The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

[teh bunneh]

Just started up a new FtF Steampunk game, set in the world of the Kandris Seal.

 

The Cast:

Savannah Leblanc - Beautiful shootist from Louisiana, with a knack for trouble and action.

Morden Yazimoff - Jewish geomancer and student of the occult.

ADEN - Artificial clockwork man who serves Master Yazimoff with a upper crust demeanor.

Alicia Keen - Vertically challenged Italian mystic and seer with an air of mystery.

Thackary Hartwell - Young British Savant (mad scientist) specializing in weaponry and explosives.

[teh bunneh]

The first adventure! 10/25/2008

 

The first adventure is called The Great Road Rally!

 

--------------------

The heroes have all spent the last several months in training to be a Dragon Hunter, under the tutilige of a man named Pascal del Giatto. He is a middle-aged man, with graying hair and a pronounced limp, assisted by a gold-tipped cane with an elaborate, dragon-like head.

 

Mr. Giatto is a hard-edged fellow who didn’t tolerate shenanigans while the heroes were in training, but now that they’ve passed he seems to have mellowed out a bit. However, he is still emphatic about the seriousness of their mission. He has taken on the duties as the head of the Dragon Hunters, but he has made it clear that he is only the interim director, and is actively searching for a replacement.

 

(The previous head of the Dragon Hunters, John Smith, vanished a few years ago during a mission to the Himalayas).

 

Mr. Giatto summoned the heroes to the London Chapter House to tell them about their mission.

 

“For the past several weeks,” he explains, “The local broadsheets have been advertising the Great Road Rally. It is an 800-mile endurance challenge, to see who has the best design for a motorized auto-mobile. The prize is 10,000 pounds sterling, and dozens of competitors are expected to attempt the grueling run.”

 

“They've just published the racecourse,” he continued. “The race begins in London, goes to Cambridge, then to Peterborough, then Leicester. Then it breaks off and heads SW to Swindon. Then it goes back north through Gloucester, Worcester, Birmingham, and back to Leicester. From Leicester, it goes straight back to London, then from London to Worcester, back to Cambridge, and finally ends at Swindon.”

 

As he spoke, he drew out the course on a large map of England. It didn’t take long for the heroes to note the pattern that emerged – it was an enormous pentacle!

 

“As you can tell from this unusual route, something funny is going on,” Pascal said. “We don't know who is behind this, but we have the strong suspicion that something terrible will happen as soon as the race is complete – this much advanced machinery following a course with occult significance, while the eyes of the world are watching, it's a recipe for disaster.

 

“The mission you are to undertake is two-fold. First, we need to find out who is sponsoring the race and for what purpose (and, if possible, to stop them from achieving their goal). Second, we need you to make sure that none of the competitors cross the finish line – who knows what evil they'll unwittingly unleash if they do.”

 

Since time was of the essence, the Dragon Hunters immediately split up to accomplish a number of tasks. Alicia and Savannah headed to the offices of the Daily Mail to ask questions of the reporters. Thackary went to the edge of town, where the race would begin, to question the racers themselves. Morden and ADEN bought train tickets to Leicester to scout out the first stopping point of the race.

 

Alicia and Savannah found the Daily Mail without any problem. They wandered around through the offices for a while, trying to get someone’s attention, but everyone just ignored them. Finally, they found the Editor-in-Chief’s office and walked in. At first, the Editor was stunned at the audacity of these women. But they explained to him that they were employed by a large insurance agency and were required to find out who the sponsor of the Great Road Rally was.

 

The Editor directed them to a novice reporter named Kent. Kent, flustered by the women, told them that he didn’t really know who the sponsor was, but that the prize money was guaranteed by the First Bank of Ireland, and the man in charge of disbursing the cash was a solicitor named Mr. Barry Brogan, esq. Kent even gave them Brogan’s address, an office in the north part of the city.

 

Meanwhile, Thackary went to the start of the racecourse to see what he could learn of the competitors. He spoke with a gangly and geeky racer whose “Algernon-mobile” would (in Thackary’s professional opinion) never make it to the finish line. Algernon told Thackary that there were five “racers to beat” in the competition of some 30 or 35 racers. They were:

 

• Les Frères de Grognard, two French brothers.
  
