

"Who's idea was this again?" Samantha says trying to diminish her already small profile against the wind and cold.

"Yes and this not the Sahara." Azif seems to be in agreement with Samantha regarding the lack of warmth.

"I t'ink we need a fire." Mike says as if reading the minds of the other two.

"Most likely awl of ya'lls idea toghter" Wade says with a smile. Adventurers Inc! is lead by no one person, as they all well know.

"Well, I suppose it could be worse. There could be Germans." Samantha muses, mostly to herself.

"What we need is shelter from the storm" Azif says, their present predicament on his mind.

"Oui." Samantha nods with a bit of a shiver.

"Well we need not worry anout food... there is fresh wolf on the hoof..." Wade looks around the forested landscape of the mountain side.

"I ain't eatin' no dog meat" Mike growls.

"Yes and i believe he thinks the same of us" Azif says.

"Wolf, not dog. There is a difference. I'd imagine wolf has a gamier taste to it." Samantha chips in.

"Then my thick friend you will be hungry" Azif notes to Mike, who only makes a face in response.

Wade has already moved onto the next task, shelter, as he scans the surrounding area with his binoculars. There are no caves readily apparent to the hunter. "Well I suggest we set up the tents and try to ride out the storm..." He shrugs, being used to adverse conditions he thinks nothing of the situation at hand as the first flakes of snow start to fall, they can all tell the incoming storm promises snow nasty wind. "We need to watch in shifts against the wolves and make sure we do not get buried in the snow." Wade moves to the burros to get the supplies to set up camp.

"When we get out of this place, I plan on a nice vacation on a Greek island, long vacation." Samantha takes the binoculars and keeps watch as the others set up camp.

Azif and Wad start to build snow walls to act as wind breaks while Mike and the quiet Casparelli quickly set up a pair of tents. Samantha keeps an eye on the area, watching the shadowy forms of wolves slip between the trees.

"Do we have fire starting equipment" Azif asks as they finish setting up several hours later, the snow is starting to come down and the wind is picking up.

"I got my trench lighter" Mike says.

"Any wood?" Azif asks.

"Just yer head." Mike jokes.

"bicker when we're back in civilization." Samantha says a little more tersely than his her normal tone.

"Aww, I don't mean nuthin... just funnin' 'im." Mike responds.

"Yes my princess, ask and we shall obey." Samantha can't tell if Azif is being sarcastic or not.

Mike, in the mean time, racks a round in his springfield and sets the safety. Azif notes it as a good idea and readies his M1917 as well.

"Two per watch." Mike says, the group deferring to his expertise in the survivalist arena, "I'll take first watch with Casparelli, then Sam and Azif, then Mike and Me again." He says. The others nod.

"And if the storm gets too heavy, no watch, everyone in tents. I like unfrozen friends." Samantha nods.

"Well it looks like you me together in the middle of the night, my princess." Azif smiles.

"It does." Samantha nods.

The first watch goes without incident. Samantha and Azif are sitting on the cold mountainside, snow falling and the wind whipping through the trees. They don't speak, merely huddled against the cold in mutual contempt for it, when both turn towards a sound by the wind breaks.

"You hear that?" Samantha whispers as she half stands.

Azif shoulders his rifle, aiming towards the wind break, "Yes." He whispers back.

"Cover me." Samantha, unarmed, moves slowly toward the wind break, keeping out of Azif's line of fire. It's a routine the group has been through many times before.

Samantha gives a glance over her shoulder at Azif and nods slightly as she turns back and peaks over the low snow wall. He eyes lock with a pair of yellow eyes of a wolf mere inches from her face.

"Wolf!" She cries diving, almost falling, down behind the wall in surprise.

The wolf immediately leaps over the wall to attack Samantha as she rolls quickly out of the way of it's teeth and claws. A rifle crack from Azif hits the animal in a foreleg. Samantha scrambles to her feet, both her and the wolf letting out a yelp. Samantha scrambles back towards the fire as Azif fires again, this time the wolf falls to the ground dead.

Mike, Wade and Casparelli all come scrambling out of the tents at the sound of the rifle fire, all armed and ready for Action!

"Old rifle still shoots good , you ok Samantha?" Azif pats his weapon and turns to Samantha.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just, you know. bit spooked." Samantha says standing back up.

