Campaign Log: The J-Crew

[Vassoom]

Re: Campaign Log: The J-Crew

 

MMmmmm...Brains vindaloo!

 

Btw, I also enjoy your episode titles. Very clever!

 

- Vassoom

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Campaign Log: The J-Crew

 

MMmmmm...Brains vindaloo!

 

Btw, I also enjoy your episode titles. Very clever!

Thanks, glad you're enjoying them. No brains vindaloo, tho - sorry. While many of the monsters in this campaign are similar in some ways to "pop culture" monsters, they've all been tweaked so the players wouldn't know exactly what to expect and exactly how to kill them. So while the dharbas/zombies had many features in common with traditional zombies, they didn’t eat brains (they dragged their victims underground to be merged with the Bhuta), headshots weren’t required to kill them (although they could take a lot of damage), and when their skin was punctured it released a nauseating gas. Not saying my zombies are better than George Romero’s, just different.

 

BTW, I went back and added some brief physical descriptions to the character sketches in post #2, which I realized I had left out.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Campaign Log: The J-Crew

 

Sidebar: Mental Powers

 

At this point in the campaign, the PCs’ mental powers had started to reach the point where they were getting more play, so I should probably say a few words about that. To clarify, “mental powers” here refers to any power with mental sfx, not just those listed as Mental Powers in 5ER. At low levels, they tended to have a very Pulpish feel; at more powerful levels (such as certain villains & creatures we'll be meeting) they start to resemble magic.

 

As a general guideline, I divided them up into five “schools,” although they weren’t mutually exclusive and there was typically a lot of overlap between them. The categories were mostly for me to use when building NPCs:

 

Mysticism: Affecting your own mind, body, and spirit

-- Clairsentience, Precognition, Astral Projection, Possession, “Invulnerability” (Armor)

 

Mentalism: Affecting someone else’s mind

-- Telepathy, Mind Control, Mental Illusions, Mind Flash, Psionic Surgery

 

Neuropathy: Affecting someone else’s body and nervous system

-- EGO Attack, Mental Paralysis, Aid, Willpower Drain, Psychic Vampirism

 

Psionics: Affecting the surrounding world

-- Telekinesis, Psychometry (Detect “Auras”), Pyrokinesis, Cryokinesis

 

Sorcery: Affecting the boundaries between dimensions

-- Dimension Door (EDM) and related powers

 

I made several changes to the way mental powers work in order to get the feel I wanted. Mentalists do not get mental awareness for free, and it generally is not automatic (ie – the character must consciously use it), but is otherwise considered a passive sense. All Characters get Mental Defense equal to (INT/5) for free.

 

People who are familiar with mental powers (whether or not they themselves have any) will generally know if they have been targeted by mental powers unless the attacker reached the +20 effect level. If the power fails, they may become aware of it right away; if it succeeds, they will normally only become aware after the effect has ended. Those unfamiliar with mental powers will know something odd has happened, but will probably not understand what and will often tend to rationalize it away.

 

Mind Control (and similar powers) use the "Coercion" rules from 4ed Ultimate Mentalist by default. To simplify: if the attacker fails to acheive his desired effect level, he may still be able to affect the user at a lower level; but conversely, if the target fails his Breakout Roll but makes a simple EGO Roll, he may be able to resist the control in subtle ways. It's a little more subjective, but helps alleviate the "all-or-nothing" feeling mental powers often have.

 

Mental powers generally leave behind a trace or aura, and mentalists can use Telepathy to detect this. To novices, it may seem like some kind of mental instability or conflicting impulses; an experienced telepath will be able to identify it as a mental powers trace. Mental perception modifiers such as prior knowledge, time, power, etc. may apply. Psychometry can also be used to detect auras, although it generally cannot provide detailed information about the nature of the power used.

 

I also used the Mental Combat maneuvers from 4ed TUM, but because the players were largely in the dark about how mentalism worked, the maneuvers didn’t get as much play as I might have wanted. (Which is really pretty obvious in hindsight, isn’t it?)

 

I didn’t keep every iteration of the PC’s character sheets, but IIRC here’s roughly what they each had at this point in the campaign:

 

John:

Detect Minds: (limited range)

Foreboding (Precognitive Clairvoyance, NCC, “Vague and Unclear Visions”)

Danger Sense (in combat only)

+2(?) Mental Defense (Concentration & Full Phase to Activate)

+1 CSL with Martial Arts (sfx: telepathy/precognition)

 

Joshua:

Mental Awareness

Psychometry: Detect “auras” left behind by the use of mental powers

+2(?) Mental Defense (Concentration & Full Phase to Activate)

+1 CSL with Small Arms (sfx: telepathy)

 

Jeremy:

Empathy (~4d6 Telepathy, Emotions Only, Eye Contact, RSR)

Project Emotion (~4d6 Mind Control, Emotions Only, Eye Contact, RSR)

+2(?) Mental Defense (Concentration & Full Phase to Activate)

 

Except for the CSLs, most of these had a stack of Limitations, such as Concentrate, Extra Time, Increased END, etcetera, which made them mostly useful in non-combat situations. Most also had a a “Not Fully Understood” Limitation to reflect the fact that the players didn’t actually have the write-ups for their powers and so had to guess at some of the mechanics.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Campaign Log: The J-Crew

 

Episode 7: “New Friends, Old Enemies”

 

Early October: Kristin tells you about a supposed alien landing site in Minnesota. You drive up to check it out, but it turns out to be a hoax. On the way home, you stop at an abandoned hot springs to unwind, and are jumped by a band of local thugs. Fortunately, they weren’t expecting you to have automatic weapons with you in the pools! It takes all of 5 seconds to kill a couple of them and drive the rest off. There were five kids at the springs, too, one of whom has a rich daddy: Anthony Racond, who runs a bio-tech firm. He's very grateful to you for saving his son, and tells you that if you ever need anything – “anything at all” – to call him.

 

Back at the house, Kristin sends you a half-melted dog tag belonging to a woman in Miami suffering from amnesia. The Good Samaritan that found her has been calling her “Steve,” as that is the only legible word on the dog tag. But Joshua manages to retrieve some of the computer files embedded in the tag: enough to identify her as Erica Stevens, a helicopter pilot with BCH Security. A little checking reveals that she is listed as presumed dead following a helicopter crash a couple of months ago.

 

When armed men gun down the Good Samaritan, Steve narrowly escapes and contacts Kristin. Not knowing what else to do, Kristin gets her on a northbound bus, and asks you to meet her. Jeremy is otherwise occupied, but John, Joshua and Liz drive down to meet Steve in Philadelphia. (If she is being followed, you don’t want them knowing where you live.)

 

You meet Steve at the Philadelphia bus station; also there to greet her is a five-person Strike Team from BCH Security. A running fight ensues: John punches out a couple of them, Joshua and Liz shoot a couple more, and you whisk Steve away to safety – but not before Liz takes a round in the stomach that cuts right through her vest. She needs immediate medical attention, but you know they’ll be checking all the local hospitals. Fortunately, John’s paramedic work keeps her alive until you can get her to a hospital a few towns over, and a couple of greased palms inspires the hospital staff to “misplace” the report for a couple days until after she can be discharged.