• Herr Maximilian Schenk, a German Savant.
  
• Colonel Blestonov, a Russian military man. He is driving a vehicle not of his own design, but under the flag of the Czar of Russia and built by the Czar's small army of engineers and Savants. This vehicle doesn't have a name, only a number – 37. No one knows what happened to the first 36.
  
• Lucus Hatfield, an American inventor who has created an amazing vehicle – it runs on legs rather than wheels (he was showing off to the other racers earlier that day)!
  
• Professor Patricks is the British favorite. The specs and details of his vehicle have been kept top-secret for months, but that hasn't stopped the press from speculating about it.
  

Algernon thought this was unfair, as all of the top competitors were already well-known in engineering circles (except perhaps Hatfield), and they all had top-notch workshops and many trained assistants to help them.

 

Meanwhile, Morden and ADEN took the train north to Leicester. They immediately rented enough rooms for the rest of the team when they got there (as rooms were filling up fast with people coming to see the race).

 

Morden took some time to study the race course. He felt certain that this was designed to be some sort of summoning spell, but summoning what? And who would want to do such a thing? He also thought that whatever they were summoning would most likely appear somewhere directly in the middle of the pentagram. But according to the map, there wasn’t much of anything there – just some insignificant farms and manors.

 

He then rented a carriage to drive down the road to Swinton a few miles. He learned that as soon as you were out of the Leicester city limits, houses and farms grew farther and farther apart. He decided it wouldn’t be hard to sabotage the race course – perhaps eliminate a bridge here, block the road there, that sort of thing. It might not stop the race, but it would certainly slow it down.

 

ADEN went to the first finish line to see what he could learn. He discovered that security was fairly light. Each competitor was expected to provide his or her own security while their vehicles were parked. The race sponsors’ only duty was to check the cars in as they arrived, to log their time. ADEN learned that there were several checkpoints along the racecourse. Each competitor has to be clocked in at each checkpoint or they would be disqualified for cheating (no shortcuts!).

 

Furthermore, ADEN learned that there are few rules and no referees along the racecourse, so the sponsors expect things to get rough out there. They fully expect most of the racers to not be able to finish – either due to irreparable damage to their vehicles, or injuries (possibly even deaths!) among the drivers. The young man ADEN talked to seemed rather callous about this, suggesting that “Everyone knows there aren’t no rules. You pay your 20 quid, you take your chances.”

 

ADEN asked if there was any medical service for injured competitors, and the man shrugged. ADEN sensed a possible way to disrupt the race. “Who would I talk to about providing said services?” he asked.

 

“Oh, you want to talk to Mr. Blacksmith. He’s in charge of mapping out the course and putting up the checkpoints. We expect him to be here in the morning.” ADEN took note of this and immediately headed to the telegraph office to call the others.

 

He spoke with Thackary, who had already convinced himself that he needed to join the race in order to keep an eye on things from the inside. The young Savant was already hard at work putting together an electric car, fueled by lightning, ground friction, and the static electricity generated by dozens of cats.

 

ADEN then contacted Alicia and Savannah and told them what he had learned. Alicia agreed to get on the next train to Leicester, but Thackary wanted Savannah to be his co-pilot – in case things got rough on the racecourse, he wanted someone there who could shoot!

 

Things were starting to fall into place. Tomorrow, the Great Road Rally would begin!

[clsage]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

Just started up a new FtF Steampunk game' date=' set in the world of the Kandris Seal.

 

The Cast:

Savannah Leblanc - Beautiful shootist from Louisiana, with a knack for trouble and action.

Morden Yazimoff - Jewish geomancer and student of the occult.

ADEN - Artificial clockwork man who serves Master Yazimoff with a upper crust demeanor.

Alicia Keen - Vertically challenged Italian mystic and seer with an air of mystery.

Thackary Hartwell - Young British Savant (mad scientist) specializing in weaponry and explosives.

 

Will we have the pleasure of seeing the character sheets at some point ?......Please and thank you.