"Now see ah told ya'll there'd be fresh meat foah thuh lawduh..." Wade smiles wide.

"Yes , I shoot you clean, Wade." Azif nods.

As they check the area their attention is drawn to a low rumbling coming from up the mountain.

"C'est mal. I don't like the sound of that." Samantha looks up the mountain side.

"Oh no..." Wade says.

"Avalanche." Azif completes the thought.

"Get into the clear!!" Mike yells as Azif looks around wildly, Casparelli seems unfazed as he takes in the area.

"We'all bettah move... now." Wades gives his sage advice.

"Go behind a big tree." Casaprelli's says with an air of calm.

The group moves quickly, no strangers to dangerous situations they don't panic. They grab their packs and head quickly for the cover of the trees. Samantha and Casparelli both quickly find trees they can climb and make their way up off the ground. Wade follows their example as Mike and Azif head for trees themselves.

The avalanche hits with stunning force, sweeping over the camp like a wave. The tress snap like twigs and within moments they are sent tobogganing down the mountainside Azif and Mike, running down the mountain, are also caught in the icy wave.

Their collective screams punctuate the rumbling of the avalanche as it carries them roughly down the mountain.

It seems like they are sliding and tumbling in snow and rocks forever when suddenly the ground drops out from under them.

Their screams raise in pitch as the adventurers go tumbling through the air in a mass of trees, snow and rocks. After a long fall, they come crashing into someplace dark.

[Nolgroth]

Cool. A travelogue of our adventures. I would rep you if I hadn't done so the other day. My only recommendation is that you change the last few lines to reflect that you are talking about the characters and not to the characters.

Next week's should be even better since we won't have the technical issues that plagued us this last session. I'm going to rip OpenRPG 1.7.1 out by it's roots and reinstall the ol' stable 1.6.3 version. I like running it on the desktop because of the extra screen real estate. And I want to have maps and props if at all possible. Need to plan that out way in advance.

[ghost-angel]

Cool. A travelogue of our adventures. I would rep you if I hadn't done so the other day. My only recommendation is that you change the last few lines to reflect that you are talking about the characters and not to the characters.

Heh. If you couldn't tell - I'm using dialogue and descriptions right from the games chat log. I missed editing that last bit to go past tense instead of present

[Nolgroth]

Heh. If you couldn't tell - I'm using dialogue and descriptions right from the games chat log. I missed editing that last bit to go past tense instead of present

I could tell. It looked strangely familiar.

[Starwolf]

I am impressed. I'd also rep you if I could, but it keeps telling me I have to spread it around before I can rep you again. Sortr of like manure... Uh I mean fertilizer.

[Dale A. Ward]

I think it's great, but I have one small complaint.

You keep referring to Mike (which is my character) when you mean Wade (or whatever his name is... Starwolf's character, the southerner).

Other than that, it's like a page out of a Doc Savage novel.

[ghost-angel]

Er . . . oops. Lemme fix that. It's on today's list of projects.

[Nolgroth]

Er . . . oops. Lemme fix that. It's on today's list of projects.

There was something I was going to do today too. What was that?
-
-
-
-
-
-
Oh Yeah! I was gonna run a game!

[cleireac]

I'd LOVE to see the writeup posted at the Pulp Project 1557 site. There is a page for campaign writeups, and I think this is a great example of SF Pulp

http://project1557.wetpaint.com/page...aign+Write+Ups

Thanks!

Hank

[Nolgroth]

I'd LOVE to see the writeup posted at the Pulp Project 1557 site. There is a page for campaign writeups, and I think this is a great example of SF Pulp

http://project1557.wetpaint.com/page...aign+Write+Ups

Thanks!

Hank

Actually, just for clarification, the original Gemini Ascendant campaign is a Space Opera (though I'll admit it has some Pulpy elements). This little side trek into a REAL pulp adventure was intentionally patterned off of an Indiana Jones type theme/feel. I'm not sure I captured that, but it has been fun nonetheless.

[ghost-angel]

You captured that feel just fine. Don't worry about that.

[Starwolf]

Now if we can only out run/out wit/out last what ever the glowing light thingy is...

Hey wait this is starting to sound like 'Survivor"