 

Steve is very grateful for your help. But even after you show her the information you’ve recovered about her past, she has no memories before about a month ago. She’s more than a little troubled by the idea that she used to work for “Evil Inc” – a company that is now trying to kill her – and asks you to keep calling her Steve, rather than Erica.

 

[Notes: The alien landing site hoax was narrated out-of-game; I wanted to establish that some weird things really do turn out to be bogus after all, but I didn’t want to waste a whole session on it. The fight with the BCH Strike Team was another one that should’ve been harder, but good player tactics (and a few good rolls) nearly made it a cakewalk…until Liz got tagged. By the way, John & Liz are officially a couple at this point – I think they got together around Episode 5 or 6 IIRC.]

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Campaign Log: The J-Crew

 

Episode 8: “Art and Artifice”

 

[A word or two about Jeremy is in order at this point. Unbeknownst to the other PCs (tho suspected by the other players) Jeremy is actually a notorious art thief known as The Fox. Part of his shtick is to steal Russian/Ukrainian artifacts and help repatriate them to the mother country. (For a profit, of course: “Doing well while doing good,” as they say.) He has a rival, another art thief known as The Phantom, with whom he communicates only by posting cryptic taunts on an internet forum.]

 

October: Meanwhile, Jeremy has been scoping out the target of his next big theft: mega-rich Elliott Ramsey, former CEO of a prominent software company, currently playing Hugh Hefner on his own private island in Boston Harbor. Among other items in Ramsey’s extensive art collection are not one but two priceless Faberge Eggs. Searching for a way to convince the rest of the Crew to aid him, Jeremy uncovers rumors that Ramsey is into the Black Arts – although they’re mostly just speculation along the lines of “How else could a geek like him get such gorgeous women?” He also owns a number of ancient Scythian artifacts, some of which are rumored to have mystic powers; chief among these is the Sword of St. Eisel, which according to legend has the power to slay demons.

 

Jeremy (under an alias) finagles an invitation to one of Ramsey’s parties, attended by movers & shakers from around the country. Ramsey’s art collection is every bit as impressive as advertised, and the man himself is as much of a jerk as expected; yet the many beautiful women at the party fawn over him like he’s some kind of rock star. Jeremy meets the local Police Chief, a surprisingly young and attractive woman named Chris Orlando who allegedly owes much of her political success to Ramsey’s patronage. After some time in the hot tub with her, Jeremy becomes convinced that Ramsey is using some sort of mind control on her and the other women. After leaving the party, Jeremy is accosted and questioned by two of Ramsey’s female bodyguards, who are suspicious of Jeremy’s behavior at the party. He has to use his own empathic powers to convince them that he is just another geeky art collector.

 

A few days later, Jeremy gives a carefully-edited version of these events to the rest of the Crew, stressing Ramsey’s use of mental powers and the rumored mystic powers of some of the Scythian artifacts in Ramsey’s collection. The rest of you aren’t entirely convinced. But that night, John has another Foreboding dream, mostly vague images concerning Ramsey and his house, and some sort of shadowy spider extending its webs across Boston. It’s not clear from the dream whether Ramsey is actually the spider or not, but it’s enough to convince you to check him out more thoroughly. And the more you learn, the more convinced you become that the guy is dirty in one way or another.

 

You spend a week or two scoping out the security systems on Ramsey’s island, which are quite good. But you identify a spot where the foliage has grown out a bit, blocking the cameras’ view of a small section of beach. You wait until Ramsey (and his bodyguards) are out of town. Steve and the still-recovering Liz take a small boat past the island and stage their own little “Girls Gone Wild” diversion, while the guys slip ashore in a rubber raft. You make it past the other security systems and guards and sneak into the mansion, which is largely deserted. Joshua senses psychic auras around the Sword of St. Eisel, a book of “summoning spells,” and a small silver pendant, so you grab those. (Plus, obviously, the Faberge Eggs.)

 

In the library, you find a concealed staircase leading to a hidden basement. There you find a naked woman – beautiful if you don’t mind the horns, the fangs, and the bat-wings – standing in the middle of a pentagram. She calls herself Lisa, and says quite matter-of-factly that she is a demon from hell and is under Ramsey's control. She tries to get you to free her and take her with you, but you’re not feeling that gullible today. After several minutes of talking, she seems to get bored with the conversation – at which point all the lights in the room suddenly go out (including your flashlights) and Lisa attacks!

 

It quickly becomes apparent that she is not, in fact, restrained by the pentagram on the floor. She is also fast, enormously strong, and exhibits abilities way in excess of any mental powers you've yet seen. You all get slapped around pretty good, and John and Joshua both get hit with some sort of flame strike. Finally, Jeremy manages to get her in a head lock while Joshua chops her up with the Sword of St. Eisel. Since the building is now on fire (from Lisa’s flame strikes), you run for it. Fortunately, the guards and staff are more worried about putting out the fire than looking for fleeing burglars, so you make it to your raft and away.

 

Epilogue: John & Joshua both spend a week in the hospital’s burn ward. You stay on guard for a while, but there are no signs that you are being tracked. Ramsey offers a ten-million-dollar reward for the stolen Eggs, as well as a priceless Rembrandt painting that he claims was also stolen. Afterwards, Ramsey’s public approval rating takes a sharp drop, with a lot of “What were we thinking?” and “Who decided this guy was cool?” type of commentaries. You deduce that without Lisa his mental hold over Boston has been broken, or at least severally weakened. Jeremy stashes the Eggs under his bed until he can find a buyer. Meanwhile, when he posts a message for the Phantom bragging about stealing the Eggs, he gets a message back making it clear it was The Phantom that stole Ramsey’s Rembrandt!

 

[Notes: Yes, you read that right; Jeremy stashed two priceless Faberge Eggs…in a box under his bed. His thinking was that in case Ramsey had some way to track them, he wanted to be there to defend them. What can I say?]

 

[The whole time they were on the island, I kept waiting for them to bump into The Phantom, who was there to one-up Jeremy by stealing the Rembrandt out from under him. I had pre-plotted The Phantom’s actions, and they kept just missing one another; which in the end turned out to be far funnier when Jeremy realized what must’ve happened. As for Lisa, yes she was a Succubus for all practical purposes, although she came from another dimension, not “hell” in any Judeo-Christian sense of the word. The sfx behind the flame strikes was that she could open pinhole-sized dimensional portals and pull energy through them. One of my goals with this scenario was to show them some of the kinds of things that truly-powerful mentalists could accomplish, although it was much later before they started to figure out how such things were done.]

[graiae66]

Re: Campaign Log: The J-Crew

 

I'm loving this, especially (as Vasoom said), the episode titles. Are you Joss Whedon slumming? The blend is pretty unique. I'll definitely keep reading.