 

-Carl-

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

He spoke with Thackary' date=' who had already convinced himself that he needed to join the race in order to keep an eye on things from the inside. The young Savant was already hard at work putting together an electric car, fueled by lightning, ground friction, and the static electricity generated by dozens of cats. [/quote']

 

That image alone makes me wish I were playing in that campaign.

[teh bunneh]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

Will we have the pleasure of seeing the character sheets at some point ?......Please and thank you.

 

Eventually, yes, once everyone has them finalized.

[teh bunneh]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

The Dragon Hunters

Welcome to the mythical 19th Century! It is a world of wonder, of adventure, of magic, and of strange technology and amazing (yet unlikely) inventions. The Kandris Seal is a universe in which the great demon lords and their evil servants are attempting to devour our world. Those who stand against them – an order of mages known as the Thaumaturgia – keep our dimension safe from their threats. This is the world of the Industrial Age as it truly was, envisioned by those far-sighted luminaries and savants who looked beyond the feeble limitations of man and created a world in which science, technology, and logic triumphed over the mundane physical limitations of the Universe.

This is an age that never was, filled with radium-powered flying machines, clockwork automata, and steam-driven computers. It is an age of dark magic, sinister secrets, and unholy cults. It is a time in which the world teeters on the edge of chaos, where the enlightened scientific mind battled against ancient superstition and ignorance, in which the souls of all mankind hung in the balance.

What is Steampunk?

Steampunk. The word itself conjures extravagant images of great clanking engines of brass and steel, churning cogs and hissing steam, clockwork men and machines that fly on wings of leather and gossamer, fantastic devices the likes of which the world would never – and could never – see.

The Victorian era gave birth to what we know now as science fiction. Visionaries who wrote during this time period gave us our first glimpses of a world run by (or, in some cases, over-run by) the marvels of science and engineering. Mary Shelley showed us that scientists could create life without the need for women; H.G. Wells showed us the dangers of tinkering with man’s moral and social frameworks; Jules Verne took us under the sea, around the world, and into the center of the Earth. Ripping good yarns, all... but what if the worlds they described were real?

The Steampunk age is an era in which modern technological conceits appeared much earlier in history, built on the science and industry that existed in the nineteenth century. It is a world in which the Industrial Revolution brought with it more than just the spinning jenny, the flying shuttle, and the steam locomotive – it brought walking war-machines, radium furnaces, difference engines, and time machines.

The world of Steampunk is a world in which these outlandish marvels of science, industry, and technology (and many others, besides) are real. Steampunk shows us the Victorian Age as we imagine it should have been, instead of as it really was.

The Rise of the Savants, 1850-1860

In 1850, there were scores of brilliant engineers in England, Continental Europe, and America, all working on expanding mankind's knowledge and understanding of the universe in which he lived. By 1860, that number suddenly ballooned into hundreds. Colleges and Universities couldn't keep up with the demand, turning away scores of qualified applicants. Many of those who were turned away sought funding from entrepreneurs and investors, founding their own factories and forges, and often taking on their own apprentices to train.

And what wondrous creations they built! Where once engineers were satisfied with increasing the speed or the power or the range of a locomotive, these new geniuses laughed at the limitations of their predecessors. They built machines undreamt of by previous generations, defying all the known laws of physics. They explored places of the world previously unseen and untouched by the hands of man. They were more than mere engineers; they were Savants.

The City of Glass, 1860

In 1860, a brilliant Savant by the name of Cardinalè – known today as Le Pilote Fou or the Mad Pilot – realized his lifelong dream by building the greatest invention ever seen. On the outskirts of Paris, he created an entire city out of crystal and brass, powered via enormous, coal-burning steam engines, which he dubbed La Ville du Verre, or the City of Glass.

It was truly a wonder to behold, a carnival of delights. Every piece of the city was automated, from moving sidewalks to stairways which effortlessly transported people from one level to another. Doors opened automatically; giant fans provided a constant cooling breeze over the whole city; great clocks chimed on the hour, filling the city with music the likes of which the world had never known. Even the natives of the city were automata – tiny brass clockwork birds sang in the silver-leaved trees, wind-up dogs frolicked and did tricks, and steam-powered puppets danced in every window for the pleasure of their audience.