 

dee

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Campaign Log: The J-Crew

 

Are you Joss Whedon slumming?

Wow, I think that is the single coolest compliment I've ever received in my life! Thanks!

[Vassoom]

Re: Campaign Log: The J-Crew

 

I'm loving this' date=' especially (as Vasoom said), the episode titles. Are you Joss Whedon slumming?[/quote'] Wow, I think that is the single coolest compliment I've ever received in my life! Thanks!

I agree...that's high praise, indeed!

 

- Vassoom

[graiae66]

Re: Campaign Log: The J-Crew

 

Well, it has the right Whedonesque feel. So this is a defunct campaign? Too bad. What sorts of things are you running these days?

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Campaign Log: The J-Crew

 

Well' date=' it has the right Whedonesque feel. So this is a defunct campaign? Too bad. What sorts of things are you running these days?[/quote']

Ya, der campaign ist kaput. Ran for six years or so until I moved away a couple years ago. Currently I'm trying to get a Champions campaign going, but we keep having scheduling problems. Thanks again for the compliments!

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Campaign Log: The J-Crew

 

[You may or may not notice a slight change in the tone of the postings from here on out. The original notes for the previous adventures were lost in a computer crash, so the logs you’ve been reading were re-created after the fact. The logs from this point on are from my original notes, and are a bit more detailed.]

 

Episode 9: "For The Children"

 

12/10/26 – After a month of badly-needed rest and recovery, you’re all finally fit enough to return to duty. Kristin arranges a meeting with Alexander “Sasha” Lobov, who owns a small import-export business. Lobov's niece, Annya Feodorovna Makasheva, is missing (since 12/6) and he suspects something “weird” is involved. Annya had moved to New York from Russia six months ago, and was working as a scrub nurse at the Roosevelt Island Children's Hospital (RICH). One of Annya’s roommates, another Russian émigré named Marya “Mary” Trubina, was also a nurse at RICH. But Mary was killed 12/2, ostensibly in a mugging that went too far. Four days later, Annya disappeared without a trace. Lobov hired a PI to look for her, but he came up with nothing (and appears to have done only a cursory job).

 

12/11: Basic investigation. You talk to the PI that Lobov had hired, but get nothing other than the distinct impression that he’s scared of something. You learn that RICH is owned by your old pals at BCH, and seems to have a lot of financing from other indeterminate sources. You obtain blueprints for the hospital, which show old underground steam tunnels connecting the buildings. You scout out the hospital itself, which seems to have a fairly typical security setup. Except one of the buildings -- Ward 7, a recovery ward for sick orphans awaiting adoption -- seems to have its own separate guard force for no apparent reason. Records show that Mary had been working in Ward 7 for a month before her death. (Annya worked in Ward 10.) You manage to obtain the pass code for general hospital access, and can fake up some ID cards; but Ward 7 has a separate code, and you are unable to get it.

 

12/12: You contact Annya's semi-boyfriend Viktor Vaselevich Danilenko, who works as the hospital's computer sysop. Viktor is not an overly brave man (especially since his green card is dependent on his RICH employment), but he obviously cared for Annya and agrees to help you where he can. He tells you that Mary had started having nightmares shortly after she was transferred to Ward 7, had gotten progressively more moody and withdrawn over the last month, and had gotten in a shouting match with the head nurse the day before she was killed. Viktor says Annya was convinced that Mary's death was somehow connected to the hospital. She had him pull up the name of a couple who had recently adopted a "Ward 7 baby." She called him that night, furious, saying that she had gone to talk to the couple but they claimed to know nothing about RICH and had never adopted anyone. That was the last he heard from Annya.

 

Jeremy goes to interview the couple, Frank and Judy Flyte, who deny knowing anything about either Annya or the hospital. Curiously, Jeremy can't sense any emotions coming from either of them, but he’s not yet confident enough in his empathic abilities to say for sure what’s wrong.

 

That night, Liz and Steve create a distraction while the guys climb over the fence and break into the hospital warehouse. Once inside, you locate and unseal the old steam tunnel vent, and make your way through the tunnels to Ward 7's basement. You hide from an orderly pushing a cartload of silver cases, and knock out the security guard before he can call for help; unfortunately you miss a security camera, and the alarm is sounded. With additional guards on the way, you chase the orderly (the one with the cart) into a room that turns out to have a tunnel leading out of it. You follow him down the tunnel.

 

After ~1/2 mile, the tunnel dead-ends at some kind of control room. In the center of the room surrounded by electronic devices and power lines stands a black cube, 10’ per side, somehow looking oddly insubstantial. The orderly (and his cart) are gone, but two guard dogs with strange snake-like stingers growing out of their necks attack you. Joshua gets stung, leaving him feeling a little lightheaded, before you manage to kill the two dogs. Examining the cube, you realize it looks a lot like the teleportation device used by the Ice Wyrm (Episode 1). Rather than fight your way back up the tunnel, you jump through the cube. A powerful feeling of disorientation and vertigo seizes you, but it only lasts an instant before you walk out the other side of the cube…

 

…and find yourself in a warehouse, daylight shining through the windows. Nearby, several uniformed men with AK-47s (not the RICH guards) are talking to the terrified orderly. They turn at your arrival, obviously surprised, and start asking you questions.

 

In Russian.

 

(To Be Continued)

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Campaign Log: The J-Crew

 

[sorry to have neglected this log for so long; got caught up with other projects. We now rejoin our story, already in progress.]

 

Episode 10: “To Russia, With Confusion”

 

December 13, 2026: Daylight streams through the warehouse windows, even though it was the middle of the night when you stepped into the cube. The guards bark orders at you -- in Russian. The orderly you chased points at you and yammers something fearful. Overall, not the friendliest reception ever. You all dive for cover and return fire on the guards. You’re all still a little disoriented from the trip through the energy-cube-gate-thing; plus Joshua is woozy from getting stung by the medusa-dogs. You’re forced to resort to grenades, which kill several of the guards and convince the others to run away. Unfortunately, you also take out one of the control panels for the cube device, and the cube collapses into nothingness. You grab one of the silver boxes from the cart the orderly had been pushing, and some data storage drives from the control panel. You also find a woman's white shoe that might have been Annya’s. Then you run like hell as Russian police start arriving (in armored personnel carriers).

 

It doesn’t take long to confirm that you’ve somehow been transported to Moscow; good thing Jeremy speaks fluent Russian. You find a cheap hotel that doesn’t ask questions, and regroup. Joshua reads the “empathic aura” of the shoe you found, and is pretty sure it belonged to the missing Annya. The data disks contain technical data on how to control and direct interdimensional portals, though they appear to be missing the section on how to open such portals in the first place. And the silver box turns out to be a heavily insulated metal case, labeled BPX. (Possibly pronounced “VRKh” if they're Russian letters.) Inside the case are what can only be the brain(s) of one or more small children, neatly sliced up like lunchmeat!