Cardinalè invited the crème de la crème of European society to witness his creation's unveiling. Dukes, princes, and archbishops roamed the streets of his City for an entire afternoon, marveling at each new sight. That evening at dinner, Cardinalè boasted that what his audience had seen so far was nothing, and that nothing on earth could prepare them for what they were about to see.

The Savant turned to a control panel and pulled a lever. The entire city began to thrum and vibrate, and then, to the shock and delight of the people, the City of Glass rose off the ground. It was flying! An entire city, in defiance of the laws of gravity, powered by steam and the vision of one man, was flying!

The city moved westward, powered by jets of steam and giant propellers. Cardinalè announced that he was going to land the City of Glass at the edge of Besançon, where the Exposition Universelle (World's Fair) was being held. He would prove to the entire world that France was the greatest nation on the Earth, and that none could stand up to its technological prowess.

The City traveled the length of France in a single night, moving at tremendous speeds. But as it approached Besançon, disaster struck. Nobody knows what really happened; eyewitnesses claim that an explosion crippled one of the great propellors keeping the City aloft. The City shuddered and slowly, ponderously began to tilt to one side. Then, another explosion and more propellors stopped turning. The pilot of the ship – many today assume it was Cardinalè himself – tried heroically to keep the City in the air, but it was no use. Without the miraculous propellers spinning, the City plummeted like a brick, plowing through the World's Fair and the city of Besançon itself.

Hundreds of citizens were killed as the City of Glass plowed through their homes. Scores of scientists and engineers who were attending the Fair also lost their lives. And perhaps most telling, all the passengers and crew (including Cardinalè) on the City of Glass died. Governments blamed the disaster on anarchists – filled with the cream of European royalty, it was a tempting target for devils such as they. Too late, the great nations of the world realized the power that the Savants had been allowed to play with, unchecked. The Time of Waiting was over, and despite claims of many futurists, it did not bring about a golden age of wonders. Instead, the Time of Turmoil had begun.

The Time of Turmoil, ~1861-1870

Even before the City of Glass shattered, trouble was on the horizon. Political and economic pressures were building like steam in a teakettle, just looking for an escape valve. The destruction of the great palace of brass and crystal and steel – and the deaths of so many important people – set off repercussions that reverberated throughout the western world. Governments realized that they could no longer afford to allow the Savants to continue their work unsupervised and unchecked. At the same time, they came to discover the potential of these new inventions as tools for trade, for policy – and for war.

There were dozens of wars, large and small, fought throughout this period. From the frontiers of America to the greatest cities of Europe to the palaces of Russia to the most uncivilized corner of Africa, no place was safe. War took on a brutal cast that had never before been imagined – amazing new instruments of destruction rained fire down over enemy and innocent without discrimination, and the battlefields were littered with the wreckage of machinery and the bodies of mankind’s best and brightest.

It ended nearly as suddenly as it began. It seemed that humankind, exhausted from the brutality, finally learned to live with one another in peace.

The Gilded Age, ~1870-present

The Gilded Age is when technology truly came into its own! This is an age of great things, when the horrors of the Time of Turmoil were over and done. It is a period of great development – economic, political, social, and of course, technological. Peace reigns throughout Europe, and American is expanding westward, fulfilling its Manifest Destiny.

The Gilded Age is defined by a virtual explosion of commerce and industry – supported by the rapidly-developing technological advancements which came ceaselessly from the factories, forges, and foundries of the Savants. The Patent Office granted a hundred times as many patents during the Gilded Age as they had throughout the entire previous century. The technology available to the common man was finally beginning to catch up to the extravagant developments that Savants had made in the 20 years prior.

This is when our game begins…

[teh bunneh]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

Character Creation

The game will begin in eighteen ninety-something. The heroes have all been recruited into a secret organization known as the Dragon Hunters. Much like the BPRD (of Hellboy fame), the Dragon Hunters are “The ones who bump back.” They deal with menaces – of both the supernatural and the super-scientific types – that no one else is prepared to deal with.