 

You check a nearby hospital, but none of the wounded guards from the warehouse fight are there. But Joshua gets treated for his “snakebite” and feels much better. You go back by the warehouse, which seems to have been cleared out; several suits in a “Metro-1” car are hanging around the place. You try and phone home to Liz, as well as Lobov (your client), but can’t get through.

 

12/14: The next day, you finally get through to Lobov; he’s understandably puzzled about what you’re doing in Moscow, but suggests that you contact a friend of his: Major Vladimir Samsonov at the Customs & Immigration Bureau. You meet with Samsonov and tell him a creatively-edited version of what happened. You’re pretty sure he doesn’t entirely believe your story, but he says he’ll do what he can to help. Samsonov assigns you two guides/babysitters: Karl and Kara. You spend the rest of the day researching Metro-1, a private firm restoring the decrepit Moscow subway system; Metro-1 is owned by a holding company called BPX. That evening, over much vodka, it is revealed that Karl and Kara are part of a local demon-hunting group called Spaseteli (The Saviors); Samsonov is their government contact. (“You guys have a government contact? How come we don’t have a government contact?!”)

 

12/15-17: You go back to see Major Samsonov and tell him the whole story; you also give him copies of the portal device data. You explore a few Metro tunnel sections, trying to learn what BPX/Metro-1 is really up to. As you get closer to the central "Phase II" section of tunnels, you detect traces of empathic powers having been used. But you also find pockets of carbon monoxide; you are forced to withdraw and sleep off your CO-induced headaches while Samsonov tries to round up some CO-breather masks. And you finally get through to Liz, Steve & Aunt Jo, who are relieved to learn you aren’t dead after all.

 

12/18: You scope out Yeltsinskaya Square, the center of Metro-1's operation. You watch as a Metro-1 van pulls up and delivers a dozen silver brain-boxes. You follow the van back to an abandoned theater guarded by 12 punks. You sneak in, cut the power, and start busting heads. Night vision goggles give you a definite advantage and the fight is going all your way, until some big shaggy ape-like creature (called a Leshy) emerges from the basement and crushes Kara to death. You burn through a lot of ammo, but you manage to kill the Leshy before it can grab any more of you.

 

Locked in a closet in the basement, you find Annya: cold, wet and terrified but basically intact. She tells you that she had snuck into Ward-7's basement to find out what was going on, followed some orderlies through the portal, and was captured by the BPX guards at the warehouse.

 

Your captives call themselves "the Children of the Steel Angel," and say they were paid to watch the theater, guard Annya, and store the empty "cryoboxes" until they are needed. Their contact is Katya Vistula, a beautiful white-haired woman you noticed earlier at Yeltsinskaya Square. You turn the captives over to Major Samsonov, who agrees to keep them incommunicado for a few days. He also arranges care for Annya.

 

12/19: Armed with CO-proof masks, and joined by the remaining Saviors -- Karl, Dmeitri, Kiril, Olga & Bat -- you re-enter the Metro. You use tear gas to drive away a swarm of jumbo sewer rats. The closer you get to the “Phase II” tunnels, the weirder things get. Dmeitri nearly drowns trying to save a phantom drowning woman. Farther on, you are all beset by visions of people from your past – people you had failed to save in one way or another. Most of you are eventually able to drive off your “ghosts” through force of will, although Kiril blacks out and can’t be revived; you pause while the other Saviors take him topside and rejoin you.

 

Outside the start of the Phase II tunnels, the way is blocked by what looks like concrete but turns out to be some kind of wood pulp; Jeremy finally gets to use that chainsaw he's been dragging around! Two BPX guards come to investigate the noise, but you take them out with silenced pistols. Inside, the whole tunnel is covered in some sort of organic resin, apparently secreted by a number of strange insect-like beings that ignore your presence. Joshua detects some mental powers in use farther up the tunnel, so you continue on.

 

Halfway to Yeltsinskaya Station you are engaged by two BPX guards with AK-47s; the alarm now raised, you shoot the two guards and push on to Yeltsinskaya. The central platform is clogged with resin secretions and weird artery-like tendrils; in the center stands some massive construct resembling a pile of giant-sized organs encased in mucus. Unarmed workers flee as you trade AK rounds with a dozen armed guards; Bat is killed, and Dmeitri takes a bad leg wound. Some Floating Energy Ball Thing shoots bursts of electricity your way, knocking Olga out; John & Joshua manage to hit the acorn-sized metal sphere at the ball’s center (nice shooting!), and it blows up. Katya -- the white-haired woman you saw before -- stuns Jeremy with some kind of sonic weapon. Then John blows up the construct with a well-placed grenade; Katya and the remaining guards start to withdraw upstairs. You toss your last grenade up after them, then assault the stairs before they can regain their balance. The last guards fall to your sudden blitz; you shoot Katya in the leg and knock her unconscious.

 

More guards are coming up the other tunnels behind you and you hear sirens approaching, so you grab Katya and run out into Yeltsinskaya Square. Joshua quickly hot-wires a car; you throw your prisoner in with the wounded Saviors, and they take off. But before the rest of you can make your escape, Russian Police APCs pour into the square. Out of grenades and low on ammo, you (wisely) decide not to take them on; John, Joshua and Jeremy are arrested.

 

(To Be Continued)

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Campaign Log: The J-Crew

 

Interlude: “Question & Answer”

 

Questioned separately, you each conclude that at this point you may as well tell the truth. Fortunately the police commander, Captain Andrea Bagramyan, seems to believe you; she has seen a few weird things herself. Also, the search of Yeltsinskaya Station seems to back up your story. You are held in jail over night, but treated surprisingly decently. (Partly thanks to Major Samsonov’s intervention.)

 

The next day, you are called to testify before the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland, the closest thing to a ruling body Russia has these days. Major Samsonov and Captain Bagramyan testify on your behalf, which lends credibility to your story. After several hours of questioning, you manage to convince a slim majority of the Committee that something dark and sinister is in fact afoot, and that you are in fact the good guys. They vote not to charge you criminally, but deadlock on whether to allow you to leave the country; you are stuck until the seventh Committee member returns from a trip abroad.

 

The Committee releases you to Major Samsonov’s and Captain Bagramyan’s custody. You spend most of the next day being debriefed by various government and military officials. You also spend several hours with Committee member Patriarch Mikhail, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, who is deeply interested in everything you have seen and learned.

 

Meanwhile, your friend Karl gets the following information out of the prisoner Katya:

• She works for someone called “The Deathless One,” who is incredibly powerful, has always been here, always will be here, etc. She implies that this Deathless One owns Metro-1/BPX.
  
• The construct in the Metro was an “empathic resonator,” designed to pick up, magnify and re-broadcast negative emotions and psychic trauma to the whole city. When asked “Why?” she acts as if spreading misery in Moscow is an end in itself, rather than a means to some ultimate objective.
  
• The connection with Roosevelt Island Children's Hospital was just a business deal – the Hospital sold them the brain slices they needed to make the empathic resonator work. They use babies’ brains because they just work better.
  
• The “Children of the Steel Angel” she describes as canon fodder; The Deathless One and the Steel Angel are NOT the same individual, but the relationship between them is unclear.
  
• The Deathless One has some kind of “camp” near the city of Kazan, and they did some early experiments there.

He also notes that Katya has an extra thumb joint, slightly slanted eyes, and lobeless ears not unlike your old pal Dicky (Episode 4). But when Karl leaves her alone for a few minutes, she disappears from a locked closet. When Joshua checks the closet later, he detects a residual aura not dissimilar to that generated by the portal device, though much weaker.

 

Samsonov learns that a large number of the arrested Metro-1 workers come from Kazan, which you figure can’t be a coincidence. Since all the Saviors are sidelined, you volunteer to go to Kazan and check things out. Since the Committee never said you couldn't leave Moscow, Samsonov agrees, as long as Captain Bagramyan accompanies you.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Campaign Log: The J-Crew

 

Episode 11: “Death To The Deathless!”

 

12/22: The day-long train ride to Kazan is cold and uncomfortable, but at least Joshua gets a chance to play with the sonic stunner weapon you took from Katya. This device – which looks more like a palm pilot with a directional antenna than it does an actual weapon – seems to temporarily incapacitate people by overloading their nervous system. Joshua jury-rigs a recharge for the drained battery, although he's not sure how long it'll last.

 

12/23-24: You move into the Kazan Police barracks, and brief Police Colonel Gordov on your mission. He’s none too thrilled about having "Amerikanski Ghostbusters" running around his city; but he agrees to let you do your thing as long as you don't get in the way of the "real" police work. He assigns somnambulistic Sergeant Oleg Titov to keep an eye on you.

 

You learn there have been over a hundred disappearances in the past six months, with no apparent pattern. There have also been several reported attacks by what witnesses describe as Oboroten (wolfmen). Also all the historical & genealogical records from the Kazan Historical Museum were stolen six months ago, and found a few weeks later dumped in the mud outside town. Joshua cross-references the missing persons reports with the museum records, and learns that most (possibly all?) of those missing are descendants of people who were Gulag prisoners during the Stalin era.

 

Learning of an old Gulag camp not far outside Kazan, you try to go check it out; but your rented Volga gets stuck in the mud and snow. While trying to free it, you are attacked by several Oboroten. You kill 5 and capture 1 (using the sonic stunner), tho Andrea gets a nasty bite on the arm. Returning to town, you take Andrea to the hospital, and turn the Oboroten over to the Kazan Police.

 

[The bite Andrea got from the wolfman was actually completely harmless (apart from the bite damage itself); but I had a lot of fun watching the players worry over whether or not she was going to turn into a wolfman!]

 

12/25: Merry Christmas! John wakes up at 2 am (from a dream that he was a Gulag prisoner) to the sounds of a disturbance downstairs. As you all quickly dress and gear up, you hear gunfire and begin to smell smoke. Making your way downstairs, you find the station is on fire; there are several Oboroten loose in the building; the exit doors have been chained shut from the outside; and the building is surrounded by perhaps 40 gunmen, who shoot anyone trying to escape the fire!

 

You manage to force a door open, and using ballistic shields for protection you get yourselves and several officers out into the parking lot. But once there you are pinned down by snipers on the surrounding buildings. Several other cops are jumping out of upper-story windows, but between the pavement and the snipers few of them make it to cover. You’re able to take out several of the snipers, but all of you receive minor gunshot wounds to your arms & shoulders. Then Joshua detects mental powers in use on an opposing rooftop, and John hits it with another perfect grenade toss. Demoralized, the rest of the snipers withdraw, and the remaining cops are able to get out of the building safely. On the opposing rooftop you find your former captive Katya, bleeding and unconscious from John’s grenade.

 

When the smoke clears, there are about two dozen dead bad guys; at least one of whom you recognize as a BPX worker from the Moscow metro. You also have 6 wounded prisoners, including Katya (who is in bad shape and may not survive). The other prisoners identify themselves as more Children of the Steel Angel. You learn that the Steel Angel is a reference to Stalin, who they revere as some kind of religious figure supposedly sent by God to cull the weak and reward the strong, etc. Their leader is the Deathless One, who they name Koshchey the Undying: an evil, immortal bogey-man figure from Russian folklore. They also claim Koshchey used to be Stalin's right-hand man Lavrenty Beria, the architect of the Gulag system.

 

You convince the police to join you in an immediate attack on the Gulag camp. Nearly forty cops assault the camp in jeeps, trucks and armored cars. A few cars are disabled by RPG rounds, but you crash the gate. Charging into the compound, you trade shots with a number of guards in WWII-era Soviet army uniforms. Jeremy gets shot in the chest; his vest barely saves his life. You make your way into the HQ building, shooting more guards and wolfmen, and begin receiving various mental attacks. Andrea is paralyzed by projected emotions (terror) while Sgt. Titov is incapacitated by a sudden migraine.

 

In the last room, you find... Patriarch Mikhail! (Committee member and Head of the Russian Orthodox Church; see previous post.) But there’s something incorporeal about him: bullets go right through him, nor does the grenade you explode at his feet disturb him in the least. He tosses you around telekinetically and hits you with various other mental assaults. Then Joshua nails him with the sonic stunner, which seems to break his concentration and turn him corporeal again. A hand-to-hand fight ensues, but the old man turns out to be tougher than he looks. Jeremy, weakened from his previous wound, gets kicked in the head and knocked out. Finally, you manage to shoot Mikhail/Koshchey a couple times, which at least gets his attention. He attempts to open a portal and escape, but a face full of grenade fragments stuns him. You empty your magazines into him, killing him.

 

Aftermath: You wind up with another 25 dead "Children" and 10 more prisoners. There were also 6 more wolfmen, all of whom were killed. The police suffered 8 killed and 10 wounded. All of the Children appear to be human, as does Mihail/Koshchey/Beria/whoever he was. You liberate 68 men, women and children from the camp. They're all malnourished, physically exhausted and a few of them got caught in the crossfire, but they should live. Tho oddly, they all seem to think the year is 1938.

 

In Koshchey’s room you find a large metal chair attached to a strange device that seems half organic -- brain slices, human organs, etc -- and half electronic. Your best guess is that it's a smaller experimental version of the "empathic resonator" from the Moscow metro. Joshua studies it closely and takes a lot of pictures, but you haven't the faintest clue how it all works.

 

[Notes: This adventure tied up most of the loose ends from the Moscow story, tho they were still left wondering exactly who & what Mikhail/Koshchey was. One of the purposes of sending them to Russia was to say, “You think things are bad in the US?” and give them a taste of what America could be like if things continue to deteriorate. Tho it’s ironic that they ended up having a better relationship with the Russian government that with the US government.]

 

[it took the PCs awhile to work out the sfx behind Koshchey’s Desolid power, but I may as well explain it here. Essentially, he could open an EDM portal and balance himself halfway between dimensions; that way he was not physically in either dimension, but could attack into either mentally. Sonic attacks destabilized the portal, thus snapping him fully into our world.]