But the Dragon Hunters recently had a setback. Their leader, a man called John Smith (sometimes known as “The Luckiest Man Alive”), disappeared a few years ago during an ill-fated mission to the Himalayas. It seems his renowned luck finally ran out. Since then, the Dragon Hunters have been in turmoil. No one is sure who will take charge now that Smith is gone, but one thing is certain – things will never be the same again.

Types of Characters

Players can choose pretty much any type of character that would’ve been around in the late 19th century. A Victorian Lord, a Russian Princess, an American Cowboy, a French Legionnaire, a Perspicacious Consulting Detective, an Adventuress… pretty much anything from history or the literature of the time. Play someone with a Heroic motivation who can work well with a team – no Victorian Wolverines or bowler-hat-wearing Punishers, please. =

There are three other options available as well. The first is a type of character known as a Savant.

A Savant is a scientist stirred with an engineer, mixed with a lot of genius, and blended with a just touch of madness. They don't perceive the world in the same way that others do; they see a universe rife with possibility. They view scientific facts and physical laws as mere stepping-stones to something that others cannot understand. To them, ordinary scientists are nothing more than children playing a game of Pin-The-Tail-On-The-Donkey, blindfolded and spun around, groping for the truth but unable to grasp its significance. The Savant, on the other hand, has his eyes wide open. Where others see madness, he sees potential – and he uses his genius to develop that potential into objects of power and wonder. Any engineer can repair a locomotive. Any scientist can understand the principles involved in the operation of an incandescent light bulb. But only a Savant can make the laws of physics, biology, and chemistry sit up and beg.

A Savant is a type of mage, but he does not use ancient spells and alchemical formulas to work his miracles. He uses iron and brass, crystal and mother-of-pearl, clockwork and steam. With the precise applications of (admittedly, rubber) scientific principles, he creates devices which should not work, and yet miraculously do. Most Savants don't believe in magic, and would vehemently deny that what they do is anything more than cutting-edge science. If other engineers fail to make their devices work as well as his do, it is because they are lesser minds, not because of any hocus-pocus or mumbo-jumbo.

The second option is a Mage. Occultism was very trendy in the Victorian era, with mediums and fakirs who claimed to be able to speak with the dead, summon spirits, and even place curses on their enemies. Most of these so-called sorcerers were outright frauds, but in fact there are real mages out there – geomancers who harness the power of the earth, wizards who study carefully-researched spells, diviners who can catch glimpses of the future, alchemists whose concoctions can create miraculous effects, and dark sorcerers who truck with demons to gain their powers.

The third option would be the result of either super-science or mystic sorcery. You could create an artifact of science, like an Automaton driven by clockwork springs and gears which somehow developed sapience; or a Patchwork Man, stitched together by a master surgeon and brought to life via occult means; or something along those lines. Victorian science fiction is filled with such creatures, from Shelley’s Frankenstein to Ellis’ Steam Man.

[matrix3]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

Yes! Another campaign log from teh bunneh!

[input.jack]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

Im curious to hear how the game plays.

[teh bunneh]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

Im curious to hear how the game plays.

 

Yeah, me too.

[Guest Major Tom]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

Me, I want to see how the business with the Catmobile turns out.

 

 

Major Tom

12 more to go...

[Lonewalker]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

Im curious to hear how the game plays.

 

As a player in the game, I predict an excessive amount of explosive mayhem - some of it even intentional.

 

- Lonewalker

[pinecone]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

Me, I want to see how the business with the Catmobile turns out.

 

 

Major Tom

12 more to go...

 

It went GREAT!...Umm, and then we drove past the school where they do Shutzen training...(A particular type of dog training, mostly Rotweilers and Shepards)....we went fast, but it wasn't great...

[Guest Major Tom]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

It went GREAT!...Umm' date=' and then we drove past the school where they do Shutzen training...(A particular type of dog training, mostly Rotweilers and Shepards)....we went fast, but it wasn't great...[/quote']

 

 

That's what you get when you rely too much on p**** power instead of

good-old-fashioned horsepower...everything goes right into the litterbox.

 

 

 

Major Tom

[Guest Major Tom]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

As a player in the game, I predict an excessive amount of explosive mayhem - some of it even intentional.

 

- Lonewalker

 

 

The Stormguard (the PC group in the Champions campaign I was in) had a

similar (non-intentional) predisposition toward mayhem of that sort, but

the worst thing that we managed to do in the campaign was to wreck the

Lemurians' WMD -- the Mandragalore -- much to the consternation of

the Time Police.

 

 

 

Major Tom

10 more to go...

[teh bunneh]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

The Dragon Hunters Recap 11-8-2008

Alicia decided to go pay Mr. Barry Brogan, Esq. a visit. She headed to the First Bank of Ireland and spoke with a clerk. The clerk wasn’t interested in helping her until she “tweaked” his fate-lines and gave him the bright idea to take her to see Mr. Brogan. The suddenly helpful clerk took her to the third floor and introduced her to the solicitor.

 

Alicia explained that her wealthy husband had recently passed away, and now his family was disputing the will. Mr. Brogan was very sympathetic and told her he would be happy to take her as a client, but that he was very busy for the next couple of days. Could she come back then? “Of course,” she smiled. “Why don’t you call your secretary and I’ll make an appointment.”

 

While the lawyer was busy arranging that, Alicia used her tiny spy camera to take photos of the papers arrayed on Mr. Brogan’s desk, hoping that they might hold a clue as to the identity of the sponsor of the Great Road Rally. She then hurried to Thackary’s house to see if he could develop the film for her.

 

One of Alicia’s pictures came out, and through it they discovered that the race was being sponsored by a name named Lord Vaughn Portland. However, nobody had ever heard this name before, so they had no idea who he was or how he was involved.

 

Meanwhile, in Leicester, ADEN went to find the man in charge of the racecourse, Mr. Blacksmith. The mechanical man offered his “Company’s” services to remove the fallen drivers from the course and bring them to medical attention. Mr. Blacksmith was skeptical at first, but when ADEN told him that he would personally receive 15% of their fees, the man became quite helpful. He gave them a copy of the official racecourse map and a writ that gave them permission to be on the road during the race.

 

Back in London, the race was about to start. Alicia, Savannah, and Thackary prepped the cat-powered car and brought it to the starting line. They marveled at the wide variety of vehicles there – everything from reasonably mundane steam-powered cars to a bizarre spider-legged contraption. Alicia used her sorceries to hex several of the nearby contestants – if something bad happened on the road, it would happen to them first.

 

And then the starting gun fired! Most of the vehicles were off like a shot; others were stuck at the starting line as they experienced various mishaps and mechanical failures. Thackary’s cat-mobile found itself somewhere in the middle of the pack – well behind the favored contestants, but well ahead of the slower vehicles.

 

There was much jockeying for position but no outright violence at first. But once the race passed beyond the city limits and into the sparsely-populated countryside, the knives came out.

 

Thackary was attempting to catch up with a trio of cars ahead of him when one of them disgorged a load of slippery oil onto the road. The two cars immediately behind it spun out of control and wrecked, but Thackary had just enough time to swerve and avoid the oil slick. Unfortunately, that forced him to drive off the road and into the forest.

 

Nimbly avoiding trees, rocks, and logs, he managed to keep his vehicle upright and moving. Alicia and Savannah (who didn’t have seatbelts) were hurled around the cabin like tempest-tossed ships. The cats were also not pleased with this turn of events; a few of them escaped from their cages and attacked anything that was handy … which in this case, was Savannah. (Luckily, she’s not a first level D&D Wizard or it could’ve been fatal!).

 

While they were off-roading, Thackary noticed another off-road vehicle ahead of them. It was Lucus Hatfield and his Bug! The 8-legged machine was racing nimbly over every obstacle in its way and, since it was avoiding the road, it didn’t have to deal with the other drivers’ shenanigans! “Very clever,” Thackary thought to himself.

 

Finally, the young Savant managed to get his car back on the road. “It’s time for some payback!” Savannah swore. “Catch up with that sunnuvagun with the oil slick, I’ll teach him what-for!” Thackary accelerated to catch up, but the car ahead of him wouldn’t let him pass. “To hell with this!” Savannah said, climbing back up into her turret. She took careful aim with her customized buffalo rifle and shot the offending vehicle’s rear tire out. The car spun out and crashed in a ditch. Savannah blew the cursing driver a kiss as they roared past the wreck.