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Campaign Log: The J-Crew

 

Interlude: “Can We Go Home Now?”

 

12/26-28: You spend a couple days in the Kazan hospital before the doctors feel you're fit to travel. The doctors try to save Katya, but her injuries are too severe. But before she dies, Jeremy interrogates her with the aid of his emotion projection ability. Many of her answers are unclear – she's pretty out of it – but she claims that she is a Sidhe, another name for the Fey Folk of Celtic myth. Her people feed off of human suffering, and are "everywhere." She came here to work for Koshchey because "he is an artist." The autopsy after her death shows that she appears human, but with a high number of minor oddities: rare blood type, reversed stomach, etc. None of them are remarkable individually, but it's very unusual to see so many of them in one person.

 

12/29-1/2/2027: Finally, you take the long, cold train ride back to Moscow. With Patriarch Mikhael's "disappearance" the balance of power on the Committee has shifted, allowing you to go home. You spend a quiet New Years with Major Samsonov and what's left of the Saviors, while arrangements are made to smuggle you back to the US. Meanwhile, you get a call from Liz & Steve that the children's hospital back home (where this whole mess started) has pulled up stakes and disappeared overnight.

 

1/3/27: Samsonov has arrange to smuggle you back to the states aboard a cargo plane; unfortunately, he made the arrangements through the Russian Mafia! Jeremy recognizes them moments before they recognize him, and shooting ensues. You all escape unscathed, `tho Samsonov is a bit pissed that no one told him the mob was after you. (So are John & Joshua, for that matter.) He proceeds to make other arrangements.

 

1/8-1/24: Finally you take a train to St. Petersburg, where you board a cargo ship bound for Virginia. You spend the next couple weeks freezing your butts off as the ship crosses the North Atlantic. But at least you have time to finish healing all your wounds.

 

As you approach the Eastern seaboard (and cell coverage), Joshua is able to catch up on his email; there’s a note from Steve reporting suspicious cold-weather patterns in southern New Mexico, and saying she and Liz were going to go check it out. There’s also a letter from Professor Michaels, who has been studying the book & letter you found in Dicky’s House.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Campaign Log: The J-Crew

 

Episode 12: “It’s Great To Be Home…OK, Back In The Car”

 

[below is the email Our Heroes received earlier from Liz & Steve in New Mexico]

 

It’s January 25th when your ship docks in Norfolk, Virginia. A couple well-greased palms get you through Customs, and Aunt Jo is there to pick you up. Unfortunately, she hasn’t heard from Liz & Steve for nearly a week, and fears something may have happened to them. Then on your way out of Norfolk, you are attacked by two carloads of Cambodians (working, you deduce, for the Russian Mafia). Joshua's Jeep sprouts a couple bullet holes – as does Joshua. Good thing Aunt Jo brought your weapons! Superior firepower wins the day, and you continue home by a roundabout route.

 

By the time you finally make it home to Westchester, it’s the wee hours of the night. Understandably cautious, you sneak up on the house; sure enough, you spot two men watching the place, and manage to capture them. The house itself has been ransacked. Not surprisingly, Jeremy's Eggs are gone [Jeremy says: “DOH!!”]; but at least they didn't find the caves underneath the house, where you had stashed your armory and most of your other valuables.

 

From your captives, you learn:

• They are members of "The Law," Liz's old pseudo-police gang (see Episode 2),

• Stu (the new Chief) has contracted them out to provide some muscle for Trans-Global Technologies (TGT), the company Liz & Steve were investigating in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico,

• Liz & Steve have in fact been captured by other Lawmen in “T or C,”

• Stu and some other "Lawmen" came out to ransack your house,

• These two schmucks were supposed to watch the house until you showed up and then call a cell phone number for their Sergeant, “Gordo,” in T or C.

 

You load up the cars (including Joshua’s new M60 machine gun) and hit the road for New Mexico. On the way, Joshua hacks into Gordo's cell phone records, which includes several calls to a Domino's Pizza in T or C; hacking into Domino's records provides an address. You also stop to break into a pharmacy for some illicit narcotics, and call Annya (the Russian nurse you rescued last episode) to consult about dosages.

 

Two days later, you arrive in snowpacked T or C, tap into the Domino's computer and wait for your targets to order out. When they finally call in an order the next day, you intercept the pizzas, soak them with the drugs, and then deliver them to Gordo’s cabin. When you assault the cabin a couple hours later, several of the Lawmen are half-asleep, and the others are definitely impaired. In short order, 3 Lawmen are dead, and 4 more are your prisoners. Unfortunately, Stu is not here and Gordo is one of the dead. The survivors say Stu is at “the Mountain,” Trans-Global’s base 15 kilometers east of town near the border of White Sands Missile Range. Liz & Steve are probably there as well, tho your captives aren’t sure; their orders were simply to watch Liz & Steve's old hotel room until you showed up, and then notify Trans-Global at the Mountain.

 

The next day you rent snowmobiles and head for the Mountain, leaving your prisoners well tied up. Halfway there the road passes through the ghost town of Engle; you stop for a recon and spot a roadblock manned by more Lawmen. You also spot three other heavily-armed people spying on the roadblock. It’s obvious they’re not Lawmen, so you cautiously make contact with them, and all six of you back away to compare notes. Meet Clark, Sam & Lisa, members of "The Contemporary Order of Poor Knights of the Temple" (aka the New Templers), a Christian group dedicated to fighting "the minions of Satan" that are walking the earth. While obviously quite devout and fundamentalist, it doesn't appear to bother them that you aren’t; you quickly agree to join forces. The six of you quietly and efficiently capture the 12 Lawmen at the roadblock.

 

Shortly after 1 am, you approach the perimeter of Trans-Global’s base, built into the side of a mountain. Dressed up in the Lawmen’s uniforms, and with John & Joshua bundled up as frostbite victims, you drive right up to the gate and request medical treatment. You are escorted to the infirmary, where you quickly bushwhack the medics and a couple guards. Joshua takes over the base security cameras, and guides John, Jeremy and the Templers as you make your way methodically through the base capturing people in their sleep and forcing others to surrender at gunpoint.

 

By sunrise, all 30 personnel are your prisoners. You lock them up and finish exploring the complex. An air lock leads to a series of caves very much like the Ice Wyrm’s Garland Corporation base (Episode 1), complete with Yeti and Ice Wolves. But the creatures prove no match for 6 experienced fighters with automatic weapons and grenades, and in fairly short order you control the tunnel complex too. You find no trace of Liz, Steve or Stu, but one cavern contains a dimensional portal device like the one from the Garland site, only slightly smaller.

 

(A little later, the Lawmen you captured back in town show up, having finally freed themselves and come back to the mountain for new orders; they’re pretty depressed about getting captured again!)