 

Then they caught up with the oil slicker. Again, Savannah took careful aim and fired. She hit the car in its engine block. Black smoke poured out and the car sputtered to a halt. The heroes waved jauntily as the drove past.

 

Meanwhile, back in the north, Morden and ADEN were on the road to meet up with the race halfway (ostensibly to pick up the injured). As they crossed over a stone bridge, Morden had an idea. They stopped the carriage and he climbed down to examine the bridge. Finding the keystone, he cast a spell which would turn the stone into mud. “The first car to go over the bridge should cause the whole thing to collapse,” he said. “Then the other drivers will be forced to find an alternate route!”

 

About that time, they began to hear explosions and gunfire. They pulled off the road just in time to see Maximilian Schnell’s amazingly-fast car roar past. The car roared over the bridge so quickly that it didn’t have time to collapse.

 

But then the Brothers Grognard came out of the woods. Their locomotive looked heavy damaged; there were bullet holes all over it and a big part of the back was burnt and dented like it had been hit by an explosive. However, it was still running along just fine… until it crossed the bridge.

 

The bridge began to buckle as massive vehicle rolled onto it. The Grognards’ locomotive didn’t even make it halfway across before the whole thing collapsed, pitching them into the riverbed. The car directly behind them (Colonel Blastenov) managed to screech to a halt at the edge of the fallen bridge; a few other cars didn’t have such good brakes and were not so lucky.

 

ADEN contacted Thackary (via his Aetheric Communicator) and warned him of the pitfall, so Thackary turned around and headed for a cutoff. He knew of a village where he could cross the river. Several other cars followed him.

 

Back at the river, ADEN and Morden were amazed to see Hatfield’s Bug come out of the woods. It paused briefly at the riverbank, then plunged in. Its long legs enabled it to ford the river without problem, and it continued the race. “That’s going to be a difficult vehicle to stop,” ADEN suggested.

 

Then Professor Patricks’ giant cube-car came along. It too paused at the riverbank. Then a part of the roof detached itself, unfolded over the river, and formed into a temporary bridge! Patricks drove over it and continued on his way. “That’s going to be another tough one to stop,” Morden sighed.

 

The heroes headed back to the first leg’s finish line to see who made it. Schnell’s electric car came in first, Hatfield’s Bug was second, and Professor Patricks came in third. Thackary somehow managed to make fourth place, and the others rolled in after him.

 

The first thing Thackary did was find Professor Patricks and congratulate him on his strong finish. “Your vehicle is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen!” he gushed. “What else can it do?”

 

“You’ll have to wait and see,” the Professor said. “I must admit, I was most taken aback when I saw your vehicle and its unconventional power source. I didn’t believe it would work – and yet, here you are. Congratulations to you, my boy!”

 

Meanwhile, Morden and ADEN were spying on the Russian camp. They wanted to find some way to take Blastenov out of the competition. They had learned through the grapevine that the explosions and gunfire they had heard were initiated by the Czarist. Apparently, he was trying to pass the Grognards’ locomotive. They wouldn’t let him pass and were aggressively trying to bump him off the road. He became infuriated and began to fire missiles at their vehicle. The Grognards shot back, which started a whole firefight between the Colonel, the Freres, and the other drivers on that part of the road.

 

“The Colonel is the most likely driver to initiate violence,” ADEN suggested. “If we can get him to attack the other drivers, maybe we can have him clear the road for us.” Unfortunately, the Russian encampment was heavily guarded by a large contingent of well-armed Cossacks. They refused to let anyone get close to their camp.

 

ADEN came up with a way to misdirect the Colonel’s ire. He asked Savannah to take a jug of Tennessee “corn-squeezins”, stuff a rag into it, light the rag on fire, and throw it at the Russian camp. He figured that the Colonel would blame Hatfield for the attack. Unfortunately, the Cossacks were alert for just such a thing. They spotted Savannah trying to sneak up. She bashed one of them on the head with her jug and took off running.

 

Meanwhile, Alicia figured that the guy to stop was the one who had won the day’s race. She went to the German camp and pretended to be a fan. She danced with the men, drank beer, and was finally introduced to Herr Schnell himself. She poured on the charm and convinced him to take her to see his car. They made out for a while in the back seat, then she charmed him to sleep. While he was snoozing, she contacted Thackary and snuck him in through the back door.

 

Thackary examined the car. It was an electric vehicle, powered by some unknown means (obviously more efficient than a room full of cats, though). He quickly re-wired parts of it so that it wouldn’t go, and the two heroes snuck back out. “That won’t stop him completely,” Thackary admitted. “He’ll be able to fix it. But he won’t be starting with the rest of us tomorrow morning.”

 

Tomorrow morning, at dawn, the second leg of the race would begin!

 

The vehicles of the “Racers to beat”:

• Les Frères de Grognard had an enormous locomotive that could run on roads instead of steel rails.
  
• Herr Maximilian Schnell drives a small, nimble, and very fast electric car that looks much like a Formula One racer.
  
• Colonel Blestonov has a large gasoline-powered car. It is very heavily armed, with maxim guns and rocket launchers hidden all over the vehicle.
  
• Lucus Hatfield’s car is called the Bug. It runs on eight spider-like legs and can go over most any type of terrain.
  
• Professor Patricks’ vehicle looks like a giant cube on wheels. When it runs into difficulties on the road, it can apparently change its shape/design to deal with them.
  

[matrix3]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

Thanks for the update!

[Guest Major Tom]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

Too bad Thackary's vehicle isn't a cat-powered landspeeder. It'd be a lot

easier to stop Hatfield's ArachnoMech -- just have Savannah shoot a

long cable at its legs and hogtie it.

 

Professor Patrick's Fabulous Moto-cube, on the other hand, is going to be

the difficult one to stop -- unless one of the party can concoct something

like thermite paste that they can use to fuse the vehicle into an immobile

cube.

 

 

 

Major Tom

[pinecone]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

Surely the answer to a giant cube car, is a giant square pit!

[Guest Major Tom]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

Surely the answer to a giant cube car' date=' is a giant square pit![/quote']

 

No, the answer to a giant cube car is to dig a giant round pit, then come

up behind it with a giant, vehicle-mounted sledgehammer and pound the

square car into the round hole.

 

 

 

Major Tom

[Querysphinx]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

Too bad Thackary's vehicle isn't a cat-powered landspeeder. It'd be a lot

easier to stop Hatfield's ArachnoMech -- just have Savannah shoot a

long cable at its legs and hogtie it.

 

Professor Patrick's Fabulous Moto-cube, on the other hand, is going to be

the difficult one to stop -- unless one of the party can concoct something

like thermite paste that they can use to fuse the vehicle into an immobile

cube.

 

 

 

Major Tom

 

You boys are always thinking about thermite when lipstick will do. The car isn't going anywhere without its driver. Unless, heaven forbid, one of these things is a nineteenth century knight rider.

[Guest Major Tom]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

You boys are always thinking about thermite when lipstick will do. The car isn't going anywhere without its driver. Unless' date=' heaven forbid, one of these things is a nineteenth century knight rider.[/quote']

 

 

Considering that one of the PCs in this campaign is a clockwork golem, I don't

think that it would be outside the realm of possibility for one of the vehicles

in this race to be a 19th-century cousin of KITT.

 

 

 

Major Tom

[pinecone]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

No' date=' the answer to a giant cube car is to dig a giant [i']round[/i] pit, then come

up behind it with a giant, vehicle-mounted sledgehammer and pound the

square car into the round hole.

 

 

 

Major Tom

Now That is thinking outside the box!

[Shadowsoul]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

Now That is thinking outside the box!

 

In this case you need to think yourself inside the mind of the box. Perhaps it could be distracted by a seductively decked out companion cube?

[pinecone]

Re: The Dragon Hunters (Steampunk)

 

I was talking with son on Saturday. and he said that you'all don't need to take out the "bug" because it is not following the course. I replied thats wishfull thinking...but hey try it if all else fails...