 

After grabbing a few hours of much-need sleep, Joshua starts trying to decipher the portal controls, while the rest of you question a few prisoners. All of them know about the "Technical Advisor" they call Icey. Most believe him to be some sort of extra-terrestrial who is providing them with advanced technology. The stated purpose of their project is to counteract global warming by lowering the temperature a few degrees world-wide; you get the impression that most of them suspect there's more to it than that, but aren't interested in asking questions. A handful imply that they all stand to make a fortune, since Trans Global has invested heavily in oceanic kelp farms, cold-weather gear manufacturers, and so forth. A few admit having seen Liz & Steve, and believe Icey took them through the portal.

 

Using the information he got from the Moscow portal device, Joshua figures out how to activate this one. Having done everything you can do on this side, you fire up the controls -- a shimmering, translucent gateway forms. Clark, Sam and Lisa agree to accompany you. Weapons at the ready, you jump through the portal…

 

(To Be Continued)

 

[Notes: The whole time the PCs were running around in Russia, I’d been amusing myself keeping track of all that was going on back home. The truth is, I hadn’t really counted on them getting stuck in Russia for quite as long as they did, so there were a number of sub-plots already in motion, including the return of Icey, Stu, et. al. By the way, Joshua’s M60 wasn’t really new; they had taken it away from the Bradley Center’s security force way back in Episode 3. But Joshua hadn’t bought Weapon Familiarity: Machine Guns until just before the side-trip to Russia, and was quite upset that he hadn’t taken it along.]

 

[Edit: By the way, I had a whole bunch of stuff planned in town: witnesses to interview, clues to find, bad guys to evade, etc. Never occurred to me they would just pull cell phone records and get the bad guys’ address from Domino’s. Oh well.]

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Campaign Log: The J-Crew

 

Episode 13: “Walking in a Winter ****ing Wonderland”

 

Accompanied by the the three Templers, you jump through the portal… and find yourselves rolling down a steep hillside, coming to rest in a snow bank. Looking around, you find yourselves surrounded by low, craggy hills covered with permafrost and the occasional dead tree. A full moon hangs directly overhead. The temperature is about -50°F. By the time any of you can climb back up the hillside, the portal is gone.

 

The only life you can see are two large ravens perched on a nearby dead tree; one of them flies off shortly thereafter. For lack of a better idea, you decide to follow it. You spend perhaps an hour trudging through snowdrifts, over one hill after another. There are no landmarks to speak of, and the moon seems to be fixed directly overhead -- which is pretty disconcerting in its own right. You try to keep your weapons warm by sticking them inside your coats, but the cold penetrates the thickest clothing. Most of your electronic gear is freezing up, too.

 

A couple hours later, you spot a number of robed figures heading your way, and decide to wait for them. They spread out to encircle you, then rush to attack: ghoulish creatures, with grayish skin hanging from too-long bones, stringy hair and dull gray eyes. Your guns, half-frozen, jam repeatedly; but you manage to fight the ghouls off, killing over a dozen and capturing one alive. Your captive doesn't seem to speak any language; he just hisses at you. Another raven flies overhead.

 

You back-track the ghouls' footprints: several more hours trudging through bitter-cold air and harsh, unvarying terrain. The ghouls' tracks become fainter and more difficult to follow. You spot a pack of ~10 wolves, who may have been following the ghouls' tracks, but you shoot one from a distance and the rest scatter.

 

You keep moving; everyone's starting to feel the effects of the extreme cold, especially Lisa (who, she reveals, has had frostbite before). Finally, you spot the first definable terrain feature you've seen in hours: a rocky, black ridgeline perhaps 100’ high. As you approach, you notice a robed figure standing atop the ridge, seemingly watching you. Joshua senses some strong mental powers in use. You get closer, then set up the rifles and open fire. You think you hit the figure, which drops out of view behind the ridge. As you charge the hill, the weather suddenly starts to go completely to hell; by the time you reach the crest, you're in the middle of a full-blown blizzard and the figure is nowhere in sight.

 

You seek shelter in a cave, which turns out to be inhabited by a tribe of strange creatures: roughly humanoid, with wide, squarish bodies and long, impossibly-skinny limbs that make them resemble stick figures. You manage to make friends with the "Sticks," trading a watch and a knife for some food and a small campfire. Later that night, the cave is invaded by a horde of enormous, shaggy rats; but gunfire scares them off – and impresses the Sticks.

 

You stay with the Sticks for a couple days, going out with them to explore, hunt, and gather wood. Through sign language and picture drawing, you learn that the Sticks know about Icey and are afraid of him. They seem to indicate that Icey controls the Yeti, wolves, and Ice Dragon (and possibly the ravens?), but not the ghouls, rats, or the robed weather-guy. Attempts to explain the concept of mapping to them fail, however.

 

One day while out exploring with the Sticks, you are attacked by a large group of wolves and Yeti. You manage to shoot most of the wolves, but of course your guns are still unreliable. By the time the Yeti close, it's mostly hand-to-hand. 2 Sticks are killed and 2 wounded before the last Yeti falls, but the humans take only minimal damage: Jeremy gets a minor wolf-bite, and Clark & Lisa both get knocked around but take no lasting damage. The Sticks are impressed enough with your fighting ability that they agree to lead you to Icey.

 

[Notes: The players had assumed that the portals could lead to other planets, but they hadn’t considered the possibility they might lead to completely different dimensions. It caused them to seriously re-think some assumptions they had made about the nature of the threat. Making friends with the “Sticks” was also a watershed moment because, as John put it: “We’ve never met anyone before who didn’t try to kill us!”]

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Campaign Log: The J-Crew

 

Episode 14: “Battle On...Make that In The Ice”

 

It takes a couple days to get everything ready. The Sticks have some sort of pet slug the size of a large dog, which they use to eat a new exit tunnel. (You infer that Icey’s tunnels in Texas and New Mexico had been dug by similar creatures.) The Sticks also explain you need to wait for a storm to cover you, so the ravens won’t observe your movement and report it to Icey.

 

Finally you set out, accompanied by eleven Sticks. The Robed Guy is back atop the ridgeline; at the Stick's direction, you shoot at him – sure enough, a big storm blows up. You spend perhaps 8 hours trudging through a blizzard, although it's mostly blown itself out by the time you reach your destination: a large ice palace 20 stories high, that looks like a bunch of giant snowflakes stacked one atop the other. You hunker down in an arroyo out back and wait. Lisa is pretty-much useless from hypothermia, and your guns are all covered in ice.

 

After another couple hours, a hidden door in the arroyo wall opens, and out come 2 Stick slaves pushing barrels, guarded by 2 Yeti. You kill the Yeti and pass through the door into a tunnel heading towards the palace. You spend several minutes de-icing your weapons (and Lisa), then head inward, leaving the door partly ajar. You find yourself in a series of corridors & rooms sealed by metal-bound wooden doors. You kill a couple more Yeti and several wrinkly dwarf-guys. You free several Stick slaves, who point you towards a corridor that leads upstairs.

 

A spiral ramp leads up to the ground floor. At the top, it empties into a room and you see "Icey" standing near the top. Everyone opens fire, killing it instantly. But the room (a 16-pointed star 80' across) turns out to be filled with 20 more just like him, along with more Yeti, wrinkle-dwarves, and a handful of Stick slaves. There are also 2 large ice sculptures of dragons, some large grotesque creature chained to one wall, and a pile of furs that turns out to contain Liz & Steve (also chained).

 

Bullets & grenades fly. The Ice Wyrms mostly run like hell, but Yeti reinforcements start arriving. The "large grotesque creature" breaks loose and disembowels a Stick before you manage to kill it. Joshua blows apart one of the ice sculptures, just to be sure, but nothing happens. Then several ghouls rush into the room and join the fight. Clark gets pummeled by a Yeti, then bitten (and poisoned) by a ghoul. Joshua gets impaled by some charging horned yeti-esque beast, but his vest saves his life. John throws his pistol to Liz, who immediately shoots…John! John's vest saves him, and he and Steve eventually wrestle the gun away from Liz. Then the second dragon sculpture comes to life and things get really interesting. The dragon tears Clark in half, and does the same to a couple Sticks, before Joshua’s M60 finally puts it down for good.

 

Meanwhile, Jeremy mows down a corridor full of ghouls. Sam collapses from cryokinesis-induced hypothermia, and Jeremy almost does before he's able to push his mental defenses and break the link. More reinforcements, including wolves, are arriving, but Joshua keeps hosing the entrance corridor with the M60 and keeps them under control, until he finally runs out of ammo and switches to the G11. John succeeds in tracking and killing the real Icey, despite a last-ditch mental illusion. The rest of you finish off the last remaining Yeti, wolves, ghouls, horned beasts and whatever else.

 

 

Aftermath: The half-dozen Sticks that survived run through the palace freeing slaves and butchering all the Ice Wyrms they can corner. Total (approximate) body count:

• 30-40 Ice Wyrms (only one of which exhibited any mental powers),

• 20 Yeti,

• 20 Wolves,

• 12 wrinkle-dwarves,

• 10 ghouls,

• 4 big horned guys,

• 2 ice dragons, and

• 1 "large grotesque creature."

 

Of the 11 Sticks that accompanied you only 5 survived, and all of them are wounded; but you freed over a dozen Stick slaves. Sam's barely conscious from severe hypothermia, Lisa has a nasty concussion, and Clark is dead. Jeremy's half-frozen but recovering. Joshua has an unpleasant but not fatal gut wound. And John somehow came through without a scratch.

 

Liz passes out, and when she wakes up she seems fine; but when John leaves an unloaded gun nearby as a test, she grabs it and immediately starts trying to shoot you all. This pattern repeats itself a few times – she seems fine until she tries to kill you. At least Steve appears to be her normal self, but she is unable to explain Liz’ condition.

 

Exploring the dungeon, you find some weird humanoid-octopus guy locked in a small cell. Though obviously intelligent, it doesn’t seem to have any spoken language. After some experimentation, Jeremy manages to communicate with it telepathically, although it’s thoughts don't seem to make much sense.

 

Meanwhile, Joshua locates several residual auras he believes to be left behind from portals. After quite a bit of trial and error, he manages to use his own empathic abilities to reopen two of them, although he can only hold them open for a few seconds at a time. Anything poked through an open portal gets sheared off when you try to pull it back, and you lose contact with the transmitter you toss through. A few bullets fall out of one portal, as if someone had shot through it but the bullets had lost all forward velocity in translation.

 

Eventually, John decides he feels lucky, and jumps through one portal. (Not the one the bullets came out of.) He finds himself in a tunnel complex in what turns out to be the Alaskan wilderness, similar to the complex in New Mexico but uninhabited. You wave goodbye to squid-guy, and the seven humans* pass through. Outside the cave, you find a Trans-Global storage shed with some snowmobiles; you pile onboard and head for town. You've been gone for 12 days.

 

* In case you’ve lost track: John, Joshua, Jeremy, Liz(?), Steve, Sam & Lisa.

 

 

[Notes: At the time, this was by far the largest RPG battle I’d ever run: over a dozen NPC allies and well over 100 enemies all told. Obviously they weren’t all on the battlemat at the same time -- I didn’t have the minis to do that if I’d wanted to -- but still an awful lot of moving parts. The PC’s tactical challenge was not just to kill monsters, but to do so fast enough to stay ahead of the reinforcement curve; fortunately, they seemed to understand that right off, and resisted the urge to get bogged down in details. Fun stuff.]

 

[For me, the high point humor-wise was Joshua taking the time to shoot up one ice dragon “before it comes to life and attacks us,” but then deciding it was just a statue after all and ignoring the second one. Until it came to life and attacked them, that is. ]

 

[One minor rant. Squid Guy?? Only the biggest freakin’ plot hook of the entire freakin’ campaign, that’s all. And they just waved good bye and left him behind. Players -- what are you gonna do, eh?]

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Campaign Log: The J-Crew

 

Interlude: “No, Seriously… Can We Go Home Now!?”

 

February 12, 2027

 

The snowmobiles get you to Fort Yukon, Alaska, and you find a hospital. (Thank God the GPS survived your visit to Ice World!) Sam loses a couple toes to frostbite, but will live. Everyone else will recover well enough.

 

After all you’ve been through, you’d think getting home from Alaska would be a snap, right? Oh, except for that thing where Alaska seceded from the US back in 2020, and the US has a ban on travel to and from The Alaskan Republic. That complicates things a bit.

 

[Note: This actually had been established in the campaign back-history; I just haven’t mentioned it here before now. The intent was to reinforce the idea that things are falling apart, and underscore the Government’s inability to control its own territory. I had some other Republic Of Alaska story ideas in my mind, but as it happened this was the only time it came up.]

 

Lisa contacts her Templar friends -- she’s a little cagy about just how many of them there are -- and arranges to smuggle you back to the US. She also gives John a recruiting pitch; he’s non-committal about joining the Templars, but trades contact info for future use.

 

Meanwhile, Jeremy decides he just doesn't trust the Templar “fanatics.” He works a few of his own contacts, and spends a great deal of money to have himself smuggled back home. Lisa's friends sneak the rest of you into Canada, and then truck you down to Seattle, where you're able to catch a flight home. It takes both groups about a week to get home.

 

Since your "safe house" isn't so safe anymore, you move into a temporary apartment; Kristin looks for something more permanent. You also ask Kristin to find some sort of psychiatric arrangement for Liz, who still seems relatively normal when she's not trying to kill you; John notices that Liz seems to be missing a few scars and there are a couple other minor physical differences in addition to her personality being "off" somehow. The word “clone” gets tossed about…

 

You also get another letter from Prof. Michaels, regarding his efforts to translate Dicky's book and letter; the book seems to be some kind of history of the homeland of the Sidhe, while the letter is a love letter. Sadly, you learn that Prof. Michaels was killed in a tragic car accident a few weeks after his findings were published. [Oh yeah, that’s a coincidence!]